National population-based estimates for major birth defects, 2016-2020.

Background: We provide updated crude and adjusted prevalence estimates of major birth defects in the United States for the period 2016-2020.

Methods: Data were collected from 13 US population-based surveillance programs that used active or a combination of active and passive case ascertainment methods to collect all birth outcomes. These data were used to calculate pooled prevalence estimates and national prevalence estimates adjusted for maternal race/ethnicity for all conditions, and maternal age for trisomies and gastroschisis.

Relationships between chronotype, social jetlag, sleep, obesity and blood pressure in healthy young adults.

Sleep disturbances, chronotype and social jetlag (SJL) have been associated with increased risks for major chronic diseases that take decades to develop, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Potential relationships between poor sleep, chronotype and SJL as they relate to metabolic risk factors for chronic disease have not been extensively investigated. This prospective study examined chronotype, SJL and poor sleep in relation to both obesity and elevated blood pressure among healthy young adults.

Diet-related inflammation and risk of prostate cancer in the California Men's Health Study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between proinflammatory diet and prostate cancer risk.

Methods: Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII) scores were computed among 40,161 participants in the California Men's Health Study. Over 9.

Persistence of social jetlag and sleep disruption in healthy young adults.

Sleep disruption has been associated with increased risks for several major chronic diseases that develop over decades. Differences in sleep/wake timing between work and free days can result in the development of social jetlag (SJL), a chronic misalignment between a person's preferred sleep/wake schedule and sleep/wake timing imposed by his/her work schedule. Only a few studies have examined the persistence of SJL or sleep disruption over time.

Anti-inflammatory Dietary Inflammatory Index scores are associated with healthier scores on other dietary indices.

Dietary components are important determinants of systemic inflammation, a risk factor for most chronic diseases. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) was developed to assess dietary inflammatory potential. It was hypothesized that anti-inflammatory DII scores would be associated with "healthier" scores on other dietary indices.

Dietary supplementation with radionuclide free food improves children's health following community exposure to (137)Cesium: a prospective study.

Background: Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, vast areas of Ukraine became contaminated with radionuclides. We examined health effects of school-based food intervention for children in a rural region Narodichi, Ukraine, exposed to low-level radiation through diet of locally produced foods. Until 1995, children received three daily meals with low content of artificial radionuclides which were subsequently reduced to two.

Reduced lung function in children associated with cesium 137 body burden.

Rationale: We previously reported that obstructive and restrictive lung function findings were associated with radioactive Cesium 137 ((137)Cs) soil contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in a pediatric cohort residing in the Narodichesky district of Ukraine from 1993 to 1998.

Objectives: To determine whether these associations persist, we repeated the study and refined the exposure by measuring individual radiation concentration with a whole-body counter.

Methods: Basic and post-bronchodilator spirometry measurements were made for 517 children aged 8 to 17 years born in and living within this differentially contaminated study area during 2008 to 2010.

Effects of long-term low-level radiation exposure after the Chernobyl catastrophe on immunoglobulins in children residing in contaminated areas: prospective and cross-sectional studies.

Background: After the Chernobyl nuclear incident in 1986, children in the Narodichesky region, located 80 km west of the Chernobyl Power Plant, were exposed to 137Cesium (137Cs). Little is known about the effects of chronic low-level radiation on humoral immune responses in children residing in contaminated areas.

Methods: In four different approaches we investigated the effect of residential 137Cs exposure on immunoglobulins A, G, M, and specific immunoglobulin E in children.

Individual whole-body concentration of ¹³⁷Cesium is associated with decreased blood counts in children in the Chernobyl-contaminated areas, Ukraine, 2008-2010.

The Narodichesky region, Zhitomir Oblast, Ukraine, is situated ∼80 km from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which exploded in 1986 and polluted the environment. A previous study found that children living in villages with high activity of (137)Cesium (Cs) in the soil had decreased levels of hemoglobin, erythrocytes and thrombocytes. These findings motivated the present study that used a more comprehensive exposure assessment, including individual whole-body concentrations (WBC) of (137)Cs (Bq/kg).

Maternal obesity, folate intake, and neural tube defects in offspring.

Background: We investigated the association between maternal obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30) and the risk of a neural tube defect affected pregnancy (NTD). We also studied relationships between perinatal folate intake from food and the NTD risk by maternal BMI.

Methods: Data came from a state-wide case-control study conducted between 1992 and 1997 in South Carolina including 179 women with NTD-affected pregnancies and 288 women without NTD-affected births.