Comparison of devices used to measure blood pressure, grip strength and lung function: A randomised cross-over study.

Background: Blood pressure, grip strength and lung function are frequently assessed in longitudinal population studies, but the measurement devices used differ between studies and within studies over time. We aimed to compare measurements ascertained from different commonly used devices.

Methods: We used a randomised cross-over study.

Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Age at Natural Menopause and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Among Postmenopausal Women: A Pooled Analysis of Individual Data From 13 Cohort Studies.

Objective: To investigate associations between age at natural menopause, particularly premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) (natural menopause before age 40 years), and incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) and identify any variations by ethnicity.

Research Design And Methods: We pooled individual-level data of 338,059 women from 13 cohort studies without T2D before menopause from six ethnic groups: White (n = 177,674), Chinese (n = 146,008), Japanese (n = 9,061), South/Southeast Asian (n = 2,228), Black (n = 1,838), and mixed/other (n = 1,250). Hazard ratios (HRs) of T2D associated with age at menopause were estimated in the overall sample and by ethnicity, with study as a random effect.

Prognostic accuracy of the one-legged balance test in predicting falls: 15-years of midlife follow-up in a British birth cohort study.

Introduction: The one-legged balance test is a common screening tool for fall risk. Yet, there is little empirical evidence assessing its prognostic ability. The study aims were to assess the prognostic accuracy of one-legged balance performance in predicting falls and identify optimal cut-points to classify those at greater risk.

Adulthood cognitive trajectories over 26 years and brain health at 70 years of age: findings from the 1946 British Birth Cohort.

Few studies can address how adulthood cognitive trajectories relate to brain health in 70-year-olds. Participants (n = 468, 49% female) from the 1946 British birth cohort underwent 18F-Florbetapir PET/MRI. Cognitive function was measured in childhood (age 8 years) and across adulthood (ages 43, 53, 60-64 and 69 years) and was examined in relation to brain health markers of β-amyloid (Aβ) status, whole brain and hippocampal volume, and white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV).

One-Legged Balance Performance and Fall Risk in Mid and Later Life: Longitudinal Evidence From a British Birth Cohort.

Introduction: The one-legged balance test is widely used as a fall risk screening tool in both clinical and research settings. Despite rising fall prevalence in midlife, there is little evidence examining balance and fall risk in those aged <65 years. This study investigated the longitudinal associations between one-legged balance and the number of falls between ages 53 and 68 years.

Infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, and risk of stroke: pooled analysis of individual patient data of 618 851 women.

Objective: To examine the associations of infertility, recurrent miscarriage, and stillbirth with the risk of first non-fatal and fatal stroke, further stratified by stroke subtypes.

Design: Individual participant pooled analysis of eight prospective cohort studies.

Setting: Cohort studies across seven countries (Australia, China, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) participating in the InterLACE (International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events) consortium, which was established in June 2012.

Associations of Word Memory, Verbal Fluency, Processing Speed, and Crystallized Cognitive Ability With One-Legged Balance Performance in Mid- and Later Life.

Background: Cognitive integration of sensory input and motor output plays an important role in balance. Despite this, it is not clear if specific cognitive processes are associated with balance and how these associations change with age. We examined longitudinal associations of word memory, verbal fluency, search speed, and reading ability with repeated measures of one-legged balance performance.

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Two Novel Loci Associated with Female Stress and Urgency Urinary Incontinence.

Purpose: Genome-wide association studies have not identified replicable genetic risk loci for stress or urgency urinary incontinence.

Materials And Methods: We carried out a discovery stage, case control, genome-wide association study in 3 independent discovery cohorts of European women (8,979) for stress incontinence, urgency incontinence, and any incontinence phenotypes. We conducted replication in 6 additional studies of European ancestry (4,069).

Novel DNA methylation signatures of tobacco smoking with trans-ethnic effects.

Background: Smoking remains one of the leading preventable causes of death. Smoking leaves a strong signature on the blood methylome as shown in multiple studies using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Here, we explore novel blood methylation smoking signals on the Illumina MethylationEPIC BeadChip (EPIC) array, which also targets novel CpG-sites in enhancers.

Exposure to multiple childhood social risk factors and adult body mass index trajectories from ages 20 to 64 years.

Background: While childhood social risk factors appear to be associated with adult obesity, it is unclear whether exposure to multiple childhood social risk factors is associated with accelerated weight gain during adulthood.

Methods: We used the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, a British population-based birth cohort study of participants born in 1946, height and weight were measured by nurses at ages 36, 43, 53 and 60-64 and self-reported at 20 and 26 years. The 9 childhood socioeconomic risk factors and 8 binary childhood psychosocial risk factors were measured, with 13 prospectively measured at age 4 years (or at 7 or 11 years if missing) and 3 were recalled when participants were age 43.

Do the associations of body mass index and waist circumference with back pain change as people age? 32 years of follow-up in a British birth cohort.

Objectives: To investigate whether cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with back pain change with age and extend into later life.

Design: British birth cohort study.

Setting: England, Scotland and Wales.

Bidirectional associations between word memory and one-legged balance performance in mid and later life.

Background: Age-related changes in cognitive and balance capabilities are well-established, as is their correlation with one another. Given limited evidence regarding the directionality of associations, we aimed to explore the direction and potential explanations of associations between word memory and one-legged balance performance in mid-later life.

Methods: A total of 3062 participants in the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, a British birth cohort study, were included.

Metabolic profiles of socio-economic position: a multi-cohort analysis.

Background: Low socio-economic position (SEP) is a risk factor for multiple health outcomes, but its molecular imprints in the body remain unclear.

Methods: We examined SEP as a determinant of serum nuclear magnetic resonance metabolic profiles in ∼30 000 adults and 4000 children across 10 UK and Finnish cohort studies.

Results: In risk-factor-adjusted analysis of 233 metabolic measures, low educational attainment was associated with 37 measures including higher levels of triglycerides in small high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and lower levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), omega-3 fatty acids, apolipoprotein A1, large and very large HDL particles (including levels of their respective lipid constituents) and cholesterol measures across different density lipoproteins.

Age at menarche and risk of vasomotor menopausal symptoms: a pooled analysis of six studies.

Objective: To examine the association between age at menarche and risk of vasomotor menopausal symptoms (VMS) and whether midlife body mass index (BMI) modified the association.

Design: A pooled analysis of six cohort studies.

Setting: The International collaboration on the Life course Approach to reproductive health and Chronic disease Events (InterLACE).

Establishing reference intervals for triglyceride-containing lipoprotein subfraction metabolites measured using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a UK population.

Background: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy allows triglycerides to be subclassified into 14 different classes based on particle size and lipid content. We recently showed that these subfractions have differential associations with cardiovascular disease events. Here we report the distributions and define reference interval ranges for 14 triglyceride-containing lipoprotein subfraction metabolites.

Association Between Reproductive Life Span and Incident Nonfatal Cardiovascular Disease: A Pooled Analysis of Individual Patient Data From 12 Studies.

Importance: Early menarche and early menopause are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in midlife, but little is known about the association between reproductive life span and the risk of CVD.

Objective: To investigate the association between the length of reproductive life span and risk of incident CVD events, while also considering the timing of menarche and menopause.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Individual-level data were pooled from 12 studies participating in the International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events consortium.

Understanding the effects of Covid-19 through a life course lens.

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking fundamental assumptions about the human life course in societies around the world. In this essay, we draw on our collective expertise to illustrate how a life course perspective can make critical contributions to understanding the pandemic's effects on individuals, families, and populations. We explore the pandemic's implications for the organization and experience of life transitions and trajectories within and across central domains: health, personal control and planning, social relationships and family, education, work and careers, and migration and mobility.

Vasomotor menopausal symptoms and risk of cardiovascular disease: a pooled analysis of six prospective studies.

Background: Menopausal vasomotor symptoms (ie, hot flashes and night sweats) have been associated with unfavorable risk factors and surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease, but their association with clinical cardiovascular disease events is unclear.

Objective: To examine the associations between different components of vasomotor symptoms, timing of vasomotor symptoms, and risk of cardiovascular disease.

Study Design: We harmonized and pooled individual-level data from 23,365 women in 6 prospective studies that contributed to the International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Women's Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events consortium.

Type of menopause, age of menopause and variations in the risk of incident cardiovascular disease: pooled analysis of individual data from 10 international studies.

Study Question: How does the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) vary with type and age of menopause?

Summary Answer: Earlier surgical menopause (e.g. <45 years) poses additional increased risk of incident CVD events, compared to women with natural menopause at the same age, and HRT use reduced the risk of CVD in women with early surgical menopause.

Sustained heavy drinking over 25 years is associated with increased N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptides in early old age: Population-based cohort study.

Unlabelled: Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of heart failure. We sought to investigate whether levels of NT-proBNP differ by alcohol consumption profiles, both current drinking as well as cumulative exposure to drinking over several decades in a general population sample.

Methods: Data on 2054 participants (49% male) were taken from the UK Medical Research Council National Survey for Health and Development, a longitudinal cohort study based on a nationally representative sample of births in 1946.