Alcohol Consumption, Risk of Periodontitis and Change of Periodontal Parameters in a Population-Based Cohort Study.

Aim: To investigate the association of alcohol consumption with periodontitis risk and change in periodontal parameters over time.

Methods: Using data from 1285 participants of two population cohort studies embedded in the Study of Health in Pomerania, we associated baseline average alcohol consumption with incident periodontitis measured after a median follow-up time of 5.0 years, adjusting for confounding and selection bias using multivariable regression and multiple imputation.

The age of onset and duration of childhood abuse: An extension of the childhood trauma screener.

Background: Childhood abuse is a significant risk factor for worse adult mental and physical health. Although reported as important moderators, only a few studies have analyzed the effects of the age of onset and duration of abuse, particularly including potential sex differences.

Objective: To investigate the impact of timing and severity of childhood abuse on adult mental and physical health issues, with an emphasis on sex differences.

The Metabolic Signature of Cardiorespiratory Fitness.

High cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with better overall health. This study aimed to find a metabolic signature associated with CRF to identify health-promoting effects. CRF based on cardiopulmonary exercise testing, targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches based on mass spectrometry, and clinical data from two independent cohorts of the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) were used.

Determinants of ascending aortic morphology: Cross-sectional deep learning-based analysis on 25,073 non-contrast-enhanced NAKO MRI studies.

Aims: Understanding determinants of thoracic aortic morphology is crucial for precise diagnostics and therapeutic approaches. This study aimed to automatically characterize ascending aortic morphology based on 3D non-contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (NC-MRA) data from the epidemiological cross-sectional German National Cohort (NAKO) and to investigate possible determinants of mid-ascending aortic diameter (mid-AAoD).

Methods And Results: Deep learning (DL) automatically segmented the thoracic aorta and ascending aortic length, volume, and diameter was extracted from 25,073 NC-MRAs.

Cytokine atlas of the population-based cohort SHIP-TREND-0 - Associations with age, sex, and BMI.

Background: The characterization of physiological immune signatures in a population-based cohort is a prerequisite for identifying pathological immune signatures associated with inflammatory or autoimmune diseases.

Methods: Here, 47 plasma cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors were quantified with a bead-based multiplex-assay (Merck HCYTA-60 K) using a FLEXMAP 3D™ instrument in 1175 individuals of the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP; TREND cohort, 532 men and 643 women, age: 20 to 81, BMI: 17.7 to 53.

Classification of Major Depressive Disorder Using Vertex-Wise Brain Sulcal Depth, Curvature, and Thickness with a Deep and a Shallow Learning Model.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex psychiatric disorder that affects the lives of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe. Even today, researchers debate if morphological alterations in the brain are linked to MDD, likely due to the heterogeneity of this disorder. The application of deep learning tools to neuroimaging data, capable of capturing complex non-linear patterns, has the potential to provide diagnostic and predictive biomarkers for MDD.

Lower cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with an altered gut microbiome. The Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP).

Sedentarism is characterized by low levels of physical activity, a risk factor for obesity and cardio-metabolic diseases. It can also adversely affect the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome which may result in harmful consequences for human health. While cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is inversely and independently associated with cardiovascular risk factors and diseases and all-cause mortality, the relationship between low CRF and the gut microbiome is not well known.

Body composition markers are more strongly associated with type 2 diabetes than inflammatory markers-Results from the study of health in Pomerania.

Background And Aims: Evidence links body composition and inflammatory markers with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the comparative analysis of body composition markers derived from different modalities and inflammatory markers in relation to T2D remains unexplored. This study aims to evaluate and compare the association of body composition and inflammatory markers with T2D.

The impact of childhood emotional abuse and depressive symptoms on sleep macro-architecture and cortical thickness.

Background: Adverse childhood events and especially emotional abuse (EA) is consistently associated with poor psychiatric outcomes in adulthood, with depressive symptoms being one of the most prevalent. Both EA and depression are frequently associated with poorer sleep quality and cortical structural abnormalities. Interestingly, some individuals who experienced early-life EA are resilient against the development of psychiatric illness in adulthood and are believed to possess distinct neurobiology that confer more effective coping mechanisms.

Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient.

We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent (N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1-5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic effects.

The Association Between Nutritional Risk and Bone Stiffness in Elderly Men and Women in a Population-Based Study in Northeast Germany.

Background: The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) has shown promising potential for identifying individuals at risk for osteoporosis in various patient cohorts. However, data from the general population confirming or refuting the usefulness of the GNRI as a risk factor for osteoporosis are sparse. We therefore aimed to clarify whether the GNRI is associated with the ultrasound-based bone stiffness index and the osteoporotic fracture risk in a sample of elderly men and women from the general population.

XModNN: Explainable Modular Neural Network to Identify Clinical Parameters and Disease Biomarkers in Transcriptomic Datasets.

The Explainable Modular Neural Network (XModNN) enables the identification of biomarkers, facilitating the classification of diseases and clinical parameters in transcriptomic datasets. The modules within XModNN represent specific pathways or genes of a functional hierarchy. The incorporation of biological insights into the architectural design reduced the number of parameters.

Judged by your neighbors: Brain structural normativity profiles for large and heterogeneous samples.

The detection of norm deviations is fundamental to clinical decision making and impacts our ability to diagnose and treat diseases effectively. Current normative modeling approaches rely on generic comparisons and quantify deviations in relation to the population average. However, generic models interpolate subtle nuances and risk the loss of critical information, thereby compromising effective personalization of health care strategies.

Periodontal Probing Depth Trajectory in 10 Years of Follow-Up as Associated With Tooth Loss.

Aim: To elucidate whether ranked probing depth (PD) data translate into ranked PD outcomes after 10 years of follow-up and the associated tooth loss.

Materials And Methods: From the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-START), all participants were retrospectively included with complete PD measurements in both baseline and 10-year follow-up, comprising 1887 participants. The trajectory of percentile-based quintiles of mean PD measurements was followed.

Associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors according to age and sex.

Context: Subclinical thyroid dysfunction (ScTD) comprising subclinical hypothyroidism (SHypo) and subclinical hyperthyroidism (SHyper) has been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events.

Objective: To assess associations between ScTD and cardiovascular risk factors (cvRFs) according to age and sex.

Design And Setting: Pooled individual participant data analysis of large prospective cohort studies from the Thyroid Studies Collaboration.

The impact of malocclusion on tooth loss over a 20-year period: Findings from the Population-Based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP).

Objective: Research is lacking examining the effect of malocclusion on tooth loss. The aim of this study was to analyze the possible impact of moderate and severe malocclusions on tooth loss over the course of twenty years.

Material And Methods: Of 1269 subjects aged between 25 and 49 years with at least 20 teeth of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania in Germany, malocclusions were initially assessed according to a German orthodontic index of treatment priority between 1997 and 2001.

DNA Methylation Signatures of Cardiovascular Health Provide Insights into Diseases.

Background: The association of overall cardiovascular health (CVH) with changes in DNA methylation (DNAm) has not been well characterized.

Methods: We calculated the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score to reflect CVH in five cohorts with diverse ancestry backgrounds. Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) for LE8 score were conducted, followed by bioinformatic analyses.