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Purpose Few physical activity (PA) questionnaires were designed to measure the lifestyles and activities of women. We sought to examine the test-retest reliability of a PA questionnaire used in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Study. Differences in reliability were also explored by important covariates. Methods Participants (n=1092) were post-menopausal women aged 50-79 years, randomly selected from the baseline sample of participants in the WHI Observational Study. The WHI physical activity questionnaire collects usual frequency, duration, and pace of recreational walking, frequency and duration of other recreational activities or exercises (mild, moderate and strenuous), household, and yard activities. Approximately half of the women (n=569) repeated questions on recreational PA, the other half (n=523) repeated questions related to household and yard activities (mean 3 months apart). Test-retest reliability was assessed with kappa and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC1,1). Results Overall, questions on recreational walking, moderate recreational PA, and strenuous recreational PA had higher test-retest reliability (weighted kappa range 0.50-0.60), than questions on mild recreational PA (weighted kappa range 0.35-0.50). The ICC1,1 for moderate to strenuous recreational PA was 0.77 (95% CI 0.73, 0.80) and total recreational PA was 0.76 (95% CI 0.71, 0.79). Substantial reliability was observed for the summary measures of yard activities (ICC1,1 0.71; 95% CI 0.66, 0.75) and household activities (ICC1,1 0.60, 95% CI 0.55, 0.66). No meaningful differences were observed by race/ethnicity, age, time between test and retest, and amount of reported PA. Conclusions The WHI PA questionnaire demonstrated moderate to substantial test-retest reliability in a diverse sample of post-menopausal women.

In the United States, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has rapidly increased in incidence for over two decades. The most common histologic subtypes of RCC, clear cell, papillary, and chromophobe have distinct genetic and clinical characteristics; however, epidemiologic features of these subtypes have not been well characterized, particularly regarding any associations between race, disease subtypes, and recent incidence trends. Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, we examined differences in the age-adjusted incidence rates and trends of RCC subtypes, including analysis focusing on racial differences. Incidence rates increased over time (2001–2009) for all three subtypes. However, the proportion of white cases with clear cell histology was higher than among blacks (50% vs. 31%, respectively), whereas black cases were more likely than white cases to have papillary RCC (23% vs. 9%, respectively). Moreover, papillary RCC incidence increased more rapidly for blacks than whites (P < 0.01) over this period. We also observed that increased incidence of papillary histology among blacks is not limited to the smallest size strata. We observed racial differences in proportionate incidence of RCC subtypes, which appear to be increasing over time; this novel finding motivates further etiologic, clinical, molecular, and genetic studies.Using national data, we observed a higher proportion of black renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cases with papillary histology compared to Caucasian cases. We also observed time trends in black-white incidence differences in histologic RCC subtypes, with rapid increases in the disproportionate share of black cases with papillary histology.

The newly discovered human metapneumovirus (hMPV) has been shown to be associated with respiratory illness. We determined the frequencies and clinical features of hMPV and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in 374 Danish children with 383 episodes of acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI). Study material comprised routine nasopharyngeal aspirates obtained during 2 winter seasons (November-May) 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 from children hospitalized at the Departments of Paediatrics, Hvidovre Hospital and Amager Hospital, Denmark. hMPV was detected in 11 (2.9%) and RSV in 190 (49.6%) ARTI episodes by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction using primers targeting the hMPV N gene and the RSV L gene. Two children were co-infected with hMPV and RSV. They were excluded from statistical analysis. Hospitalization for ARTI caused by hMPV was restricted to very young children 1-6 months of age. Asthmatic bronchitis was diagnosed in 66.7% of hMPV and 10.6% of RSV-infected children (p < 0.001). Overall symptoms and clinical findings were similar among hMPV and RSV positive episodes, but more RSV-infected children required respiratory support. hMPV is present in young Danish children hospitalized with ARTI although less frequent than RSV and with a tendency to a milder clinical course.