A study on the association of placental and maternal urinary phthalate metabolites.

Background: Phthalate exposure in pregnancy is typically estimated using maternal urinary phthalate metabolite levels. Our aim was to evaluate the association of urinary and placental tissue phthalates, and to explore the role of maternal and pregnancy characteristics that may bias estimates.

Methods: Fifty pregnancies were selected from the CANDLE Study, recruited from 2006 to 2011 in Tennessee.

Maternal early exposure to violence, psychopathology, and child adaptive functioning: pre- and postnatal programming.

Background: The pre- and postnatal programming mechanisms, timing, and direction of effects linking maternal early exposure to violence (MEEV), psychopathology, and child adaptive functioning are understudied. Thus, the following hypotheses were tested: (H1) higher pre- and postnatal maternal psychopathology will predict lower adaptive functioning, (H2) lower adaptive functioning will predict higher subsequent maternal psychopathology, (H3) cumulative effects of MEEV on maternal psychopathology and adaptive functioning will be observed, and (H4) higher MEEV will predict lower adaptive functioning via maternal psychopathology both pre- and postnatally.

Methods: Prospective pregnancy cohort study including 1503 mother-child dyads with associations between MEEV, psychopathology, and child adaptive functioning examined using cross-lagged panel analysis.

Prenatal urinary metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and toddler cognition, language, and behavior.

Background: Animal and epidemiological studies suggest that prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) may negatively impact toddler neurodevelopment.

Methods: We investigated this association in 835 mother-child pairs from CANDLE, a diverse pregnancy cohort in the mid-South region of the U.S.

A path model examination: maternal anxiety and parenting mediate the association between maternal adverse childhood experiences and children's internalizing behaviors.

Background: Children of mothers with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at increased risk for developmental problems. However, the mechanisms through which a mother's experience of ACEs are transmitted to her offspring are understudied. The current study investigates potential modifiable mediators (maternal psychopathology and parenting) of the association between maternal ACEs and children's behavioral problems.

The Primary Results of the Treating Adult Smokers at Risk for Weight Gain with Interactive Technology (TARGIT) Study.

Objective: To evaluate whether a behavioral weight management program combined with a smoking cessation program delivered via interactive technology could prevent postcessation weight gain.

Methods: Three hundred and thirty young adult smokers, age 18 to 35 years, were randomized to a smoking cessation program alone (comparison group), which included behavioral counseling and nicotine replacement, or to a behavioral weight management program adapted from the Look AHEAD trial plus the same smoking cessation program (intervention group).

Results: The Treating Adult Smokers at Risk for Weight Gain with Interactive Technology study randomized 164 participants to the comparison group and 166 participants to the intervention group.

The Recruitment Experience of a Randomized Clinical Trial to Aid Young Adult Smokers to Stop Smoking without Weight Gain with Interactive Technology.

Multiple recruitment strategies are often needed to recruit an adequate number of participants, especially hard to reach groups. Technology-based recruitment methods hold promise as a more robust form of reaching and enrolling historically hard to reach young adults. The TARGIT study is a randomized two-arm clinical trial in young adults using interactive technology testing an efficacious proactive telephone Quitline versus the Quitline plus a behavioral weight management intervention focusing on smoking cessation and weight change.

Longitudinal change in energy expenditure and effects on energy requirements of the elderly.

Background: Very little is known about the longitudinal changes in energy requirements in late life. The purposes of this study were to: (1) determine the energy requirements in late life and how they changed during a 7 year time-span, (2) determine whether changes in fat free mass (FFM) were related to changes in resting metabolic rate (RMR), and (3) determine the accuracy of predicted total energy expenditure (TEE) to measured TEE.

Methods: TEE was assessed via doubly labeled water (DLW) technique in older adults in both 1999 (n = 302; age: 74 ± 2.

Genome-wide association for abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose reveals a novel locus for visceral fat in women.

Body fat distribution, particularly centralized obesity, is associated with metabolic risk above and beyond total adiposity. We performed genome-wide association of abdominal adipose depots quantified using computed tomography (CT) to uncover novel loci for body fat distribution among participants of European ancestry. Subcutaneous and visceral fat were quantified in 5,560 women and 4,997 men from 4 population-based studies.

Fatty acid consumption and risk of fracture in the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: Fatty acids (FAs) may be important dietary components that modulate osteoporotic fracture risk.

Objective: The objective was to examine FA intake in relation to osteoporotic fractures.

Design: The participants were postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative (n = 137,486).

Familial resemblance and diversity in bone mass and strength in the population are established during the first year of postnatal life.

Familial resemblance and diversity in bone structure and strength in adulthood are determined in part during growth. Whether these characteristics are established during gestation or shortly after birth is not known. Total-body, lumbar spine, and femoral neck size and mass and indices of tibial bending strength and distal radial compressive strength were measured using bone densitometry and quantitative computed tomography in 236 girls at 18.

Relations of dietary magnesium intake to biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in an ethnically diverse cohort of postmenopausal women.

Objective: Although magnesium may favorably affect metabolic outcomes, few studies have investigated the role of magnesium intake in systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in humans.

Research Design And Methods: Among 3,713 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 years in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes at baseline, we measured plasma concentrations of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), turnor necrosis factor-alpha receptor 2 (TNF-alpha-R2), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), and E-selectin. Magnesium intake was assessed using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire.

Adipocytokines and incident diabetes mellitus in older adults: the independent effect of plasminogen activator inhibitor 1.

Background: Adipose tissue produces "adipocytokines" of uncertain clinical significance.

Methods: We analyzed the relationships among adiposity, adipocytokines, glycemia, and incident diabetes mellitus in 2356 white and black adults aged 70 to 79 years in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study who did not have diabetes at baseline. We measured the levels of adipocytokines adiponectin, leptin, interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1.

Adipocytokines attenuate the association between visceral adiposity and diabetes in older adults.

Objective: To examine whether adiponectin is independently associated with diabetes and whether adiponectin and other adipocytokines account for the relationship between fat and diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: A nested case-control study from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. We measured four adipocytokines: adiponectin, interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1).