Correlates of short and long sleep duration: a cross-cultural comparison between the United Kingdom and the United States: the Whitehall II Study and the Western New York Health Study.

The authors examined sociodemographic, lifestyle, and comorbidity factors that could confound or mediate U-shaped associations between sleep duration and health in 6,472 United Kingdom adults from the Whitehall II Study (1997-1999) and 3,027 US adults from the Western New York Health Study (1996-2001). Cross-sectional associations between short (<6 hours) and long (>8 hours) durations of sleep across several correlates were calculated as multivariable odds ratios. For short sleep duration, there were significant, consistent associations in both samples for unmarried status (United Kingdom: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.

Serum selenium and serum lipids in US adults.

Background: Selenium, an essential micronutrient, has received considerable attention for its antioxidant properties. In addition, selenium may affect several cardiometabolic risk factors, such as glucose homeostasis and lipid concentrations. However, the effects of selenium intake on the lipid profile in selenium-replete populations, such as the United States, are largely unknown.

Oxidation, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease: a complex interaction: findings from a population-based study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the interrelationship among oxidation, myocardial infarction (MI), and type 2 diabetes in a population-based case-control study of MI.

Research Design And Methods: Participants were 1,709 individuals from western New York: 257 women and men with incident MI and 1,452 healthy control subjects (aged 35-70 years). Lipid peroxidation was measured by plasma levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS).

Meta-analysis of short sleep duration and obesity in children and adults.

Background: Recent epidemiological studies suggest that short sleep duration may be associated with the development of obesity from childhood to adulthood.

Objectives: To assess whether the evidence supports the presence of a relationship between short sleep duration and obesity at different ages, and to obtain an estimate of the risk.

Methods: We performed a systematic search of publications using MEDLINE (1996-2007 wk 40), EMBASE (from 1988), AMED (from 1985), CINHAL (from 1982) and PsycINFO (from 1985) and manual searches without language restrictions.

Additional contribution of emerging risk factors to the prediction of the risk of type 2 diabetes: evidence from the Western New York Study.

Objective: To examine whether several biomarkers of endothelial function and inflammation improve prediction of type 2 diabetes over 5.9 years of follow-up, independent of traditional risk factors.

Methods And Procedures: A total of 1,455 participants from the Western New York Study, free of type 2 diabetes at baseline, were selected.

Association of lifetime alcohol drinking trajectories with cardiometabolic risk.

Context And Objective: Alcohol intakes may vary considerably over a drinker's lifetime. This study was designed to examine whether lifetime drinking trajectories are associated with cardiovascular risk factors that are used to define the metabolic syndrome (MetS). DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND OUTCOMES: This is a population-based cross-sectional study.

Cross-sectional versus prospective associations of sleep duration with changes in relative weight and body fat distribution: the Whitehall II Study.

A cross-sectional relation between short sleep and obesity has not been confirmed prospectively. The authors examined the relation between sleep duration and changes in body mass index and waist circumference using the Whitehall II Study, a prospective cohort of 10,308 white-collar British civil servants aged 35-55 years in 1985-1988. Data were gathered in 1997-1999 and 2003-2004.

Spatial analysis of risk factors for childhood morbidity in Nigeria.

Recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) indicate a decline in childhood vaccination coverage but a high prevalence of childhood diarrhea, cough, and fever. We used Nigerian DHS data to investigate the impact of geographical factors and other important risk factors on diarrhea, cough, and fever using geoadditive Bayesian semiparametric models. A higher prevalence of childhood diarrhea, cough, and fever is observed in the northern and eastern states, while lower disease prevalence is observed in the western and southern states.

Gender-specific associations of short sleep duration with prevalent and incident hypertension: the Whitehall II Study.

Sleep deprivation ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effects of long-term selenium supplementation on the incidence of type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial.

Background: Findings from animal models suggest that selenium supplementation improves glucose metabolism.

Objective: To examine the effect of long-term selenium supplementation on the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

Design: Secondary analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Elevated cystatin C concentration and progression to pre-diabetes: the Western New York study.

Objective: We conducted a nested case-control investigation to examine whether elevated baseline concentrations of cystatin C predicted progression from normoglycemia to pre-diabetes over 6 years of follow-up from the Western New York Health Study.

Research Design And Methods: In 2002-2004, 1,455 participants from the Western New York Health Study, who were free of type 2 diabetes and known cardiovascular disease at baseline (1996-2001), were reexamined. An incident case of pre-diabetes was defined as an individual with fasting glucose < 100 mg/dl at the baseline examination and > or = 100 and < or = 125 mg/dl at the follow-up examination, thereby eliminating individuals with prevalent pre-diabetics.

Children under pressure: an underestimated burden?

Perspective on the paper by Jackson ()

Sex differences in endothelial function markers before conversion to pre-diabetes: does the clock start ticking earlier among women? The Western New York Study.

Objective: We examined whether biomarkers of endothelial function, fibrinolysis/thrombosis and adiponectin, predict the progression from normal to pre-diabetes more strongly among women than men over 6 years of follow-up from the Western New York Health Study.

Research Design And Methods: In 2002-2004, 1,455 participants from the Western New York Health Study, who were free of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease at baseline (1996-2001), were selected for reexamination. An incident case of pre-diabetes was defined as fasting glucose <100 mg/dl at the baseline examination and > or =100 and <126 mg/dl at the follow-up examination.

Lifetime cumulative exposure to secondhand smoke and risk of myocardial infarction in never smokers: results from the Western New York health study, 1995-2001.

Background: Although many epidemiologic studies have investigated the association between exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), few of these studies have assessed exposure measures from different sources over a lifetime. Therefore, we sought to test the association between lifetime cumulative exposure to SHS and risk of myocardial infarction (MI) (as an indication of CHD) among never smokers.

Methods: A population-based case-control study in which participants were 1541 never smokers (284 cases and 1257 controls) drawn from 1197 women and men with incident MI and 2850 healthy controls (aged 35-70 years) identified from 2 Western New York counties between 1995 and 2001.

Alcohol drinking pattern and subjective health in a population-based study.

Aims: Some patterns of alcohol consumption (e.g. binge drinking, drinking outside of meals) have been associated with detrimental effects on health outcomes.

Perinatal exposures and breast cancer risk in the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study.

Background: There is increasing evidence that early life exposures, such as birth weight, infant feeding practices, birth rank and maternal age at delivery may play a role in breast carcinogenesis.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of women aged 35-80 in Western New York (Western New York Exposure and Breast Cancer Study, the WEB Study, 1996-2001). The study included 845 women diagnosed with primary, incident, histologically confirmed breast cancer, and 1538 controls frequency-matched to cases on age, race, and county of residence.

Effects of selenium supplementation on cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality: secondary analyses in a randomized clinical trial.

Despite the documented antioxidant and chemopreventive properties of selenium, studies of selenium intake and supplementation and cardiovascular disease have yielded inconsistent findings. The authors examined the effect of selenium supplementation (200 microg daily) on cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality through the entire blinded phase of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial (1983-1996) among participants who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline (randomized to selenium: n = 504; randomized to placebo: n = 500). Selenium supplementation was not significantly associated with any of the cardiovascular disease endpoints during 7.

Genome-wide linkage analysis of age at onset of alcohol dependence: a comparison between microsatellites and single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Background: Using the dataset provided for Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 by the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, we performed genome-wide linkage analysis of age at onset of alcoholism to compare the utility of microsatellites and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genetic linkage study.

Methods: A multipoint nonparametric variance component linkage analysis method was applied to the survival distribution function obtained from semiparametric proportional hazards model of the age at onset phenotype of alcoholism. Three separate linkage analyses were carried out using 315 microsatellites, 2,467 and 9,467 SNPs, spanning the 22 autosomal chromosomes.

Body fat distribution, liver enzymes, and risk of hypertension: evidence from the Western New York Study.

Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) has been associated with hypertension (HTN); however, the nature of this association remains unclear. GGT is a marker of alcohol consumption, but it is also related to the infiltration of fat in the liver (fatty liver). The association between GGT and HTN was examined in a 6-year longitudinal investigation among 1455 men and women who returned for the follow-up visit.

Long-term follow-up of psychological distress following earthquake experiences among working Italian males: a cross-sectional analysis.

This report details relationships between earthquake exposures in 1980 and 1983 to 1984 and psychological distress reported in 1994. Participants are 555 Italian male factory workers from Naples, Italy. Those men who experienced damage from the 1980 quake reported higher levels of psychological distress (across several dimensions of the Symptom Checklist) than those without damage; additionally, 30% of these men reported symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Age- and sex-related utilisation of cardiac procedures and interventions: a multicentric study in Italy.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of death in Italy and one of the most frequent cause of disability in the elderly. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of age and sex of patient on the utilisation of cardiac procedure and interventions in Italy.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 2805 patients' medical case notes in cardiology, internal medicine and elderly clinics in six Italian Regions during the period 1996-1997, considering coronary catheterisation (CC), percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PCTA), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), thrombolysis (THR) and permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation.