The association between adverse life events and body weight change: results of a prospective cohort study.

Background: Stress has been shown to be a determinant of weight change and risk for obesity. To date, there is scarce evidence that stressful life events and their severity contribute to changes in body weight. We studied the association between the occurrence, impact of and adaptation to adverse life events and weight change and the role of initial weight status.

Design of an ecological momentary assessment study of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and non-specific physical symptoms.

Introduction: Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI) attributed to electromagnetic fields (EMF) refers to self-reported sensitivity mainly characterised by the attribution of non-specific physical symptoms to low-level EMF exposure emitted from sources such as mobile phones. Scientific studies have not provided evidence for the existence of IEI-EMF, but these studies did not resemble the real-life situation or suffered from poor exposure characterisation and biased recall of health symptoms. To improve existing methods for the study of IEI-EMF, an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study is designed.

Cancer incidence in Dutch Balkan veterans.

Suspicion has been raised about an increased cancer risk among Balkan veterans because of alleged exposure to depleted uranium. The authors conducted a historical cohort study to examine cancer incidence among Dutch Balkan veterans. Male military personnel (n=18,175, median follow-up 11 years) of the Army and Military Police who had been deployed to the Balkan region (1993-2001) was compared with their peers not deployed to the Balkans (n=135,355, median follow-up 15 years) and with the general Dutch population of comparable age and sex.

Influence of calendar period on the association between BMI and coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis of 31 cohorts.

Objective: The association between obesity and coronary heart disease (CHD) may have changed over time, for example due to improved pharmacological treatment of CHD risk factors. This meta-analysis of 31 prospective cohort studies explores the influence of calendar period on CHD risk associated with body mass index (BMI).

Design And Methods: The relative risks (RRs) of CHD for a five-BMI-unit increment and BMI categories were pooled by means of random effects models.

Association of overweight with increased risk of coronary heart disease partly independent of blood pressure and cholesterol levels: a meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies including more than 300 000 persons.

Background: The extent to which moderate overweight (body mass index [BMI], 25.0-29.9 [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared]) and obesity (BMI, >/= 30.

Psychosocial predictors of increases in fruit and vegetable consumption.

Objectives: To examine psychosocial predictors of changes in fruit and vegetable consumption.

Methods: Baseline psychosocial variables were used to explain differences in changes in consumption in 83 healthy women with children after they received free fruit and vegetables for one month.

Results: One-month changes in fruit consumption (mean 144; SE 16 g/day) were positively associated with perceived costs and perceived health benefits for the children, and negatively associated with perceived behavioral control.

Effect of increased vegetable and fruit consumption on plasma folate and homocysteine concentrations.

Objective: We assessed the effects of an intervention aimed at increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables on plasma folate and homocysteine concentrations.

Methods: Seventy-one healthy non-smoking women (mean +/- SD 41 +/- 4 y of age) were randomized to an intervention or a control group. Participants in the intervention group (n = 36) received weekly packets containing fruits and vegetables free of charge and were asked to consume a daily amount of >or=200 g of vegetables and two pieces of fruit (the Dutch recommended intake level) over a period of 1 mo.

Fruit consumption of boys (8--11 years) is related to preferences for sour taste.

The present study investigated whether the most preferred balance between sweet and sour taste of children (n=50, 9.2+/-0.9 yrs of age) are related to their consumption of fruit.

Reproducibility, validity, and responsiveness to change of a short questionnaire for measuring fruit and vegetable intake.

The reproducibility, relative validity, and responsiveness to change of an eight-item food frequency questionnaire designed to measure fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed among 157 women (mean age = 41 years) in the Netherlands from spring 2001 to spring 2002. Plasma concentrations of vitamin C and total and specific carotenoids served as biomarkers against which validity was assessed. The questionnaire was completed and biomarker concentrations were determined three times: immediately preceding and following a controlled intervention of 1 month aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and 1 year after the start of the intervention.

Using a correction factor to correct for overreporting in a food-frequency questionnaire does not improve biomarker-assessed validity of estimates for fruit and vegetable consumption.

To correct for overreporting of fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in a food-frequency questionnaire, summary questions about consumption of main FV groups are often used to calculate correction factors. This study compared the ability to rank people according to their FV intake of those summary questions and the sum of questions on individual FV items within categories, and of corrected or uncorrected estimates of specific sorts of FV. Healthy middle-age women (n = 161) completed a food-frequency questionnaire about FV consumption during the previous month and gave a single fasting blood sample.