The effect of dose-interval on antibody response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Vaccination against COVID-19 is highly effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, but primary COVID mRNA vaccination schedules often differed from those recommended by the manufacturers due to supply chain issues. We investigated the impact of delaying the second dose on antibody responses to COVID mRNA-vaccines in a prospective cohort of health-care workers in Quebec.

Methods: We recruited participants from the McGill University Health Centre who provided serum or participant-collected dried blood samples (DBS) at 28-days, 3 months, and 6 months post-second dose and at 28-days after a third dose.

Assessment of Advanced Diagnostic Bronchoscopy Outcomes for Peripheral Lung Lesions: A Delphi Consensus Definition of Diagnostic Yield and Recommendations for Patient-centered Study Designs. An Official American Thoracic Society/American College of Chest Physicians Research Statement.

Advanced diagnostic bronchoscopy targeting the lung periphery has developed at an accelerated pace over the last two decades, whereas evidence to support introduction of innovative technologies has been variable and deficient. A major gap relates to variable reporting of diagnostic yield, in addition to limited comparative studies. To develop a research framework to standardize the evaluation of advanced diagnostic bronchoscopy techniques for peripheral lung lesions.

Ranking Decision-Making Criteria for Early Adoption of Innovative Surgical Technologies.

Importance: There is no decision-making framework in the early-adoption stage of novel surgical technologies, putting the quality of health care and resource allocation of the health care system at risk.

Objective: To investigate relevant weighted criteria that decision-makers may use to make an informed decision for the early adoption of innovative surgical technologies.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This multi-institutional decision analytical modeling study used a mixed-methods multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and had 2 phases.

Picturing ELSI+: a visual representation of ethical, legal, and social issues, and patient experiences in Health Technology Assessment in Canada.

Objectives: Consideration of ethical, legal, and social issues plus patient values (ELSI+) in health technology assessment (HTA) is challenging because of a lack of conceptual clarity and the multi-disciplinary nature of ELSI+. We used concept mapping to identify key concepts and inter-relationships in the ELSI+ domain and provide a conceptual framework for consideration of ELSI+ in HTA.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review (Medline and EMBASE, 2000-2016) to identify ELSI+ issues in the HTA literature.

A Framework for Aiding the Translation of Scientific Evidence into Policy: The Experience of a Hospital-Based Technology Assessment Unit.

Objectives: Very few practical frameworks exist to guide the formulation of recommendations at hospital-based health technology assessment (HTA) units. The objectives of our study were: (i) to identify decision criteria specific to the context of hospital-based health technologies and interventions, (ii) to estimate the extent to which the expert community agrees on the importance of the identified criteria, (iii) to incorporate the identified criteria into a decision-aid tool, and (iv) to illustrate the application of a prototype decision-aid tool.

Methods: Relevant decision criteria were identified using existing frameworks for HTA recommendations, our past experience, a literature search, and feedback from a survey of diverse stakeholders.

Risk of Miscarriage in Women Receiving Antidepressants in Early Pregnancy, Correcting for Induced Abortions.

Background: Earlier studies on the association between antidepressant use and miscarriage have obtained conflicting results after accounting for the role of depression, and none have taken into account the high risk of induced abortions in women using antidepressants.

Methods: We identified 41,964 pregnant women delivering between 1998 and 2002 using Quebec's health administration databases. We compared women prescribed antidepressants in the first trimester and with a recorded diagnosis of depression before pregnancy to (1) women with neither antidepressant use nor a depression diagnosis before or during pregnancy; (2) women with a depression diagnosis before pregnancy, but no antidepressants prescribed in the first trimester; and (3) women prescribed hypothyroid medication in the first trimester, but not antidepressants.

Smoking in preeclamptic women is associated with higher birthweight for gestational age and lower soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 levels: a nested case control study.

Background: Smoking paradoxically increases the risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth but protects against preeclampsia. Some studies have reported a "U-shaped" distribution of fetal growth in preeclamptic pregnancies, but reasons for this are unknown. We investigated whether cigarette smoking interacts with preeclampsia to affect fetal growth, and compared levels of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), a circulating anti-angiogenic protein, in preeclamptic smokers and non-smokers.

Childhood family psychosocial environment and coronary heart disease risk.

Objective: Little is known about whether the childhood family psychosocial environment affects coronary heart disease (CHD). Study objectives were to evaluate associations of childhood family psychosocial environment (termed "risky families"; characterized by cold, unaffectionate interactions, conflict, aggression, neglect, and/or low nurturance) with calculated risk for CHD.

Methods: Study participants included 3554 participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, aged 33 to 45 years.

Hair biomarkers as measures of maternal tobacco smoke exposure and predictors of fetal growth.

Introduction: Most biomarker studies of the effects of maternal smoking on fetal growth have been based on a single blood or urinary cotinine value, which is inadequate in capturing maternal tobacco exposure over the entire pregnancy. We used hair biomarkers to compare the associations of maternal self-reported smoking, hair nicotine, and hair cotinine with birth weight for gestational age (BW for GA) among active and passive smokers during pregnancy.

Methods: We collected maternal hair in the immediate postpartum period and measured nicotine and cotinine concentrations averaged over the pregnancy in 444 term controls drawn from 5,337 participants in a multicenter nested case-control study of preterm birth.

Life-course socioeconomic position and type 2 diabetes mellitus: The Framingham Offspring Study.

Evidence is lacking on whether the duration and timing of low socioeconomic position (SEP) across a person's life course may be associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). The authors' objectives were to investigate associations between cumulative SEP and the incidence of T2D in the Framingham Offspring Study (n = 1,893; 52% women; mean baseline age = 34 years). Pooled logistic regression analyses demonstrated that age-adjusted cumulative SEP was associated with T2D in women (for low vs.

Life course socioeconomic position is associated with inflammatory markers: the Framingham Offspring Study.

Associations between life course socioeconomic position (SEP) and novel biological risk markers for coronary heart disease such as inflammatory markers are not well understood. Most studies demonstrate inverse associations of life course SEP with C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and fibrinogen, however little is known about associations between life course SEP and other inflammatory markers including intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), tumor necrosis factor II (TNFR2), lipoprotein phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) or P-selectin. The objectives of this analysis were to determine whether three life course SEP frameworks ("accumulation of risk", "social mobility" and "sensitive periods") are associated with the aforementioned inflammatory markers.

Quality of parental emotional care and calculated risk for coronary heart disease.

Objective: To evaluate associations between perceived quality of parental emotional care and calculated 10-year risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Little is understood about the role of parental emotional care in contributing to the risk for CHD.

Methods: The study sample was composed of 267 participants from the New England Family Study.

Associations between childhood socioeconomic position and adulthood obesity.

Childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is inversely associated with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Obesity in adulthood may be a biologic mechanism. Objectives were to systematically review literature published between 1998 and 2008 that examined associations of childhood SEP with adulthood obesity.

Life-course socioeconomic position and incidence of coronary heart disease: the Framingham Offspring Study.

Cumulative exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage across the life course may be inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD); the mechanisms are not fully clear. An objective of this study was to determine whether cumulative life-course socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with CHD incidence in a well-characterized US cohort that had directly assessed childhood and adulthood measures of SEP and prospectively measured CHD incidence. Furthermore, analyses aimed to evaluate whether adjustment for CHD risk factors reduces the association between cumulative life-course SEP and CHD.