How Diet and Lifestyle Can Fine-Tune Gut Microbiomes for Healthy Aging.

Many physical, social, and psychological changes occur during aging that raise the risk of developing chronic diseases, frailty, and dependency. These changes adversely affect the gut microbiota, a phenomenon known as microbe-aging. Those microbiota alterations are, in turn, associated with the development of age-related diseases.

Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Generational Disparities in Physically Strenuous and Hazardous Work Conditions.

Despite the importance of work in adult life, research on the social determinants of health often ignores its effects. We examine race/ethnic, immigrant generational, and gender differentials in exposure to work conditions associated with poor health outcomes, using a nationally-representative sample of adults. On average, Latino 1st generation workers are more exposed to strenuous and hazardous work conditions than other workers, even after adjusting for sociodemographic differences.

Gene-environment interactions and the case of body mass index and obesity: How much do they matter?

We investigate the demographic and population health implications of gene-environment interactions (GxE) in the case of body mass index (BMI) and obesity. We seek to answer two questions: (a) what is the first-order impact of GxE effects on BMI and probability of obesity, e.g.

Childhood adversity and risk of later labor market marginalization in young employees in Sweden.

Background: The present study examined the independent and combined effects of childhood adversity (CA) and occupational class on the risk of future labor market marginalization (LMM) in young employees in Sweden. Occupational class (non-manual/manual workers) was also explored as a potential mediator.

Methods: This population-based longitudinal cohort study included 556 793 employees, 19-29 years, residing in Sweden in 2009.

Modeling biological age and its link with the aging process.

Differences in health status at older ages are a result of genetic predispositions and physiological responses to exposure accumulation over the lifespan. These vary across individuals and lead to health status heterogeneity as people age. Chronological age (CA) is a standard indicator that reflects overall risks of morbidity and mortality.

On the emergence of the correlation between life expectancy and the variance in the age at death.

Recent empirical studies have found various patterns in the correlations between lifespan inequality and life expectancy in modern human populations. However, it is unclear how general these regularities are. Here we establish three theorems that provide theoretical foundations for such regularities.

Sickness absence due to common mental disorders in young employees in Sweden: are there differences in occupational class and employment sector?

Background: A large proportion of sickness absence (SA) in young adults is due to common mental disorders (CMDs). Still studies on CMD-related SA in young workers are lacking, especially studies for those employed in the private sector. The current study investigated the associations between sector of employment, occupational class and SA due to CMDs.

Childhood adversity and common mental disorders in young employees in Sweden: is the association affected by early adulthood occupational class?

Background: Childhood adversities are associated with an elevated risk for common mental disorders (CMDs). Whether the strength of the association also holds for young employees is unclear. Given the increase in CMD rates in young adults over the past decade, identification of risk factors has important implications for future public health interventions.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and risk for non-affective psychotic disorder: The role of ADHD medication and comorbidity, and sibling comparison.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common psychiatric disorder in childhood. It is unclear whether ADHD increases the risk of non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD). The study included a matched cohort, drawn from all born in Sweden 1987-1991 (n = 548,852).

Impact of delayed effects on human old-age mortality.

Background: There is growing empirical evidence supporting theories of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). However, the implications of DOHaD conjectures for aggregate population patterns of human disease, disability, mortality and aging are poorly understood.

Objective: We empirically test two predictions derived from a formal model of aggregate population-level impacts of DOHaD.

Period and cohort-specific trends in life expectancy at different ages: Analysis of survival in high-income countries.

The number of older adults is increasing in high-income countries as survival chances continue to improve. We investigate changes in survival at older ages in high-income countries and show that although survival chances have improved, these improvements are concentrated at the top of the survival distribution where there is a small share of the population. Among females who survive to age 85 in the most recently birth cohort (1925), for example, about half die within 8 years while those in the top 25% of the survival distribution live at least 50% longer (12 years or more).

Cumulative childhood adversity, adolescent psychiatric disorder and violent offending in young adulthood.

Background: Childhood adversity (CA) is a risk indicator for psychiatric morbidity. Although CA has been linked to violent offending, limited research has considered adolescent psychiatric disorder as a mediating factor. The current study examined whether adolescent psychiatric disorder mediates the association between CA and violent offending.

Upsurge of Homicides and Its Impact on Life Expectancy and Life Span Inequality in Mexico, 2005-2015.

Objectives: To quantify the effect of the upsurge of violence on life expectancy and life span inequality in Mexico after 2005.

Methods: We calculated age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in life expectancy and life span inequality conditional on surviving to age 15 years between 1995 and 2015. We analyzed homicides, medically amenable conditions, diabetes, ischemic heart diseases, and traffic accidents by state and sex.

Impact of childhood adversities on depression in early adulthood: A longitudinal cohort study of 478,141 individuals in Sweden.

Objective: Although the relationship between childhood adversity (CA) and depression is widely accepted, there is little information on what proportion of depression is attributable to CA.

Method: We used a Swedish cohort of 478,141 individuals born in 1984-1988 in Sweden. Register-based CA indicators included parental death, parental substance abuse and psychiatric morbidity, parental criminality, parental separation, public assistance recipiency, child welfare intervention, and residential instability.

Benchmarking life expectancy and cancer mortality: global comparison with cardiovascular disease 1981-2010.

 To quantify the impact of cancer (all cancers combined and major sites) compared with cardiovascular disease (CVD) on longevity worldwide during 1981-2010. Retrospective demographic analysis using aggregated data. National civil registration systems in member states of the World Health Organization.

Association between income trajectories in childhood and psychiatric disorder: a Swedish population-based study.

Background: Childhood family income variation is an understudied aspect of households' economic context that may have distinct consequences for children. We identified trajectories of childhood family income over a 12-year period, and examined associations between these trajectories and later psychiatric disorders, among individuals born in Sweden between 1987 and 1991 (n=534 294).

Methods: We used annual income data between the ages of 3-14 years and identified 5 trajectories (2 high-income upward, 1 downward and 2 low-income upward trajectories).

Discrete Barker Frailty and Warped Mortality Dynamics at Older Ages.

We develop a discrete variant of a general model for adult mortality influenced by the delayed impact of early conditions on adult health and mortality. The discrete variant of the model builds on an intuitively appealing interpretation of conditions that induce delayed effects and is an extension of the discrete form of the standard frailty model with distinct implications. We show that introducing delayed effects is equivalent to perturbing adult mortality patterns with a particular class of time-/age-varying frailty.

Childhood social adversity and risk of depressive symptoms in adolescence in a US national sample.

Objective: Childhood social adversity has been associated with an increased risk of depression and other psychiatric disorders in adolescence and early adulthood. However, the role of timing and accumulation of adversities has not yet been established in longitudinal studies. We examined the association between childhood adversities and adolescent depressive symptoms, and the impact of timing and accumulation of adversity.