Harold A. Kahn

The incidence of hypertension and associated factors: The Israel ischemic heart disease study☆

Abstract In a study of male Israeli civil service workers, five-year incidence rates of hypertension (using the WHO definition) were found to increase with age and were higher for European-born subjects. Data are presented in support of a hypothesis that the size of the family group living together is inversely related to the risk of developing hypertension. Other factors found associated (at p

Blindness from Glaucoma

We observed an overall ratio of 8:1 for nonwhite to white primary glaucoma blindness. Our fragmentary evidence suggested that the ratio of underlying disease, that is, nonblinding glaucoma or intraocular pressure differentials, may be closer to 2:1 than 8:1 as between nonwhites and whites. The remaining four fold differential can be explained by a combination of the following: more complete reporting for nonwhites, reporting for medical care later in the disease than whites, and poorer response to treatment for nonwhites compared to whites. The trend of new blindness from glaucoma for recent years was stationary in the United States, England, and Wales.

The Association of Female Hormones with Blindness from Diabetic Retinopathy

The rates of blindness from diabetic retinopathy with or without other causes for persons in the Model Reporting Area (14 states) were determined in five-year intervals by sex. Diabetic males younger than 45 years of age had a higher rate of diabetic blindness than females under 45 years of age. However, for ages 45 and older, the risks of blindness among diabetics were approximately equal for men and women. These data were consistent with the hypothesis that the presence of female hormones improves the prognosis in diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetes Incidence: A Two-year Follow-up of 10,000 Men in a Survey of Ischemic Heart Disease in Israel

In 1963, 10,059 men aged forty years and over were examined in an I.H.D. survey and 9,711 of them were re-examined two years later. At both these examinations suspect diabetics werescreened out by a casual blood glucose value and/or a positive history of diabetes. Further information was collected on all these suspect diabetics to enable their classification into diabetic categories using similar criteria on both occasions. Among 9,079 persons judged at risk of developing diabetes, 144 new cases of diabetes were discovered two years after the 1963 examination. The over-all two-year incidence rate for men over forty was 15.5 per thousand. Four regions of origin, Central Europe, Southeastern Europe, Israel and North Africa had incidence rates approximately equal to the over-all rate. The age adjusted incidence rate for men from Eastern Europe was lower (8.5 per 1,000) and from the Middle East higher (20.3 per 1,000) than the average.