OBJECTIVETo explore the quantitative relationship between the intensity of psychosocial stress and the degree of overall health damages.

METHODSA multi-group case-control study was designed and implemented. The cases included two groups of out-patients (177) and in-patients (214) in a hospital in Jianyang city, and controls (587) were from the follow-up cohort in the same city. Three groups were studied on the following contents: general demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors and the degree of health damages including mental, physical, and social status. Major statistical analyses were as follows: ranks test, ANOVA, cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and ordered-logit regression.

RESULTSOrdered-logit regression model showed that the odds ratio of negative life-events on degree of health damages was 1.335 (P < 0.01). This result showed that there was a positive dose-effect relationship between the negative life-events score and overall health damages. The utility of social support to overall health had protective effect (OR = 0.513).

CONCLUSIONNegative life-events were the major risk factors to overall health, and there was a dose-effect relationship between negative events and health damages. Function of social support played a protective factor for health.

Analysis of Variance ; Case-Control Studies ; Cohort Studies ; Educational Status ; Health Status ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Social Class ; Stress, Psychological ; psychology

Orthopedic sutures are vital medical devices in repair surgeries of tendons and ligaments. Properties especially mechanical properties of orthopedic sutures have great impacts on the effects of tendon/ligament repairs. In this paper, clinically used orthopedic sutures including absorbable sutures and non-absorbable sutures were summarized firstly, by exploring literature about orthopedic sutures, and the mostly used orthopedic sutures are non-absorbable sutures. Then, based on the particularity of the repaired sites of orthopedic sutures, the in vitro mechanical test devices and evaluation method of orthopedic sutures were reviewed, mainly including the mechanical properties of sutures, suture-tissue, and suture-anchor. In addition, the characteristics of different evaluation method or test devices were compared. It was still difficult to evaluate the mechanical properties of orthopedic sutures due to the lack of instruments and test criteria.