Search

The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of selections and shared selections in the rugby union. Players’ names, positions, and number of selections were collected for all XV de France’s games (1906–2014). Every team’s percentage of renewal of workforce was calculated for backs and forwards. During the 1987–2014 period, all second row forwards (locks), halfbacks, and centres’ shared selections (number of times when two players have competed together) were recreated. The Best vs. Rest method was applied to these remodelled dyads. They were analysed and compared with surrounding teammates as well as opponents. Head coaches similarly change their workforce for upcoming matches after winning or losing (around 30%), but losing teams renew significantly more positions in their line-ups. The recreated halfbacks, locks, and centres reveal a common pattern. Whether victorious or not, the ‘renewed couples’ victory percentage will congregate towards the XV de France’s victory percentage. For all the best recreated couples, the cumulated number of selections for forwards’ is always higher than the ones part of less efficient teams: 231.3 ± 80 vs. 212.9 ± 91 selections for locks’ teammates (Effect sizes (ES) small, possibly positive, 54.8%). In best recreated couples, number 8’s are significantly more experienced than their counterparts in less efficient pairs (ES small, likely positive, 76.3%). The XV de France’s collective effectiveness relies on a balance between stability and workforce renewal, which allows the building of specific position interactions and builds on experimented forwards packs. Selections and shared selections are serious collective performance parameters associated with performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The Fukushima nuclear disaster has generated worldwide concern on the risk of exposure to nuclear radiations. In Europe, health authorities had to issue statements about the lack of usefulness of iodine based preventive treatments within their borders. However a lack of confidence in official messages has developed in various European countries due to recent perceived failures in managing public health crises. The lay population preventive behaviors in this context are largely unknown. Consequently, to examine the effects of public health crisis on lay behaviors leading to pharmaceuticals purchases, we studied the sales of iodine-based products in France before, during and after the crisis. Methods: We focused our study on 58 iodine-based drugs available with and without a physician prescription. Our data came from a stratified sample of 3004 pharmacies in metropolitan France. Our study period was from January 2010 to April 2012, with a focus on March-April 2011. We differentiated sales of drugs prescribed by physicians from sales of drugs obtained without a prescription. We used a CUSUM method to detect abnormal increases in sales activity and cross-correlations to assess shifts in sales timing. Results: Sales of iodine-based nutritional complements, and later sales of iodine-based homeopathic remedies, substantially increased (up to 3-fold) during a period of 20 days. Their temporal patterns were correlated to specific events during the crisis. Prescriptions for iodine-based homeopathy increased (up to 35% of all sales). Iodine pills, strictly regulated by health authorities, have also been sold but on a very small scale. Conclusion: These results indicate uncontrolled preventive behaviors resulting in the potentially unjustifiable consumption of available drugs. They have implications in public policy, and demonstrate the usefulness of drug sales surveillance for instantaneous evaluation of population behavior during a global crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objectives: To assess the impact of a hygiene-encouragement program on reducing infection rates (primary end point) by 5%. Design: A cluster randomized study was carried out over a 5-month period. Settings and participants: Fifty nursing homes (NHs) with 4345 beds in France were randomly assigned by stratified-block randomization to either a multicomponent intervention (25 NHs) or an assessment only (25 NHs). Intervention: The multicomponent intervention was targeted to caregivers and consisted of implementing a bundle of infection prevention consensual measures. Interactive educational meetings using a slideshow were organized at the intervention NHs. The NHs were also provided with color posters emphasizing hand hygiene and a kit that included hygienic products such as alcoholic-based hand sanitizers. Knowledge surveys were performed periodically and served as reminders. Measurements: The primary end point was the total infection rate (urinary, respiratory, and gastrointestinal infections) in those infection cases classified either as definite or probable. Analyses corresponded to the underlying design and were performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. This study was registered (#NCT01069497). Results: Forty-seven NHs (4515 residents) were included and followed. The incidence rate of the first episode of infection was 2.11 per 1000 resident-days in the interventional group and 2.15 per 1000 resident-days in the control group; however, the difference between the groups did not reach statistical significance in either the unadjusted (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 1.00 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.89–1.13]; P = .93]) or the adjusted (HR = 0.99 [95% CI 0.87–1.12]; P = .86]) analysis. Conclusion: Disentangling the impact of this type of intervention involving behavioral change in routine practice in caregivers from the prevailing environmental and contextual determinants is often complicated and confusing to interpret the results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: We hierarchized a range of individual and occupational factors impacting the occurrence of very short (1-3 days), short (4 days to 1 month), or long-term (more than a month) sick leave spells., Methods: Data were collected from a repeated cross-sectional survey conducted in the French private sector over the period 2011 to 2017. Fifty one sick leave determinants were ranked using a conditional random forest approach., Results: The main determinants of long-term sick leaves were mainly health-related characteristics, such as perceived health, but also work-related covariates such as supervisor acknowledgment. On the contrary, very short-term spells were mainly defined by sociodemographic covariates., Conclusion: These results could be useful for devising appropriate actions to prevent against sick leave at the workplace, particularly long-term spells. Random forest approach is a promising approach for ranking correlated covariates from large datasets.

Drug sales data have increasingly been used for disease surveillance during recent years. Our objective was to assess the value of drug sales data as an operational early detection tool for gastroenteritis epidemics at national and regional level in France. For the period 2008-2013, we compared temporal trends of drug sales for the treatment of gastroenteritis with trends of cases reported by a Sentinel Network of general practitioners. We benchmarked detection models to select the one with the best sensitivity, false alert proportion and timeliness, and developed a prospective framework to assess the operational performance of the system. Drug sales data allowed the detection of seasonal gastrointestinal epidemics occurring in winter with a distinction between prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. Sales of non-prescribed drugs allowed epidemic detection on average 2.25 weeks earlier than Sentinel data. These results confirm the value of drug sales data for real-time monitoring of gastroenteritis epidemic activity., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The bacterial and fungal communities associated with dandruff were investigated using culture-independent methodologies in the French subjects. The major bacterial and fungal species inhabiting the scalp subject's were identified by cloning and sequencing of the conserved ribosomal unit regions (16S for bacterial and 28S-ITS for fungal) and were further quantified by quantitative PCR. The two main bacterial species found on the scalp surface were Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis, while Malassezia restricta was the main fungal inhabitant. Dandruff was correlated with a higher incidence of M. restricta and S. epidermidis and a lower incidence of P. acnes compared to the control population (p<0.05). These results suggested for the first time using molecular methods, that dandruff is linked to the balance between bacteria and fungi of the host scalp surface.

The aim was to estimate the association between dairy products (total and their subgroups), calcium intake and the risk of breast cancer. As few studies have considered menopausal status, we also investigated stratified analyses. This analysis included 3,627 women from the French SU.VI.MAX study, among whom 92 developed breast cancer during the follow-up period. Food consumption was assessed based on five 24-hour records completed during the previous 18 months to follow-up. Calcium intake was calculated using an ad-hoc food composition database. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative risk (RR), comparing 4th quartile vs. 1st quartile, and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). A lower risk of breast cancer was observed with high total dairy product consumption in the whole population (RR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.29-1.03, p(trend) = 0.03) and among premenopausal women with a RR of 0.35 (95% CI = 0.12-0.95, p(trend) = 0.01). None of these associations remained after control for calcium intake. Increasing calcium intake was inversely associated with breast cancer risk considering the whole population (RR = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.27-0.91, p(trend) = 0.04) and among the subgroup of premenopausal women (RR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.10-0.71, p(trend) = 0.01) respectively. Our data support the hypothesis that dairy products, through calcium content or a correlated component, might have a negative association with the risk of breast cancer, particularly among premenopausal women., (Copyright 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.)