title: Captain Haddock's health issues in the adventures of Tintin. Comparison with Tintin's health issues.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We currently lack a comprehensive and systematic description of the challenges and health impairments (HI) faced by Captain Haddock over the course of the 15 Tintin adventures in which he appears. Their respective HIs have yet to be compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated the spectrum of HIs that Haddock sustains in these 15 adventures as well as their causes, consequences, and their relationship to alcohol or travel beyond Belgium. We diagnosed Haddock's HIs according to descriptive terms in the text. We then classified HIs as traumatic and non-traumatic, and distinguished between intentional and unintentional events. We compared the depiction of HIs involving Haddock and Tintin.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found 225 events leading to 249 HIs, two hospitalisations, and three medical consultations. There was a median of 19 HIs/adventure (range 4-27/adventure) with 193 cases of trauma (77.5%) and 56 non-traumatic problems (22.5%). There were 109 cases of concussion (43% of all HI, 56% of all trauma). We encountered 12 burns including ten relating to Haddock's tobacco habit. The most common forms of non-traumatic problems were linked to alcoholism (57%), and specifically drunkenness (37%). Haddock is diagnosed with cirrhosis early in Tintin's adventures. He significantly decreases his consumption of alcohol after he meets Tintin (58.3% of HI before vs 10.7% of HI after; P<0.001; OR 5.4) but not his use of tobacco. He is also susceptible to certain travel-related illnesses such as mosquito bites, ear discomfort, exposure to exotic animals, and perhaps jet lag. Overall, Haddock presents as many HIs (249 vs 244) and trauma (190 vs 193) as Tintin, but suffers significantly more HIs/adventure than Tintin (median 19 vs 8, P=0.03), and the traumas are significantly less severe, LoCs accounting for 23% of Tintin's traumatic HIs vs 2.5% for Haddock (P<0.001; OR: 5.1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Traumatic HIs and concussion are the leading cause of HIs for Tintin and Haddock but are clearly less severe for Haddock. Haddock evolves from alcoholic sea Captain to a country gent who is less addicted to alcohol than he is to tobacco.
authors.affiliation: Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, 45-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France; University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. Electronic address: eric.caumes@psl.aphp.fr.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caumes
authors.affiliation: Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, 45-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Epelboin
authors.affiliation: Fondation Maison des Champs, 18bis, rue des Rasselins, 75020 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guermonprez
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de génétique moléculaire, hôpital Cochin, 75014 Paris, France; UPMC-Inserm UMRS 974, Paris, France.
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leturcq
authors.affiliation: Manx Text, 118 Woodbourne Road, Douglas, Isle of Man IM2 3BA, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clarke
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D002359:Cartoons as Topic; D008512:Medicine in the Arts