VCM can represent the various signs, diseases, physiological states, life habits, drugs and tests described in drug monographs.
The differences in serum selenium concentration in different regional populations may be due to race, geographical environment, physiological status, eating habits, smoking, and the determination methodology for selenium.
The secondary outcomes are a) health measures (anthropometric and physiological), b) dietary habits (consumption of core foods and non-core foods) and c) quality of life (QOL) including physical, psychological and social wellbeing.
Several factors such as sex, age, feeding habits, physiological status (sick, lactating, starving) and analytical techniques exert an influence on organochlorine concentrations and might be partially responsible for the difference between species and geographical areas.
This approach is similar to that used for road signs and involved two steps: (1) The building of a graphical language, providing a set of medical icons that can be used to identify signs, diseases, physiological states, life habits, drugs and tests.
No other authors, as far as we are aware, have developed a graphical interface featuring a similar combined use of anatomy, etiology, physiological data and life habits.
In addition, an area is devoted to the representation of physiological data and life habits.
Behavioural (smoking, alcohol abuse, physical inactivity, and poor dietary habits) and physiological (obesity) NCD risk factors are known to be prevalent in the South African youth (7).
Diseases, signs, physiological states and life habits, drugs and tests are the medical concepts that can be represented by the VCM graphical language.
The influences of age, geographic location and dietary habits on physiological variations in the microbiota have been well established [ 1, 2].
