A field study of sleep disturbance: effects of aircraft noise and other factors on 5,742 nights of actimetrically monitored sleep in a large subject sample.

This field study assessed the effects of nighttime aircraft noise on actimetrically measured sleep in 400 people (211 women and 189 men; 20-70 years of age; one per household) habitually living at eight sites adjacent to four U.K. airports, with different levels of night flying. Subjects wore wrist-actimeters for 15 nights and completed morning sleep logs. A sample of 178 nights of sleep electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded synchronously with actigrams. The EEG was used to develop filters for the raw actigrams, in order to: (1) estimate sleep onset and (2) compare actigrams with aircraft noise events (ANEs). Actigrams, filtered to detect the onset of discrete movements, were able to detect 88% of all EEG-determined periods of interim wakefulness of > 15 seconds and periods of movement time of > 10 seconds. The main findings were: (1) actimetry and self-reports showed that only a minority of ANEs affected sleep, and, for most of our subjects, that domestic and idiosyncratic factors had much greater effects; (2) despite large between-site variations in ANEs, the difference between sites in overall sleep disturbance was not significant; (3) there was a diminished actimetric response to ANEs in the first hour of sleep and, apparently, also in the last hour of sleep; and (4) men had significantly more discrete movements than women and were more likely to respond to ANEs.

The prevalence of cognitive impairment in a community survey of multiple sclerosis.

A one in two alternate sample (N = 200) from a population-based register of 411 people with multiple sclerosis (MS) was studied. Out of this sample, 147 people with MS and 34 people with rheumatoid arthritis were interviewed at home and completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. Cognitive impairment was found in 46 per cent of those with MS, with memory impairment in 34 per cent and failure on tests of frontal lobe function in 33 per cent. Physical disability was associated with cognitive impairment. Memory impairment was more common in those who had had MS for 10 years or more. A significant minority of people with mild physical disability and some who had had MS for less than a decade nevertheless had cognitive impairment. Relationships between cognitive impairment, other disease variables and psychosocial factors were examined. Counselling and rehabilitation programmes for people with MS and their families should take account of cognitive deficits that may be present.

A methodological strategy for a one-number census in the UK.

"As a result of lessons learnt from the 1991 [U.K.] census, a research programme was set up to seek improvements in census methodology. Underenumeration has been placed top of the agenda in this programme, and every effort is being made to achieve as high a coverage as possible in the 2001 census. In recognition, however, that 100% coverage will never be achieved, the one-number census (ONC) project was established to measure the degree of underenumeration in the 2001 census and, if possible, to adjust fully the outputs from the census for that undercount. A key component of this adjustment process is a census coverage survey (CCS). This paper presents an overview of the ONC project, focusing on the design and analysis methodology for the CCS. It also presents results that allow the reader to evaluate the robustness of this methodology."

The relationship between birth weight, and arm and chest circumference in Egypt.

This paper is concerned with the prediction of birth weight using simple anthropometric indices, namely mid-arm and chest circumferences. Such indices are important tools in the identification of low birth weight infants in areas where scales are not widely available or where they are likely to be not robust enough to withstand rough treatment. This paper reports data from a study in Assiut, Egypt. The aim was to identify which of the two indices was the better predictor or whether measurements on both arm and chest circumference were required. The results show that chest circumference is the better predictor of birth weight, partly perhaps because its measurement is more replicable. Cut-off points for the identification of low birth weight infants are then identified.