Louis Munan

Haematologic Profile of Natural Populations: Red Cell Parameters

Age‐sex specific reference values and frequency distribution of erythrocyte parameters were derived from a representative sample of a natural population consisting of 1094 men and 1284 women between 10 and 96 years of age. Some differences have been found between previously reported reference values and those presented here, the importance of which lies not so much in their magnitude as in the fact that the latter are based upon a probability sample of a natural population unselected as to disease and are presented as percentile distributions by age and sex rather than as the more frequently used normal distribution. These results are intended for use as reference data both for clinical and for population estimates of haematological parameters.

Alcohol-related changes in uricemia.

Abstract The proportion of users of alcoholic beverages in a probability sample of a natural population has been found to be low in hypouricemic groups and high in hyperuricemic ones at any one age and in either sex. Normouricemic populations are characterized by rates of users of alcoholic beverages which are intermediate between hypouricemic and hyperuricemic groups. These same groups do not manifest similar patterns in prevalence rates of users of cigarettes, oral contraceptives, tranquillizers or salicylates.

Population Health Care Practices: An Epidemiologic Study of the Immediate Effects of a Universal Health Insurance Plan

In an analysis of self-perceived utilization of health services by a population, no major change in the use of such services has been noted in the period immediately following a universal health insurance plan as compared to the period immediately preceding its introduction. Among the variables analyzed are medical consultations, hospitalizations, and drug consumption. Plausible explanations lie in the consistency of health care habits, in population perceptions of the real availability of such services, in underreporting of events that depend upon memory, in a time overlap inherent in the study design, and also in the unwillingness or incapacity of a satiated or saturated health care system to respond to demands placed upon it. Data collected later in the history of the development of the health insurance plan might reveal greater differences than have here been reported under conditions where major financial barriers to health care access are absent.

Frequency of fatal congenital anomalies of the nervous system: Association with geographic latitude

Abstract We report a significant pole‐to‐equator gradient in fatal congenital defects of the central nervous system whose rates increase directly with increasing latitudes in either hemisphere of the American continent. This gradient was not observed in deaths due to malformations of other organ systems and is in the opposite direction to the well‐recognized one between latitude and childhood mortality.

Rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis in an ethnically homogenous population: Familial distribution of complaints☆

Abstract Sex and age distributions of rheumatoid arthritis as well as of ankylosing spondylitis on probands reported here do not differ from that generally known for these diseases. About 30 per cent of patients of working age had to change their occupation for reasons of health. Twice as many parents of probands with ankylosing spondylitis were afflicted with the illness than in the rheumatoid arthritis group. In parents of spouses, the differences were lower. The overall frequency of rheumatic complaints was higher in siblings of ankylosing spondylitis probands than in siblings of rheumatic arthritis probands and the difference between these two groups were significantly higher in male siblings of A.S. probands for joint pains, back and hip pains and joint swelling. In siblings of R.A. probands women reported significantly greater frequence of joint swelling than men. Back and hip pains were more frequently reported by men than women in siblings of A.S. probands. Reduction of working capacity and mobility limitations are higher in male siblings of probands with ankylosing spondylitis.