The impact of early life stress on risk of tobacco smoking initiation by adolescents.

Aims: Our study aimed to examine the association between early life stress and early initiation of alcohol and tobacco use.

Design: This prospective cohort study of women and children belongs to the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood.

Setting: Dniprodzerzhynsk, a city of some 250,000 inhabitants in south central Ukraine.

Risk factors for wheezing in Ukrainian children: Ukraine European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood Group.

The prevalence of wheezing in children varies widely around the world. The reasons for this geographic variability remain unclear but may be related in part to exposures in the home environment during pregnancy and early childhood. We investigated the prenatal and early childhood risk factors for wheezing symptoms among 2127 children aged 6-8 years who were participants in the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC).

Social-environmental factors associated with elevated body mass index in a Ukrainian cohort of children.

Background: While obesity is a growing epidemic in most developed countries, we still lack information on countries in economic transition. In this study, we evaluate the built environment, activity levels, economic status and dietary patterns associated with body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to the 85th percentile among 3-year-old Ukrainian children living through the downturn in the economy during the mid-1990s.

Methods: We evaluated 883 3-year-old children from the Ukraine ELSPAC cohort.

Anthropometric, environmental, and dietary predictors of elevated blood cadmium levels in Ukrainian children: Ukraine ELSPAC group.

No comprehensive data on sources or risk factors of cadmium exposure in Ukrainian children are available. In this we measured the blood levels of cadmium among 80 Ukrainian children and evaluated sources of exposure. A nested case-control study from a prospective cohort of Ukrainian 3-year-old children was conducted.

Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene as a biomarker of PAH exposure in 3-year-old Ukrainian children.

Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) is a biomarker of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure. We measured urinary 1-OHP in 48 children 3 years of age in Mariupol, Ukraine, who lived near a steel mill and coking facility and compared these with 1-OHP concentrations measured in 42 children of the same age living in the capital city of Kiev, Ukraine. Children living in Mariupol had significantly higher urinary 1-OHP and creatinine-adjusted urinary 1-OHP than did children living in Kiev (adjusted: 0.