PhD project participating in the National Research School in General Medicine.
With the purpose to examine how thyroid disease and deviant hemoglobin values have changed in Swedish women since 1968/69. Another purpose is to examine the potential connection between mental stress and different forms of stroke and thyroid disease as well as the connection between the use of hormonal contraceptives and hemoglobin value in women in the normal population.
During the last decades, women’s living conditions have changed in several ways. More women work today than before, and smoking has decreased. The use of hormonal contraceptives has increased and in many countries women’s fertile period appears to have lengthened. At the same time, the experience of mental stress has more than doubled in Swedish middle-aged women in 36 years, and a decrease in sleep has also been observed. Several of these factors have been shown to be able to influence the somatic health, for example smoking. However, for the factors mental stress and hormonal contraceptives, the results have sometimes been contradictory regarding the connections to somatic health. For other areas, like undiagnosed thyroid disease and hemoglobin values in the normal population, there are relatively few studies on Swedish women.
The purpose is to examine how thyroid disease and hemoglobin values have changed in Swedish women since 1968/69. Another purpose is to examine the potential connection between mental stress and stroke and the connection between the use of hormonal contraceptives and hemoglobin value in women from the normal population.
For all the four studies, data from the Population Study of Women in Gothenburg will be used. It is a prospective observational study that was initiated in 1968/69, including 1462 women in the ages 60, 54, 46 and 38 years. The selection was constructed so that the participating women are representative for the normal population in Gothenburg. Continuous follow-up examinations have since then been performed and new women have been invited. At all examination years, thorough examinations have been performed and detailed questionnaires have been used including a question about mental stress and a grading of the experienced stress.
Statistics will be performed and discussed with a statistician who is attached to the Population Study of Women in Gothenburg. Statistical significance is considered as p < 0,05.
Increased knowledge about the connection between mental stress and somatic disease can contribute to better opportunities for caregivers to pay attention to and to put in early measures for certain patient groups. More knowledge about hemoglobin values in the normal population can help caregivers to distinguish groups where hormonal contraceptives could be considered as a preventive measure or as a treatment against anemia.
University of Gothenburg
Dominique Hange
Docent, Lecturer, Specialist in general medicine
School of Public Health and Community Medicine / Primary Health Care, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
