In England and Wales in 2000 7.6% of all live births (6.1% of singleton births) were of low birthweight infants (

). Among births registered by both parents the low birthweight rate was 6.4% when the father had a nonmanual occupation and 8.2% when the father had a manual occupation. Among births registered by the mother alone the rate was 10.2%. (For singleton births the corresponding figures were 4.8%, 6.8%, and 9.0%). Between 1993 and 2000 the low birthweight rate increased by 11%. The rate of increase was similar in all three groups (9% among the families of non-manual workers, 15% among manual workers’ families, and 11% among families in which the birth was registered by the mother alone) and the increase was not due solely to an increase in multiple births.

In Finland (

) 37 of 3654 schoolchildren aged 7–16 years in 1994 had biopsy-proved coeliac disease by 2001. Fifty-six had positive tests for serum endomysial or tissue transglutaminase antibodies (or both) in blood taken in 1994 and tested in 2001. Ten of these had developed abdominal symptoms leading to biopsy and a diagnosis of coeliac disease before 2001. Twenty-seven of the …