Prospective analysis of gender-related characteristics in relation to cardiovascular disease.

Objective: Differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence between men and women have been widely reported. Next to sex-related (biological) characteristics, gender-related (sociocultural) characteristics may partly explain how these differences arise. In this exploratory study, we examined the associations between selected gender-related characteristics and CVD incidence.

Effects of a lifestyle intervention programme after 1 year of follow-up among South Asians at high risk of type 2 diabetes: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: South Asians are at high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We assessed whether intensive family-based lifestyle intervention leads to significant weight loss, improved glycaemia and blood pressure in adults at elevated risk for T2D.

Methods: This cluster randomised controlled trial (iHealth-T2D) was conducted at 120 locations across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK.

Performance of Risk Assessment Models for Prevalent or Undiagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Multi-Ethnic Population-The Helius Study.

Background: Most risk assessment models for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) have been developed in Caucasians and Asians; little is known about their performance in other ethnic groups.

Objectives: We aimed to identify existing models for the risk of prevalent or undiagnosed T2DM and externally validate them in a multi-ethnic population currently living in the Netherlands.

Methods: A literature search to identify risk assessment models for prevalent or undiagnosed T2DM was performed in PubMed until December 2017.

Eligibility for cardiovascular risk screening among different ethnic groups: The HELIUS study.

Background: Ethnic differences in the age-of-onset of cardiovascular risk factors may necessitate ethnic-specific age thresholds to initiate cardiovascular risk screening. Recent European recommendations to modify cardiovascular risk estimates among certain ethnic groups may further increase this necessity.

Aims: To determine ethnic differences in the age to initiate cardiovascular risk screening, with and without implementation of ethnic-specific modification of estimated cardiovascular risk.

Dietary and physical activity strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes in South Asian adults: protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a major health concern among populations of South Asian ethnicity. Although dietary and physical activity interventions may reduce the risk of T2D, the effectiveness has been moderate among South Asians. This might (in part) be because this subgroup follows strategies that were originally developed for interventions among other populations.

Screening South Asians for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes: (1) comparing oral glucose tolerance and haemoglobin A1c test results and (2) comparing the two sets of metabolic profiles of individuals diagnosed with these two tests.

Background: The glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level may be used for screening for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes instead of a more burdensome oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). However, among the high-risk South Asian population, little is known about the overlap of the methods or about the metabolic profiles of those disconcordantly diagnosed.

Methods: We included 944 South Asians (18-60 years old), whom we screened with the HbA1c level and the OGTT in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Large ethnic variations in recommended physical activity according to activity domains in amsterdam, the netherlands.

Purpose: The level of recommended physical activity (PA) is met less frequently by people from some ethnic minorities than others. We explored whether these differences in recommended PA between ethnic minority groups and the general population varied by domain and type of culturally-specific activity.

Methods: Participants were sampled from the population based SUNSET study and were from ethnic Dutch (n = 567), Hindustani-Surinamese (n = 370) and African-Surinamese (n = 689) descent.

Are "functionally related polymorphisms" of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system gene polymorphisms associated with hypertension?

Background: Genotype-phenotype association studies are typically based upon polymorphisms or haplotypes comprised of multiple polymorphisms within a single gene. It has been proposed that combinations of polymorphisms in distinct genes, which functionally impact the same phenotype, may have stronger phenotype associations than those within a single gene. We have tested this hypothesis using genes encoding components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the high blood pressure phenotype.