How do you interpret these lab results based on the following case presentation?

The Occupational Medicine Forum is prepared by the ACOEM Occupational and Environmental Medical Practice Committee and does not necessarily represent an official ACOEM position. The Forum is intended for health professionals and is not intended to provide medical or legal advice, including illness prevention, diagnosis or treatment, or regulatory compliance. Such advice should be obtained directly from a physician and/or attorney. Inquiries and contributions to the Forum should be forwarded to Joseph J. Schwerha, MD, MPH by e-mail at schwer@pitt.edu.

The impact of body mass index on short-term disability in the workplace.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the association between body mass index and short-term disability in a working "white collar" population. METHODS: The authors collected cross-sectional data from 19,061 health risk appraisals completed by employees of a large financial services corporation from 2000-2002. The self-reported information for demographics and job satisfaction was combined with personnel and detailed information from short-term disability events (STD) taken during the same time period. RESULTS: After adjusting for multiple covariates, body mass index is an independent predictor for STD events. Body mass index categories of overweight and obese have odds ratios of 1.26 and 1.76 compared with normal weight (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The improvement of employee health and wellness should be pursued by the employer in an effort to promote healthier weight among their workers. This in turn should reduce STD events that result in the loss of worker productivity and a major cost to companies.

A retrospective investigation of PM10 in ambient air and cardiopulmonary hospital admissions in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: 1995-2000.

OBJECTIVE: Air quality in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has improved over the last decade, and we investigated whether the lower concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM10) are still associated with adverse health outcomes. METHODS: Daily cardiopulmonary hospital admissions in elderly residents of Allegheny County and countywide average PM10 measures were available from 1995 through 2000. Using generalized additive models (GAM), a Poisson regression model was fit to the number of daily admissions using predictor variables: lags of PM10, daily temperature and humidity, day of the week, and time. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that there is a positive association of PM10 with hospital admissions, and the effect is related to current-day PM10 levels. CONCLUSIONS: Even at the lower levels of ambient air pollution as measured by PM10, there is still a suggestion of an adverse health effect in the elderly.

Occupational medicine forum.

The Occupational Medicine Forum is prepared by the ACOEM Occupational and Environmental Medical Practice Committee and does not necessarily represent an official ACOEM position. The Forum is intended for health professionals and is not intended to provide medical or legal advice, including illness prevention, diagnosis or treatment, or regulatory compliance. Such advice should be obtained directly from a physician and/or attorney.