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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in the general population, and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Low-grade inflammation, erythrocyte volume variation, and subclinical atherosclerosis have repeatedly been associated with cardiovascular disease, but it remains unclear whether these risk factors are also associated with incident AF. This thesis is bas

The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate healthcare utilisation patterns and to explore the effects of a case management intervention for frail older people on healthcare utilisation and costs in relation to utility. A further aim was to explore the older people’s and case managers’ experiences of the intervention. Study I was a quantitative study comprising ten age cohorts aged between 6

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic rheumatic disease with significant mortality and morbidity. Different estimations of disease prevalence and incidence have been presented from various parts of the world. While lung involvement is a common cause of SSc-related death, a majority of SSc patients suffer from symptoms originating in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. By combining data from a popu

The efficacy and safety of antihyperglycaemic drugs have been evaluated in one American and one British randomized clinical trial, which have given contradictory results. The positive results of the latter may be more convincing as it included a greater number of patients and as its duration was longer. However, its conclusions may not be applicable to type 2 diabetes patients in general, as the s

Geological and biological catastrophic events have occurred repeatedly in the Earth's history, leaving traces in the global stratigraphical record in the form of sedimentary features, geochemical anomalies and biotic turnovers. This thesis focuses on the sedimentological and geochemical signatures of several key events in the Phanerozoic stratigraphical record, and aims to interpret the different

Lateglacial and Holocene shoreline displacement along the Baltic coast resulted from both the isostatic land uplift and the ice-volume-equivalent sea-level rise. Relative changes of these two components led to alternating contact/isolation of the Baltic Basin with the North Sea during the Holocene. The Littorina transgression was a significant palaeoceanographic change that took place during the m

The phenomenon of bird migration has long fascinated us humans and it has prompted questions like where do they go or come from and how do they find their way? Arctic shorebirds are well known for their spectacular long-distance migrations with some species travelling more than 10 000 km every spring and autumn, and some even cover this distance in one single nonstop flight. The aim of my thesis w

I have studied the sources, long range transport, and rates of flow of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), from the technosphere to the Baltic ecosystems. PBDEs are mainly used in polymers, which are applied in electrical equipment to prevent overheating or flashover and are produced in large quantities. PBDEs have become widely spread in the environment, where they are able to accumulate in b

The central issue is to increase knowledge of women's and men's mental wellbeing when their child is about to be born, as seen from four aspects relevant to maternity and child health care centres. Major psychological theories are the attachment theory and the affect theory, health psychology with theories on nervous tension, vulnerability, coping and individual resources, clinical psychology to u

Hand injuries have a profound impact not only on the patient’s activity of daily living and during leisure time but also on working capability. Such injuries may therefore also generate substantial costs for society in terms of sick-leave and treatment. In the present thesis, the panorama, costs (within the health-care system, due to lost production and total costs), outcome and health status of p