Diet throughout childhood and age at menarche in a contemporary cohort of British girls.

Objective: To investigate associations between dietary intakes throughout childhood and age at menarche, a possible indicator of future risk of disease, in a contemporary cohort of British girls.

Design: Diet was assessed by FFQ at 3 and 7 years of age, and by a 3 d unweighed food diary at 10 years. Age at menarche was categorised as before or after 12 years 8 months, a point close to the median age in this cohort.

Tracking of obesity and body fatness through mid-childhood.

Objectives: To explore how fat, lean and body mass index (BMI) track in childhood and how this relates to parental obesity.

Design And Setting: Prospective population-based cohort study: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, UK.

Method: Height, weight and leg-to-leg bioelectrical impedance (BIA) were collected at ages 7 and 11 years, as well as pre-pregnancy parental heights and weights.

Genetic markers of adult obesity risk are associated with greater early infancy weight gain and growth.

Background: Genome-wide studies have identified several common genetic variants that are robustly associated with adult obesity risk. Exploration of these genotype associations in children may provide insights into the timing of weight changes leading to adult obesity.

Methods And Findings: Children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort were genotyped for ten genetic variants previously associated with adult BMI.

Association of maternal weight gain in pregnancy with offspring obesity and metabolic and vascular traits in childhood.

Background: We sought to examine the association of gestational weight gain (GWG) and prepregnancy weight with offspring adiposity and cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods And Results: Data from 5154 (for adiposity and blood pressure) and 3457 (for blood assays) mother-offspring pairs from a UK prospective pregnancy cohort were used. Random-effects multilevel models were used to assess incremental GWG (median and range of repeat weight measures per woman: 10 [1, 17]).

Associations between sex-typed behaviour at age 31/2 and levels and patterns of physical activity at age 12: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Background: Differences in sex-typed behaviour, including physical activity, are already apparent among preschool children.

Purpose: To examine the associations between early sex-typed behaviour and later physical activity.

Methods: Children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were asked to wear an accelerometer for 7 days at age 12.

No evidence of large differences in mother-daughter and father-son body mass index concordance in a large UK birth cohort.

It has recently been suggested that there are substantial differences in mother-daughter and father-son associations of body mass index and obesity among contemporary UK children, but much larger studies of older cohorts have failed to find evidence of substantial sex-specific effects. We have tested this hypothesis using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a large contemporary cohort. Our analyses are based on 4654 complete parent-offspring trios (2323 with male offspring and 2331 with female offspring, all aged approximately 7.

Are there socioeconomic inequalities in cardiovascular risk factors in childhood, and are they mediated by adiposity? Findings from a prospective cohort study.

Background: Socioeconomic gradients in adiposity were not present during childhood for previous generations, but have emerged in contemporary children. It is unknown whether this translates to socioeconomic gradients in associated cardiovascular risk factors in children, with consequent implications for inequalities in coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes when these children reach adulthood.

Methods: Using data from 7772 participants aged 10-years from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we examined the association between maternal education and a large number of cardiovascular risk factors (cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein, adiponectin, leptin, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure), and examined whether inequalities were mediated by adiposity, measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-assessed total fat mass.

Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids on depressed mood.

Background: The debate over a role for n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) in depressed mood continues.

Objective: The objective was to update a previous systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of n-3 PUFAs on depressed mood and to explore potential sources of heterogeneity.

Design: Eight databases were searched for trials that randomly assigned participants to receive n-3 PUFAs/fish, measured depressed mood, used human participants, and included a comparison group up to April 2009.

The use of innovative methods designed to relieve social isolation in patients with chronic heart failure; volunteer befriending, forums and a newsletter.

Introduction: Social isolation in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) is an adverse prognostic factor. This paper reports the creation of a supportive patient/carer network (Heart Failure Support Service), led by a voluntary sector/National Health Service (NHS) partnership which involved volunteer befriending, regular patient and carer forum and a newsletter.

The Project: Over 3 years, 37 volunteers were 'befrienders' to over 50 individuals with CHF.

Obesogenic diet and physical activity: independent or associated behaviours in adolescents?

Objective: Associations between diet and physical activity may identify behaviours that could be changed together to prevent childhood obesity. The present study examines associations between physical activity and obesogenic dietary behaviours in a large UK adolescent cohort.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a UK cohort.

Prospective associations between objective measures of physical activity and fat mass in 12-14 year old children: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Objective: To investigate associations between physical activity at age 12 and subsequent adiposity at age 14.

Design: Prospective birth cohort study with data collected between 2003 and 2007.

Setting: Original recruitment in 1991-2 of 14,541 pregnant women living in the former County of Avon (United Kingdom).

Physical activity in children: does how we define neighbourhood matter?

Physical activity levels in children are low and factors in the neighbourhood are believed to be influential. However, uncertainty remains about how best to define the neighbourhood. We therefore sought to study the role of area definition on neighbourhood variations in child physical activity using data collected at age 11 from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, UK.

Association of existing diabetes, gestational diabetes and glycosuria in pregnancy with macrosomia and offspring body mass index, waist and fat mass in later childhood: findings from a prospective pregnancy cohort.

Aims/hypothesis: The aim of the study was to examine the association of existing diabetes (i.e. already diagnosed prior to pregnancy), gestational diabetes and glycosuria (both diagnosed and ascertained during pregnancy) with birthweight and future offspring BMI, waist circumference and fat mass (assessed by dual x-ray emission absorptiometry).

Prevention of preterm birth based on short cervix: symptomatic women with preterm labor or premature prelabor rupture of membranes.

The diagnosis of preterm labor (PTL) is challenging, especially in women whose cervical dilatation is <2 cm and who are <80% effaced. In symptomatic women, with threatened PTL in both singletons and twins, transvaginal ultrasound cervical length (CL) identifies a high-risk group that is more likely to be in true PTL, more likely to deliver sooner, and more likely to deliver preterm. The addition of fetal fibronectin improves the predictive accuracy in women whose CL is <30 mm but >15 mm.

Body composition at age 9 years, maternal folate intake during pregnancy and methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T genotype.

Nutrition during pregnancy and in early life may influence developmental plasticity and alter susceptibility to obesity and adult disease. One mechanism by which this could occur is through epigenetic changes, such as changes in methylation levels, which modify gene expression patterns. Folate intake during pregnancy, as well as maternal methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T genotype, influences the availability of methyl donors for methylation during gestation and therefore may be associated with offspring body composition in childhood.

Comparison of waist circumference percentiles versus body mass index percentiles for diagnosis of obesity in a large cohort of children.

Context: Waist circumference may offer improved diagnosis of obesity in youth compared with body mass index (BMI), but empirical evidence is limited.

Objective: To compare the ability of BMI percentile using UK reference data and waist circumference percentile using UK reference data to diagnose high fat mass in English children.

Design And Methods: In 7,722 9-10-year-olds (3,809 boys, 3,913 girls) sensitivity and specificity were calculated and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses undertaken to determine the diagnostic accuracy of BMI and waist circumference z-scores to define high fat mass measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

Clostridium botulinum toxin A inhibits contractility in pregnant human myometrium in vitro.

Studies were undertaken to evaluate the effect of Botulinum neurotoxin type-A (BoNTA) preparation on oxytocin-induced contractions of pregnant human myometrium in vitro. Human myometrial tissue was exposed to increasing concentrations (1-50 000 U/mL) of BoNT/A. Isometric contractions were measured using a force displacement transducer.

Myopia and later physical activity in adolescence: a prospective study.

Objectives: To investigate associations between objectively measured physical activity (PA) and myopia in children.

Methods: Children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were asked to wear a uniaxial accelerometer for 7 days. Measures of counts per minute (cpm), minutes spent in moderate to vigorous activity (MVPA) and minutes of sedentary behaviour (msed) were derived from the accelerometer worn at age 12.

Validation of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and foot-foot impedance against deuterium dilution measures of fatness in children.

Objective: To determine the validity of estimation of body fatness by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and foot-foot bio-electrical impedance (BIA).

Methods: In 176, 11-12-year-olds (84 boys; 92 girls) body fatness was measured using total body water (TBW), derived from deuterium oxide dilution space. Body fatness was also estimated from DXA and BIA.

Challenges and novel approaches in the epidemiological study of early life influences on later disease.

The influence of factors acting during early life on health outcomes of offspring is of considerable research and public health interest. There are, however, methodological challenges in establishing robust causal links, since exposures often act many decades before outcomes of interest, and may also be strongly related to other factors, generating considerable degrees of potential confounding. With respect to pre-natal factors, the degree of confounding can sometimes be estimated by comparing the association between exposures experienced by the mother during pregnancy and outcomes among the offspring with the association of the same exposures experienced by the father during the pregnancy period and offspring outcomes.

Dose-modified oral chemotherapy in the treatment of AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in East Africa.

PURPOSE Africa is burdened by the AIDS epidemic and attendant increase in HIV/AIDS-related malignancies. Pragmatic approaches to therapeutic intervention could be of great value. Dose-modified oral chemotherapy for AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is one such approach.

Genetic variation in LIN28B is associated with the timing of puberty.

The timing of puberty is highly variable. We carried out a genome-wide association study for age at menarche in 4,714 women and report an association in LIN28B on chromosome 6 (rs314276, minor allele frequency (MAF) = 0.33, P = 1.

Life course sun exposure and risk of prostate cancer: population-based nested case-control study and meta-analysis.

There is currently no means of primary prevention for prostate cancer. Increased exposure to ultraviolet-radiation may be protective, but the literature is inconclusive. We investigated associations of life course exposure to sunlight with prostate cancer.

Association of duration of television viewing in early childhood with the subsequent development of asthma.

Objective: To investigate whether duration of television (TV) viewing in young children is associated with subsequent development of asthma.

Methods: Children taking part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) with no wheeze up to the age of 3.5 years and follow-up data at 11.