Early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories contribute to inequalities in adult diet quality, independent of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position.

Background: Diet is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and shows well-established socioeconomic patterning among adults. However, less clear is how socioeconomic inequalities in diet develop across the life course. This study assessed the associations of early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories (SETs) with adult diet quality, adjusting for childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and testing for mediation by adulthood SEP.

Does maternal education moderate the relationship between adolescent cannabis use and mental health in early adulthood?

Introduction: Socioeconomic disadvantage has been associated with cannabis use and poor mental health. It is therefore hypothesised that lower maternal education, a proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage, may increase the risk of cannabis-related mental health and substance use consequences.

Methods: A total of 5099 participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children reported cannabis use via questionnaires at 16 or 18.

The association between poverty and longitudinal patterns of adverse childhood experiences across childhood and adolescence: Findings from a prospective population-based cohort study in the UK.

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect up to half the general population, they are known to co-occur, and are particularly common among those experiencing poverty. Yet, there are limited studies examining specific patterns of ACE co-occurrence considering their developmental timing.

Objective: To examine the longitudinal co-occurrence patterns of ACEs across childhood and adolescence, and to examine the role of poverty in predicting these.

Evaluation and comparison of nine growth and development-based measures of pubertal timing.

Background: Pubertal timing is heritable, varies between individuals, and has implications for life-course health. There are many different indicators of pubertal timing, and how they relate to each other is unclear. Our aim was to quantitatively compare nine indicators of pubertal timing.

A novel hypothesis-generating approach for detecting phenotypic associations using epigenetic data.

Hypotheses about what phenotypes to include in causal analyses, that in turn can have clinical and policy implications, can be guided by hypothesis-free approaches leveraging the epigenome, for example. Minimally adjusted epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) using ALSPAC data were performed for example conditions, dysmenorrhea and heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). Differentially methylated CpGs were searched in the EWAS Catalog and associated traits identified.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Excessive Recreational Screen Time Among Adolescents in the United Kingdom: A National Longitudinal Study.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and excessive recreational screen time.

Methods: Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, we examined the associations of prospectively collected individual ACEs, ACE scores, and poverty with excessive recreational screen time (>4 hours) across different media types. We ran further analyses to investigate sex differences in the associations of ACEs with excessive screen time.

Demographic, socioeconomic and life-course risk factors for internalized weight stigma in adulthood: evidence from an English birth cohort study.

Background: Obesity is highly stigmatized, with negative obesity-related stereotypes widespread across society. Internalized weight stigma (IWS) is linked to negative outcomes including poor mental health and disordered eating. Previous evidence examining population groups at higher risk of experiencing IWS comes from small, nonrepresentative samples.

Genetics impact risk of Alzheimer's disease through mechanisms modulating structural brain morphology in late life.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related neuropathological changes can occur decades before clinical symptoms. We aimed to investigate whether neurodevelopment and/or neurodegeneration affects the risk of AD, through reducing structural brain reserve and/or increasing brain atrophy, respectively.

Methods: We used bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomisation to estimate the effects between genetic liability to AD and global and regional cortical thickness, estimated total intracranial volume, volume of subcortical structures and total white matter in 37 680 participants aged 8-81 years across 5 independent cohorts (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, Generation R, IMAGEN, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and UK Biobank).

Differences between brachial and aortic blood pressure in adolescence and their implications for diagnosis of hypertension.

Objectives: Blood pressure (BP) is the leading global cause of mortality, and its prevalence is increasing in children and adolescents. Aortic BP is lower than brachial BP in adults. We aimed to assess the extent of this difference and its impact on the diagnosis of hypertension among adolescents.

Infection and telomere length: a systematic review protocol.

Introduction: Telomeres are a measure of cellular ageing with potential links to diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Studies have shown that some infections may be associated with telomere shortening, but whether an association exists across all types and severities of infections and in which populations is unclear. Therefore we aim to collate available evidence to enable comparison and to inform future research in this field.

Mendelian Randomization Analysis of the Causal Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Hospital Costs.

Introduction: Knowledge of the impact of smoking on health care costs is important for establishing the external effects of smoking and for evaluating policies intended to modify this behavior. Conventional analysis of this association is difficult because of omitted variable bias, reverse causality, and measurement error.

Aims And Methods: We approached these challenges using a Mendelian Randomization study design; genetic variants associated with smoking behaviors were used in instrumental variables models with inpatient hospital costs (calculated from electronic health records) as the outcome.

The relationship between type, timing and duration of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and adolescent self-harm and depression: findings from three UK prospective population-based cohorts.

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are well-established risk factors for self-harm and depression. However, despite their high comorbidity, there has been little focus on the impact of developmental timing and the duration of exposure to ACEs on co-occurring self-harm and depression.

Methods: Data were utilised from over 22,000 children and adolescents participating in three UK cohorts, followed up longitudinally for 14-18 years: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study.

The bidirectional effects between cognitive ability and brain morphology: A life course Mendelian randomization analysis.

Introduction: Little is understood about the dynamic interplay between brain morphology and cognitive ability across the life course. Additionally, most existing research has focused on global morphology measures such as estimated total intracranial volume, mean thickness, and total surface area.

Methods: Mendelian randomization was used to estimate the bidirectional effects between cognitive ability, global and regional measures of cortical thickness and surface area, estimated total intracranial volume, total white matter, and the volume of subcortical structures (N=37,864).

Menstrual cycle features in mothers and daughters in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Problematic menstrual cycle features, including irregular periods, severe pain, heavy bleeding, absence of periods, frequent or infrequent cycles, and premenstrual symptoms, are experienced by high proportions of females and can have substantial impacts on their health and well-being. However, research aimed at identifying causes and risk factors associated with such menstrual cycle features is sparse and limited. This data note describes prospective, longitudinal data collected in a UK birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), on menstrual cycle features, which can be utilised to address the research gaps in this area.

Childhood socioeconomic position and sex-specific trajectories of metabolic traits across early life: prospective cohort study.

Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in cardiovascular disease risk begin early in life and are more pronounced in females than males later in life. Causal atherogenic traits explaining this are not well understood. We explored sex-specific associations between childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and molecular measures of systemic metabolism across early life.

Methodological approaches, challenges, and opportunities in the application of Mendelian randomisation to lifecourse epidemiology: A systematic literature review.

Diseases diagnosed in adulthood may have antecedents throughout (including prenatal) life. Gaining a better understanding of how exposures at different stages in the lifecourse influence health outcomes is key to elucidating the potential benefits of disease prevention strategies. Mendelian randomisation (MR) is increasingly used to estimate causal effects of exposures across the lifecourse on later life outcomes.

Maternal depressive symptoms and young people's higher education participation and choice of university: Evidence from a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Participation in higher education has significant and long-lasting consequences for people's socioeconomic trajectories. Maternal depression is linked to poorer educational achievement for children in school, but its impact on university attendance is unclear.

Methods: In an English longitudinal cohort study (N = 8952), we explore whether young people whose mothers experienced elevated depressive symptoms are less likely to attend university, and the role of potential mediators in the young person: educational achievement in school, depressive symptoms, and locus of control.

Time-sensitive testing pressures and COVID-19 outcomes: are socioeconomic inequalities over the first year of the pandemic explained by selection bias?

Background: There are many ways in which selection bias might impact COVID-19 research. Here we focus on selection for receiving a polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) SARS-CoV-2 test and how known changes to selection pressures over time may bias research into COVID-19 infection.

Methods: Using UK Biobank (N = 420,231; 55% female; mean age = 66.

Establishing the relationships between adiposity and reproductive factors: a multivariable Mendelian randomization analysis.

Background: Few studies have investigated associations between adiposity and reproductive factors using causal methods, both of which have a number of consequences on women's health. Here we assess whether adiposity at different points in the lifecourse affects reproductive factors differently and independently, and the plausibility of the impact of reproductive factors on adiposity.

Methods: We used genetic data from UK Biobank (273,238 women) and other consortia (EGG, GIANT, ReproGen and SSGAC) for eight reproductive factors: age at menarche, age at menopause, age at first birth, age at last birth, number of births, being parous, age first had sexual intercourse and lifetime number of sexual partners, and two adiposity traits: childhood and adulthood body size.

Early-life socioeconomic circumstances and the comorbidity of depression and overweight in adolescence and young adulthood: A prospective study.

Depression and overweight both often emerge early in life and have been found to be associated, but few studies examine depression-overweight comorbidity and its social patterning early in the life course. Drawing on data from 4,948 participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort from the UK (2,798 female, 2,150 male), we investigated how different aspects of early-life socioeconomic circumstances are associated with depression-overweight comorbidity from adolescence to young adulthood exploring any differences by age and sex. We estimated how parental education, social class and financial difficulties reported in pregnancy were associated with depression and overweight, and their comorbidity at approximately the ages 17 and 24 in males and females.

Educational inequality in multimorbidity: causality and causal pathways. A mendelian randomisation study in UK Biobank.

Background: Multimorbidity, typically defined as having two or more long-term health conditions, is associated with reduced wellbeing and life expectancy. Understanding the determinants of multimorbidity, including whether they are causal, may help with the design and prioritisation of prevention interventions. This study seeks to assess the causality of education, BMI, smoking and alcohol as determinants of multimorbidity, and the degree to which BMI, smoking and alcohol mediate differences in multimorbidity by level of education.