Prediction of Cardiovascular Disease Risk by Cardiac Biomarkers in 2 United Kingdom Cohort Studies: Does Utility Depend on Risk Thresholds For Treatment?

We tested the predictive ability of cardiac biomarkers N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity troponin T, and midregional pro adrenomedullin for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events using the British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) of men aged 60 to 79 years, and the MIDSPAN Family Study (MFS) of men and women aged 30 to 59 years. They included 3757 and 2226 participants, respectively, and during median 13.0 and 17.

Association of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity With Mortality.

Importance: The prevalence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity is increasing.

Objective: To estimate reductions in life expectancy associated with cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Age- and sex-adjusted mortality rates and hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using individual participant data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (689,300 participants; 91 cohorts; years of baseline surveys: 1960-2007; latest mortality follow-up: April 2013; 128,843 deaths).

Comparing the impact of personal and parental risk factors, and parental lifespan on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease: findings from the Midspan Family cohort study.

Background: We aimed to identify which personal and parental factors best explained all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods: In 1996, data were collected on 2338 adult offspring of the participants in the 1972-1976 Renfrew and Paisley prospective cohort study. Recorded risk factors were assigned to 5 groups: mid-life biological and behavioural (BB), mid-life socioeconomic, parental BB, early-life socioeconomic and parental lifespan.

Hospital expenditure at the end-of-life: what are the impacts of health status and health risks?

Background: It is important for health policy and expenditure projections to understand the relationship between age, death and expenditure on health care (HC). Research has shown that older age groups incur lower hospital costs than previously anticipated and that remaining time to death (TTD) was a much stronger indicator for expenditure than age. How health behaviour or risk factors impact on HC utilisation and costs at the end of life is relatively unknown.

Occupational class differences in later life hospital use by women who survived to age 80: the Renfrew and Paisley prospective cohort study.

Background: population ageing challenges the sustainability of healthcare provision.

Objective: to investigate occupational class differences in hospital use in women aged 80+ years.

Methods: a total of 8,353 female residents, aged 45-64, took part in the Renfrew and Paisley prospective cohort study in 1972-76.

How can socioeconomic inequalities in hospital admissions be explained? A cohort study.

Objectives: To investigate which antecedent risk factors can explain the social patterning in hospital use.

Design: Prospective cohort study with up to 37 years of follow-up.

Setting: Representative community sample in the West of Scotland.

Does smoking reduction in midlife reduce mortality risk? Results of 2 long-term prospective cohort studies of men and women in Scotland.

A long-term cohort study of working men in Israel found that smokers who reduced their cigarette consumption had lower subsequent mortality rates than those who did not. We conducted comparable analyses in 2 populations of smokers in Scotland. The Collaborative Study included 1,524 men and women aged 40-65 years in a working population who were screened twice, in 1970-1973 and 1977.

Association between long-term exposure to air pollution and specific causes of mortality in Scotland.

Objective: This study investigated the association between long-term exposure to black smoke (BS) air pollution and mortality in two related Scottish cohorts with 25 years of follow-up.

Methods: Risk factors were collected during 1970-1976 for 15331 and 6680 participants in the Renfrew/Paisley and Collaborative cohorts respectively. Exposure to BS during 1970-1979 was estimated by inverse-distance weighted averages of observed concentrations at monitoring sites and by two alternative spatial modelling approaches which included local air quality predictors (LAQP).

Parental height in relation to offspring coronary heart disease: examining transgenerational influences on health using the west of Scotland Midspan Family Study.

Background: Adult height is known to be inversely related to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. We sought to investigate transgenerational influence of parental height on offspring's CHD risk.

Methods: Parents took part in a cardiorespiratory disease survey in two Scottish towns during the 1970s, in which their physical stature was measured.

Circulating 25OHD, dietary vitamin D, PTH, and calcium associations with incident cardiovascular disease and mortality: the MIDSPAN Family Study.

Context: Observational studies relating circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and dietary vitamin D intake to cardiovascular disease (CVD) have reported conflicting results.

Objective: Our objective was to investigate the association of 25OHD, dietary vitamin D, PTH, and adjusted calcium with CVD and mortality in a Scottish cohort.

Design And Setting: The MIDSPAN Family Study is a prospective study of 1040 men and 1298 women from the West of Scotland recruited in 1996 and followed up for a median 14.

Why do males in Scotland die younger than those in England? Evidence from three prospective cohort studies.

Background: To examine explanations for the higher rates of male mortality in two Scottish cohorts compared with a cohort in south-east England for which similar data were collected.

Methodology/principal Findings: We compared three cohort studies which recruited participants in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A total of 13,884 men aged 45-64 years at recruitment in the Whitehall occupational cohort (south-east England), 3,956 men in the Collaborative occupational cohort and 6,813 men in the Renfrew & Paisley population-based study (both central Scotland) were included in analyses of all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Tea consumption and the risk of overall and grade specific prostate cancer: a large prospective cohort study of Scottish men.

Tea may be a potentially modifiable and highly prevalent risk factor for the most common cancer in men, prostate cancer. However, associations between black tea consumption and prostate cancer in epidemiological studies have been inconsistent, limited to a small number of studies with small numbers of cases and short follow-up periods and without grade-specific information. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 6,016 men who were enrolled in the Collaborative Cohort Study between 1970 and 1973 and followed up to December 31, 2007.

Coffee consumption and prostate cancer risk: further evidence for inverse relationship.

Background: Higher consumption of coffee intake has recently been linked with reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer (PC) incidence, although meta-analysis of other studies that examine the association between coffee consumption and overall PC risk remains inconclusive. Only one recent study investigated the association between coffee intake and grade-specific incidence of PC, further evidence is required to understand the aetiology of aggressive PCs. Therefore, we conducted a prospective study to examine the relationship between coffee intake and overall as well as grade-specific PC risk.

A comparison of short-term and long-term air pollution exposure associations with mortality in two cohorts in Scotland.

Background: Air pollution-mortality risk estimates are generally larger at longer-term, compared with short-term, exposure time scales.

Objective: We compared associations between short-term exposure to black smoke (BS) and mortality with long-term exposure-mortality associations in cohort participants and with short-term exposure-mortality associations in the general population from which the cohorts were selected.

Methods: We assessed short-to-medium-term exposure-mortality associations in the Renfrew-Paisley and Collaborative cohorts (using nested case-control data sets), and compared them with long-term exposure-mortality associations (using a multilevel spatiotemporal exposure model and survival analyses) and short-to-medium-term exposure-mortality associations in the general population (using time-series analyses).

Cholesterol and the risk of grade-specific prostate cancer incidence: evidence from two large prospective cohort studies with up to 37 years' follow up.

Background: High cholesterol may be a modifiable risk factor for prostate cancer but results have been inconsistent and subject to potential "reverse causality" where undetected disease modifies cholesterol prior to diagnosis.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 12,926 men who were enrolled in the Midspan studies between 1970 and 1976 and followed up to 31st December 2007. We used Cox-Proportional Hazards Models to evaluate the association between baseline plasma cholesterol and Gleason grade-specific prostate cancer incidence.

Intergenerational change and familial aggregation of body mass index.

The relationship between parental BMI and that of their adult offspring, when increased adiposity can become a clinical issue, is unknown. We investigated the intergenerational change in body mass index (BMI) distribution, and examined the sex-specific relationship between parental and adult offspring BMI. Intergenerational change in the distribution of adjusted BMI in 1,443 complete families (both parents and at least one offspring) with 2,286 offspring (1,263 daughters and 1,023 sons) from the west of Scotland, UK, was investigated using quantile regression.

Spoilt for choice: implications of using alternative methods of costing hospital episode statistics.

In the absence of a 'gold standard' to estimate the economic burden of disease, a decision about the most appropriate costing method is required. Researchers have employed various methods to cost hospital stays, including per diem or diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based costs. Alternative methods differ in data collection and costing methodology.

Cause specific mortality, social position, and obesity among women who had never smoked: 28 year cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the relations between causes of death, social position, and obesity in women who had never smoked.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Renfrew and Paisley, Scotland.

The combined effect of smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol on cause-specific mortality: a 30 year cohort study.

Background: Smoking and consuming alcohol are both related to increased mortality risk. Their combined effects on cause-specific mortality were investigated in a prospective cohort study.

Methods: Participants were 5771 men aged 35-64, recruited during 1970-73 from various workplaces in Scotland.

Effect of body mass index and alcohol consumption on liver disease: analysis of data from two prospective cohort studies.

Objective: To investigate whether alcohol consumption and raised body mass index (BMI) act together to increase risk of liver disease.

Design: Analysis of data from prospective cohort studies.

Setting: Scotland.

What is the predictive value of established risk factors for total and cardiovascular disease mortality when measured before middle age? Pooled analyses of two prospective cohort studies from Scotland.

Aims: To examine the association of physiological, behavioural and social characteristics in pre-middle age with future total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

Methods And Results: Risk factor data on 1503 individuals aged 16-35 years at baseline were collected in two prospective cohort studies using standard protocols. Their association with total and CVD mortality ascertained during 40 years of follow-up was summarized using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Alcohol consumption and mortality and hospital admissions in men from the Midspan collaborative cohort study.

Aims: To investigate the relationships between alcohol consumption and mortality and morbidity risk by specific causes.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Twenty-seven work-places in West and Central Scotland.

Effect of tobacco smoking on survival of men and women by social position: a 28 year cohort study.

Objective: To assess the impact of tobacco smoking on the survival of men and women in different social positions.

Design: A cohort observational study.

Setting: Renfrew and Paisley, two towns in west central Scotland.

Alcohol consumption behaviours and social mobility in men and women of the Midspan Family study.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between alcohol consumption and social mobility in a cohort study in Scotland.

Methods: 1040 sons and 1298 daughters aged 30-59 from 1477 families reported their alcohol consumption from which was derived: weekly units (1 UK unit being 8 g ethanol), exceeding daily or weekly limits, binge drinking and consuming alcohol on 5+ days per week. Own and father's social class were available enabling social mobility to be investigated.

The scope for biased recall of risk-factor exposure in case-control studies: evidence from a cohort study of Scottish men.

Aims: Case-control studies are prone to recall bias, a participant's case-control status influencing their recall of exposure to risk factors. We aimed to demonstrate empirically the scope for this bias.

Methods: Two thousand five hundred and fifty men without coronary heart disease at enrollment to a prospective cohort study underwent two health assessments, about 5 years apart.