Publications by authors named "Karen Assmann"

Background: Reporting and analysis of adverse events (AE) is associated with improved health system learning, quality outcomes, and patient safety. Manual text analysis is time-consuming, costly, and prone to human errors. We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of novel machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) approaches for early predictions of adverse events and provide input to direct quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.

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  • The Central Arctic Ocean's pelagic fauna is rapidly changing, and there is a need for baseline data due to challenges in sampling motile organisms that escape from nets.
  • Recent research involved 12 trawl hauls in ice-covered waters, revealing low quantities of fish and zooplankton across different regions, with species present as far north as 87.5N.
  • The study found three fish species, but only a few individuals were caught, highlighting a dominance of specific zooplankton types in different basins, indicating varying ecosystem conditions influenced by ice and ocean circulation.
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Objectives: Gut microbiota is a key component in obesity and type 2 diabetes, yet mechanisms and metabolites central to this interaction remain unclear. We examined the human gut microbiome's functional composition in healthy metabolic state and the most severe states of obesity and type 2 diabetes within the MetaCardis cohort. We focused on the role of B vitamins and B7/B8 biotin for regulation of host metabolic state, as these vitamins influence both microbial function and host metabolism and inflammation.

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During the transition from a healthy state to cardiometabolic disease, patients become heavily medicated, which leads to an increasingly aberrant gut microbiome and serum metabolome, and complicates biomarker discovery. Here, through integrated multi-omics analyses of 2,173 European residents from the MetaCardis cohort, we show that the explanatory power of drugs for the variability in both host and gut microbiome features exceeds that of disease. We quantify inferred effects of single medications, their combinations as well as additive effects, and show that the latter shift the metabolome and microbiome towards a healthier state, exemplified in synergistic reduction in serum atherogenic lipoproteins by statins combined with aspirin, or enrichment of intestinal Roseburia by diuretic agents combined with beta-blockers.

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Objective: Dietary indexes measure the adherence of individuals to a set of nutritional recommendations. However, the health gains associated with adherence to various dietary indexes may vary. Our objective was to compare the magnitude of estimated avoided deaths by chronic diseases obtained by improving diet quality in the French population, measured by a variety of dietary indexes.

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Host-microbial co-metabolism products are being increasingly recognised to play important roles in physiological processes. However, studies undertaking a comprehensive approach to consider host-microbial metabolic relationships remain scarce. Metabolomic analysis yielding detailed information regarding metabolites found in a given biological compartment holds promise for such an approach.

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Microbiota-host-diet interactions contribute to the development of metabolic diseases. Imidazole propionate is a novel microbially produced metabolite from histidine, which impairs glucose metabolism. Here, we show that subjects with prediabetes and diabetes in the MetaCardis cohort from three European countries have elevated serum imidazole propionate levels.

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  • Recent research has identified a microbiome configuration called Bacteroides2 (Bact2), linked to systemic inflammation and prevalent in individuals with loose stools, especially in those with inflammatory bowel disease.
  • * The prevalence of Bact2 increases with obesity, going from 3.90% in lean or overweight individuals to 17.73% in obese ones, and is associated with higher systemic inflammation levels.
  • * Statin therapy appears to reduce Bact2 prevalence in obese participants, suggesting that it may negatively impact microbiome dysbiosis, a finding that needs further investigation in clinical trials.
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A growing number of studies have explored overall health during ageing in a holistic manner by investigating multidimensional models of healthy ageing (HA). However, little attention has been given to the role of adherence to national nutrition guidelines in that context. This study aimed to investigate the prospective association between adherence to the French nutrition guidelines and HA.

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Background: Low-grade chronic inflammation has been suggested to play a substantial role in the etiology of depression; however, studies on the prospective association between the inflammatory potential of the diet and depression are limited.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the inflammatory potential of the diet (measured using the Alternate Dietary Inflammatory Index, ADII) and incident depressive symptoms. We also tested the potential modulating effect of sex, age, BMI, and lifestyle indicators.

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Background: Diet is widely recognized as one of the main modifiable drivers of gut microbiota variability, and its influence on microbiota composition is an active area of investigation.

Objective: The present work aimed to explore the associations between usual diet and gut microbiota composition in a large sample of healthy French adults.

Methods: Gut microbiota composition was established through sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene in stool samples from 862 healthy French adults of the Milieu Intérieur study.

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Background: Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption has increased over the last decades in Westernized countries. Our objective was to investigate for the first time the association between the proportion of UPF (%UPF) in the diet and incident depressive symptoms in the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Methods: The sample included 20,380 women and 6350 men (aged 18-86 years) without depressive symptoms at the first Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) measurement, using validated cut-offs (CES-D score ≥ 17 for men and ≥ 23 for women).

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Objectives: Our objective was to examine whether adherence to the Mediterranean-DASH diet intervention for neurodegenerative delay (MIND) was associated with SMC (as measured by the cognitive difficulties scale; CDS) in the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Methods: The study sample consisted of 6011 participants aged ≥ 60 years at baseline, without SMC at the beginning. SMC were defined by a CDS score ≥ 43 (corresponding to the 4th CDS quartile) and SMC cases were participants with SMC at least once during follow-up.

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Background: Given the drastic demographic changes characterized as "population aging," the disease burden related to dementia is a major public health problem. The scientific literature documenting the link between mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs, PUFAs) and cognitive function during aging is plentiful, but findings are inconsistent.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the association between intakes of unsaturated fatty acids at midlife and cognitive performance 13 y later in French adults, and to test for a modulating effect of antioxidant supplementation.

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  • The study investigates the link between organic food consumption and cancer risk among a large group of French adults, analyzing data over several years.
  • Results show that participants who consumed organic foods more frequently had a lower overall risk of developing cancer, particularly notable in cases like breast and prostate cancer.
  • The findings suggest a potential health benefit from eating organic foods, but more research is needed to explore the reasons behind this association.
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Background: Epidemiological and experimental evidence support a protective effect of dietary polyphenols on chronic diseases, but high quality longitudinal data are needed, including details on categories of polyphenols. Our objective was to investigate the prospective association between total and individual classes and subclasses of dietary polyphenols and the risk of major cardiovascular disease in the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Methods: A total of 84,158 participants, who completed at least three 24 h dietary records, were included between May 2009 and June 2017.

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Obesity and its metabolic complications are characterized by subclinical systemic and tissue inflammation. In rodent models of obesity, inflammation and metabolic impairments are linked with intestinal barrier damage. However, whether intestinal permeability is altered in human obesity remains to be investigated.

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With increasing life expectancies worldwide, it is an important public health issue to identify factors that influence the quality of aging. We aimed to investigate the individual and combined roles of lifestyle factors at midlife for healthy aging (HA). We analyzed data from 2203 participants of the French ”Supplémentation en Vitamines et Minéraux Antioxydants” (SU.

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The disruption of systemic immune homeostasis is a key mediator in the progression of cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs). We aimed to extend knowledge regarding the clinical relevance of CMD-associated variation of circulating mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cell abundance and to explore underlying cellular mechanisms. We analyzed cross-sectional data from 439 participants of the Metagenomics in Cardiometabolic Diseases (MetaCardis) study, stratified into 6 groups: healthy control subjects and patients with metabolic syndrome (MS), obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and coronary artery disease (CAD) without, or with congestive heart failure (CAD-CHF).

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Background: Several modifiable lifestyle indicators, including diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, weight and physical activity have been associated with depression; however, their combined effect has been less studied. The aim of this study was to calculate a Healthy Lifestyle Index (HLI) composed of the 5 above-mentioned indicators and investigate its association with incident depressive symptoms.

Methods: The study sample consisted of 25,837 participants from the NutriNet-Santé study, initially free of depressive symptoms.

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A posteriori healthier dietary patterns and several nutrients have been associated with lower risks of depression in various studies; however, evidence is lacking with regard to the prospective association between adherence to nutritional recommendations (food-based and nutrient-based recommendations) and incident depression or depressive symptoms. In this study, we investigate such associations in the NutriNet Santé cohort. The study sample included 26 225 participants (aged 18-86 years) who were initially free of depressive symptoms.

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Background: Our objective was to quantify to what extent the association between adherence to the French nutritional recommendations at midlife, measured by the Programme National Nutrition Santé-Guideline Score (PNNS-GS), and healthy aging (HA) is mediated by body mass index (BMI) status.

Methods: We analyzed data from 2249 participants of the French 'Supplementation with Vitamins and Mineral Antioxidants' (SU.VI.

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Background: While low-grade chronic inflammation has been suggested as a major modulator of healthy aging (HA), no study has yet investigated the link between the inflammatory potential of the diet and multidimensional concepts of HA.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association between the inflammatory potential of the diet at midlife, as measured by the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), and HA assessed 13 y later.

Methods: We analyzed data from 2796 participants in the French Supplémentation en Vitamines et Minéraux Antioxydants (SU.

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Objective: To assess the association between midlife body mass index (BMI) and healthy aging (HA) in the French SU.VI.MAX cohort.

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