The Association of Fasting Glucose, Insulin, and C-Peptide, with 19-Year Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease in Older Japanese-American Men; the Honolulu Heart Program.

The role of fasting glucose, insulin levels, and C-peptide in coronary heart disease (CHD) in non-diabetic individuals remains uncertain. We examined the association between fasting glucose, insulin and C-peptide with the long-term incidence of CHD in Japanese-American men. In 1980-1982, from a random sample of the Honolulu Heart Program men ( = 1378), aged 61-81 years, data on several CHD and metabolic risk factors were obtained to examine the relation of fasting glucose, insulin and C-peptide to 19-year CHD incidence.

Biomarkers, menopausal hormone therapy and risk of venous thrombosis: The Women's Health Initiative.

Background: Oral menopausal hormone therapy causes venous thrombosis but whether biomarkers of thrombosis risk can identify women at risk is unknown.

Methods: We completed a nested case control study in the two Women's Health Initiative hormone trials; 27 347 women aged 50-79 were randomized to hormone therapy (conjugated equine estrogen with or without medroxyprogesterone acetate) or placebo. With 4 years follow-up, biomarkers were measured using stored baseline samples prior to starting treatment, and one-year later, in 215 women who developed thrombosis and 867 controls.

Effects of self-reported age at nonsurgical menopause on time to first fracture and bone mineral density in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

Objective: Menopause is a risk factor for fracture; thus, menopause age may affect bone mass and fracture rates. We compared bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture rates among healthy postmenopausal women with varying ages at self-reported nonsurgical menopause.

Methods: We compared hazard ratios for fractures and differences in BMD among 21,711 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study cohort who had no prior hysterectomy, oophorectomy, or hormone therapy and had varying self-reported ages at menopause (<40, 40-49, or ≥50 y).

Late-life factors associated with healthy aging in older men.

Objectives: To identify potentially modifiable late-life biological, lifestyle, and sociodemographic factors associated with overall and healthy survival to age 85.

Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study with 21 years of follow-up (1991-2012).

Setting: Hawaii Lifespan Study.

Correlation of a self-report and direct measure of physical activity level in the electron-beam tomography and risk assessment among Japanese and US Men in the post World War II birth cohort (ERA JUMP) study.

Background: Physical activity (PA) is complex and a difficult behavior to assess as there is no ideal assessment tool(s) that can capture all contexts of PA. Therefore, it is important to understand how different assessment tools rank individuals. We examined the extent to which self-report and direct assessment PA tools yielded the same ranking of PA levels.

Multiethnic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in >100 000 subjects identifies 23 fibrinogen-associated Loci but no strong evidence of a causal association between circulating fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease.

Background: Estimates of the heritability of plasma fibrinogen concentration, an established predictor of cardiovascular disease, range from 34% to 50%. Genetic variants so far identified by genome-wide association studies explain only a small proportion (<2%) of its variation.

Methods And Results: We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 genome-wide association studies including >90 000 subjects of European ancestry, the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of fibrinogen levels in 7 studies in blacks totaling 8289 samples, and a genome-wide association study in Hispanics totaling 1366 samples.

Prestroke factors associated with poststroke mortality and recovery in older women in the Women's Health Initiative.

Objectives: To examine prestroke lifestyle factors associated with poststroke mortality and recovery in older women.

Design: Longitudinal prospective cohort study.

Setting: The Women's Health Initiative (WHI, clinical trials and observational study), 40 clinical centers in the United States.

Ethnic difference in liver fat content: a cross-sectional observation among Japanese American in Hawaii, Japanese in Japan, and non-Hispanic whites in United States.

Background: We recently reported that Japanese had higher liver fat at a lower level of BMI compared with non-Hispanic whites (NHW).

Objective: We hypothesize that ethnic difference in fat storage capacity contributes to this ethnic difference in liver fat.

Design: To examine this, we assessed liver fat among 244 Japanese-American aged 40-49, using regional computed-tomography images, along with metabolic variables.

Factors relating to eating style, social desirability, body image and eating meals at home increase the precision of calibration equations correcting self-report measures of diet using recovery biomarkers: findings from the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: The extent to which psychosocial and diet behavior factors affect dietary self-report remains unclear. We examine the contribution of these factors to measurement error of self-report.

Methods: In 450 postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study doubly labeled water and urinary nitrogen were used as biomarkers of objective measures of total energy expenditure and protein.

Relationship of dietary monounsaturated fatty acids to blood pressure: the International Study of Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure.

Objective: In short-term feeding trials, replacement of other macronutrients with monounsaturated fatty acid reduces blood pressure. However, observational studies have not clearly demonstrated a relationship between monounsaturated fatty acid intake and blood pressure. We report associations of monounsaturated fatty acid intake of individuals with blood pressure in a cross-sectional study.

Geriatric syndromes and incident disability in older women: results from the women's health initiative observational study.

Objectives: To determine how the number of geriatric syndromes is associated with incident disability in community-based populations of older adults.

Design: Longitudinal analysis from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS).

Setting: Community.

Physical activity assessment: biomarkers and self-report of activity-related energy expenditure in the WHI.

We used a biomarker of activity-related energy expenditure (AREE) to assess measurement properties of self-reported physical activity and to determine the usefulness of AREE regression calibration equations in the Women's Health Initiative. Biomarker AREE, calculated as the total energy expenditure from doubly labeled water minus the resting energy expenditure from indirect calorimetry, was assessed in 450 Women's Health Initiative participants (2007-2009). Self-reported AREE was obtained from the Arizona Activity Frequency Questionnaire (AAFQ), the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall (PAR), and the Women's Health Initiative Personal Habits Questionnaire (PHQ).

Coronary heart disease events in the Women's Health Initiative hormone trials: effect modification by metabolic syndrome: a nested case-control study within the Women's Health Initiative randomized clinical trials.

Objective: Our objective was to determine whether metabolic syndrome (MetS) or its components modified the effect of hormone therapy (HT) on the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events in the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials.

Methods: We performed a nested case-control study of incident CHD events during the first 4 years of follow-up in the Women's Health Initiative HT trials (estrogen plus progestin therapy [EPT] and estrogen therapy [ET]). There were 359 incident cases of CHD during follow-up.

Calcium, magnesium and potassium intake and mortality in women with heart failure: the Women's Health Initiative.

Although diet is thought to affect the natural history of heart failure (HF), nutrient intake in HF patients has not been well studied. Based on prior research linking high intake of Ca, Mg and K to improved cardiovascular health, we hypothesised that these nutrients would be inversely associated with mortality in people with HF. Of the 161 808 participants in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), we studied 3340 who experienced a HF hospitalisation.

Risk factors for sudden cardiac death in post-menopausal women.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the annual incidence rate of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and to identify risk factors for SCD in post-menopausal women.

Background: With the aging U.S.

Effects of postmenopausal hormone therapy on incident atrial fibrillation: the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trials.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is less prevalent in women versus men, but associated with higher risks of stroke and death in women. The role hormone therapy plays in AF is not well understood.

Methods And Results: The Women's Health Initiative randomized postmenopausal women to placebo or conjugated equine estrogens (0.

Impact of ancestry and common genetic variants on QT interval in African Americans.

Background: Ethnic differences in cardiac arrhythmia incidence have been reported, with a particularly high incidence of sudden cardiac death and low incidence of atrial fibrillation in individuals of African ancestry. We tested the hypotheses that African ancestry and common genetic variants are associated with prolonged duration of cardiac repolarization, a central pathophysiological determinant of arrhythmia, as measured by the electrocardiographic QT interval.

Methods And Results: First, individual estimates of African and European ancestry were inferred from genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data in 7 population-based cohorts of African Americans (n=12,097) and regressed on measured QT interval from ECGs.

Adiponectin, systolic blood pressure, and alcohol consumption are associated with more aortic stiffness progression among apparently healthy men.

Objective: Limited data are available about risk factors for the progression of aortic stiffness in healthy population. We examined several risk factors as possible independent predictors of aortic stiffness progression among a population-based sample of US men.

Methods: A total of 240 men (40-49 years) free of CVD at baseline from the Pittsburgh site of the ERA JUMP study were evaluated.

Hormone therapy, estrogen metabolism, and risk of breast cancer in the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Therapy Trial.

Background: In the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Trials (WHI-HT), breast cancer risk was increased with estrogen plus progestin (E+P) but not with unopposed estrogen (E-alone). We hypothesized that E+P would preferentially metabolize to 16α-hydroxyestrone (16α-OHE1) rather than 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OHE1), and that breast cancer risk would be associated with baseline and 1 year changes in estrogen metabolites: positively for 16α-OHE1 levels and negatively for levels of 2-OHE-1 and the 2:16 ratio.

Methods: In a prospective case-control study nested in the WHI-HT, 845 confirmed breast cancer cases were matched to 1,690 controls by age and ethnicity.

Risk factors for fractures among Japanese-American men: The Honolulu Heart Program and Honolulu-Asia Aging Study.

Unlabelled: Baseline risk factors were associated with fractures that developed after 29-31 years among Japanese-American men. Hip fracture risk increased with increasing BMI (28% increase for 1 U increase), physical activity (7% increase for 1 U increase), and was decreased with increasing arm girth (27% decrease for 1 U increase).

Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify risk factors among Japanese-American men aged 45-68 years at baseline that were associated with prevalence and incidence of fractures at advanced age.

Use of the dietary supplement 5-aminiolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and its relationship with glucose levels and hemoglobin A1C among individuals with prediabetes.

Objective: This study examined the association between 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and glucose tolerance.

Design: A double blinded, randomized prospective parallel-group comparison study.

Setting: Participants were recruited from the community in Honolulu, Hawaii, using radio and TV ads, and at community events.

Influence of cigarette smoking on coronary artery and aortic calcium among random samples from populations of middle-aged Japanese and Korean men.

Background: Cigarette smoking is a risk factor of coronary heart disease. Vascular calcification such as coronary artery calcium (CAC) and aortic calcium (AC) is associated with coronary heart disease. The authors hypothesised that cigarette smoking is associated with coronary artery and aortic calcifications in Japanese and Koreans with high smoking prevalence.

A prospective study of leukocyte telomere length and risk of type 2 diabetes in postmenopausal women.

Telomere length (TL) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of age-related disorders. However, there are no prospective studies directly investigating the role of TL and relevant genes in diabetes development. In the multiethnic Women's Health Initiative, we identified 1,675 incident diabetes case participants in 6 years of follow-up and 2,382 control participants matched by age, ethnicity, clinical center, time of blood draw, and follow-up duration.

Racial and ethnic differences in incident hospitalized heart failure in postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: The differences in the incidence of heart failure by race/ethnicity and the potential mechanisms for these differences are largely unexplored in women.

Methods And Results: A total of 156 143 postmenopausal women free of self-reported heart failure enrolled from 1993 to 1998 at 40 clinical centers throughout the United States as part of the Women's Health Initiative and were followed up until 2005, for an average of 7.8 years, for incident hospitalized heart failure.

Serum levels of marine-derived n-3 fatty acids in Icelanders, Japanese, Koreans, and Americans--a descriptive epidemiologic study.

In the 1990s Iceland and Japan were known as countries with high fish consumption whereas coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in Iceland was high and that in Japan was low among developed countries. We described recent data fish consumption and CHD mortality from publicly available data. We also measured CHD risk factors and serum levels of marine-derived n-3 and other fatty acids from population-based samples of 1324 men in Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and the US.