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CONTENTS:
Diabetes Journal News
(CW HENDERSON PUBLISHER www.newsfile.com) -- According to the authors' abstract of an article published in Diabetes Care, "OBJECTIVE: To compare, in men and women, the prevalence of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes assessed using criteria from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and to investigate risk factors associated with fasting and 2-h post-load plasma glucose. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data from two companion surveys of Europeans, South Asians, and Afro-Caribbeans in west London, England were used. A total of 4,367 men and women aged 40-64 years who were not known to have diabetes underwent an oral glucose tolerance test after an overnight fast. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was estimated using the ADA (fasting plasma glucose >=7.0 mmol/l) and WHO (2-h post-load glucose >=11.1 mmol/l) criteria for epidemiologic studies. The association of body fat and usual alcohol intake with plasma glucose and diabetes prevalence was assessed. RESULTS: Compared with the WHO criterion, the ADA criterion gave a higher prevalence of diabetes in men (6.4 vs. 4.7%) but a lower prevalence in women (3.3 vs. 4.2%). In Afro-Caribbeans, the sex difference in diabetes prevalence was reversed. Women had significantly lower fasting glucose than men despite higher 2-h glucose levels. Alcohol intake was positively associated with fasting glucose in men and women but not with 2-h glucose levels. CONCLUSIONS: The new ADA criterion, based on fasting glucose alone, does not take account of sex differences in metabolic response to fasting or possible artifactual effects on fasting glucose. With the ADA criterion, alcohol intake was a significant risk factor for diabetes in our study population; this was not the case with the WHO criterion." The corresponding author for this study is: J Pomerleau, Univ London London Sch Hyg & Trop Med, Epidemiol Unit, Dept Epidemiol & Populat Hlth, Keppel St, London WC1E 7H! T, England. For subscription information for this journal, contact the publisher: Amer Diabetes Assoc, 1660 Duke St, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA. Women's Health Weekly: April 19, 1999 issue (excerpted with permission)
Grant News in Gender Differences: DESCRIPTION: The majority of studies involving experimentally-induced pain have shown that women are more sensitive to pain than men. Unfortunately, many of the pain procedures that have found sex differences confound sensory (the ability to discriminate pain) and emotional (subjective reports of pain) variables by treating pain as a single dimension, when in fact pain varies along a range of dimensions. Further, while data suggest that sex differences in pain response may be related to circulating gonadal hormones, the definition and measurement of menstrual cycle phase has been inadequate. The purpose of the present application is to more fully investigate sex differences in response to painful stimuli, specifically focusing on 1) the influence of gonadal hormones on pain responsivity and 2) the analgesic response to mu (morphine) and kappa (butorphanol) opioid agonists. Each study will use two pain procedures: the cold pressor test, which combines sensory and emotional aspects of pain, and the mechanical pressure test, which yields data amenable to Signal Detection Theory analysis (i.e., can distinguish between sensory and emotional pain). Further, each study will compare normally-cycling women to women maintained on oral contraceptives and to men. Phase of the cycle will be verified via documentation of ovulation in normally-cycling women and hormone levels (estradiol and progesterone) in all participants. The first study will measure pain response at five different phases of the menstrual cycle (menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and late luteal) in normally-cycling women; women on oral contraceptives and men will be tested during the same five 'phases'. Studies 2 and 3 will compare the analgesic effect of butorphanol and morphine in the three groups across two menstrual-cycle phases (based on Study 1). A dose-response function for each drug will be obtained and blood samples will be collected to determine any pharmacokinetic differences across the three groups and cycle phases. These studies will provide important information regarding sex differences in analgesic response, which may be due to cyclical fluctuations in gonadal hormones. In addition, they will more carefully examine sex differences in analgesic response to butorphanol and morphine, two agonists with differing selectivities for mu and kappa opioid receptors." NIH GRANT NUMBER: 1R01DE12763-01. GRANT EXPIRES: June 30, 2003. PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR: Sandra D. Comer. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION: New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 W. 168th St., New York, New York 10032./P> Women's Health Weekly: March 22, 1999 issue (excerpted with permission) An increase in cigarette prices can lead to a decrease in smoking during pregnancy In the April issue of the Journal of Public Economics, Evans et al. announced through the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program predictions that an increase in taxes on cigarettes by $1.10 per pack would result in a decrease in the number of women who smoke during pregnancy. This is an important finding, as smoking contributes to more than 20% of all low birth weight babies. While many women quit smoking during pregnancy, "the study shows that an additional number of women would quit if the price of cigarettes were to go up during pregnancy. Dr. Evans predicts that this increase in price could reduce the smoking rates of pregnant women by 30% and reduce the rate of low birth weight babies by 5%. This project was supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. J Public Econ 1999;72:135-154. CWH Journal Watch: May 1999 |
©1999 Baylor College of Medicine E-Mail: cwh@bcm.tmc.edu URL: http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cwh/archive-0599.html (Modified: Jun-07-1999) |