Background: Overweight and obesity affect over half the world’s population and diabetes rates are... more Background: Overweight and obesity affect over half the world’s population and diabetes rates are climbing to 20% of all adults in many Middle Eastern, Asian, and Latin American countries. The twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes already represent the biggest public health challenge of the 21th century and It is estimated that at least half of all diabetes cases would be eliminated if weight gain in adults could be prevented. Objective: The main aim is to assess the relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, furthermore to assess the relationship between different body mass index (BMI) levels and medical investigations, and identify somatic symptoms that are associated with BMI. Patients and methods: Cross – sectional study based on questionnaire survey and medical examination of 311 patients who attended the Sulaimani Diabetic Centre, Sulaimani, Iraq. The questionnaire consist of questions about sociodemographic characteristics, somatic symptoms, and measurement o...
Objectives To assess the percentiles (3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95 and 97%) of weight, length and... more Objectives To assess the percentiles (3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95 and 97%) of weight, length and head circumference for a sample of new-born Kurdish population in Sulaimani and the relation to mothers' age, parity and gestational age.
Objective The main aim of this study was to examine the overall satisfaction with health care amo... more Objective The main aim of this study was to examine the overall satisfaction with health care among a multi-ethnic primary healthcare practice population. The second aim was to explore the relations between satisfaction/dissatisfaction and sociodemographic characteristics, health status, healthcare utilisation and medicine use in Jordbro, Haninge, Sweden.Method The study included 1055 out of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting a Swedish healthcare centre. The relationship between satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics, perceived health, chronic disease, complaint symptom, consultations with the general practitioner (GP) and healthcare need was assessed using final logistic regression analysis.Results Age, perceived health and complaint symptoms were related to patient satisfaction with health care in the univariate analysis. However, only age and healthcare need remained significantly and independently related to patient satisfaction in the logistic regression analy...
The aim of this study was to characterise users of herbal medicines and assess the effect of soci... more The aim of this study was to characterise users of herbal medicines and assess the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, perceived health and chronic disease on the use of herbal medicine in a multi-ethnic Swedish health practice population. A questionnaire was completed by 1433 (out of a total of 1776) patients aged 16 years and above who visited the Jordbro Health Centre (JHC) in Stockholm, Sweden, between 14 January and 30 June 2002. The results were linked to computerised medical records. Altogether 320 (22.3%) of this patient population used some form of herbal medicine. The bivariate analysis showed that the use of herbal medicine were more common among patients aged 45-64 years, females, high educated, patients born in Nordic countries or Europe compared to other age groups, males, low educated, patients born outside Europe and without chronic disease. In the logistic regression analysis when the effects of confounders were taken into account, females, high educated patients and patients with chronic disease had higher odds for use of herbal medicine than males, low educated and patients without chronic disease. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were 1.95 (1.40-2.76) for female as compared with male patients; 2.10 (1.49-2.97) for subjects with a high level of education compared with subjects with a low educational level and 1.62 (1.15-2.29) for subjects with chronic disease compared with subjects without chronic disease. The common diagnoses were musculo-skeletal, respiratory and circulatory disorders, signs and symptoms and external causes according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD10). There were no significant differences between users and non-users of herbal medicine regarding the number of consultations with any physician or the general practitioner (GP), contacts with the health care centre, use of prescribed medicines or number of days of sick leave during the past year. Females, well-educated patients and patients with chronic disease had higher odds for use of herbal medicine than others irrespective of other socio-demographic characteristics, and herbal medicine was seen to be used independently of conventional medicine.
Pharmaceuticals represent an increasing share of private and public health care expenditures. The... more Pharmaceuticals represent an increasing share of private and public health care expenditures. The aim of this study was to characterise users and to determine the pattern of uses of prescribed medicines and to identify determinants of medicine use in a multi-ethnic Swedish general practice population. The study was performed in 1055 of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting the Jordbro Health Centre (JHC) in Stockholm, Sweden. In a regression analysis adjusted for the influence of confounders, subjects reporting 10-30 complaint symptoms, subjects with chronic disease and subjects that had a cost limitation card all reported a higher number of used medicines than subjects with a few (0-10) symptoms and those without chronic disease and a cost limitation card. In a Poisson's regression analysis, high age, female gender, not working, more than 10 symptoms, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were related to use of prescribed medicines. All included variables predicted 19% of the explanation. Marital status, multi-symptomatology, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were related to polypharmacy in a logistic regression analysis. A high number of complaint symptoms, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were all significantly and independently related to use of medicines and polypharmacy.
The aim of this study was to identify predictors of complaint symptoms in an adult general practi... more The aim of this study was to identify predictors of complaint symptoms in an adult general practice population. The study was performed in 1055 out of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting a Swedish health care centre. The relationship between complaint symptoms and sociodemographic characteristics, perceived health, and chronic disease was assessed using multiple regression analysis. Gender and perceived health were related to all symptom categories independently of each other, and when the effects of various symptom categories were taken into account in the regression analysis, the depression and tension symptom categories could predict about 50% of the explanation. The results of this study suggest that psychiatric symptoms, particularly depression and tension symptoms, interact and have an impact on somatic symptom reporting in addition to sociodemographic characteristics, perceived health, and chronic disease, which have impact on only some symptom categories.
In spite of the fact that self-rated health is such an important factor, little is known about th... more In spite of the fact that self-rated health is such an important factor, little is known about the aetiological background to poor perceived health and also less is known about the impact of life satisfaction on health in a primary care practice population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, symptoms, somatic and psychiatric conditions as well as health status measures and life satisfaction on perceived health in a multi-ethnic Swedish health practice population. Four-hundred and seventy adult patients, who visited the Jordbro Health Care Centre District (JHC), Haninge Municipality, participated in this study. A general questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, health status and chronic disease were used. In addition to that, the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) was used. Furthermore, physical examinations were conducted. Unconditional logistic regressi...
The cost for pharmaceuticals is rapidly increasing in most countries. Identification of the chara... more The cost for pharmaceuticals is rapidly increasing in most countries. Identification of the characteristics of the population that determine drug utilisation appears essential for the appropriate allocation of resources to caregivers. The primary aim of this study was to identify sociodemographic factors and measures of well-being and disease that were independently related to the use of drugs, including herbal, and self-care products in Håbo, a Swedish primary health care district. Another aim was to evaluate combinations of such factors that may improve the prediction of drug utilisation. A postal questionnaire was sent to a representative age-stratified population sample from Håbo. Out of 1312 subjects in the population sample, 827 (63%) answered the questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions on sociodemographic variables, well-being and symptoms and use of drugs, herbal and self-care products. Chronic disease was the most important of several factors that identified users of drugs. Other important factors were female sex, poor perceived health, sick-leave or disability pension and a high number of symptoms (complaint score). When combined, these variables could explain 18% of the use of prescribed pharmaceuticals using the logistic regression model. Several sociodemographic characteristics as well as perceived health, complaint score and chronic disease were independently related to the use of drugs and self-care products. The likelihood of using prescribed drugs was very high in subjects with a certain profile. Eighteen per cent of the use could be attributed to this profile.
Although immigrants generally have poorer health and higher psychological distress than the nativ... more Although immigrants generally have poorer health and higher psychological distress than the native population, information on Kurdish immigrants' psychological well-being is limited. The aims of the study were to examine the association between ethnicity and poor psychological well-being, and to assess the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health, somatic pain, gastrointestinal complaints and poor psychological well-being. Immigrants with self-reported Kurdish ethnicity (men, n=111; women, n=86) in Sweden from the national sample of immigrants aged 27-60 and 1407 Swedes (1996) were studied. Unconditional logistic regression was performed using the Stata Software program. In the logistic model adjusted for age, sex, employment and self-reported health, the odds ratio for Kurdish-born subjects for having poor psychological well-being is twice as high as for Swedish-born subjects. Subjects with poor self-reported health had more than a threefold higher odds ratio for having poor psychological well-being compared with those with good self-reported health. Furthermore, being female, having somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints regardless of ethnicity increased the odds for having poor psychological well-being. Being Kurdish-born and/or reporting poor health in addition to age, female gender, somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints is significantly and independently related to poor psychological well-being even when adjusted for all confounders.
Background: Overweight and obesity affect over half the world’s population and diabetes rates are... more Background: Overweight and obesity affect over half the world’s population and diabetes rates are climbing to 20% of all adults in many Middle Eastern, Asian, and Latin American countries. The twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes already represent the biggest public health challenge of the 21th century and It is estimated that at least half of all diabetes cases would be eliminated if weight gain in adults could be prevented. Objective: The main aim is to assess the relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, furthermore to assess the relationship between different body mass index (BMI) levels and medical investigations, and identify somatic symptoms that are associated with BMI. Patients and methods: Cross – sectional study based on questionnaire survey and medical examination of 311 patients who attended the Sulaimani Diabetic Centre, Sulaimani, Iraq. The questionnaire consist of questions about sociodemographic characteristics, somatic symptoms, and measurement o...
Objectives To assess the percentiles (3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95 and 97%) of weight, length and... more Objectives To assess the percentiles (3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95 and 97%) of weight, length and head circumference for a sample of new-born Kurdish population in Sulaimani and the relation to mothers' age, parity and gestational age.
Objective The main aim of this study was to examine the overall satisfaction with health care amo... more Objective The main aim of this study was to examine the overall satisfaction with health care among a multi-ethnic primary healthcare practice population. The second aim was to explore the relations between satisfaction/dissatisfaction and sociodemographic characteristics, health status, healthcare utilisation and medicine use in Jordbro, Haninge, Sweden.Method The study included 1055 out of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting a Swedish healthcare centre. The relationship between satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics, perceived health, chronic disease, complaint symptom, consultations with the general practitioner (GP) and healthcare need was assessed using final logistic regression analysis.Results Age, perceived health and complaint symptoms were related to patient satisfaction with health care in the univariate analysis. However, only age and healthcare need remained significantly and independently related to patient satisfaction in the logistic regression analy...
The aim of this study was to characterise users of herbal medicines and assess the effect of soci... more The aim of this study was to characterise users of herbal medicines and assess the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, perceived health and chronic disease on the use of herbal medicine in a multi-ethnic Swedish health practice population. A questionnaire was completed by 1433 (out of a total of 1776) patients aged 16 years and above who visited the Jordbro Health Centre (JHC) in Stockholm, Sweden, between 14 January and 30 June 2002. The results were linked to computerised medical records. Altogether 320 (22.3%) of this patient population used some form of herbal medicine. The bivariate analysis showed that the use of herbal medicine were more common among patients aged 45-64 years, females, high educated, patients born in Nordic countries or Europe compared to other age groups, males, low educated, patients born outside Europe and without chronic disease. In the logistic regression analysis when the effects of confounders were taken into account, females, high educated patients and patients with chronic disease had higher odds for use of herbal medicine than males, low educated and patients without chronic disease. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were 1.95 (1.40-2.76) for female as compared with male patients; 2.10 (1.49-2.97) for subjects with a high level of education compared with subjects with a low educational level and 1.62 (1.15-2.29) for subjects with chronic disease compared with subjects without chronic disease. The common diagnoses were musculo-skeletal, respiratory and circulatory disorders, signs and symptoms and external causes according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD10). There were no significant differences between users and non-users of herbal medicine regarding the number of consultations with any physician or the general practitioner (GP), contacts with the health care centre, use of prescribed medicines or number of days of sick leave during the past year. Females, well-educated patients and patients with chronic disease had higher odds for use of herbal medicine than others irrespective of other socio-demographic characteristics, and herbal medicine was seen to be used independently of conventional medicine.
Pharmaceuticals represent an increasing share of private and public health care expenditures. The... more Pharmaceuticals represent an increasing share of private and public health care expenditures. The aim of this study was to characterise users and to determine the pattern of uses of prescribed medicines and to identify determinants of medicine use in a multi-ethnic Swedish general practice population. The study was performed in 1055 of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting the Jordbro Health Centre (JHC) in Stockholm, Sweden. In a regression analysis adjusted for the influence of confounders, subjects reporting 10-30 complaint symptoms, subjects with chronic disease and subjects that had a cost limitation card all reported a higher number of used medicines than subjects with a few (0-10) symptoms and those without chronic disease and a cost limitation card. In a Poisson's regression analysis, high age, female gender, not working, more than 10 symptoms, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were related to use of prescribed medicines. All included variables predicted 19% of the explanation. Marital status, multi-symptomatology, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were related to polypharmacy in a logistic regression analysis. A high number of complaint symptoms, chronic disease and having a cost limitation card were all significantly and independently related to use of medicines and polypharmacy.
The aim of this study was to identify predictors of complaint symptoms in an adult general practi... more The aim of this study was to identify predictors of complaint symptoms in an adult general practice population. The study was performed in 1055 out of 1442 consecutive adult patients visiting a Swedish health care centre. The relationship between complaint symptoms and sociodemographic characteristics, perceived health, and chronic disease was assessed using multiple regression analysis. Gender and perceived health were related to all symptom categories independently of each other, and when the effects of various symptom categories were taken into account in the regression analysis, the depression and tension symptom categories could predict about 50% of the explanation. The results of this study suggest that psychiatric symptoms, particularly depression and tension symptoms, interact and have an impact on somatic symptom reporting in addition to sociodemographic characteristics, perceived health, and chronic disease, which have impact on only some symptom categories.
In spite of the fact that self-rated health is such an important factor, little is known about th... more In spite of the fact that self-rated health is such an important factor, little is known about the aetiological background to poor perceived health and also less is known about the impact of life satisfaction on health in a primary care practice population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, symptoms, somatic and psychiatric conditions as well as health status measures and life satisfaction on perceived health in a multi-ethnic Swedish health practice population. Four-hundred and seventy adult patients, who visited the Jordbro Health Care Centre District (JHC), Haninge Municipality, participated in this study. A general questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, health status and chronic disease were used. In addition to that, the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) was used. Furthermore, physical examinations were conducted. Unconditional logistic regressi...
The cost for pharmaceuticals is rapidly increasing in most countries. Identification of the chara... more The cost for pharmaceuticals is rapidly increasing in most countries. Identification of the characteristics of the population that determine drug utilisation appears essential for the appropriate allocation of resources to caregivers. The primary aim of this study was to identify sociodemographic factors and measures of well-being and disease that were independently related to the use of drugs, including herbal, and self-care products in Håbo, a Swedish primary health care district. Another aim was to evaluate combinations of such factors that may improve the prediction of drug utilisation. A postal questionnaire was sent to a representative age-stratified population sample from Håbo. Out of 1312 subjects in the population sample, 827 (63%) answered the questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions on sociodemographic variables, well-being and symptoms and use of drugs, herbal and self-care products. Chronic disease was the most important of several factors that identified users of drugs. Other important factors were female sex, poor perceived health, sick-leave or disability pension and a high number of symptoms (complaint score). When combined, these variables could explain 18% of the use of prescribed pharmaceuticals using the logistic regression model. Several sociodemographic characteristics as well as perceived health, complaint score and chronic disease were independently related to the use of drugs and self-care products. The likelihood of using prescribed drugs was very high in subjects with a certain profile. Eighteen per cent of the use could be attributed to this profile.
Although immigrants generally have poorer health and higher psychological distress than the nativ... more Although immigrants generally have poorer health and higher psychological distress than the native population, information on Kurdish immigrants' psychological well-being is limited. The aims of the study were to examine the association between ethnicity and poor psychological well-being, and to assess the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health, somatic pain, gastrointestinal complaints and poor psychological well-being. Immigrants with self-reported Kurdish ethnicity (men, n=111; women, n=86) in Sweden from the national sample of immigrants aged 27-60 and 1407 Swedes (1996) were studied. Unconditional logistic regression was performed using the Stata Software program. In the logistic model adjusted for age, sex, employment and self-reported health, the odds ratio for Kurdish-born subjects for having poor psychological well-being is twice as high as for Swedish-born subjects. Subjects with poor self-reported health had more than a threefold higher odds ratio for having poor psychological well-being compared with those with good self-reported health. Furthermore, being female, having somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints regardless of ethnicity increased the odds for having poor psychological well-being. Being Kurdish-born and/or reporting poor health in addition to age, female gender, somatic pain and recurrent gastrointestinal complaints is significantly and independently related to poor psychological well-being even when adjusted for all confounders.
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