SHIFT WORK INCREASES RISK OF HEART DISEASE

Middle aged manual workers exposed to continuous noise, a physical workload, and shift work are at risk of coronary heart disease, a study from Finland has shown. Those exposed to all three factors had approximately twice as great a risk as those exposed to none of them. A 13 year follow up of 1804 men, aged 40–55 at the start of the study, indicated that this risk decreased with time once the workers had retired. Shift workers with high cardiovascular risk should be transferred to day work, if possible. (

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SCREENING FOR CHLAMYDIA

There is still uncertainty about the cost effectiveness of chlamydia screening programmes. A systematic review to August 2004, including 57 economic evaluations and two cost studies, found opportunistic and population based chlamydia screening programmes to be generally cost effective. However, three serious methodological issues threaten their validity: inappropriate modelling approach, a limited outcome, and uncertainty about probability estimates of long term effects associated with chlamydia infection. Consequently, it …