Air pollution is associated with increased risk of venous thromboembolism: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Air pollution exposure may induce procoagulant effects, and chronic exposure may be linked to greater risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We tested the hypothesis that air pollution is associated with increased VTE risk in the prospective Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), which has well-characterized air pollution measures and information on potential confounding factors. We included 6,651 participants recruited in 2000-2002 (baseline age range: 45-84 yrs; 53% female).

Associations between Ambient Air Pollutants and Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential.

Background: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is an age-related somatic mutation associated with incident hematologic cancer. Environmental stressors which, like air pollution, generate oxidative stress at the cellular level, may induce somatic mutations and some mutations may provide a selection advantage for persistence and expansion of specific clones.

Methods: We used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) N = 4,379 and the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) N = 7,701 to estimate cross-sectional associations between annual average air pollution concentrations at participant address the year before blood draw using validated spatiotemporal models.

Charting the life course: Emerging opportunities to advance scientific approaches using life course research.

Life course research embraces the complexity of health and disease development, tackling the extensive interactions between genetics and environment. This interdisciplinary blueprint, or theoretical framework, offers a structure for research ideas and specifies relationships between related factors. Traditionally, methodological approaches attempt to reduce the complexity of these dynamic interactions and decompose health into component parts, ignoring the complex reciprocal interaction of factors that shape health over time.

Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Mortality among Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer Patients.

Background: Air pollution is a carcinogen and causes pulmonary and cardiac complications. We examined the association of fine particulate matter pollution (PM) and mortality from cancer and all causes among pediatric, adolescent, and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer in Utah, a state with considerable variation in PM.

Methods: We followed 2,444 pediatric (diagnosed ages 0-14) and 13,459 AYA (diagnosed ages 15-39) patients diagnosed in 1986-2015 from diagnosis to 5 and 10 years postdiagnosis, death, or emigration.

Spatial clusters of cancer incidence: analyzing 1940 census data linked to 1966-2017 cancer records.

Purpose: A life course perspective to cancer incidence is important for understanding effects of the environment during early life on later cancer risk. We assessed spatial clusters of cancer incidence based on early life location defined as 1940 US Census Enumeration District (ED).

Methods: A cohort of 260,585 individuals aged 0-40 years in 1940 was selected.

Family Study Designs Informed by Tumor Heterogeneity and Multi-Cancer Pleiotropies: The Power of the Utah Population Database.

Background: Previously, family-based designs and high-risk pedigrees have illustrated value for the discovery of high- and intermediate-risk germline breast cancer susceptibility genes. However, genetic heterogeneity is a major obstacle hindering progress. New strategies and analytic approaches will be necessary to make further advances.

Harnessing Population Pedigree Data and Machine Learning Methods to Identify Patterns of Familial Bladder Cancer Risk.

Background: Relatives of patients with bladder cancer have been shown to be at increased risk for kidney, lung, thyroid, and cervical cancer after correcting for smoking-related behaviors that may concentrate in some families. We demonstrate a novel approach to simultaneously assess risks for multiple cancers to identify distinct multicancer configurations (multiple different cancer types that cluster in relatives) surrounding patients with familial bladder cancer.

Methods: This study takes advantage of a unique population-level data resource, the Utah Population Database (UPDB), containing vast genealogy and statewide cancer data.

Combining Drive Time and Urologist Density to Understand Access to Urologic Care.

Objective: To improve our understanding of timely access to urologic care, we leveraged driving time combined with a measure of urologist density.

Materials And Methods: We identified all urologists who billed Medicare using National Provider Identifier in 2015 and geocoded their practice location. We developed drive-time based service areas for each provider using Esri's street network dataset stratified into 30, 60, 90, and 120-minute areas.

Evaluation of the Sex-and-Age-Specific Effects of PM on Hospital Readmission in the Presence of the Competing Risk of Mortality in the Medicare Population of Utah 1999-2009.

Acute ambient air pollution exposure increases risk of cardiac events. We evaluated sex-and-age-specific effects of PM on hospital readmission and death among 19,602 Medicare beneficiaries ( = 30,510) who survived cardiovascular events including myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure (HF), ischemic heart disease (IHD), and cardiac arrhythmias in Utah from 1999-2009. Fine and Gray regression jointly modeled the effect of PM on readmission hazard rates while allowing for the competing risk of death.

The Relative Importance of Race Compared to Health Care and Social Factors in Predicting Prostate Cancer Mortality: A Random Forest Approach.

Purpose: There is a differential in prostate cancer mortality between black and white men. Advances in precision medicine have shifted the research focus toward underlying genetic differences. However, nonbiological factors may have a large role in these observed disparities.

Fine Particulate Matter and Respiratory Healthcare Encounters among Survivors of Childhood Cancers.

Some chemotherapies that treat childhood cancers have pulmonary-toxic properties that increase risk for adverse respiratory-health outcomes. PM causes similar outcomes but its effect among pulmonary compromised cancer survivors is unknown. This case-crossover study identified the PM-associated odds for primary-respiratory hospitalizations and emergency department visits among childhood cancer survivors in Utah.

Acute effects of air pollutants on spontaneous pregnancy loss: a case-crossover study.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between acute exposure to air pollutants and spontaneous pregnancy loss.

Design: Case-crossover study from 2007 to 2015.

Setting: An academic emergency department in the Wasatch Front area of Utah.

Familial Cancer Clustering in Urothelial Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.

Background: Family history of bladder cancer confers an increased risk for concordant and discordant cancers in relatives. However, previous studies investigating this relationship lack any correction for smoking status of family members. We conducted a population-based study of cancer risks in relatives of bladder cancer patients and matched controls with exclusion of variant subtypes to improve the understanding of familial cancer clustering.