AbstractIn this article, we draw on Michael Lipsky's work on street‐level bureaucrats and discretion to analyse a real case setting comprising an interview study of 30 Swedish doctors regarding their experiences of changes in clinical work following patients being given access to medical records information online. We introduce the notion ofinvisibilityworkto capture how doctors exercise discretion topreservethe invisibility of their work, in contrast to the well‐established notion of invisible work, which denotes work made invisible by parties other than those performing it. We discuss three main forms of invisibility work in relation to records: omitting information, cryptic writing and parallel note writing. We argue that invisibility work is a way for doctors to resolve professional tensions arising from the political decision to provide patients with online access to record information. Although invisibility work is understood by doctors as a solution to government‐initiated visibility, we highlight how it can create difficulties for doctors concerning accountability towards patients, peers and authorities.
INTRODUCTION: Due to demographic change, an increase in the frequency of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is expected in the future and, thus, the identification of modifiable risk factors is urgently needed. We aimed to examine the associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with incident PD. METHODS: In 13 of the 23 centers of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, a total of 734 incident cases of PD were identified between 1992 and 2012 with a mean follow-up of 12 years. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We modelled anthropometric variables as continuous and categorical exposures and performed subgroup analyses by potential effect modifiers including sex and smoking. RESULTS: We found no association between BMI, WC and incident PD, neither among men nor among women. Among never and former smokers, BMI and waist circumference were also not associated with PD risk. For male smokers, however, we observed a statistically significant inverse association between BMI and PD risk (HR 0.51, 95%CI: 0.30, 0.84) and the opposite for women, i.e. a significant direct association of BMI (HR 1.79, 95%CI: 1.04, 3.08) and waist circumference (HR 1.64, 95%CI: 1.03, 2.61) with risk of PD. CONCLUSION: Our data revealed no association between excess weight and PD risk but a possible interaction between anthropometry, sex and smoking. ; This research has been made possible thanks to a grant of the European Community (5th Framework Programme) to Prof. Paolo Vineis (grant QLK4CT199900927); and a grant of the Compagnia di San Paolo to the ISI Foundation. All authors are independent from founders. Mortality data from the Netherlands are obtained from "Statistics Netherlands". The centers contributing to the NeuroEPIC4PD study are financially supported by: Europe Against Cancer Program of the European Commission (SANCO); ISCIII, Red de Centros RCESP, C03/09; Spanish Ministry of Health (ISCIII RETICC RD06/0020); German Cancer Aid; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Danish Cancer Society; Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health; Spanish Regional Governments of Andalucia, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra; Spanish Ministry of Health (ISCIII RETICC RD06/0020) Cancer Research U.K.; Medical Research Council, United Kingdom; Stroke Association, United Kingdom; British Heart Foundation; Department of Health, United Kingdom; Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom; Welcome Trust, United Kingdom Greek Ministry of Health; Greek Ministry of Education; Italian Association for Research on Cancer (AIRC); Italian National Research Council; Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS); Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR); LK Research Funds; Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland); World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF); Statistics Netherlands (The Netherlands); Swedish Cancer Foundation; Swedish Scientific Council; Regional Governments of Skåne and Västerbotten Counties, Sweden; Norwegian Cancer Society; Research Council of Norway; French League against cancer, Inserm, Mutuelle Generale l'Education National and IGR; the Hellenic Health Foundation.
