Energy Poverty and Personal Health in the EU.

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of energy poverty on health in the EU-27 countries for the period from 2003-2020 using Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag models and generalized ridge regressions. Arrears on utility bills exerts positive long-run effects on capacity to keep the home adequately warm, current health expenditures, and self-perceived health as bad or very bad, but a negative long-run influence on energy import dependency. In the long-term, the population being unable to keep their home adequately warm positively affects self-perceived health as bad and very bad and negatively influences number of cooling days. Current health expenditure has a long-run influence on self-perceived health as bad and very bad and the number of heating days. Positive short-run impacts were observed for energy import dependency, arrears on utility bills, and number of heating days on current health expenditure and the population unable to keep their home adequately warm. People at risk of poverty or social exclusion in different zones had a significant impact on energy poverty indicators. A separate analysis is made for those EU states with the highest energy import dependency and the implications of the results are discussed.

Assessment of Macro-Level Socioeconomic Factors That Impact Waterborne Diseases: The Case of Jordan.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an example of a country that suffers from high water scarcity. Additionally, due to the economic drivers in the country, such as phosphate and potash extraction and pharmaceutical production, the little fresh water that remains is generally polluted. The infrastructure, often antiquated in urban areas and non-existent in rural areas, also contributes to poor water conditions and to the spread of waterborne diseases. This paper examines the socioeconomic factors that contribute to diarrhea and hepatitis A on a macro level in Jordan and discusses the public-policies that government officials could use to abate those problems. Ordinary least squares time series models are used to understand the macro-level variables that impact the incidence of these diseases in Jordan. Public health expenditure has a significant impact on reducing their incidence. Furthermore, investment in sanitation facilities in rural regions is likely to reduce the number of cases of hepatitis A. Perhaps the most surprising outcome is that importation of goods and services likely results in a decrease in cases of hepatitis A. However, income has little impact on the incidence of diarrhea and hepatitis A.

Lactate dehydrogenase as a biomarker for early renal damage in patients with sickle cell disease.

Among many complications of sickle cell disease, renal failure is the main contributor to early mortality. It is present in up to 21% of patients with sickle cell disease. Although screening for microalbuminuria and proteinuria is the current acceptable practice to detect and follow renal damage in patients with sickle cell disease, there is a crucial need for other, more sensitive biomarkers. This becomes especially true knowing that those biomarkers start to appear only after more than 60% of the kidney function is lost. The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) correlates with other, direct and indirect bio-markers of renal insufficiency in patients with sickle cell disease and, therefore, could be used as a biomarker for early renal damage in patients with sickle cell disease. Fifty-five patients with an established diagnosis of sickle cell disease were recruited to in the study. Blood samples were taken and 24-h urine collection samples were collected. Using Statcrunch, a data analysis tool available on the web, we studied the correlation between LDH and other biomarkers of kidney function as well as the distribution and relationship between the variables. Regression analysis showed a significant negative correlation between serum LDH and creatinine clearance, R (correlation coefficient) = -0.44, P = 0.0008. This correlation was more significant at younger age. This study shows that in sickle cell patients LDH correlates with creatinine clearance and, therefore, LDH could serve as a biomarker to predict renal insufficiency in those patients.

Antidepressant drug therapy does not affect weight loss one year after gastric bypass surgery.

BACKGROUND: Preliminary data suggest that patients with actively treated depression should expect the same outcomes after surgery. The objective of this study was to compare weight loss 12 months after gastric bypass surgery in patients taking antidepressants before surgery (AD) versus those who were not (non-AD). METHODS: IRB approval was obtained. All patients gave informed consent prior to participating in the study. Medication and weight loss histories were retrospectively reviewed in adult patients who were followed at 12 months post-surgery. RESULTS: 145 of 364 patients were taking antidepressants at baseline. There was no significant difference in weight loss between the AD and non-AD groups at 12 months (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Taking antidepressant medication prior to gastric bypass surgery did not affect weight loss outcomes at 12 months.

Preoperative weight loss as a predictor of long-term success following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

BACKGROUND: All patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery at this institution are recommended to achieve a goal of 10% total body weight (TBW) loss prior to surgery. The objective of this study was to determine whether preoperative TBW correlated with 3- and 4-year weight loss outcome. METHODS: This study was conducted prospectively at a large teaching hospital. All adult patients with 3- and 4-year follow-up data since the start of the study in 1998 to September 2007 were included. All data are expressed as mean +/- SD. Pairwise correlation and ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to determine the strength of association between preoperative TBW loss and weight loss at 3 and 4 years. RESULTS: One hundred fifty patients (120 females), age 45.3 +/- 8.9 years, were included. Their body mass indexes (BMIs), preoperatively and after 3 years, were 52.2 +/- 9.8 and 35.4 +/- 8.2 kg/m(2), respectively. There was a significant correlation between preoperative and 3-year TBW lost (9.5 +/- 6.8% vs 31.9 +/- 11.7%, r = 0.302, p = 0.0002) and between excess body weight (EBW) lost preoperatively and after 3 years (16.1 +/- 11.3% vs 55.1 +/- 20.2%, r = 0.225, p = 0.006). Ninety five patients had follow-up data available at 4 years. Their mean preoperative BMI was 52.6 +/- 9.7 kg/m(2) and decreased to 37.5 +/- 9.0 kg/m(2). The TBW loss prior to and after surgery (10.0 +/- 6.5% vs 29.4 +/- 11.5%) was significantly correlated (r = 0.247, p = 0.015). The EBW loss preoperatively and after 4 years correlated positively (17.1 +/- 11.1% vs 50.8 +/- 19.8%, r = 0.205, p = 0.046). CONCLUSION: There is a significant correlation between weight loss attained preoperatively and sustained weight loss at 3 and 4 years.