Kevin M Kelly

Inorganic arsenic is a toxic naturally occurring element in soil and water in many regions of the US including the Midwest. Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men in Iowa, surpassed only by non-melanotic skin cancer. Epidemiology studies have evaluated arsenic exposure from drinking water and prostate cancer, but most have focused on high-level exposures outside the US. As drinking water from groundwater sources is a major source of arsenic exposure, we conducted ...

OBJECTIVE: In part 1 of this investigation, we demonstrated that children of multiple birth pregnancies are at higher risk for development of deformational plagiocephaly. In the current investigation, we explore whether certain prenatal and postnatal risk factors predispose one twin over the other by examining the occurrence and severity of plagiocephaly in both discordant (only 1 affected) and concordant (both affected) twin pairs.

METHODS: Throughout 1999, we obtained detailed medical ...

Epidemiologic studies of farm children are of international interest because farm children are less often atopic, have less allergic disease, and often have less asthma than do nonfarm children--findings consistent with the hygiene hypothesis. We studied a cohort of rural Iowa children to determine the association between farm and other environmental risk factors with four asthma outcomes: doctor-diagnosed asthma, doctor-diagnosed asthma/medication for wheeze, current wheeze, and cough ...

OBJECTIVES: The Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty (DOC) Band(TM) is a cranial orthosis used to treat deformational plagiocephaly. The ability of this device to redirect growth and thus, improve craniofacial asymmetry has raised concerns regarding the potential restriction of cranial growth. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the growth of the head during correction of plagiocephaly.

METHODS: The study sample consisted of 190 children: 81 females (42. 6%) and 109 males (57.4%) All ...

The Keokuk County Rural Health Study (KCRHS) was designed as a 20-year, prospective cohort study focusing on chronic disease and injury in an agricultural southeastern Iowa county. The goals of the KCRHS are to prospectively describe, measure, and analyze prevalent rural and agriculturally related adverse health outcomes and their respective risk factors and to provide the basis for future community-based intervention programs to reduce disease and injury incidence. Methods of data ...

Chiral polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners have been implicated by laboratory and epidemiological studies in PCB developmental neurotoxicity. These congeners are metabolized by cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes to potentially neurotoxic hydroxylated metabolites (OH-PCBs). The present study explores the enantioselective disposition and toxicity of 2 environmentally relevant, neurotoxic PCB congeners and their OH-PCB metabolites in lactating mice and their offspring following dietary ...

BACKGROUND: There are conflicting findings about the prevalence of asthma among farm and nonfarm children.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to estimate asthma prevalence and morbidity and determine differences between farm and nonfarm children.

METHODS: The study population consisted of all children aged 6 to 14 years enrolled in 10 school districts in 2 noncontiguous rural Iowa counties from 2000 through 2002. The mailed parental screening questionnaire included the International Study of Asthma ...

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has been implicated in adverse human health effects, including developmental neurotoxicity. Several neurotoxic PCBs are chiral and undergo atropisomeric enrichment in vivo due to atropselective metabolism by cytochrome P450 enzymes. Here we study how the liver-specific deletion of the cytochrome P450 reductase ( cpr) gene alters the toxicokinetics of 2,2',3,3',6,6'-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB 136) in mice. Male and female mice with a ...

OBJECTIVE: The current paper estimates the prevalence of hearing problems in a rural population, analyzes the prevalence of hearing problems across age groups, and compares the prevalence of hearing problems in this population with results obtained in other populations.

DESIGN: Data were obtained from a random sample of the residents of a rural county, stratified by farm, rural non-farm, and town residence. Hearing test results were obtained from participants between the ages of 8 and 92 ...

PROBLEM/CONDITION: Many rural residents work in the field of agriculture; however, employment in nonagricultural jobs also is common. Because previous studies in rural communities often have focused on agricultural workers, much less is known about the occupational exposures in other types of jobs in rural settings. Characterizing airborne occupational exposures that can contribute to respiratory diseases is important so that differences between rural and urban working populations can be ...

Injury and illness among youth working on farms are important problems. The types of farm tasks performed by children and the ages at which they begin these activities have not been well characterized. This cross-sectional study characterized agricultural work performed by adolescents in a rural Iowa county to better understand the patterns and extent of exposures to agricultural risk factors. This information will help to develop prevention strategies for agriculture-related injury and ...

OBJECTIVE: Deformational plagiocephaly refers to the development of an abnormal head shape in infants resulting from externally applied molding forces, which may occur either prenatally or postnatally. We have observed that an unexpectedly high number of multiple-birth infants have presented to our center with this condition. The purposes of this investigation were to: 1) determine the significance of this observation; and 2) examine the risk factors that may make this population more ...

Small enterprises have fewer resources, are more financially precarious, and have higher rates of occupational injury and illness compared with larger enterprises. Interventions that address the promotion of health and well-being in addition to traditional occupational safety and health hazards, a Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach, may be effective in reducing injuries and preventing illness. However, little research has examined the impact of TWH interventions in small enterprises. ...

BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of minimally invasive surgical techniques in thoracic surgery in 1990, video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has become the approach for many thoracic operations. The role of VATS has slowly evolved but has not been clearly defined. To better understand the role of VATS, we undertook a survey of practicing thoracic surgeons.

METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to members of the General Thoracic Surgery Club asking the role of VATS in their practice and ...