Effect of conjugal bereavement on mortality of the bereaved spouse in participants of the Renfrew/Paisley Study.

Objectives: To investigate how loss of a spouse affects mortality risk in the bereaved partner.

Design And Setting: Prospective cohort study in Renfrew and Paisley in Scotland.

Participants: 4395 married couples aged 45-64 years when the study was carried out between 1972 and 1976.

A common variant in the FTO gene is associated with body mass index and predisposes to childhood and adult obesity.

Obesity is a serious international health problem that increases the risk of several common diseases. The genetic factors predisposing to obesity are poorly understood. A genome-wide search for type 2 diabetes-susceptibility genes identified a common variant in the FTO (fat mass and obesity associated) gene that predisposes to diabetes through an effect on body mass index (BMI).

Socioeconomic position, co-occurrence of behavior-related risk factors, and coronary heart disease: the Finnish Public Sector study.

Objectives: We examined the associations between socioeconomic position, co-occurrence of behavior-related risk factors, and the effect of these factors on the relative and absolute socioeconomic gradients in coronary heart disease.

Methods: We obtained the socioeconomic position of 9337 men and 39,255 women who were local government employees aged 17-65 years from employers' records (the Public Sector Study, Finland). A questionnaire survey in 2000-2002 was used to collect data about smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, obesity, and prevalence of coronary heart disease (myocardial infarction or angina diagnosed by a doctor).

Alcohol dehydrogenase type 1C (ADH1C) variants, alcohol consumption traits, HDL-cholesterol and risk of coronary heart disease in women and men: British Women's Heart and Health Study and Caerphilly cohorts.

The alcohol dehydrogenase 1C gene (ADH1C) gamma2gamma2 variant reportedly interacts with moderate alcohol consumption to increase HDL-cholesterol levels and reduce coronary heart disease (CHD). We undertook replication studies in two large population cohorts of women and men. 3234 women and 1313 men with relevant genotypic and phenotypic data from two prospective population cohorts were genotyped for ADH1C variants.

Growth trajectory matters: interpreting the associations among birth weight, concurrent body size, and systolic blood pressure in a cohort study of 378,707 Swedish men.

The interpretation of the inverse association of birth weight with adult blood pressure after adjustment for concurrent size has been debated. In a large sample (n = 378,707) of Swedish men aged 18 years, born between 1973 and 1984, the authors found considerable variation in birth weight within strata of identical adult body mass index (to the nearest kg/m(2); range: 17-33 kg/m(2)), weight (nearest kg; range: 52-100 kg), and height (nearest cm; range: 164-196 cm). The regression coefficient of systolic blood pressure on birth weight was inverse and the same within strata of identical body mass index (p(interaction) = 0.

Cognitive function in childhood and early adulthood and hospital admission for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders in Danish men born in 1953.

Objective: This study examines the influence of cognitive function and change in cognitive function during adolescence on schizophrenia and bipolar disorders in adulthood and explores possible mechanisms for any associations.

Method: A cohort of 6923 men born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1953, who had completed assessments of cognitive performance (measured by a total test score that combines verbal, arithmetic and spatial functions) at ages 12 and 18, were followed from 1972 until 2002. Psychiatric outcomes (hospital admissions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorders) were obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Register.

Physical activity and common mental disorder: results from the Caerphilly study.

The authors examined associations between leisure-time and occupational physical activity and common mental disorder (CMD), defined as anxiety and depression, using data from a cohort of middle-aged men in Caerphilly, South Wales, United Kingdom, who were followed for 5 years (1989-1993) and 10 years (1993-1997). CMD was measured using the General Health Questionnaire. Total leisure-time activity and percentage of time spent in heavy-intensity activity were estimated from self-reports (Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire).

Associations of gestational age and intrauterine growth with systolic blood pressure in a family-based study of 386,485 men in 331,089 families.

Background: We conducted a family-based study to explore mechanisms underlying the associations of birth weight and gestational age with systolic blood pressure measured at 17 to 19 years of age.

Methods And Results: A record linkage study of 386,485 singleton-born men from 331,089 families was undertaken. Birth weight was inversely associated with systolic blood pressure within siblings, with a mean difference (adjusted for age at examination, examination center, and year of examination) within siblings per 1-SD difference in birth weight of -0.

Associations between childhood intelligence and hospital admissions for unintentional injuries in adulthood: the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study.

Objectives: We examined associations between childhood intelligence and hospital admissions for injuries in adulthood.

Methods: Data were derived from a cohort study (=11103) involving individuals born in Aberdeen, Scotland, between 1950 and 1956.

Results: Overall, 1043 cohort members had at least 1 hospital admission resulting from an unintentional injury over 231152 person-years of risk.

Reverse causality and confounding and the associations of overweight and obesity with mortality.

Objective: To examine the effect of reverse causality and confounding on the association of BMI with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Research Methods And Procedures: Data from two large prospective studies were used. One (a community-based cohort) included 8327 women and 7017 men who resided in two Scottish towns at the time of the baseline assessment in 1972-1976; the other (an occupational cohort) included 4016 men working in the central belt of Scotland at the time of the baseline assessment in 1970-1973.

A common haplotype of the glucokinase gene alters fasting glucose and birth weight: association in six studies and population-genetics analyses.

Fasting glucose is associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease and is tightly regulated despite considerable variation in quantity, type, and timing of food intake. In pregnancy, maternal fasting glucose concentration is an important determinant of offspring birth weight. The key determinant of fasting glucose is the enzyme glucokinase (GCK).

The association of the paraoxonase (PON1) Q192R polymorphism with depression in older women: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study.

Background: The association between the R allele of PON1 Q192R and symptoms reported by sheep dippers and Gulf War veterans has been used to suggest a biological basis for these symptoms. In the absence of such studies in non-occupational populations, these conclusions may not be valid.

Objective: To examine the association of paraoxonase (PON1) Q192R with a report of ever being diagnosed with depression among a random sample of 3266 British women, aged 60-79 years.

Cognitive function in childhood and early adulthood and injuries later in life: the Metropolit 1953 male birth cohort.

Background: It has been suggested that cognitive function in childhood is a modifiable risk factor for adult injury. This study examines the relationship between cognitive function measured at the age of 12 and 18 years and fatal and non-fatal injuries later in adult life.

Methods: A total of 11 532 males born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1953 were followed from 1978 until 2001 with outcomes (death from and hospital admission for unintentional injury) obtained from national registers.

Epidemiologic evidence for the fetal overnutrition hypothesis: findings from the mater-university study of pregnancy and its outcomes.

The fetal overnutrition hypothesis proposes that greater maternal adiposity results in increased obesity throughout life in the offspring. The authors examined the associations between parental prepregnancy body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)(2)), based on height and weight reported by the mother at her first antenatal clinic visit, and offspring BMI (height and weight measured at age 14 years) in 3,340 parent-offspring trios from a birth cohort based in Brisbane, Australia (mothers were recruited in 1981-1984). The maternal-offspring BMI association was stronger than the paternal-offspring BMI association.

Socio-economic position and the use of preventive health care in older British women: a cross-sectional study using data from the British Women's Heart and Health Study cohort.

Background: Socio-economic inequalities in health may be due to differential uptake of preventive and therapeutic medical services.

Objectives: To examine socio-economic position and self-reported use of six preventive services in a cohort of older British women.

Methods: Women randomly selected from general practice age/sex registers in 23 towns were examined from 1998 to 2001.

Is there a fetal origin of depression? Evidence from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy and its outcomes.

It is unclear whether there is a fetal origin of adult depression. In particular, previous studies have been unable to adjust for the potential effect of maternal depression during pregnancy on any association. The association of birth weight with adult symptoms of depression was examined in an Australian prospective birth cohort, the Mater University Study of Pregnancy and its outcomes.

Cardiovascular risk and hormone replacement therapy.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to summarize the studies in humans of the relationship between hormone replacement therapy and coronary heart disease and stroke.

Recent Findings: Randomized controlled trial evidence of the effect of hormone replacement therapy on coronary heart disease, stroke and atherosclerosis comes from nine individual secondary prevention randomized controlled trials, four individual primary prevention randomized controlled trials and a pooled analysis of 22 randomized controlled trials that had primary aims to examine noncardiovascular outcomes but which reported cardiovascular events by randomized groups. With the exception of one small primary prevention randomized controlled trial that found a weak protective effect of hormone replacement therapy on the progression of carotid artery intima media thickness, all other randomized controlled trials have found hormone replacement therapy either increases the risk of cardiovascular disease or has no effect.

Prevalence and functionality of paucimorphic and private MC4R mutations in a large, unselected European British population, scanned by meltMADGE.

Identification of unknown mutations has remained laborious, expensive, and only viable for studies of selected cases. Population-based "reference ranges" of rarer sequence diversity are not available. However, the research and diagnostic interpretation of sequence variants depends on such information.

Association of childhood socioeconomic position with cause-specific mortality in a prospective record linkage study of 1,839,384 individuals.

Previous studies have lacked sufficient power to assess associations between early-life socioeconomic position and adult cause-specific mortality. The authors examined associations of parental social class at age 0-16 years with mortality among 1,824,064 Swedes born in 1944-1960. Females and males from manual compared with nonmanual childhood social classes were more likely to die from smoking-related cancers, stomach cancer, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Season of birth and childhood intelligence: findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study.

Background: In this study, 2 main hypotheses have been put forward to explain the variation in childhood intelligence or school performance by season of birth. In the first hypothesis, it is suggested that it is due to school policy concerning school entry, whereas the second suggests that a seasonally patterned exposure such as temperature, maternal nutrition, or infection during critical periods of brain development have a lasting effect on intelligence.

Aims: To determine whether childhood performance on tests of different domains of intelligence is patterned by season of birth and to examine possible mechanisms for any associations.