Impact of the Wood-Burning Cookstove on Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c): A Stepped-Wedge Randomized Trial in Rural Honduras.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly growing global health challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and evidence suggests that air pollution exposure contributes. Household air pollution from burning solid fuels for cooking is a major burden in LMICs, but studies demonstrating associations between reductions in household air pollution and improvements in HbA1c, a biomarker of diabetes risk, are lacking. We previously reported substantial reductions in fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter () and black carbon concentrations following an intervention in rural Honduras with the cookstove, a wood-burning stove with an engineered combustion chamber and chimney.

Measuring the impact of obesity on cardiovascular risk for northern Colorado school children: Healthy hearts and minds program 2013-2023.

Obesity is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in both children and adults and is predictive of poor cardiovascular outcomes. Prevalence of CVD risk factors among children has become more frequent and is often influenced by the family. The purpose of this study was to both cross-sectionally and longitudinally determine the prevalence and changes in CVD risk factors among northern Colorado students.

Association of Physical Domain Participation with POTFF Domains in Special Forces Operators.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the physical domain (PD) to improve performance in all the POTFF domains (physical, psychological, social/family, and spiritual) among Special Forces (SF) Operators.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of active SF Operators assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). Recruitment began in October 2016.

The combined effect of motivational interviewing and wearable fitness trackers on motivation and physical activity in inactive adults: A randomized controlled trial.

Despite overwhelming adoption of wearable fitness trackers (WFT), it is unclear if they affect physical activity (PA) engagement or PA motivation. We hypothesized that combining a WFT with an effective intervention, motivational interviewing (MI), would positively influence both motivation and PA. A 12-week randomized controlled trial was conducted in 40 adults who did not meet PA recommendations.

Maternal Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Is Associated With Higher BMI Among Preschool-Aged Children: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Childhood obesity is an ongoing concern in the United States. Higher weight status in early childhood is associated with higher weight status at older ages. The Maternal Obesity Matters (MOMs) Study investigated associations between maternal risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and child BMI z-scores (BMIz) among preschool-aged children.

Household air pollution from wood-burning cookstoves and C-reactive protein among women in rural Honduras.

Household air pollution from solid fuel combustion was estimated to cause 2.31 million deaths worldwide in 2019; cardiovascular disease is a substantial contributor to the global burden. We evaluated the cross-sectional association between household air pollution (24-h gravimetric kitchen and personal particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC)) and C-reactive protein (CRP) measured in dried blood spots among 107 women in rural Honduras using wood-burning traditional or Justa (an engineered combustion chamber) stoves.

Educational attainment of same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins: An individual-level pooled study of 19 twin cohorts.

Comparing twins from same- and opposite-sex pairs can provide information on potential sex differences in a variety of outcomes, including socioeconomic-related outcomes such as educational attainment. It has been suggested that this design can be applied to examine the putative role of intrauterine exposure to testosterone for educational attainment, but the evidence is still disputed. Thus, we established an international database of twin data from 11 countries with 88,290 individual dizygotic twins born over 100 years and tested for differences between twins from same- and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs in educational attainment.

Association Between COVID-19 Exposure and Self-reported Compliance With Public Health Guidelines Among Essential Employees at an Institution of Higher Education in the US.

Importance: Detailed analysis of infection rates paired with behavioral and employee-reported risk factors is vital to understanding how transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be exacerbated or mitigated in the workplace. Institutions of higher education are heterogeneous work units that supported continued in-person employment during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a test site for occupational health evaluation.

Objective: To evaluate the association between self-reported protective behaviors and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among essential in-person employees during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.

Autonomous motivation and action planning are longitudinally associated with physical activity during adolescence and early adulthood.

We examined the associations of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and physical activity (PA) planning with PA participation over six years across the adolescent-to-adult transition. Participants from the NEXT Generation Health Study, a nationally representative cohort study of U.S.

Depression and polypharmacy are risk factors for activity limitation in type 2 diabetes.

Objectives: Individuals with type 2 diabetes are at risk for deficits in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL: e.g., managing medication, preparing healthy meals).

Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Examine the Effects of Duty Status on Acute Stress and Tiredness in Firefighters: A Pilot Study.

Objective: Characterize firefighters' acute stress and tiredness by duty status (ie, "off night/day," "on night/day").

Methods: Thirty nine career firefighters completed three, eight-day smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment periods with seven surveys per day assessing stress and tiredness. Mixed-effects location scale models examined duty status effects on stress and tiredness.

Genetic and environmental variation in educational attainment: an individual-based analysis of 28 twin cohorts.

We investigated the heritability of educational attainment and how it differed between birth cohorts and cultural-geographic regions. A classical twin design was applied to pooled data from 28 cohorts representing 16 countries and including 193,518 twins with information on educational attainment at 25 years of age or older. Genetic factors explained the major part of individual differences in educational attainment (heritability: a = 0.

Genetic and environmental influences on human height from infancy through adulthood at different levels of parental education.

Genetic factors explain a major proportion of human height variation, but differences in mean stature have also been found between socio-economic categories suggesting a possible effect of environment. By utilizing a classical twin design which allows decomposing the variation of height into genetic and environmental components, we tested the hypothesis that environmental variation in height is greater in offspring of lower educated parents. Twin data from 29 cohorts including 65,978 complete twin pairs with information on height at ages 1 to 69 years and on parental education were pooled allowing the analyses at different ages and in three geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia).

Diet, Secondhand Smoke, and Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) Levels among Singapore Chinese Adults.

The combination of poor diet and exposure to secondhand smoke may increase hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, but few studies have explored this interaction. We explored an interaction among 574 never-smoking adults from the Singapore Chinese Health Study. At baseline (age 59 ± 8 years), intakes of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin C, vitamin E and fiber were estimated using a modified food frequency questionnaire.

C-reactive protein from dried blood spots: Application to household air pollution field studies.

Household air pollution (HAP) is estimated to be an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but little clinical evidence exists and collecting biomarkers of disease risk is difficult in low-resource settings. Among 54 Nicaraguan women with woodburning cookstoves, we evaluated cross-sectional associations between 48-hour measures of HAP (eg, fine particulate matter, PM ) and C-reactive protein (CRP) via dried blood spots; secondary analyses included seven additional biomarkers of systemic injury and inflammation. We conducted sub-studies to calculate the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) in biomarkers collected over four consecutive days in Nicaragua and to assess the validity of measuring biomarkers in dried blood by calculating the correlation with paired venous-drawn samples in Colorado.

Study protocol for a stepped-wedge randomized cookstove intervention in rural Honduras: household air pollution and cardiometabolic health.

Background: Growing evidence links household air pollution exposure from biomass-burning cookstoves to cardiometabolic disease risk. Few randomized controlled interventions of cookstoves (biomass or otherwise) have quantitatively characterized changes in exposure and indicators of cardiometabolic health, a growing and understudied burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Ideally, the solution is to transition households to clean cooking, such as with electric or liquefied petroleum gas stoves; however, those unable to afford or to access these options will continue to burn biomass for the foreseeable future.

Parental Education and Genetics of BMI from Infancy to Old Age: A Pooled Analysis of 29 Twin Cohorts.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze how parental education modifies the genetic and environmental variances of BMI from infancy to old age in three geographic-cultural regions.

Methods: A pooled sample of 29 cohorts including 143,499 twin individuals with information on parental education and BMI from age 1 to 79 years (299,201 BMI measures) was analyzed by genetic twin modeling.

Results: Until 4 years of age, parental education was not consistently associated with BMI.

Exposure to household air pollution from biomass cookstoves and self-reported symptoms among women in rural Honduras.

Household air pollution from combustion of solid fuels is an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality, causing an estimated 2.6 million premature deaths globally in 2016. Self-reported health symptoms are a meaningful measure of quality of life, however, few studies have evaluated symptoms and quantitative measures of exposure to household air pollution.

Household air pollution from biomass-burning cookstoves and metabolic syndrome, blood lipid concentrations, and waist circumference in Honduran women: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels affects nearly 3 billion people worldwide and is responsible for an estimated 2.5 million premature deaths and 77 million disability-adjusted life years annually. Investigating the effect of household air pollution on indicators of cardiometabolic disease, such as metabolic syndrome, can help clarify the pathways between this widespread exposure and cardiovascular diseases, which are increasing in low- and middle-income countries.

Exposure to Household Air Pollution from Biomass Cookstoves and Levels of Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) among Honduran Women.

Household air pollution is estimated to be responsible for nearly three million premature deaths annually. Measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) may improve the limited understanding of the association of household air pollution and airway inflammation. We evaluated the cross-sectional association of FeNO with exposure to household air pollution (24-h average kitchen and personal fine particulate matter and black carbon; stove type) among 139 women in rural Honduras using traditional stoves or cleaner-burning stoves.

Exposure to household air pollution from biomass cookstoves and blood pressure among women in rural Honduras: A cross-sectional study.

Growing evidence links household air pollution exposure from biomass cookstoves with elevated blood pressure. We assessed cross-sectional associations of 24-hour mean concentrations of personal and kitchen fine particulate matter (PM ), black carbon (BC), and stove type with blood pressure, adjusting for confounders, among 147 women using traditional or cleaner-burning Justa stoves in Honduras. We investigated effect modification by age and body mass index.

Association between birth weight and educational attainment: an individual-based pooled analysis of nine twin cohorts.

Background: There is evidence that birth weight is positively associated with education, but it remains unclear whether this association is explained by familial environmental factors, genetic factors or the intrauterine environment. We analysed the association between birth weight and educational years within twin pairs, which controls for genetic factors and the environment shared between co-twins.

Methods: The data were derived from nine twin cohorts in eight countries including 6116 complete twin pairs.

Genetic and environmental factors affecting birth size variation: a pooled individual-based analysis of secular trends and global geographical differences using 26 twin cohorts.

Background: The genetic architecture of birth size may differ geographically and over time. We examined differences in the genetic and environmental contributions to birthweight, length and ponderal index (PI) across geographical-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia) and across birth cohorts, and how gestational age modifies these effects.

Methods: Data from 26 twin cohorts in 16 countries including 57 613 monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs were pooled.

Birth size and gestational age in opposite-sex twins as compared to same-sex twins: An individual-based pooled analysis of 21 cohorts.

It is well established that boys are born heavier and longer than girls, but it remains unclear whether birth size in twins is affected by the sex of their co-twin. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 21 twin cohorts in 15 countries derived from the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins), including 67,850 dizygotic twin individuals. Linear regression analyses showed that boys having a co-twin sister were, on average, 31 g (95% CI 18 to 45) heavier and 0.

Associations between birth size and later height from infancy through adulthood: An individual based pooled analysis of 28 twin cohorts participating in the CODATwins project.

Background: There is evidence that birth size is positively associated with height in later life, but it remains unclear whether this is explained by genetic factors or the intrauterine environment.

Aim: To analyze the associations of birth weight, length and ponderal index with height from infancy through adulthood within mono- and dizygotic twin pairs, which provides insights into the role of genetic and environmental individual-specific factors.

Methods: This study is based on the data from 28 twin cohorts in 17 countries.