Background: Wrist-worn inertial sensors are used in digital health for evaluating mobility in real-world environments. Preceding the estimation of spatiotemporal gait parameters within long-term recordings, gait detection is an important step to identify regions of interest where gait occurs, which requires robust algorithms due to the complexity of arm movements. While algorithms exist for other sensor positions, a comparative validation of algorithms applied to the wrist position on real-world data sets across different disease populations is missing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The existence of catch-up lung function growth and its predictors is uncertain. We aimed to identify lung function trajectories and their predictors in a population-based birth cohort.
Methods: We applied group-based trajectory modelling to z-scores of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (zFEV) and z-scores of forced vital capacity (zFVC) from 1151 children assessed at around 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 18 years.
Background: We aimed to assess whether exposure to risk factors in early life from conception to puberty continue to contribute to lung function decline later in life by using a pooled cohort comprising approx. 11,000 adults followed for more than 20 years and with up to three lung function measurements.
Methods: Participants (20-68 years) in the ECRHS and NFBC1966 cohort studies followed in the periods 1991-2013 and 1997-2013, respectively, were included.
Background: Understanding the natural history of abnormal spirometric patterns at different stages of life is critical to identify and optimise preventive strategies. We aimed to describe characteristics and risk factors of restrictive and obstructive spirometric patterns occurring before 40 years (young onset) and between 40 and 61 years (mid-adult onset).
Methods: We used data from the population-based cohort of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS).
Background: Although digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) can be readily calculated from real-world data collected with wearable devices and ad-hoc algorithms, technical validation is still required. The aim of this paper is to comparatively assess and validate DMOs estimated using real-world gait data from six different cohorts, focusing on gait sequence detection, foot initial contact detection (ICD), cadence (CAD) and stride length (SL) estimates.
Methods: Twenty healthy older adults, 20 people with Parkinson's disease, 20 with multiple sclerosis, 19 with proximal femoral fracture, 17 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 12 with congestive heart failure were monitored for 2.
Accurately assessing people's gait, especially in real-world conditions and in case of impaired mobility, is still a challenge due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors resulting in gait complexity. To improve the estimation of gait-related digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) in real-world scenarios, this study presents a wearable multi-sensor system (INDIP), integrating complementary sensing approaches (two plantar pressure insoles, three inertial units and two distance sensors). The INDIP technical validity was assessed against stereophotogrammetry during a laboratory experimental protocol comprising structured tests (including continuous curvilinear and rectilinear walking and steps) and a simulation of daily-life activities (including intermittent gait and short walking bouts).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We previously reported an association of high fat mass levels from age 9 to 15 years with lower forced expiratory flow in 1 s (FEV )/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio (i.e., increased risk of airflow limitation) at 15 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Measuring mobility in daily life entails dealing with confounding factors arising from multiple sources, including pathological characteristics, patient specific walking strategies, environment/context, and purpose of the task. The primary aim of this study is to propose and validate a protocol for simulating real-world gait accounting for all these factors within a single set of observations, while ensuring minimisation of participant burden and safety.
Methods: The protocol included eight motor tasks at varying speed, incline/steps, surface, path shape, cognitive demand, and included postures that may abruptly alter the participants' strategy of walking.
The potential effect of gestational exposure to phthalates on the lung function levels during childhood is unclear. Therefore, we examined this association at different ages (from 4 to 11 years) and over the whole childhood. Specifically, we measured 9 phthalate metabolites (MEP, MiBP, MnBP, MCMHP, MBzP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MECPP, MEHP) in the urine of 641 gestating women from the INMA study (Spain) and the forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and FEV/FVC in their offspring at ages 4, 7, 9 and 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe identification of novel molecules associated with asthma may provide insights into the mechanisms of disease and their potential clinical implications. To conduct a screening of circulating proteins in childhood asthma and to study proteins that emerged from human studies in a mouse model of asthma. We included 2,264 children from eight birth cohorts from the Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy project and the Tucson Children's Respiratory Study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physical activity and exercise capacity are key prognostic factors in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but their environmental determinants are unknown.
Objectives: To test the association between urban environment and objective physical activity, physical activity experience and exercise capacity in COPD.
Methods: We studied 404 patients with mild-to-very severe COPD from a multi-city study in Catalonia, Spain.
Introduction: Obesity is a known risk factor for asthma. Although some evidence showed asthma causing obesity in children, the link between asthma and obesity has not been investigated in adults.
Methods: We used data from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), a cohort study in 11 European countries and Australia in 3 waves between 1990 and 2014, at intervals of approximately 10 years.
The effectiveness of noninvasive respiratory support in severe COVID-19 patients is still controversial. We aimed to compare the outcome of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and hypoxemic respiratory failure treated with high-flow oxygen administered via nasal cannula (HFNC), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or noninvasive ventilation (NIV), initiated outside the intensive care unit (ICU) in 10 university hospitals in Catalonia, Spain. We recruited 367 consecutive patients aged ≥ 18 years who were treated with HFNC (155, 42.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResidential greenness exposure has been reported to positively impact health mainly by reducing overweight/obesity risk, improving mental health and physical activity. Less is known on biological pathways involved in these health benefits. We aimed to investigate the association between multisite greenness exposure and oxidative stress in children and explore the potential mediating role of physical activity in this association.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Existing mobility endpoints based on functional performance, physical assessments and patient self-reporting are often affected by lack of sensitivity, limiting their utility in clinical practice. Wearable devices including inertial measurement units (IMUs) can overcome these limitations by quantifying digital mobility outcomes (DMOs) both during supervised structured assessments and in real-world conditions. The validity of IMU-based methods in the real-world, however, is still limited in patient populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFew longitudinal studies have assessed the relationship between occupational exposures and lung-function decline in the general population with a sufficiently long follow-up. To examine the potential association in two large cohorts: the ECRHS (European Community Respiratory Health Survey) and the SAPALDIA (Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults). General-population samples of individuals aged 18 to 62 were randomly selected in 1991-1993 and followed up approximately 10 and 20 years later.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConcerns exist that the positive association of physical activity with better lung function, which has been suggested in previous longitudinal studies in smokers, is due to reverse causation. To investigate this, we applied structural equation modeling (SEM), an exploratory approach, and marginal structural modeling (MSM), an approach from the causal inference framework that corrects for reverse causation and time-dependent confounding and estimates causal effects, on data from participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS, a multicentre European cohort study initiated in 1991-1993 with ECRHS I, and with two follow-ups: ECRHS II in 1999-2003, and ECRHS III in 2010-2014). 753 subjects who reported current smoking at ECRHS II, with repeated data on lung function at ECRHS I, II and III, physical activity at ECRHS II and III, and potential confounders at ECRHS I and II, were included in the analyses.
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