Publications by authors named "Eiriksdottir G"

Background: It is unknown whether dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) modifies the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with a family history of CVD. We assessed interactions between biomarkers of low PUFA intake and a family history in relation to long-term CVD risk in a large consortium.

Methods: Blood and tissue PUFA data from 40 885 CVD-free adults were assessed.

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The apolipoprotein E allele 4 (APOE-ε4) is established as a major genetic risk factor for cognitive decline and late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Accumulating evidence has linked ε4 carriership to abnormal structural brain changes across the adult lifespan. To better understand the underlying causal mechanisms, we investigated the extent to which the effect of the ε4 allele on cognition is mediated by structural brain imaging markers in the population-based Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study (AGES-Reykjavik).

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Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis.

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Background: Participation in leisure activities and extensive social network have been associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment (CI) and dementia.

Aims: We examined whether leisure activities (cognitive solitary, cognitive group, social, physical, or creative activities) and social involvement are associated with less incidence of CI or dementia.

Methods: Analyses were performed from data of 2933 cognitively intact individuals at baseline included in the AGES-REYKJAVIK study.

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Fragility fractures are an important hallmark of aging and an increasingly recognized complication of Type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D individuals have been found to exhibit an increased fracture risk despite elevated bone mineral density (BMD) by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However, BMD and FRAX-scores tend to underestimate fracture risk in T2D.

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Background: The circadian hormone melatonin has anticancer properties, and prior studies suggest a positive association between low melatonin and prostate cancer risk. The purpose of this study was to examine urinary melatonin levels and prostate cancer in a racially/ethnically diverse cohort.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study, including 1,263 prostate cancer cases and 2,346 controls, sampled from participants in the Multiethnic Cohort Study with prediagnostic urine samples assayed for 6-sulfatoxymelatonin, the primary melatonin metabolite.

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Background: n-3 and n-6 PUFAs have physiologic roles in sleep processes, but little is known regarding circulating n-3 and n-6 PUFA and sleep parameters.

Objectives: We sought to assess associations between biomarkers of n-3 and n-6 PUFA intake with self-reported sleep duration and difficulty falling sleeping in the Fatty Acids and Outcome Research Consortium.

Methods: Harmonized, de novo, individual-level analyses were performed and pooled across 12 cohorts.

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Article Synopsis
  • Measures of information processing speed vary among individuals and decline with age, with studies indicating that genetic factors account for up to 67% of the variation in older adults.
  • Researchers used the Illumina HumanExome Bead Chip to analyze genetic variants' impact on the Digit-Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) scores in over 30,000 participants aged 45 and older, adjusting for age, gender, and education.
  • Significant findings included variants in the RNF19A gene among Europeans and suggestive associations for genes such as SLC22A7 and OR51A7 among African-Americans, highlighting the need for further research on the role of these genes in cognitive function.
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  • Scientists studied people's genetics to learn about traits related to blood sugar, which helps diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes.
  • Most of the earlier studies only looked at people with European backgrounds, but this research included many more individuals from different backgrounds, finding 242 important genetic spots linked to blood sugar levels.
  • By studying a diverse group of people, they discovered new insights about how diabetes works in the body, helping to uncover different biological processes for each glycemic trait.
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The health effects of omega-3 fatty acids have been controversial. Here we report the results of a de novo pooled analysis conducted with data from 17 prospective cohort studies examining the associations between blood omega-3 fatty acid levels and risk for all-cause mortality. Over a median of 16 years of follow-up, 15,720 deaths occurred among 42,466 individuals.

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Long and short sleep duration are associated with elevated blood pressure (BP), possibly through effects on molecular pathways that influence neuroendocrine and vascular systems. To gain new insights into the genetic basis of sleep-related BP variation, we performed genome-wide gene by short or long sleep duration interaction analyses on four BP traits (systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure) across five ancestry groups in two stages using 2 degree of freedom (df) joint test followed by 1df test of interaction effects. Primary multi-ancestry analysis in 62,969 individuals in stage 1 identified three novel gene by sleep interactions that were replicated in an additional 59,296 individuals in stage 2 (stage 1 + 2 P < 5 × 10), including rs7955964 (FIGNL2/ANKRD33) that increases BP among long sleepers, and rs73493041 (SNORA26/C9orf170) and rs10406644 (KCTD15/LSM14A) that increase BP among short sleepers (P < 5 × 10).

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Background: Threshold serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations for extraskeletal outcomes are uncertain and could differ from recommendations (20-30 ng/mL) for skeletal health.

Objectives: We aimed to identify and validate sex-specific threshold 25(OH)D concentrations for older adults' physical function.

Methods: Using 5 large prospective, population-based studies-Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik (n = 4858, Iceland); Health, Aging, and Body Composition (n = 2494, United States); Invecchiare in Chianti (n = 873, Italy); Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (n = 2301, United States); and Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (n = 5862, United States)-we assessed 16,388 community-dwelling adults (10,376 women, 6012 men) aged ≥65 y.

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Objective: This study aimed to examine whether an accelerated decline in quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA), attenuation (a surrogate of quality), and strength, as well as lower limb muscular function, are associated with hip fractures in older adults with impaired kidney function.

Design: Prospective population-based study.

Setting: Community-dwelling old population in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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Objective: This study aimed to investigate how skeletal muscle attenuation and adipose tissue (AT) attenuation of the quadriceps, hamstrings, paraspinal muscle groups and the psoas muscle vary according to the targeted muscles, sex, and age.

Design: Population-based cross-sectional study.

Setting: Community-dwelling old population in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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Context: Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations increase during the perimenopausal transition and remain high after menopause. Loss of bone mineral density (BMD) and gain of bone marrow adiposity (BMA) and body fat mass also occur during this time. In mice, blocking the action of FSH increases bone mass and decreases fat mass.

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White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are the most common brain-imaging feature of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), hypertension being the main known risk factor. Here, we identify 27 genome-wide loci for WMH-volume in a cohort of 50,970 older individuals, accounting for modification/confounding by hypertension. Aggregated WMH risk variants were associated with altered white matter integrity (p = 2.

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Context: Glycogen storage diseases are rare. Increased glycogen in the liver results in increased attenuation.

Objective: Investigate the association and function of a noncoding region associated with liver attenuation but not histologic nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

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Genetic studies of blood pressure (BP) to date have mainly analyzed common variants (minor allele frequency > 0.05). In a meta-analysis of up to ~1.

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Article Synopsis
  • Educational attainment serves as a proxy for socioeconomic status (SES), which is linked to increased risks of hypertension and high blood pressure (BP).
  • The study focused on exploring genetic factors influencing BP by examining how education levels (specifically "Some College" and "Graduated College") interact with genetics, using large-scale multi-ancestry analyses to identify both known and new genetic loci associated with BP.
  • From two phases of research involving over 400,000 participants, the study discovered 84 previously recognized and 18 new genetic loci related to BP, particularly noting the importance of SES and educational attainment in understanding genetic influences on BP regulation.
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Background: Obesity has been longitudinally associated with depression but only few studies take a life course approach. This longitudinal study investigates whether being overweight or obese at age 8 and 13 years is associated with depressive symptoms more than 60 years later and whether this association is independent of late-life body mass index (BMI). We also investigated the association of being overweight/obese at age 8 or 13 years with ever having major depressive disorder (lifetime MDD).

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  • The study examined whether body size at birth, such as weight and length, is linked to the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in older adults aged 67-89 years.
  • It involved 1497 participants and included data from birth records and retinal health assessments taken five years apart, using regression analyses to account for various confounding factors.
  • Findings showed no consistent relationship between birth size and AMD, although a higher prevalence was noted in individuals who were larger at birth and obese in old age, indicating some unidentified factors may be influencing these trends.
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Article Synopsis
  • Short and long sleep durations are linked to negative lipid profiles through different biological processes, which can affect levels of HDL, LDL, and triglycerides.* -
  • A study with 126,926 participants from diverse ancestries identified 49 new gene variants related to lipid levels influenced by sleep duration, as well as 10 additional variants specifically in European ancestry cohorts.* -
  • The research highlights important gene-sleep interactions that could explain variations in triglyceride levels, enhancing our knowledge of how sleep affects lipid metabolism.*
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Previous research has shown that genes play a substantial role in determining a person's susceptibility to age-related hearing impairment. The existing studies on this subject have different results, which may be caused by difficulties in determining the phenotype or the limited number of participants involved. Here, we have gathered the largest sample to date (discovery n = 9,675; replication n = 10,963; validation n = 356,141), and examined phenotypes that represented low/mid and high frequency hearing loss on the pure tone audiogram.

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