Correlates of sexual function among multi-ethnic middle-aged women: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objective: To examine sexual function in a cohort of Baby Boomer women of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds; to compare differences between pre-and early perimenopausal women; and to identify sociodemographic, health-related, and psychosocial (including psychological, behavioral, and relationship) factors related to sexual function.

Design: Six domains of sexual function were studied in 3,167 women in the baseline cohort of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Participants were 42 to 52 years old, pre-or early perimenopausal, and not using hormones.

Sexual behaviors of adolescent emerging and young adult men who have sex with men ages 13-29 in New York City.

Content: HIV infections among young men who have sex with men (YMSM), ages 13-29 in New York City have been steadily increasing over the last decade.

Objective: To document the sexual onset and behavior of YMSM as a means for informing the development of new HIV prevention messaging.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Is brachial artery flow-mediated dilation associated with negative affect?

Background: Trait negative affect has been implicated as a risk marker for cardiovascular disease, but the mechanisms underlying this association are uncertain.

Purpose: Our aim was to examine associations between trait measures of anger, hostility, depression, and anxiety with endothelial dysfunction via brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), an early indicator of cardiovascular disease.

Method: FMD was examined in 332 healthy older adults.

Longitudinal changes in sexual functioning as women transition through menopause: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: Sexual functioning is an important component of women's lives. The extent to which the menopausal transition is associated with decreased sexual functioning remains inconclusive. This study seeks to determine if advancing through the menopausal transition is associated with changes in sexual functioning.

Relative androgen excess during the menopausal transition predicts incident metabolic syndrome in midlife women: study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: During the menopausal transition, total testosterone (T) remains unchanged, whereas estrogen decreases markedly, creating a state of relative androgen excess. We hypothesized that change in the T-to-estradiol (T/E2) ratio during the menopausal transition would be associated with incident metabolic syndrome.

Methods: The association between incident metabolic syndrome and total E2, total T, sex hormone-binding globulin, the free androgen index, baseline total T/E2 ratio, and the change of this ratio over time was evaluated in a multiethnic cohort of 1,862 premenopausal and perimenopausal women without diabetes enrolled in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Progression of carotid intima-media thickness and plaque in women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: Women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The goals of this study were to determine the extent of atherosclerotic progression among women with SLE compared with a group of healthy controls and to determine whether factors attributed to SLE or its treatment were associated with atherosclerotic progression independent of traditional CVD risk factors.

Methods: A longitudinal study of women with SLE from the Pittsburgh Lupus Registry was conducted.

Adenomyosis a variant, not a disease? Evidence from hysterectomized menopausal women in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objective: Our study evaluates the symptoms commonly attributed to adenomyosis in women undergoing the menopausal transition. We hypothesized that adenomyosis is more commonly seen in women with fibroids, pelvic pain, abnormal uterine bleeding, and in the presence of endometriosis.

Design: Retrospective cohort.

Use of smoking-cessation treatments in the United States.

Background: Health promotion efforts encourage smokers to quit and to use effective cessation treatments. Randomized controlled trials demonstrate that medications and behavioral treatments improve cessation rates, but retrospective surveys have been inconsistent. This study assessed frequency of quit attempts, use of treatments for cessation, and abstinence rates among treatment users and non-users.

Bone mineral density changes during the menopause transition in a multiethnic cohort of women.

Context: Rates of bone loss across the menopause transition and factors associated with variation in menopausal bone loss are poorly understood.

Objective: Our objective was to assess rates of bone loss at each stage of the transition and examine major factors that modify those rates.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 1902 African-American, Caucasian, Chinese, or Japanese women participating in The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Individual differences in adoption of treatment for smoking cessation: demographic and smoking history characteristics.

Background: Behavioral and pharmacological treatments have been shown to improve smoking cessation rates, but treatments are under-utilized.

Aims: To examine the demographic and smoking history characteristics associated with adoption of treatment for cessation.

Design: Analysis of the 2003 tobacco use special cessation supplement to the current population survey.

A simple method for inference on an overall effect in meta-analysis.

The random effects approach in meta-analysis due to DerSimonian and Laird is well established and used pervasively. It has been established by Brockwell and Gordon that this method, when used for confidence intervals, leads to coverage probabilities lower than the nominal value. A number of alternatives have been proposed, but these either have the defect of iterative and complicated calculation, or deficient coverage.

Depressive symptoms during the menopausal transition: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Background: The influence of menopausal status on depressive symptoms is unclear in diverse ethnic groups. This study examined the longitudinal relationship between changes in menopausal status and the risk of clinically relevant depressive symptoms and whether the relationship differed according to initial depressive symptom level.

Methods: 3302 African American, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, and White women, aged 42-52 years at entry into the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a community-based, multisite longitudinal observational study, were evaluated annually from 1995 through 2002.

Helping midlife women predict the onset of the final menses: SWAN, the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: Women approaching menopause often ask their doctors, "When are my periods going to end?" The objective of this study was to predict time to the final menstrual period (FMP).

Design: This multiethnic, observational cohort study, the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, has been ongoing since 1996. Data collected from seven annual study visits were used.

The association of genetic polymorphisms in sex hormone biosynthesis and action with insulin sensitivity and diabetes mellitus in women at midlife.

We evaluated associations of insulin sensitivity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes mellitus with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variants from sex hormone biosynthesis and action in women of 4 races/ethnicities. DNA was extracted from transformed cell samples of 1,538 women in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). African American, Caucasian, Chinese, and Japanese women in SWAN enrolled in the Sex Steroid Hormone Genetics Protocol from whom fasting glucose and insulin measures (for estimating insulin sensitivity), diabetes status, and metabolic syndrome classification were obtained.

A universal menopausal syndrome?

A variety of symptoms are reported frequently as being part of a menopausal syndrome. These include hot flashes, night sweats, menstrual irregularities, vaginal dryness, depression, nervous tension, palpitations, headaches, insomnia, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and dizzy spells. The question of whether and how symptoms occur together is important for women who want to know which symptoms can be attributed to menopause and which to aging generally or to other physical or psychosocial factors.

The relationship of longitudinal change in reproductive hormones and vasomotor symptoms during the menopausal transition.

Context: The relationship of reproductive hormones to vasomotor symptoms (VMS) has been incompletely explored, although an increase in such symptoms at midlife and their reduction with hormone therapy suggest a strong and direct relationship. Vasomotor symptoms are reported by 65-76% of women traversing the menopausal transition and are a primary reason for medical intervention during this life stage.

Objective: The purpose of this report was to relate longitudinal serum concentrations of the reproductive hormones estradiol (E2), FSH, testosterone (T), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), and SHBG and the free hormone indices free E2 index (FEI) and free T index (FTI) with the occurrence of VMS in women traversing the menopausal transition.

Correlates of sexual function among multi-ethnic middle-aged women: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objective: To examine sexual function in a cohort of Baby Boomer women of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds; to compare differences between pre-and early perimenopausal women; and to identify sociodemographic, health-related, and psychosocial (including psychological, behavioral, and relationship) factors related to sexual function.

Design: Six domains of sexual function were studied in 3,167 women in the baseline cohort of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Participants were 42 to 52 years old, pre-or early perimenopausal, and not using hormones.

Sex-hormone-binding globulin and the free androgen index are related to cardiovascular risk factors in multiethnic premenopausal and perimenopausal women enrolled in the Study of Women Across the Nation (SWAN).

Background: Recent clinical trials have shifted attention away from estrogens and toward androgens and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) as potential mediators of increasing cardiovascular (CV) risk in women at midlife.

Methods And Results: The correlation between reproductive hormones and CV risk factors was evaluated in a multiethnic (white, black, Hispanic, Chinese, and Japanese) sample of 3297 premenopausal and perimenopausal women. Testosterone and estradiol (E2) were evaluated along with SHBG and the free androgen index (FAI), the amount of testosterone not bound by SHBG.

Weight change is associated with change in arterial stiffness among healthy young adults.

Risk factors for arterial stiffness progression have not been well characterized. We examined the relationship between arterial stiffness progression and body weight and weight gain in a group of healthy young adults. Aortic pulse-wave velocity was assessed at 2 time points approximately 2 years apart in 152 white and black adults aged 20 to 40 years, and was standardized by the time between visits to obtain annualized pulse-wave velocity changes.

A dietary and exercise intervention slows menopause-associated progression of subclinical atherosclerosis as measured by intima-media thickness of the carotid arteries.

Objectives: The object of this study was to assess the effects of menopause and a diet/exercise intervention on subclinical atherosclerosis progression.

Background: Subclinical atherosclerosis has been linked to higher coronary heart disease and stroke rates and is greater among postmenopausal women according to cross-sectional analyses. Whether menopause is associated with an accelerated progression of subclinical disease is unknown, as is the extent to which lifestyle intervention can alter the course of progression.

Segment-specific effects of cardiovascular risk factors on carotid artery intima-medial thickness in women at midlife.

Objective: We investigated associations between segment-specific carotid intima-medial thickness (IMT) and cardiovascular risk factors collected before menopause for insight into mechanisms of atherosclerosis development.

Methods And Results: Participants were 453 healthy women (aged 46 to 58 years) enrolled in a dietary and physical activity randomized clinical trial. Ultrasound scan measures were taken approximately 2.

Lipoprotein levels are associated with incident hypertension in older adults.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between baseline measures of serum lipoproteins and incident hypertension in older adults.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, site of Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP).