Does moralization motivate smokers to quit? A longitudinal study of representative samples of smokers in the United States and Denmark.

INTRODUCTION: Moralization refers to the gradual cultural and personal process by which objects or activities move from being morally neutral to morally contemptuous. Research suggests important cross-cultural differences in how smokers react to being targets of moralization. However, research has not examined whether smokers who agree with moralized sentiments about smoking are more willing to quit or reduce their smoking. Additionally, the mediating role of perceived personal risk has not been examined. METHODS: In this study, representative samples of smokers in Denmark (a smoking lenient country; N = 429) and the United States (a smoking prohibitive country; N = 431) completed surveys 6 months apart. RESULTS: As expected, Danish smokers (compared to U.S. smokers) moralized less and estimated that their personal risk of lung cancer was smaller. Furthermore, moralization at T1 predicted an increase in perceived personal risk at T2 (for Danish smokers and marginally for U.S. smokers), a decrease in smoking behaviors (for Danish smokers only), and an increase in quitting intentions (marginally for Danish smokers only). For Danish smokers, perceived personal risk mediated the relationship between moralization and quitting intentions. CONCLUSIONS: Moralization predicted an increase in perceived personal risk, an increase in quitting intentions, and a reduction in smoking behaviors, especially for the Danish sample. Future research should examine the effects of moralization in different cultural contexts.

Cancer risks in first-generation immigrants to Sweden.

We used the nationwide Swedish Family-Cancer Database to analyse cancer risks in 613,000 adult immigrants to Sweden. All the immigrants had become parents in Sweden and their median age at immigration was 24 years for men and 22 years for women. We calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for 18 cancer sites using native Swedes as a reference. Data were also available from compatriot marriages. All cancer was decreased by 5% and 8% for immigrant men and women, respectively. However, most of the male increase was due to lung cancer for which male immigrants showed a 41% excess. Among individual cancer sites and immigrant countries, 110 comparisons were significant, 62 showing protection and 48 an increased risk. Most of the differences between the rates in immigrants and Swedes could be ascribed to the variation of cancer incidence in the indigenous populations. Some high immigrant SIRs were 5.05 (n = 6, 95% CI 1.82-11.06) for stomach cancer in Rumanian women and 2.41 (41, 1.73-3.27) for lung cancer in Dutch men. At some sites, such as testis, prostate, skin (melanoma), kidney, cervix and nervous system, the SIRs for immigrants were decreased; in some groups of immigrants SIRs were about 0.20. The highest rates for testicular cancer were noted for Danes and Chileans. Women from Yugoslavia and Turkey had an excess of thyroid tumours. All immigrant groups showed breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers at or below the Swedish level but the differences were no more than 2-fold.

[Tropical pyomyositis]. / Tropisk pyomyositt.

Tropical pyomyositis is rarely observed among permanent residents of temperate or cold climates and is, to our knowledge, not described among Norwegians. It is a clinical entity comprising general symptoms of infection and abscesses in skeletal muscles. We present one case of tropical pyomyositis acquired in the Dominican Republic. The patient, a female, had an insidious progression of the disease with fever, chills, and general malaise. On admission she had also developed multiple abscesses affecting muscles of the extremities. She required surgical drainage in addition to antibiotics. Cultures from purulent material revealed Staphylococcus aureus.

Different molecular events result in low protein levels of mannan-binding lectin in populations from southeast Africa and South America.

Previous studies have shown that three point mutations in exon 1 and a particular promoter haplotype of the mannan-binding lectin (MBL) gene lead to a dramatic decrease in the serum concentration of MBL. In this study, MBL genotypes and serum concentrations were determined in unrelated individuals in a population from Mozambique (n = 154) and in two native Indian tribes from Argentina (i.e., the Chiriguanos (n = 43) and the Mapuches (n = 25)). In both populations, the MBL concentrations were low compared with those found in Eskimo, Asian, and European populations. In Africans, the low serum concentrations were due to a high allele frequency (0.24) of the codon 57 (C) variant, which resulted in a high frequency of individuals with MBL deficiency (0.06), and were also due to the effect of a relatively high frequency (0.13) of low-producing promoter haplotypes. The low concentrations in the South American populations were primarily due to an extremely high allele frequency of the codon 54 (B) variant in both the Chiriguanos (0.42) and the Mapuches (0.46), resulting in high frequencies of individuals with MBL deficiency (0.14 and 0.16, respectively). In the search for additional genetic variants, we found five new promoter mutations that might help to elucidate the evolution of the MBL gene. Taken together, the results of this study show that different molecular mechanisms are the basis for low MBL levels on the two continents.