Publications by authors named "Diederick E Grobbee"
Background: Air pollution is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and contributes to health disparities, particularly among minority ethnic groups, who often face higher exposure levels. Knowledge on whether the effect of air pollution on cardiovascular diseases differs between ethnic groups is crucial for identifying mechanisms underlying health disparities, ultimately informing targeted public health strategies and interventions. We explored differences in associations between air pollution and ischemic stroke and ischemic heart disease (IHD) for the six largest ethnic groups in the Netherlands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study explored the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy on neonatal outcomes among women from the general Dutch population. VASCO is an ongoing prospective cohort study aimed at assessing vaccine effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination. Pregnancy status was reported at baseline and through regular follow-up questionnaires.
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- The study investigates the impact of pravastatin on cardiovascular risks in elderly patients (over 70) with varying body weights and liver fibrosis levels.
- It found that those with high liver fibrosis risk and obesity were significantly more likely to experience strokes when on placebo, but this risk was reduced when they took pravastatin.
- Additionally, pravastatin may lower all-cause mortality in lean individuals with high liver fibrosis risk, highlighting its potential protective benefits.
Green space visits among Turkish and South Asian Surinamese women with a high cardiometabolic risk living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Netherlands: motives, means and prerequisites.
Int J Equity Health
December 2024
Background: The use of urban green spaces differs by social characteristics, including gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic position. We examined motives, means and prerequisites to visit green space of marginalised populations with high cardiometabolic risk in the Netherlands, namely women with a Turkish or South Asian Surinamese background residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Methods: We conducted six focus group discussions in two Dutch cities.
Article Synopsis
- Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) are designed to improve trial participation by moving activities closer to participants, but understanding what motivates people to join these trials, especially those with type 2 diabetes, is still unclear.
- Focus groups in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria with participants aged around 66 identified seven key themes about trial participation, including location, time, interaction with healthcare professionals, and technology use, revealing a total of 20 different motivating factors.
- The most significant motivators for DCT participation were flexibility in location and time; however, factors like digital infrastructure and personal interaction were seen as both helpful and challenging, suggesting future DCT designs could benefit from addressing these barriers directly.
Federated learning as a smart tool for research on infectious diseases.
BMC Infect Dis
November 2024
Background: The use of real-world data has become increasingly popular, also in the field of infectious disease (ID), particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. While much useful data for research is being collected, these data are generally stored across different sources. Privacy concerns limit the possibility to store the data centrally, thereby also limiting the possibility of fully leveraging the potential power of combined data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Single-pill combinations (SPCs) of three low-dose antihypertensive drugs can improve hypertension control but are not widely available. A key issue for any combination product is the contribution of each component to efficacy and tolerability. This trial compared a new triple SPC called GMRx2, containing telmisartan, amlodipine, and indapamide, with dual combinations of components for efficacy and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: VAccine Study COVID-19 (VASCO) is a cohort study with a 5-year follow-up that was initiated when COVID-19 vaccination was introduced in the Netherlands. The primary objective is to estimate real-world vaccine effectiveness (VE) of COVID-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Netherlands, overall and in four subpopulations defined by age and medical risk.
Participants: The cohort consists of 45 547 community-dwelling participants aged 18-85 years who were included irrespective of their COVID-19 vaccination status or intention to get vaccinated.
Article Synopsis
- Many heart failure (HF) patients do not receive optimal doses of RAAS inhibitors due to worries about hyperkalemia (HK).
- The CARE-HK registry enrolled 2558 adults with chronic HF, primarily those with reduced ejection fraction, to evaluate RAASi treatment patterns and HK management across clinical practices in Europe and the USA.
- The study aims to better understand how RAAS inhibitors are used in patients at high risk for HK and to analyze their treatment outcomes in routine medical settings.
Article Synopsis
- The ADVANCE trial examined the impact of intensive blood pressure lowering with perindopril-indapamide in patients with type 2 diabetes, revealing significant advantages in reducing cardiovascular and mortality risks.
- Secondary analyses identified important risk markers in diabetes, such as the effects of stopping BP therapy and specific cardiac biomarkers.
- The study also highlighted practical challenges in hypertension management, including limitations of traditional office BP readings and insights on the tolerability of combination therapy.
Background: While communicable diseases have long been the primary focus of healthcare in Africa, the rising impact of paediatric and congenital heart disease (CHD) cannot be overlooked. This research aimed to estimate the frequency and pattern of heart diseases in children who underwent their first echocardiography at a national cardiac referral hospital in Tanzania.
Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted on children aged 0 to 18 years referred for first-time cardiological evaluation from January 2017 to December 2022.
Article Synopsis
- A long-term study evaluated the outcomes of different heart procedures: on-pump CABG, off-pump CABG, and PCI over a 20-year period, using data from trials conducted between 1998 and 2000.
- Findings showed no significant differences in overall mortality rates between on-pump and off-pump CABG or PCI and off-pump CABG.
- However, off-pump CABG patients had fewer re-intervention procedures compared to those who underwent PCI.
Article Synopsis
- Rapid vaccine development was essential for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, and understanding vaccine-related physiological responses is key for fostering trust in medical practices.
- This study focused on analyzing changes in breathing rate, heart rate, skin temperature, and menstrual cycle phases in over 17,000 participants in the Netherlands before and after COVID-19 vaccination.
- Results showed short-term increases in breathing and heart rates after vaccination but no long-term effects, indicating that vaccines do not lead to chronic physiological issues.
Article Synopsis
- Clinical guidelines recommend lifestyle and medication changes for managing cardiovascular risks in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients, yet these remain difficult to achieve, especially for those with lower education levels.
- The SURF CHD II study, which surveyed 13,884 patients across 29 countries, aimed to identify how education level impacts the secondary prevention of CHD concerning risk factor management and treatment.
- Results showed that patients with secondary or tertiary education generally performed better in meeting health targets and using medications compared to those with only primary education, indicating a link between education and effective management of CHD.
Article Synopsis
- The RATE-AF trial investigated the impact of two heart medications, digoxin and beta-blockers, on heart rate in older patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure, using consumer-grade wearable technology.
- Over 20 weeks, heart rate data from 53 participants showed no significant difference between the two treatment groups, regardless of physical activity levels.
- The study suggests that wearables could effectively monitor patients' heart health remotely, providing comparable predictive insights to traditional clinical assessments.
Article Synopsis
- The research evaluates the shift from traditional clinical trial design for heart failure (HF) to a data-driven approach, utilizing natural language processing to analyze trial eligibility criteria.
- Phase III trials for HF were examined to identify common inclusion and exclusion criteria, finding that only about 20% of registry patients were eligible for these trials.
- Over time, the trials have become more restrictive, with a significant decline in patient eligibility from 40% in earlier years to 19% in recent years, highlighting the need for a better design framework for future trials.
Article Synopsis
- - The study looked at how air pollution and green space affect cardiometabolic risk in Dutch children aged 5 to 17, using data from three large cohorts totaling 13,822 participants.
- - Researchers used statistical models to analyze the impact of air pollutants like nitrogen oxides (NO) and elemental carbon (EC) on cardiometabolic health, finding that higher levels of these pollutants were linked to increased health risks in one of the cohorts.
- - The study also explored the relationship between green space density and health, discovering that more green space in wider areas (2000 meters) was associated with lower health risk scores in two of the cohorts, while no significant relationship was found in smaller areas (500 meters).
Article Synopsis
- Hypertension is identified as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) globally, especially impacting mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria.
- This study calculated the contribution of hypertension to various CVD types in Nigeria, showing it is responsible for 13.2% of myocardial infarctions and 24.6% of strokes, with variations across different age and gender groups.
- The findings emphasize the need for targeted public health strategies and policies focused on hypertension management to help reduce the overall burden of CVD in Nigeria.
Article Synopsis
- Green space exposure is linked to lower blood pressure (BP) and reduced risk of hypertension, but concrete reasons for this effect are unclear.
- A study of 719 adults in Guangzhou, China, found that greater distance from green spaces correlated with higher systolic BP, with significant differences based on how far individuals lived from parks.
- The relationship between green space distance and BP was partially explained by mental health, while factors like air pollution, physical activity, and weight did not significantly mediate this connection.
Article Synopsis
- The study analyzed the link between neighborhood characteristics that promote obesity and various heart disease risk factors in over 183,000 adults from five Dutch cohort studies.
- Specifically, researchers calculated the OBCT index, assessing how urban environments impact body weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
- Results indicated that a higher OBCT score was tied to increases in BMI, higher cholesterol levels, and greater rates of overweight/obesity and hypertension.
Article Synopsis
- Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can cause weight gain, especially with a specific medication called dolutegravir.
- In a study from rural South Africa, researchers looked at weight changes in people with HIV who were on ART compared to those who were not and those without HIV.
- The results showed that everyone gained weight over three years, but people living with HIV on ART gained less weight than those without HIV. This is concerning because gaining too much weight can lead to health problems.
Article Synopsis
- A study conducted in Jakarta examined the impact of traffic-related air pollution on infant infections during their first six months of life, involving 298 mother-infant pairs from March 2016 to September 2020.
- The results indicated that higher levels of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NO) were associated with an increased risk of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), particularly noting a significant relationship with soot exposure between 4-6 months of age.
- While URTIs were common (35.6%), lower respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal infections were less frequent, suggesting a need for further exploration of air pollution's total impact on infant health.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers employed three regression techniques to assess the relationship between malaria incidence and ecological variables, finding that malaria distribution is not random but spatially clustered.
- * Key factors such as temperature, precipitation, and proximity to water bodies were linked to higher malaria rates, allowing for the identification of five transmission hotspots, which can inform targeted malaria control strategies in Togo.
Article Synopsis
- A study investigated sex differences in statin prescriptions and treatment success among patients with and without cardiovascular diseases (CVD) using health records from the PHARMO Data Network.
- It was found that women were less likely than men to receive high-intensity statin prescriptions, with risk ratios indicating a significant disparity both for those without CVD (RR 0.69) and those with CVD (RR 0.77).
- Additionally, women struggled more than men to reach low-density lipoprotein cholesterol targets after starting statins, with achieved targets showing a consistent pattern regardless of CVD history.