Methylphenidate Versus Placebo for Treating Fatigue in Patients With Advanced Cancer: Randomized, Double-Blind, Multicenter, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Purpose: To compare effects and side effects of 6 weeks of individually dose-titrated methylphenidate or placebo on fatigue in palliative care patients with advanced cancer.

Methods: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial. Eligible patients had advanced incurable cancer and fatigue >3/10.

The influence of racism on cigarette smoking: Longitudinal study of young people in a British multiethnic cohort.

Introduction: Studies, predominantly from the US, suggest that positive parenting, social support, academic achievement, and ethnic identity may buffer the impact of racism on health behaviours, including smoking, but little is known about how such effects might operate for ethnically diverse young people in the United Kingdom. We use the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH), the largest UK longitudinal study of ethnically diverse young people, to address the following questions: a) Is racism associated with smoking? b) Does the relationship between racism and smoking vary by gender and by ethnicity? (c) Do religious involvement, parenting style and relationship with parents modify any observed relationship? and d) What are the qualitative experiences of racism and how might family or religion buffer the impact?

Methods: The cohort was recruited from 51 London schools. 6643 were seen at 11-13y and 4785 seen again at 14-16y.

Longitudinal study of cardiometabolic risk from early adolescence to early adulthood in an ethnically diverse cohort.

Objective: To examine influences of adiposity from early adolescence to early 20s on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in the multiethnic Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) longitudinal study.

Methods: In 2002-2003, 6643 11-13-year-olds from 51 London schools participated at baseline, and 4785 were seen again at 14-16 years. Recently, 665 (97% of invited) participated in pilot follow-up at 21-23 years, with biological and psychosocial measures and blood biomarkers (only at 21-23 years).

Can arterial wave augmentation in young adults help account for variability of cardiovascular risk in different British ethnic groups?

Objective: Traditional cardiovascular risk factors do not fully account for ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease. We tested if arterial function indices, particularly augmentation index (AIx), and their determinants from childhood could underlie such ethnic variability among young British adults in the 'DASH' longitudinal study.

Methods: DASH, at http://dash.

Ethnic Differences in and Childhood Influences on Early Adult Pulse Wave Velocity: The Determinants of Adolescent, Now Young Adult, Social Wellbeing, and Health Longitudinal Study.

Early determinants of aortic stiffness as pulse wave velocity are poorly understood. We tested how factors measured twice previously in childhood in a multiethnic cohort study, particularly body mass, blood pressure, and objectively assessed physical activity affected aortic stiffness in young adults. Of 6643 London children, aged 11 to 13 years, from 51 schools in samples stratified by 6 ethnic groups with different cardiovascular risk, 4785 (72%) were seen again at aged 14 to 16 years.