Publications by authors named "Steinar Krokstad"

Article Synopsis
  • - A long-term study in Norway tracked 9,745 individuals for 30 years to explore how midlife depression and anxiety might influence the risk of developing dementia.
  • - The research found that individuals who later developed dementia showed higher rates of anxiety and depression throughout the study, with a notable increase especially in the years leading up to their dementia diagnosis.
  • - The results indicated that mixed anxiety and depressive symptoms were more prevalent in older individuals with dementia, suggesting a significant link between mental health issues in midlife and subsequent dementia risk across various types of dementia.
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Background: The purpose of this report is to examine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected pre-existing trends in mental health, with a focus on subgroup differences across age, gender and socioeconomic status.

Methods: Our analysis uses data from two survey periods (HUNT4: 2017-2019 and HUNT-COVID: 2021-2023) from the Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. We estimate overall and stratified (by age, sex and educational attainment) prevalence values for above-threshold (≥8) anxiety and depression scores using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

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Background: There is insufficient evidence to provide recommendations for leisure-time physical activity among workers across various occupational physical activity levels. This study aimed to assess the association of leisure-time physical activity with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality across occupational physical activity levels.

Methods: This study utilized individual participant data from 21 cohort studies, comprising both published and unpublished data.

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Objective: Health effects of different physical activity domains (ie, during leisure time, work and transport) are generally considered positive. Using data, we assessed independent associations of occupational and leisure-time physical activity (OPA and LTPA) with all-cause mortality.

Design: Two-stage individual participant data meta-analysis.

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Background: Socioeconomic inequalities constitute an important focus area for public health, and it has long been established that higher educational level and longer lifespan are correlated. Little is known about decennial time trends in poor self-rated health and mental distress.

Methods: This study linked decennial cross-sectional survey data on self-rated health and mental distress from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) from 1984 to 2019 with educational registry data using personal identification numbers.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined changes in alcohol consumption among older adults (65+) in Norway over 24 years, using data from three health surveys and measuring both self-reported and objective alcohol consumption levels.
  • Results showed a decline in self-reported lifetime abstinence and an increase in frequent and risky drinking, with men consistently showing higher alcohol consumption than women across all surveys.
  • By the latest survey, the gender differences in actual alcohol consumption (measured by PEth levels) had narrowed, especially among those aged 70-74 and 75+, indicating a shift in drinking patterns among older adults.
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Background: Mental health problems, and major depression in particular, are important public health issues. Following trends in the prevalence of major depression is difficult because of the costs and complications of diagnostic interviews and general population self-report health surveys. Scandinavian countries, however, have several central, population-based health registries.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how health behaviors like smoking, physical inactivity, and alcohol use may mediate the relationship between depression, anxiety, and different types of cancer, including lung and breast cancer.
  • Utilizing data from 18 cohorts with a total of 319,613 participants, the researchers performed two-stage meta-analyses to analyze these associations and calculate the mediating effects.
  • Results showed that smoking and physical inactivity significantly mediated links between depression, anxiety, and lung cancer, highlighting the importance of smoking cessation programs for individuals dealing with mental health issues.
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Background And Objectives: The cognitive reserve hypothesis posits that cognitively stimulating work delays the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, the effect of occupational cognitive demands across midlife on the risk of these conditions is unclear.

Methods: Using a cohort study design, we evaluated the association between registry-based trajectories of occupational cognitive demands from ages 30-65 years and clinically diagnosed MCI and dementia in participants in the HUNT4 70+ Study (2017-19).

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Objective: Monitoring time trends in salt consumption is important for evaluating the impact of salt reduction initiatives on public health outcomes. There has so far not been available data to indicate if salt consumption in Norway has changed during the previous decade. We aimed to assess whether average 24-h salt intake estimated from spot urine samples in the adult population of mid-Norway changed from 2006-2008 to 2017-2019 and to describe variations by sex, age and educational level.

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Background: In Norway, there is a lack of knowledge about the iodine status in the general and older adult population, and there is no established national monitoring programme for iodine. Several studies have indicated that iodine deficiency is prevalent in subgroups of the population. Salt iodisation is currently being considered as a measure to increase the population iodine status.

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Stockmanship is an important determinant for good animal welfare and health. The goal of the FarmMERGE project is to investigate the associations between farmer health and work environment, and the health, productivity and welfare of their livestock. We merged several livestock industry databases with a major total population-based health study in Norway (The Trøndelag Health Study 2017-2019 (HUNT4)).

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Background And Aim: The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), asthma and mortality is complex and multifaceted, and it is not established if educational level modifies the association between asthma and mortality. The aim was to study the association between asthma and mortality in Sweden and Norway and to what extent educational level modifies this association.

Participants And Methods: Within the Nordic EpiLung Study, >56,000 individuals aged 30-69 years participated in population-based surveys on asthma and associated risk factors in Sweden and Norway during 2005-2007.

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Background: Respiratory symptoms are a common public health issue that can partly be attributed to preventable risk factors, such as tobacco smoking and occupational exposure, which are more common in individuals with lower socioeconomic status.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the social gradient in respiratory symptoms in Nordic countries.

Methods: This study included participants aged 30-65 years from five cross-sectional population-based questionnaire surveys in 2016 in Finland and Sweden (N = 25,423) and in 2017-2019 in Norway (N = 27,107).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of psychosocial factors, like depression and anxiety, in how health behaviors (such as smoking and alcohol use) influence cancer incidence.
  • Utilizing data from 437,827 participants and 22 cohorts, researchers performed meta-analyses to assess potential interactions between psychosocial factors and health behaviors across various types of cancer.
  • Results showed no significant interactions or clear patterns; the risk of cancer linked to health behaviors appeared consistent regardless of the presence of psychosocial stress.
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Background: Hearing impairment is strongly associated with future dementia. No studies have reported objectively measured hearing impairment in a cohort with a long period of follow-up (>20 years), and few have reported follow-up over 10 years. Hence, there is a need for high quality studies with sufficient follow-up time and data to account for reverse causality and confounding.

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To estimate occurrence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) over the life-course in the Norwegian population, national health registries are a vital source of information since they fully represent the entire non-institutionalised population. However, as they are mainly established for administrative purposes, more knowledge about how NCDs are recorded in the registries is needed. To establish this, we begin by counting the number of individuals registered annually with one or more NCDs in any of the registries.

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Background: High levels of occupational physical activity (PA) have been linked to an increased risk of dementia. We assessed the association of trajectories of occupational PA at ages 33-65 with risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at ages 70+.

Methods: We included 7005 participants (49.

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Background: The study had two aims: first, to investigate trends in socioeconomic inequalities in psychological distress and loneliness among Norwegian adolescents, and second, to study variation and covariation of psychological distress and loneliness within adolescents and between siblings within families.

Methods: Multivariate mixed models were used to investigate trends in socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress and loneliness using three separate cohorts of Norwegian adolescents from the Young-HUNT study conducted in 1995-1997 (Young-HUNT1,  = 8980), 2006-2008 (Young-HUNT3,  = 8199) and 2017-2019 (Young-HUNT4,  = 8066). Register data on parental education level was used as a marker of socioeconomic position (SEP), and a unique family number was used to identify adolescents belonging to the same family.

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Objective: Assess whether engagement in a range of cultural activities, both 'passive' and 'active' (ie, receptive and creative) participation, is associated with later demand for general practitioner (GP) consultations.

Design: Longitudinal prospective cohort study.

Setting: Data from the population-based the third Survey of Trøndelag Health Study (2006-2008) in Norway was linked to an administrative register including service information from all GP offices nationwide.

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Article Synopsis
  • Depression and anxiety have been studied as potential risk factors for various types of cancer, but previous research has produced inconclusive results.
  • The PSY-CA consortium analyzed data from 18 cohorts, including over 319,000 participants, to investigate the relationship between these mental health conditions and cancer incidence using detailed statistical methods.
  • The findings revealed no significant links between depression or anxiety and most cancer types, although there was a slight association with lung and smoking-related cancers, which diminished after accounting for other risk factors like smoking and alcohol consumption.
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Background: Research shows that retirement age is associated with later-life cognition but has not sufficiently distinguished between retirement pathways. We examined how retirement age was associated with later-life dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) for people who retired via the disability pathway (received a disability pension prior to old-age pension eligibility) and those who retired via the standard pathway.

Methods: The study sample comprised 7210 participants from the Norwegian Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT4 70+, 2017-2019) who had worked for at least one year in 1967-2019, worked until age 55+, and retired before HUNT4.

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Objectives: Obtain a broad impression of the health and wellbeing of working farmers in a representative population.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using data from a large, general population-based survey, The HUNT Study, Norway (HUNT survey 4, 2017-2019, response rate 54%). The study included 24,313 occupationally active participants aged 19 to 76 years, including 1,188 farmers.

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Background: Neighborhood deprivation and depression have been linked to epigenetic age acceleration. The next-generation epigenetic clocks including the DNA methylation (DNAm) GrimAge, and PhenoAge have incorporated clinical biomarkers of physiological dysregulation by selecting cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites that are associated with risk factors for disease, and have shown improved accuracy in predicting morbidity and time-to-mortality compared to the first-generation clocks. The aim of this study is to examine the association between neighborhood deprivation and DNAm GrimAge and PhenoAge acceleration in adults, and assess interaction with depressive symptoms.

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