Publications by authors named "Ben Lacey"

UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective study with extensive genetic and phenotypic data from half a million adults. Participants, aged 40 to 69, were recruited from the general UK population between 2006 and 2010. During recruitment, participants completed questionnaires covering lifestyle and medical history, underwent physical measurements, and provided biological samples for long-term storage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We aimed to estimate regional inequalities in excess deaths and premature mortality in Spain during 2020 and 2021, before high vaccination coverage against COVID-19.

Method: With data from the National Institute of Statistics, within each region, sex, and age group, we estimated the excess deaths, the change in life expectancy at birth (e) and age 65 (e) and years of life lost as the difference between the observed and expected deaths using a time series analysis of 2015-2019 data and life expectancies based on Lee-Carter forecasting using 2010-2019 data.

Results: From January 2020 to June 2021, an estimated 89,200 (men: 48,000; women: 41,200) excess deaths occurred in Spain with a substantial regional variability (highest in Madrid: 22,000, lowest in Canary Islands: -210).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) serves as common modalities for body composition assessment. This study was aimed to evaluate the agreement between BIA and DXA measures in UK Biobank.

Methods: UK Biobank participants with body fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) estimates obtained through BIA (Tanita BC418MA) and DXA concurrently were included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aims: The independent role of body fat distribution and fat-free mass in heart failure (HF) risk is unclear. We investigated the role of different body composition compartments in risk of HF.

Methods: Present analyses include 428 087 participants (mean age 55.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The independent effect of waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and body fat percentage (BF%) on ischemic cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains uncertain.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the independent associations of WHtR and BF% with ischemic CVD.

Methods: This prospective cohort study used data from the UK Biobank.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

UK Biobank is an intensively characterised prospective cohort of 500,000 adults aged 40-69 years when recruited between 2006 and 2010. The study was established to enable researchers worldwide to undertake health-related research in the public interest. The existence of such a large, detailed prospective cohort with a high degree of participant engagement enabled its rapid repurposing for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) research.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Population-based prospective studies, such as UK Biobank, are valuable for generating and testing hypotheses about the potential causes of human disease. We describe how UK Biobank's study design, data access policies, and approaches to statistical analysis can help to minimize error and improve the interpretability of research findings, with implications for other population-based prospective studies being established worldwide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Despite a growing body of scholarly research on the risks of severe COVID-19 associated with diabetes, hypertension and obesity, there is a need for estimating pooled risk estimates with adjustment for confounding effects. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the pooled adjusted risk ratios of diabetes, hypertension and obesity on COVID-19 mortality.

Methods: We searched 16 literature databases for original studies published between 1 December 2019 and 31 December 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) impact the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), revealing opposing effects from these body fat distribution measurements.
  • Analyzing data from nearly half a million adults in the UK Biobank, researchers found that both WC and body mass index (BMI) showed a positive correlation with CHD risk, while HC showed an inverse association when accounting for WC and BMI.
  • These findings suggest that different forms of body fat distribution have distinct effects on CHD risk, likely working through both shared and unique physiological mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Little is known about the persistence of antibodies after the first year following SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to determine the proportion of individuals that maintain detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies over an 18-month period following infection.

Methods: Population-based prospective study of 20 000 UK Biobank participants and their adult relatives recruited in May 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background Associations of coronary heart disease (CHD) with plasma lipids are well described, but the associations with characteristics of lipoproteins (which transport lipids) remain unclear. Methods and Results UK Biobank is a prospective study of 0.5 million adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)2) is commonly used to measure general adiposity. However, evidence of its appropriateness for males and females remains inconsistent. We aimed to identify the most appropriate sex-specific power value that height should be raised to in the formula and the value that would make it achieve height independency and body fatness dependency.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Significance Statement: Kidney stone disease is a common disorder with poorly understood pathophysiology. Observational and genetic studies indicate that adiposity is associated with an increased risk of kidney stone disease. However, the relative contribution of general and central adipose depots and the mechanisms by which effects of adiposity on kidney stone disease are mediated have not been defined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Metabolic profiling (the extensive measurement of circulating metabolites across multiple biological pathways) is increasingly employed in clinical care. However, there is little evidence on the benefit of metabolic profiling as compared with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk scores.

Methods: UK Biobank is a prospective study of 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The social determinants of ethnic disparities in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK remain unclear.

Methods: In May 2020, a total of 20 195 adults were recruited from the general population into the UK Biobank SARS-CoV-2 Serology Study. Between mid-May and mid-November 2020, participants provided monthly blood samples.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the effects of cooked and raw vegetable intake on cardiovascular diseases using Mendelian randomization, a method that helps infer causality.
  • The research involved analyzing genetic variants linked to vegetable consumption and found no significant associations with conditions like coronary heart disease, heart failure, or atrial fibrillation.
  • Although raw vegetable intake showed a nominal association with stroke, it wasn’t statistically significant after adjustment, indicating no strong evidence supporting the benefit of vegetable intake on cardiovascular outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Large routinely collected data such as electronic health records (EHRs) are increasingly used in research, but the statistical methods and processes used to check such data for temporal data quality issues have not moved beyond manual, ad hoc production and visual inspection of graphs. With the prospect of EHR data being used for disease surveillance via automated pipelines and public-facing dashboards, automation of data quality checks will become increasingly valuable.

Findings: We generated 5,526 time series from 8 different EHR datasets and engaged >2,000 citizen-science volunteers to label the locations of all suspicious-looking change points in the resulting graphs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The role of fatty acids in coronary heart disease (CHD) remains uncertain. There is little evidence from large-scale epidemiological studies on the relevance of circulating fatty acids levels to CHD risk. This study aims to examine the independent associations of the major circulating types of fatty acids with CHD risk.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background The aim of this systematic review was to quantify the associations between body composition measures and risk of incident heart failure (HF) and its subtypes in the general population. Methods and Results We searched Medline, Embase, and Global Health databases from each database inception to January 19, 2023 for prospective studies reporting on body composition and HF risk. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To estimate the risk of Long COVID by socioeconomic deprivation and to further examine the inequality by sex and occupation.

Design: We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study using data from the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey between 26 April 2020 and 31 January 2022. This is the largest nationally representative survey of COVID-19 in the UK with longitudinal data on occupation, COVID-19 exposure and Long COVID.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To investigate whether people with coeliac disease are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke.

Design: Prospective analysis of a large cohort study.

Setting: UK Biobank database.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Uncertainty persists regarding the independent association of general and central adiposity with major stroke types.

Objective: To determine the independent associations of general and central adiposity with risk of ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Between 2006 and 2010, adults without prior stroke at recruitment in England, Scotland, and Wales were recruited into the UK Biobank prospective cohort study and were followed up through linkage with electronic medical records.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session91k31sv8tdfa60a2a8sr8babdmq6kddt): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once