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Background: Studies among adults show an association between abuse and Body Mass Index (BMI) status. When an aberrant BMI status as a consequence of abuse is already prevalent in adolescence, early detection and treatment of abuse might prevent these adolescents from developing serious weight problems and other long-term social, emotional and physical problems in adulthood. Therefore, this study investigated the prevalence of physical, sexual and mental abuse among adolescents and examined the association of these abuse subtypes with BMI status., Methods: In total, data of 51,856 secondary school students aged 13-16 who had completed a questionnaire on health, well-being and lifestyle were used. BMI was classified into four categories, underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity. Adolescents reported if they had ever been physically, sexually or mentally abused. Crude and adjusted General Estimation Equation (GEE) analyses were performed to investigate the association between abuse subtypes and BMI status. Analyses were adjusted for ethnicity and parental communication, and stratified for gender and educational level., Results: Eighteen percent of the adolescents reported mental abuse, 7% reported sexual abuse, and 6% reported physical abuse. For underweight, overweight and obese adolescents these percentages were 17%, 25%, and 44%; 7%, 8%, and 16%; and 6%, 8%, 18% respectively. For the entire population, all these subtypes of abuse were associated with being overweight and obese (OR=3.67, 1.79 and 1.50) and all but sexual abuse were associated with underweight (OR=1.21 and 1.12). Stratified analyses showed that physical and sexual abuse were significantly associated with obesity among boys (OR=1.77 and 2.49) and among vocational school students (OR=1.60 and 1.69), and with underweight among girls (OR=1.26 and 0.83)., Conclusion: Mental abuse was reported by almost half of the obese adolescents and associated with underweight, overweight and obesity. Longitudinal analyses are recommended to explore the causality of and the mechanisms explaining this association between abuse and overweight.

This study describes the association between weight status and psychological health, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in adolescents from a population-based study of 21,730 adolescents who responded to a classroom-based internet questionnaire. It demonstrated clear associations between weight status in adolescents and poor psychological health, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, especially in obese individuals. Obese boys and girls were more likely to be classified as "psychologically unhealthy" than were normal weight subjects. They also reported more suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

Case-control studies examining the effects of oral contraceptives (OC) are prone to misclassification bias due to errors in assessment of OC use. Concern about inaccurate exposure histories has increased since current studies require women to recall OC use over prolonged periods of time. In preparation for a case-control study of breast cancer and OC use, an investigation was carried out to assess agreement between women's lifetime histories of OC use (covering a period of up to 20 years) and prescribers' records. OC histories were obtained during personal interview with 218 women who had used OC at some point in their lives (127 breast cancer patients, 91 controls). Recall was aided by an album with color photographs of all OC marketed in the Netherlands from 1962 onwards (n = 65), and a calendar that covered the women's life span from date of birth to menopause. The participants were asked for the names of all physicians who prescribed OC for them. The rate of response from the prescribers was high (94%), but only half of the forms provided useful information. Patient-prescriber agreement on brand names (including dosage) was 70%. About half of the women agreed with their prescribers on starting dates to within less than a year's difference. Approximately the same percentage of agreement was found for stopping dates. Multiple linear regression indicated that agreement on brand names and dates of usage was lower for women of low socioeconomic status, for healthy women (as compared to breast cancer patients) and for periods of pill use that had to be recalled from the more distant past. Agreement on total duration of use was high enough to permit testing of a moderately strong duration-response relationship in a case-control study.

All ascertainable cases of malignant mesothelioma in Australia were notified to a national surveillance program in the period January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1985. There were 854 cases obtained and 823 confirmed on clinical (77) or histologic (746) ground. Tumor site was known in 759 cases (685 pleural and 74 peritoneal). Lung fiber content analyses by light microscopy and analytic transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis were done on 226 cases in which postmortem material was available, using the method of Rogers. Cell type was determined by a five-member expert panel of pathologists appointed by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. There was a statistically significant trend between lung fiber content (fibers/g dry lung) and cell type from epithelial (low fiber content) through mixed to sarcomatous (high fiber content). This trend was most apparent for total uncoated fibers (chi-square = 6.8, df = 1, P less than 0.01) and crocidolite (chi-square = 6.7, df = 1, P less than 0.01). Lung fiber content also was associated with tumor site; higher lung fiber content being associated with peritoneal tumors. This relationship was significant for all fiber content measures except chrysotile and was independent of the fiber content-cell type relationship (log-linear analysis). Survival from time of provisional diagnosis was significantly longer for epithelial (mean, 13 months; standard deviation [SD], 12.8) and mixed (mean, 10.2 months; SD, 8.7) types than sarcomatous cell types (mean, 5.8 months; SD, 6.5; P less than 0.0001, by analysis of variance on log10 survival time). Survival time was significantly greater for pleural tumors (mean, 11.4 months; SD, 13.4) than peritoneal tumors (mean, 8.6 months; SD, 12.5) (P less than 0.005, by Student's t test on log10 survival time).

Lung tissue from 221 definite and probable cases of malignant mesothelioma reported to the Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Program from January 1980 through December 1985 and from an age-sex frequency matched control series of 359 postmortem cases were examined by light microscopic (LM) and analytical transmission electron microscopic (TEM) analysis and energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX). Concentrations of total fibers (coated and uncoated) (LM), crocidolite, amosite, chrysotile, and unidentified amphibole (TEM) (fibers/g dry lung tissue) were measured. Fiber concentrations less than 10 microns in length and greater than or equal to 10 microns in length were separately quantified. By comparing cases (221) and controls (359 LM, 103 TEM), odds ratios for increasing fiber concentrations compared with less than 15,000 fibers/g (LM) and less than 200,000 fibers/g (TEM) (the respective detection limits) were calculated. Univariate analyses showed statistically significant dose-response relationships between odds ratio and fiber concentration for all fiber concentration measures. The relationship between log(odds ratio) and log(fiber concentration) was linear. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that a model containing crocidolite greater than or equal to 10 microns, amosite less than 10 microns, and chrysotile less than 10 microns as explanatory variables best described the data. The odds ratios for a X10 increase in fiber concentration (fibers/micrograms) were as follows: crocidolite greater than or equal to 10 microns, 29.4 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.6 to 241); chrysotile less than 10 microns, 15.7 (95% CI, 6.1 to 40); amosite less than 10 microns, 2.3 (95% CI, 1.0 to 5.3). An additive risk model gave similar results. In a subgroup of cases and controls with only chrysotile in the lungs, a significant trend in odds ratio with increasing fiber content was found.