261 research outputs found
Weighing Evidence from Mendelian Randomization-Early-Life Obesity as a Causal Factor in Multiple Sclerosis?
No full textIn this Perspective, Alberto Ascherio and Kassandra Munger discuss the implications of Richards and colleagues' study exploring the role of early-life obesity in risk of multiple sclerosis
sj-docx-1-msj-10.1177_13524585231208310 – Supplemental material for Smoking during pregnancy and risk of multiple sclerosis in offspring and mother: A Danish nationwide register-based cohort study
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-msj-10.1177_13524585231208310 for Smoking during pregnancy and risk of multiple sclerosis in offspring and mother: A Danish nationwide register-based cohort study by Nete Munk Nielsen, Morten Frisch, Sanne Gørtz, Egon Stenager, Kristin Skogstrand, David M Hougaard, Alberto Ascherio, Klaus Rostgaard and Henrik Hjalgrim in Multiple Sclerosis Journal</p
Variations in the Gender Ratio of Multiple Sclerosis Linked to Converging Smoking Trends in Men and Women
No full text[S40.001] Variations in the Gender Ratio of Multiple Sclerosis Linked to Converging Smoking Trends in Men and WomenNatalia Palacios, Boston, MA, Alvaro Alonso, Minneapolis, MN, Henrik Bronnum-Hansen, Coppenhagen, Denmark, Alberto Ascherio, Boston, MA OBJECTIVE: To examine if a time-dependent relationship exists between changing female-to male ratios of smoking and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in worldwide birth cohorts from previously published studies. BACKGROUND: Smoking behavior in industrialized nations has changed dramatically over the second half of the 20th century, with diverging patterns in male and female smoking rates. During the same time period, an increase in the female to male ratio in MS incidence has been reported. We examined whether MS incidence in the two genders changed concomitantly with smoking, as would be expected if smoking truly increased MS risk. DESIGN/METHODS: We identified relevant studies reporting male and female age-specific incidence of MS throughout the world using within-country birth cohorts as units of observation. For each country and birth cohort, we then estimated the male to female ratio in MS incidence, and correlated these ratios with the corresponding male to female ratios in smoking behavior obtained from national statistics. In addition, in separate analyses we also examined in depth the within-country trends of smoking and MS for two populations in which statistics on MS are readily available: Canada and Denmark. RESULTS: We show that the gender ratio of MS is correlated with the gender ratio of smoking (r = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.22; p = 0.02). This correlation supports an overall incidence rate ratio of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.89) of MS for ever smokers as compared with never smokers. Furthermore, our within-country analyses of smoking and MS trends in Canada and Denmark show that, depending on model assumptions, smoking could explain 20 to 89% of the change in the female to male ratios of MS. CONCLUSIONS/RELEVANCE: Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that smoking increases the risk of MS. Smoking trends might partially explain changes in the MS gender ratio. Supported by: Dr. Ascherio: funding for studies of MS from NIH/NINDS. Natalia Palacios: Training Program in Environmental Epidemiology funded under grant no. T32 ES07069. The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society finances the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry.Category - MS and Related Diseases - Clinical ScienceWednesday, April 14, 2010 4:15 PMScientific Sessions: Multiple Sclerosis: Epidemiology (4:15 PM-5:30 PM)</strong
Variations in the Gender Ratio of Multiple Sclerosis Linked to Converging Smoking Trends in Men and Women
No full text[S40.001] Variations in the Gender Ratio of Multiple Sclerosis Linked to Converging Smoking Trends in Men and WomenNatalia Palacios, Boston, MA, Alvaro Alonso, Minneapolis, MN, Henrik Bronnum-Hansen, Coppenhagen, Denmark, Alberto Ascherio, Boston, MA OBJECTIVE: To examine if a time-dependent relationship exists between changing female-to male ratios of smoking and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in worldwide birth cohorts from previously published studies. BACKGROUND: Smoking behavior in industrialized nations has changed dramatically over the second half of the 20th century, with diverging patterns in male and female smoking rates. During the same time period, an increase in the female to male ratio in MS incidence has been reported. We examined whether MS incidence in the two genders changed concomitantly with smoking, as would be expected if smoking truly increased MS risk. DESIGN/METHODS: We identified relevant studies reporting male and female age-specific incidence of MS throughout the world using within-country birth cohorts as units of observation. For each country and birth cohort, we then estimated the male to female ratio in MS incidence, and correlated these ratios with the corresponding male to female ratios in smoking behavior obtained from national statistics. In addition, in separate analyses we also examined in depth the within-country trends of smoking and MS for two populations in which statistics on MS are readily available: Canada and Denmark. RESULTS: We show that the gender ratio of MS is correlated with the gender ratio of smoking (r = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.22; p = 0.02). This correlation supports an overall incidence rate ratio of 1.40 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.89) of MS for ever smokers as compared with never smokers. Furthermore, our within-country analyses of smoking and MS trends in Canada and Denmark show that, depending on model assumptions, smoking could explain 20 to 89% of the change in the female to male ratios of MS. CONCLUSIONS/RELEVANCE: Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that smoking increases the risk of MS. Smoking trends might partially explain changes in the MS gender ratio. Supported by: Dr. Ascherio: funding for studies of MS from NIH/NINDS. Natalia Palacios: Training Program in Environmental Epidemiology funded under grant no. T32 ES07069. The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society finances the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry.Category - MS and Related Diseases - Clinical ScienceWednesday, April 14, 2010 4:15 PMScientific Sessions: Multiple Sclerosis: Epidemiology (4:15 PM-5:30 PM)</strong
FAT TAXES AND THIN SUBSIDIES: PRICES, DIET, AND HEALTH OUTCOMES
No full text"Fat taxes" have been proposed as a way of addressing food-related health concerns. In this paper, we investigate the possible effects of "thin subsidies," consumption subsidies for healthier foods. Empirical simulations, based on data from the Continuing Study of Food Intake by Individuals, are used to calculate the potential health benefits of subsidies on certain classes of fruits and vegetables. Estimates of the cost per statistical life saved through such subsidies compare favorably with existing U.S. government programs.Health Economics and Policy,
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Diet, Metabolomics, and Parkinson's Disease
No full textParkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor control and is characterized by several hallmark symptoms, including resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability. Existing treatments are unable to stop or slow the progression of PD. The lack of effective treatment is likely due in part to the fact that PD develops insidiously over an extended period such that there is already extensive and irreversible neurodegeneration by the time of clinical diagnosis. In order to deliver treatment before neurodegeneration is too extensive, it is therefore vital to better understand and reliably recognize the prodromal phase of PD.
In Chapter 1, we used blood samples from 349 matched case-control pairs in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) to examine whether metabolites known to be associated with insulin resistance and diabetes were also associated with the development of PD. In these analyses, there was no evidence that these markers of insulin resistance and diabetes were associated with PD, corroborating previous research in these cohorts that failed to identify a relationship between diabetes and PD.
In Chapter 2, we used blood samples from 817 matched case-control pairs in the NHS, the HPFS, and the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Survey Cohort (CPS-IIN) to investigate whether pre-diagnostic plasma metabolite levels could act as risk factors for or biomarkers of PD. Several metabolites were nominally associated with PD but, after adjustment for multiple testing, none remained significant. Further, we were unable to reliably distinguish cases from controls based on their metabolomic profiles. These results contradict several retrospective metabolomics investigations of PD and emphasize the need for careful study design in investigations of potential biomarkers.
In Chapter 3, we assessed whether adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet was associated with non-motor features of prodromal PD. Here, we found that increased adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet was associated with a lower combined number of prodromal Parkinson’s features as well as with three specific features. These findings add further weight to the evidence that adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet could reduce the occurrence of specific features of prodromal Parkinson’s disease.Population Health Science
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Periconceptional Exposures and Child Health in the Third Generation
No full textIn view of the increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, the burdens they inflict on affected patients, family and society, as well as their unclear etiology, identifying their risk factors is of tremendous importance. We need to better determine the etiologic window of intervention and identify high-risk populations who would benefit from public health interventions. Given the early onset of neurodevelopmental disorders, scientists have focused on risk factors in early childhood and in utero, based on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis. However, the third generational effects have rarely been explored, although pregnant women’s exposures to internal and external factors can affect not only their offspring but their grandchildren via the germline.
This dissertation comprises three studies that investigated the multigenerational associations of grandmothers’ exposures experienced periconceptionally with their grandchildren’s neurodevelopmental deficits and adverse birth outcomes. Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of heterogeneous conditions that affect the development of the neurological system and brain, leading to a delay or disturbance in the acquisition of motor, social language and cognitive skills. While some neurodevelopmental disorders are highly heritable, most have complex and multiple contributors, including genetic, biological, psychosocial and environmental factors. Adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth or low birth weight, have also been proposed as risk factors for pervasive developmental disorders as well as many chronic diseases later in life.
While previous studies have focused on the relationship between maternal exposure during pregnancy and health outcomes in the offspring, the third generational effect has been neglected, mainly due to a lack of data on three generations in human, particularly for neurodevelopmental deficits. However, with access to a national, longitudinal healthcare professional’s cohort study data (Nurses’ Health Study II), this research possessed a unique setting to investigate associations in a population-based study across three generations. In Chapters 1 and 2, grandchildren’s risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders, was assessed according to grandmothers’ smoking during pregnancy, pre-pregnancy obesity status, and gestational weight gain. In Chapter 3, we revisited a previous study that examined the relationship between grandmaternal use of diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, by further addressing a more comprehensive list of confounding factors as well as indication bias. Overall, the findings from this research demonstrate that grandmothers’ periconceptional health risk behaviors, unhealthy weight status, and exposure to an endocrine disruptor were associated with their grandchildren’s risk of ADHD or preterm birth/low birth weight, independent of maternal factors.Epidemiolog
A Prospective Analysis of Airborne Metal Exposures and Risk of Parkinson Disease in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort
No full textBackground: Exposure to metals has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease (PD). Objectives: We sought to examine in a large prospective study of female nurses whether exposure to airborne metals was associated with risk of PD. Methods: We linked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Air Toxics tract-level data with the Nurses’ Health Study, a prospective cohort of female nurses. Over the course of 18 years of follow-up from 1990 through 2008, we identified 425 incident cases of PD. We examined the association of risk of PD with the following metals that were part of the first U.S. EPA collections in 1990, 1996, and 1999: arsenic, antimony, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and nickel. To estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs, we used the Cox proportional hazards model, adjusting for age, smoking, and population density. Results: In adjusted models, the HR for the highest compared with the lowest quartile of each metal ranged from 0.78 (95% CI: 0.59, 1.04) for chromium to 1.33 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.79) for mercury. Conclusions: Overall, we found limited evidence for the association between adulthood ambient exposure to metals and risk of PD. The results for mercury need to be confirmed in future studies. Citation: Palacios N, Fitzgerald K, Roberts AL, Hart JE, Weisskopf MG, Schwarzschild MA, Ascherio A, Laden F. 2014. A prospective analysis of airborne metal exposures and risk of Parkinson disease in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort. Environ Health Perspect 122:933–938; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307218Version of Recor
HEALTH TRADEOFFS IN PESTICIDE REGULATION
No full textEPA has the authority to ban pesticides to reduce health risks to consumers from food residues. Such bans influence the price of fruits and vegetables, and the resulting consumption shifts impact consumer health. We develop a framework to compare the direct and indirect health effects of pesticide regulation, and investigate the distribution of these effects across social groups. Under some plausible scenarios, the increased incidence of disease from reduced fruit and vegetable consumption outweigh the direct benefits of regulation. Furthermore, high income consumers receive the greatest direct health benefit from pesticide cancellations, whereas low and medium income consumers are most hurt by the resulting dietary changes.Crop Production/Industries, Health Economics and Policy,
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