Physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and childhood asthma: a European collaborative analysis.

Objectives: To investigate the associations of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour in early childhood with asthma and reduced lung function in later childhood within a large collaborative study.

Design: Pooling of longitudinal data from collaborating birth cohorts using meta-analysis of separate cohort-specific estimates and analysis of individual participant data of all cohorts combined.

Setting: Children aged 0-18 years from 26 European birth cohorts.

Accelerometry-assessed sleep clusters and cardiometabolic risk factors in adolescents.

Objective: This study aimed to identify sleep clusters based on objective multidimensional sleep characteristics and test their associations with adolescent cardiometabolic health.

Methods: The authors included 1090 participants aged 14.3 to 16.

The Influence of Short-Term Weather Parameters and Air Pollution on Adolescent Airway Inflammation.

Fraction of exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) is a marker of airway inflammation. We examined the main effects and interactions of relative humidity (RH) and air pollution on adolescents' FeNO. Two thousand and forty-two participants from the 15-year follow-up of the German GINIplus and LISA birth cohorts were included.

Undiagnosed Pediatric Elevated Blood Pressure Is Characterized by Induction of Proinflammatory and Cytotoxic Mediators.

Background: Inflammatory processes have been suggested as a culprit of vascular damage in pediatric hypertension. We aimed to investigate transcriptional changes of immune modulators and determine their association with office blood pressure in adolescents who were not diagnosed with hypertension at the time of the study visit.

Methods: Office blood pressure measurements and blood samples were taken from adolescents of 2 German birth cohorts, GINIplus (The German Infant Study on the Influence of Nutrition Intervention Plus Air Pollution and Genetics on Allergy Development; discovery cohort, n=1219) and LISA (Influences of Lifestyle-related factors on the Immune System and the Development of Allergies in Childhood; validation cohort, n=809), during the 15-year follow-up visit and categorized based on the European Society of Hypertension Guideline.

Full Breastfeeding and Allergic Diseases-Long-Term Protection or Rebound Effects?

A previous follow-up of the GINIplus study showed that breastfeeding could protect against early eczema. However, effects diminished in adolescence, possibly indicating a "rebound effect" in breastfed children after initial protection. We evaluated the role of early eczema until three years of age on allergies until young adulthood and assessed whether early eczema modifies the association between breastfeeding and allergies.

Global hypomethylation in childhood asthma identified by genome-wide DNA-methylation sequencing preferentially affects enhancer regions.

Background: Childhood asthma is a result of a complex interaction of genetic and environmental components causing epigenetic and immune dysregulation, airway inflammation and impaired lung function. Although different microarray based EWAS studies have been conducted, the impact of epigenetic regulation in asthma development is still widely unknown. We have therefore applied unbiased whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) to characterize global DNA-methylation profiles of asthmatic children compared to healthy controls.

Dietary digestible carbohydrates are associated with higher prevalence of asthma in humans and with aggravated lung allergic inflammation in mice.

Background: Dietary carbohydrates and fats are intrinsically correlated within the habitual diet. We aimed to disentangle the associations of starch and sucrose from those of fat, in relation to allergic sensitization, asthma and rhinoconjuctivitis prevalence in humans, and to investigate underlying mechanisms using murine models.

Methods: Epidemiological data from participants of two German birth cohorts (age 15) were used in logistic regression analyses testing cross-sectional associations of starch and sucrose (and their main dietary sources) with aeroallergen sensitization, asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis, adjusting for correlated fats (saturated, monounsaturated, omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated) and other covariates.

Allergic disease trajectories up to adolescence: Characteristics, early-life, and genetic determinants.

Background: Allergic diseases often develop jointly during early childhood but differ in timing of onset, remission, and progression. Their disease course over time is often difficult to predict and determinants are not well understood.

Objectives: We aimed to identify trajectories of allergic diseases up to adolescence and to investigate their association with early-life and genetic determinants and clinical characteristics.

Ambient ozone exposure and bone turnover markers in children: Results from the GINIplus and LISA birth cohorts.

Background: Multiple environmental factors can regulate bone metabolism, and it is hypothesized that air pollution may be deleteriously involved in this regulation. However, only a few studies considered bone turnover markers (BTMs) - sensitive and specific markers of bone metabolism - as outcomes, and no study investigated the exposure to ambient ozone. Here, we intended to explore the associations between long-term exposure to ambient ozone and concentrations of two BTMs, osteocalcin and β-isomer of C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTx), amongst 10-year-old children.

Early-life respiratory tract infections and the risk of school-age lower lung function and asthma: a meta-analysis of 150 000 European children.

Background: Early-life respiratory tract infections might affect chronic obstructive respiratory diseases, but conclusive studies from general populations are lacking. Our objective was to examine if children with early-life respiratory tract infections had increased risks of lower lung function and asthma at school age.

Methods: We used individual participant data of 150 090 children primarily from the EU Child Cohort Network to examine the associations of upper and lower respiratory tract infections from age 6 months to 5 years with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV/FVC, forced expiratory flow at 75% of FVC (FEF) and asthma at a median (range) age of 7 (4-15) years.

Psychopathological symptoms as precursors of depressive symptoms in adolescence: a prospective analysis of the GINIplus and LISA birth cohort studies.

Introduction: Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in adolescence, highlighting the need for early identification of precursors. Research into psychopathological symptoms predicting depressive psychopathology in adolescents is therefore of great relevance. Moreover, given that the prevalence of depressive symptomatology in adolescence shows marked differences between girls and boys, insight into potential sex-specific differences in precursors is important.

Obesogenic eating behaviour and dietary intake in German children and adolescents: results from the GINIplus and LISA birth cohort studies.

Background/objectives: The transition to adolescence is characterised by considerable behavioural changes, including diet. This study describes the level of obesogenic eating behaviours in 10- and 15-year-olds, and their association with dietary intake.

Subjects/methods: Participants of the 10- and 15-year follow-ups of the German GINIplus and LISA birth cohort studies were included (N = 2257; N = 1880).

Assessment of the Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) as a diagnostic tool for cow's milk protein allergy: a prospective, multicentre study in China (MOSAIC study).

Objectives: The MOSAIC study aimed to evaluate if the Cow's Milk-related Symptom Score (CoMiSS) can be used as a stand-alone diagnostic tool for cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA).

Design: Single-blinded, prospective, multicentre diagnostic accuracy study.

Setting: 10 paediatric centres in China.

Residential green space and age at menarche in German and Australian adolescent girls: A longitudinal study.

Background: A large multicentre European study reported later onset of menopause among women residing in greener areas. This influence on the timing of a reproductive event like menopause, raises the question whether similar associations can be observed with timing of menarche. We investigated whether exposure to residential green space was related to the age at menarche in German and Australian adolescent girls.

Dietary Macronutrient Composition in Relation to Circulating HDL and Non-HDL Cholesterol: A Federated Individual-Level Analysis of Cross-Sectional Data from Adolescents and Adults in 8 European Studies.

Background: Associations between increased dietary fat and decreased carbohydrate intake with circulating HDL and non-HDL cholesterol have not been conclusively determined.

Objective: We assessed these relations in 8 European observational human studies participating in the European Nutritional Phenotype Assessment and Data Sharing Initiative (ENPADASI) using harmonized data.

Methods: Dietary macronutrient intake was recorded using study-specific dietary assessment tools.

Outdoor air pollution and hormone-assessed pubertal development in children: Results from the GINIplus and LISA birth cohorts.

Background: Air pollution is hypothesized to affect pubertal development. However, the few studies on this topic yielded overall mixed results. These studies did not consider important pollutants like ozone, and none of them involved pubertal development assessed by estradiol and testosterone measurements.

Long-term Air Pollution Exposure Under European Union Limits and Adolescents' Lung Function: Modifying Effect of Abnormal Weight in the GINIplus and LISA Birth Cohorts.

Background: Abnormal weights, eg, obesity, has shown a strong modifying effect on the association between air pollution exposure and lung function impairment in adults.

Research Question: How might weight status modify the effects of long-term air pollution exposure on adolescents' lung function, particularly in areas with pollution levels much lower than the current European Union (EU) air quality standards?

Study Design And Methods: In this observational study, we investigated 2,224 adolescents from the German Infant Study on the Influence of Nutrition Intervention Plus Environmental and Genetic Influences on Allergy Development and the Influence of Life Style Factors on the Development of the Immune System and Allergies in East and West Germany birth cohorts. Lung function was measured at age 15 years.

Association of early life and acute pollen exposure with lung function and exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). A prospective study up to adolescence in the GINIplus and LISA cohort.

Background: Pollen exposure has both acute and chronic detrimental effects on allergic asthma, but little is known about its wider effects on respiratory health. This is increasingly important knowledge as ambient pollen levels are changing with the changing global climate.

Objective: To assess associations of pollen exposure with lung function and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) at age 15 in two prospective German birth cohorts, GINIplus and LISA.

Air pollution during infancy and lung function development into adolescence: The GINIplus/LISA birth cohorts study.

Background: Limited evidence exists on how air pollution exposure during infancy, i.e. the first year of life, may affect lung function development into adolescence.

Air pollution and IgE sensitization in 4 European birth cohorts-the MeDALL project.

Background: Whether long-term exposure air to pollution has effects on allergic sensitization is controversial.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate associations of air pollution exposure at birth and at the time of later biosampling with IgE sensitization against common food and inhalant allergens, or specific allergen molecules, in children aged up to 16 years.

Methods: A total of 6163 children from 4 European birth cohorts participating in the Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy [MeDALL] consortium were included in this meta-analysis of the following studies: Children, Allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, Epidemiology (BAMSE) (Sweden), Influences of Lifestyle-Related Factors on the Human Immune System and Development of Allergies in Childhood (LISA)/German Infant Study on the Influence of Nutrition Intervention PLUS Environmental and Genetic Influences on Allergy Development (GINIplus) (Germany), and Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) (The Netherlands).

Impact of Residential Green Space on Sleep Quality and Sufficiency in Children and Adolescents Residing in Australia and Germany.

Increasing evidence suggests adults living in greener areas tend to have more favourable sleep-related outcomes, but children and adolescents are under-researched. We hypothesised that children and adolescents living in greener areas would have better quality and more sufficient levels of sleep on average, especially within the context of high traffic noise exposure. These hypotheses were tested using multilevel logistic regressions fitted on samples from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (10-11 years old, = 3469, and 14-15 years old, = 2814) and the GINIplus and LISA cohorts (10 years old, = 1461, and 15 years old, = 4172) from the Munich, Wesel, and Leipzig areas of Germany.