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Background: The European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer trial has shown a 21% reduction in prostate cancer (PC) mortality with prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening. Sweden used a 2-yr screening interval and showed a larger mortality reduction than Finland with a 4-yr interval and higher PSA cut-off., Objective: To evaluate the impact of screening interval and PSA cut-off on PC detection and mortality., Design, Setting, and Participants: We analysed the core age groups (55-69 yr at entry) of the Finnish (N=31 866) and Swedish (N=5901) screening arms at 13 yr and 16 yr of follow-up. Sweden used a screening interval of 2 yr and a PSA cut-off of 3.0ng/ml, while in Finland the screening interval was 4 yr and the PSA cut-off 4.0ng/ml (or PSA 3.0-3.9ng/ml with free PSA<16%)., Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: We compared PC detection rate and PC mortality between the Finnish and Swedish centres and estimated the impact of different screening protocols., Results and Limitations: If the Swedish screening protocol had been followed in Finland, 122 additional PC cases would have been diagnosed at screening, 84% of which would have been low-risk cancers, and four leading to PC death. In contrast, if a lower PSA threshold had been applied in Finland, at least 127 additional PC would have been found, with 19 PC deaths., Conclusions: The small number of deaths among cases that would have been potentially detectable in Finland with the Swedish protocol (or those that would have been missed in Sweden with the Finnish approach) is unlikely to explain the differences in mortality in this long of a follow-up., Patient Summary: A prostate-specific antigen threshold of 3ng/ml versus 4ng/ml or a screening interval of 2 yr instead of 4 yr is unlikely to explain the larger mortality reduction achieved in Sweden compared with Finland., (Copyright © 2017 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate alcohol consumption in relation to the incidence of type 2 diabetes., Research Design and Methods: The study population consisted of 22778 twins of the Finnish Twin Cohort. This cohort was compiled in 1975 and includes all same-sexed twins born in Finland before 1958. Information on alcohol, smoking, diet, physical activity, medical, and social conditions was obtained by questionnaires administered in 1975, 1981, and 1990. By record linkage to national registers of hospital discharge and prescribed medication, 580 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were identified during 20 years of follow-up., Results: Moderate alcohol consumption (5-29.9 g/day in men and 5-19.9 g/day in women) tended to be associated with a reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes compared with low consumption (<5 g/day). The estimates were lower in overweight (BMI >or=25.0 kg/m(2)) subjects (relative risk 0.7, 95% CI 0.5-1.0 [men]; 0.6, 0.3-1.1 [women]). High alcohol consumption (>or=20 g/day) was associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes in lean women (2.9, 1.1-7.5) but not in overweight women or in men. In women, binge drinking was associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes (2.1, 1.0-4.4). Analyses of alcohol-discordant twin pairs supported a reduced risk in moderate consuming twins compared with their low-consuming cotwins (odds ratio 0.5, 95% CI 0.2-1.5)., Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, binge drinking and high alcohol consumption may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women.

Background: Self-reported information on alcohol from questionnaires is generally assumed to introduce misclassification of consumption, mainly in the direction of underestimation. The aim of this study was to evaluate self-reported information on alcohol consumption from a mailed questionnaire by comparing to a dietary history interview and biochemical markers of alcohol intake., Subjects and Methods: For 76 male twin pairs of the Finnish Twin Cohort Study aged 40-70 years information on self-reported alcohol consumption was collected through mailed questionnaire and dietary history interview. Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), Gamma-glutamyltransferase (Gamma-GT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) were determined from blood samples., Results: Mean levels of CDT, gamma-GT and MCV showed a rise with increased self-reported alcohol consumption already at low levels of reported consumption (<20 g alcohol/day). There was a positive correlation between reported amount alcohol intake per day and levels of CDT (r = 0.46), gamma-GT (r = 0.32) and MCV (r = 0.36) but within the high consumption group (> or = 30 g/day) there was no such correlation. The questionnaire had sensitivity of 28-43% and specificity of 89% for identification of high consumers of alcohol using the biochemical markers as reference and sensitivity 41% and specificity 94% using the dietary history interview as reference. Sensitivity was improved when information on binge drinking (82%) or possible drinking problems (73%) was considered., Conclusion: Comparison to dietary history interview as well as to biochemical markers indicate that self-reported information on alcohol consumption from a mailed questionnaire may be used to distinguish between groups with different levels of alcohol consumption. The suggested misclassification of high consumers implies that only strong associations between high alcohol intake and disease are likely to be detected in studies based on questionnaire data.

This is a study of people living in Aland, a group of islands in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden. 500 blood donors and 3,248 health service clients who did not have Lyme borreliosis were examined for Borrelia burgdorferi IgG antibodies. The method used was an ELISA containing a selection of diagnostic antigens to a Borrelia burgdorferi PKo strain. It was found that the distribution according to sex, age and titre values was identical in the 2 groups, which were therefore treated as one. 19.7% of all the sera was positive. The prevalence in men was 23.6%, and in women 16.7%. The prevalence rises with age, the highest prevalence being seen in men (44.7%) and women (37.0%) over 70 y of age. The data show that the Aland islands are strongly endemic for Lyme borreliosis compared with international levels of infection.

In 1956, a study of the iodine metabolism in endemic goitre was made on a group of inhabitants of the Aland Islands, an autonomous province of Finland. The number of Alanders studied was 130. In a follow-up study 25 years later, 101 still living subjects from the original study could be traced. 17 of them had become hyperthyroid, 7 had been operated on for non-toxic goitre, and 4 had become hypothyroid. There was no correlation between thyroid hormone excretion values in 1956 and subsequent hyperthyroidism. Rheumatoid arthritis was overrepresented in the goitre group compared with the group without goitres, as well as compared with statistical figures on the frequency of rheumatic disease among the population in general of Aland and of Finland as a whole.