Risk of heart failure and subtypes with biomarker-calibrated protein intake: Women's health initiative cohort study.

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a growing epidemic, with risk of HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) significantly higher in post-menopausal women compared to men. Data on its association with dietary protein intake is limited.

Methods: To study the association of dietary protein intake with risk of HF and its subtypes in post-menopausal women, we included post-menopausal women from Women's Health Initiative's (WHI) HF cohort.

Translational genomics of osteoarthritis in 1,962,069 individuals.

Osteoarthritis is the third most rapidly growing health condition associated with disability, after dementia and diabetes. By 2050, the total number of patients with osteoarthritis is estimated to reach 1 billion worldwide. As no disease-modifying treatments exist for osteoarthritis, a better understanding of disease aetiopathology is urgently needed.

Association of Kidney Function With Incident Heart Failure: An Analysis of the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: Studies have shown an association of chronic kidney disease with heart failure (HF); however, this association has not been adequately examined in postmenopausal women, who are at heightened risk of both chronic kidney disease and HF. Additionally, association with HF subtypes is not well characterized.

Methods And Results: Incident HF was defined as first hospitalization for acute decompensated HF, obtained by self-reported outcomes followed by physician adjudication through review of hospital records.

Intergenerational Occurrence of Premature Birth and Reproductive Health in Prematurely-Born Women in the Women's Health Initiative.

Objective: To compare reproductive history and postmenopausal health by birth status (preterm vs. full term) in a U.S.

Gender and age differences in the associations between cortical thickness and hand osteoarthritis severity: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Objective: To evaluate gender differences in the association between metacarpal cortical thickness (T)-a surrogate for bone density-and severity of radiographic hand osteoarthritis (HOA) in a longitudinal observational study.

Method: Hand radiographs of 3575 participants (2039 F/1536 M) from the Osteoarthritis Initiative were assessed at baseline and 48 months. A reader used a semi-automated software tool to calculate T, a measurement of the cortical thickness, for metacarpals 2-4.

Clonal Hematopoiesis and Incident Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Importance: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), the age-related clonal expansion of hematopoietic stem cells with leukemogenic acquired genetic variants, is associated with incident heart failure (HF).

Objective: To evaluate the associations of CHIP and key gene-specific CHIP subtypes with incident HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cohort study included participants from 2 racially diverse prospective cohort studies with uniform HF subtype adjudication: the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) and Women's Health Initiative (WHI).

Radiographic joint space width in individuals with hand osteoarthritis: Are their "healthy" joints really healthy?

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the systemic nature of hand osteoarthritis (OA). We hypothesized that people who suffer from hand OA would display narrower radiographic joint space width (JSW) - not only in joints with apparent radiographic OA but also in their unaffected "healthy" joints.

Method: We examined 3394 participants from the Osteoarthritis Initiative with available dominant hand radiographs at baseline.

Hand joints without radiographic osteoarthritis maintain their joint space width over 4 years despite what's happening elsewhere in the hand.

Objectives: We aimed to determine whether hand OA is characterized by systemic cartilage loss by assessing if radiographically normal joints had greater joint space width (JSW) loss over 4 years in hands with incident or prevalent OA elsewhere in the hand compared with hands without OA.

Methods: We used semi-automated software to measure JSW in the distal and proximal IP joints of 3368 participants in the Osteoarthritis Initiative who had baseline and 48-month hand radiographs. A reader scored 16 hand joints (including the thumb base) for Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grade.

Association of Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential with Incident Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Background: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) was recently identified as a risk factor for incident heart failure (HF). Whether CHIP is associated selectively with risk of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) subtypes is unknown.

Objectives: To evaluate whether CHIP is associated with incident HF subtypes, HFrEF versus HFpEF.

The co-occurrence and cumulative prevalence of hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, and hypothyroidism in preterm-born women in the Women's Health Initiative.

Emerging evidence suggests that preterm-born individuals (<37 weeks gestation) are at increased risk of developing chronic health conditions in adulthood. This study compared the prevalence, co-occurrence, and cumulative prevalence of three female predominant chronic health conditions - hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis [RA], and hypothyroidism - alone and concurrently. Of 82,514 U.

Association of Preterm Birth With Prevalent and Incident Hypertension, Early-Onset Hypertension, and Cardiovascular Disease in the Women's Health Initiative.

Increasing evidence suggests preterm birth is a risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. Whether there is effect modification by hypertension on CVD risk is unknown. To investigate the associations between preterm birth, hypertension, and incident CVD, we identified 2,303 women aged 50 to 79 years who self-reported being born preterm from the Women's Health Initiative.

Heart rate variability and the risk of heart failure and its subtypes in post-menopausal women: The Women's Health Initiative study.

Background: Low heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of autonomic imbalance, is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart failure (HF). However, its relationship with HF subtypes; heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) has not been studied prior.

Methods And Findings: We conducted a longitudinal study in Women's Health Initiative study cohort to investigate the association of baseline quartiles of resting heart rate (rHR) and HRV measures; SDNN (SD of normal-to-normal RR interval) and RMSSD (root mean square of successive difference of RR interval) measured by twelve-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) on enrollment, with the risk of hospitalized HF and its subtypes.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia and neurobehavioural outcomes at birth and 2 years in infants born before 30 weeks.

Objective: To identify neurobehavioural risks in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) prior to hospital discharge.

Design And Patients: Longitudinal study of 676 newborns born before 30 weeks of gestation.

Setting: Nine university NICUs affiliated with six universities.

From HRSA Grant to Medical Practice: Improving Care for Children and Adolescents in a Family Medicine Residency Clinic.

Background: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is an ideal primary care model for patients across the lifespan. Family Medicine (FM) practice and training often address adults more than children/adolescents. Few studies describe the efficacy of education programs seeking to enhance PCMH-based care of children/adolescents.

Racket or Bat Sports: No Association With Thumb-Base Osteoarthritis.

Context: Repetitive joint use is a risk factor for osteoarthritis, which is a leading cause of disability. Sports requiring a racket or bat to perform repetitive high-velocity impacts may increase the risk of thumb-base osteoarthritis. However, this hypothesis remains untested.

Nurse practitioners in home-based prepalliative care demonstrate an innovative, value-based approach to end-of-life care planning.

Background: Nurse practitioners (NPs) demonstrate value-based, home-based primary health care (HBPC) to home-bound patients with high disease burden at reduced cost.

Purpose: The research questions were as follows: (a) Does patient-centered, prepalliative care delivered by HBPC NPs decrease number of hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits and increase patient satisfaction? and (b) What are the criteria for patients to receive end-of-life (EOL) discussions by NPs?

Methodology: This was a quasi-experimental, retrospective two-group design with a convenience sample of 233 HBPC patients from an academic clinical partnership compared with 234 clinic patients matched on age and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score over 4 years. Measures included signed advanced directives (ADRs), medical orders of life-sustaining treatment (MOLST) forms, number and length of home visits, hospitalizations, and ED visits after diagnosis.

Prevalence, Incidence, and Progression of Radiographic and Symptomatic Hand Osteoarthritis: The Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Objective: To describe the prevalence, incidence, and progression of radiographic and symptomatic hand osteoarthritis (OA), and to evaluate differences according to age, sex, race, and other risk factors.

Methods: Participants were assessed for radiographic and symptomatic hand OA at baseline and year 4 to determine incident disease. A modified Poisson regression with a robust variance estimator was used to account for clustering of joints within fingers within persons to estimate the prevalence ratios and relative risk estimates associated with participant characteristics.

The association of walking pace and incident heart failure and subtypes among postmenopausal women.

Background: To investigate the association between walking pace and the risk of heart failure (HF) and HF sub-types.

Methods: We examined associations of self-reported walking pace with risk of incident HF and HF subtypes of preserved (HFpEF) and reduced (HFrEF) ejection fractions, among 25,183 postmenopausal women, ages 50-79 years. At enrollment into the Women's Health Initiative cohort in 1993-1998, this subset of women was free of HF, cancer, or the inability to walk one block, with self-reported information on walking pace and walking duration.

Association between race/ethnicity and income on the likelihood of coronary revascularization among postmenopausal women with acute myocardial infarction: Women's health initiative study.

Background: Historically, race, income, and gender were associated with likelihood of receipt of coronary revascularization for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Given public health initiatives such as Healthy People 2010, it is unclear whether race and income remain associated with the likelihood of coronary revascularization among women with AMI.

Methods: Using the Women's Health Initiative Study, hazards ratio (HR) of revascularization for AMI was compared for Black and Hispanic women vs White women and among women with annual income <$20,000/year vs ≥$20,000/year over median 9.

Supplemental Association of Clonal Hematopoiesis With Incident Heart Failure.

Background: Age-related clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), defined as clonally expanded leukemogenic sequence variations (particularly in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, and JAK2) in asymptomatic individuals, is associated with cardiovascular events, including recurrent heart failure (HF).

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate whether CHIP is associated with incident HF.

Methods: CHIP status was obtained from whole exome or genome sequencing of blood DNA in participants without prevalent HF or hematological malignancy from 5 cohorts.

Citrus Consumption and the Risk of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in the Women's Health Initiative.

Evidence from animal studies suggests that furocoumarins, compounds present in citrus products, can increase the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) when combined with ultraviolet radiation. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between citrus intake and NMSC risk among postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study, who were aged 50-79 years at enrollment (1993-1998). The consumption of citrus fruit, citrus juice, and non-citrus fruit and juice were measured at the baseline of the study using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).