Adherence of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to medications: the role of risk preferences.

Objective: To examine whether risk tolerance is associated with adherence to oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs).

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study among adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 308) presenting for routine out-patient visits, using validated questionnaires to estimate: risk preferences (risk-seeking, risk averse, risk neutral), motivation, self-efficacy, impulsivity, perception of the disease and of the interpersonal process of care, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; computerized patient medical records to estimate disease severity and a computerized database for retrieval of medication adherence, 1 year before the interview. Adherence was estimated using prescription-based measures of proportion of days covered (PDC).

Adolescent obesity and adult male breast cancer in a cohort of 1,382,093 men.

Male breast cancer (MBC) accounts for 1% of all breast cancer. Adult obesity and tallness are risk factors for MBC, but the role of adolescent fatness is largely unknown. We aimed to assess the association between body mass index (BMI) in adolescence and the incidence of MBC in a large cohort of 16- to 19-year-old Israeli males.

Leukocyte telomere length, T cell composition and DNA methylation age.

Both leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and DNA methylation age are strongly associated with chronological age. One measure of DNA methylation age─ the extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (EEAA)─ is highly predictive of all-cause mortality. We examined the relation between LTL and EEAA.

Telomere length dynamics in early life: the blood-and-muscle model.

Telomere length (TL) trajectories in somatic tissues during human growth and development are poorly understood. We examined a blood-and-muscle model during early life, focusing on TL trajectories in leukocytes, representing the highly proliferative hematopoietic system, and skeletal muscle, a minimally proliferative tissue. Leukocyte TL (LTL) and skeletal muscle TL (MTL) were measured in 28 fetuses and 73 children.

Adolescent body mass index and risk of colon and rectal cancer in a cohort of 1.79 million Israeli men and women: A population-based study.

Background: This study examined the association between the body mass index (BMI) in late adolescence and the risk of colon and rectal cancer.

Methods: This study analyzed a cohort of 1,087,358 Jewish men and 707,212 Jewish women who underwent health examinations at the ages of 16 to 19 years between 1967 and 2002 and were followed by linkage to the national cancer registry up to 2012. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer according to age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentiles from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (overweight, 85th percentile to <95th percentile; obesity, ≥95th percentile).

Adolescent Body Mass Index and Cardiovascular Disease-Specific Mortality by Midlife.

Context: As opposed to coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, cardiovascular mortality attributed to non-CHD causes has increased.

Objective: To evaluate the association of body mass index (BMI) in late adolescence with mortality attributed to non-CHD cardiovascular sequelae.

Design And Setting: A nationwide cohort.

LDL-cholesterol Predicts a First CHD Event in Senior Citizens, Especially So in Those With Elevated Lipoprotein(a): Dubbo Study of the Elderly.

Objective: The analysis was designed to explore the combined effects of LDL-cholesterol and lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) in predicting incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in senior citizens without prior CHD.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study in Dubbo NSW which has followed 2805 men and women 60 years and older for 16 years since 1988-1989. Subjects with prior CHD (n=607) were excluded from this analysis.

Do the equity-efficiency preferences of the Israeli Basket Committee match those of Israeli health policy makers?

Background: Prioritization of medical technologies requires a multi-dimensional view. Often, conflicting equity and efficiency criteria should be reconciled. The most dramatic manifestation of such conflict is in the prioritization of new medical technologies asking for public finance performed yearly by the Israeli Basket Committee.

Telomeres and the natural lifespan limit in humans.

An ongoing debate in demography has focused on whether the human lifespan has a maximal natural limit. Taking a mechanistic perspective, and knowing that short telomeres are associated with diminished longevity, we examined whether telomere length dynamics during adult life could set a maximal natural lifespan limit. We define leukocyte telomere length of 5 kb as the 'telomeric brink', which denotes a high risk of imminent death.

Efficiency and equity considerations in the preferences of health policy-makers in Israel.

Background: There is a traditional tension in public policy between the maximization of welfare from given resources (efficiency) and considerations related to the distribution of welfare among the population and to social justice (equity). The aim of this paper is to measure the relative weights of the efficiency- and equity-enhancing criteria in the preferences of health policy-makers in Israel, and to compare the Israeli results with those of other countries.

Methods: We used the criteria of efficiency and equity which were adopted in a previous international study, adapted to Israel.

Higher body mass index in 16-19 year-old Jewish Adolescents of North African, Middle Eastern and European Origins is a Predictor of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: a cohort of 2.3 million Israelis.

Purpose: Studies evaluating adolescent risk factors for developing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are virtually nonexistent. We assessed adolescent predictors of AML in adults, with a main focus on adolescent BMI.

Methods: The study included 2,310,922 16-19-year-old Jewish Israeli adolescents (mean age 17.

Live birth sex ratios and father's geographic origins in Jerusalem, 1964-1976.

Objective: To examine whether ancestry influenced sex ratios of offspring in a birth cohort before parental antenatal sex selection influenced offspring sex.

Methods: We measured the sex ratio as the percent of males according to countries of birth of paternal and maternal grandfathers in 91,459 live births from 1964 to 1976 in the Jerusalem Perinatal Study. Confidence limits (CI) were computed based on an expected sex ratio of 1.

Shorter telomere length in Europeans than in Africans due to polygenetic adaptation.

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL), which reflects telomere length in other somatic tissues, is a complex genetic trait. Eleven SNPs have been shown in genome-wide association studies to be associated with LTL at a genome-wide level of significance within cohorts of European ancestry. It has been observed that LTL is longer in African Americans than in Europeans.

BMI at Age 17 Years and Diabetes Mortality in Midlife: A Nationwide Cohort of 2.3 Million Adolescents.

Objective: The sequelae of increasing childhood obesity are of major concern. We assessed the association of BMI in late adolescence with diabetes mortality in midlife.

Research Design And Methods: The BMI values of 2,294,139 Israeli adolescents (age 17.

Adherence to Self-Care Behaviors among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes-The Role of Risk Preferences.

Objectives: To examine whether the degree of risk aversion is associated with adherence to disease self-management among adults with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of patients with type 2 diabetes (n = 408) aged 21 to 70 years who presented for routine visits in the diabetes clinic at a university medical center in Beer-Sheva, Israel. The authors used validated questionnaires to estimate adherence, risk preferences, motivation, self-efficacy, impulsivity, perceptions about the disease and the interpersonal process of care, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, in addition to retrieving data from computerized patient medical records of clinical indicators of disease severity.

Vasoactivity of the rat endovascular trophoblast.

Introduction: Rat endovascular trophoblasts (EVasT) express smooth muscle (SM) proteins and contract ex vivo upon exposure to endothelin-1 (ET1) via receptors A and B (ETA, ETB). Presently, we investigated the EVasT response to NOS inhibition (N-Nitro-l-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride, l-NAME), and potentiation by NO donor [S-Nitroso-N-Acetyl-D,l-Penicillamine (SNAP)] following KCl precontraction. M&M: Luminal surface area (LSA) of remodeled spiral artery rings (SAR) devoid of SM was measured ex vivo upon exposure to l-NAME alone; l-NAME and ET1 representing the combined contractile effect of both ET1 receptors; l-NAME with ET1 and ETA antagonist, representing the isolated contractile effect via ETB.

Telomere Length and the Cancer-Atherosclerosis Trade-Off.

Modern humans, the longest-living terrestrial mammals, display short telomeres and repressed telomerase activity in somatic tissues compared with most short-living small mammals. The dual trait of short telomeres and repressed telomerase might render humans relatively resistant to cancer compared with short-living small mammals. However, the trade-off for cancer resistance is ostensibly increased age-related degenerative diseases, principally in the form of atherosclerosis.

Small and medium sized HDL particles are protectively associated with coronary calcification in a cross-sectional population-based sample.

Background And Aims: Failure of trials to observe benefits by elevating plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) has raised serious doubts about HDL-C's atheroprotective properties. We aimed to identify protective HDL biomarkers by examining the association of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measures of total HDL-particle (HDL-P), large HDL-particle, and small and medium-sized HDL-particle (MS-HDL-P) concentrations and average HDL-particle size with coronary artery calcification (CAC), which reflects the burden of coronary atherosclerosis, and compare with that of HDL-C.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 504 Jerusalem residents (274 Arabs and 230 Jews), recruited by population-based probability sampling, had HDL measured by NMR spectroscopy.

Measured adolescent body mass index and adult breast cancer in a cohort of 951,480 women.

Body mass index (BMI) in adolescence, studied predominantly as a self-reported risk factor for breast cancer (BC), may have been subjected to recall bias. We examined the association between measured BMI in adolescence and the incidence of BC by menopausal status. 951,480 Jewish Israeli females aged 16-19 who underwent anthropometric measurements in 1967-2011 were followed up to 31.

Body-Mass Index in 2.3 Million Adolescents and Cardiovascular Death in Adulthood.

Background: In light of the worldwide increase in childhood obesity, we examined the association between body-mass index (BMI) in late adolescence and death from cardiovascular causes in adulthood.

Methods: We grouped data on BMI, as measured from 1967 through 2010 in 2.3 million Israeli adolescents (mean age, 17.

A short leucocyte telomere length is associated with development of insulin resistance.

Aims/hypothesis: A number of studies have shown that leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is inversely associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of the present longitudinal cohort study, utilising a twin design, was to assess whether shorter LTL predicts insulin resistance or is a consequence thereof.

Methods: Participants were recruited between 1997 and 2000 through the population-based national Danish Twin Registry to participate in the GEMINAKAR study, a longitudinal evaluation of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular risk factors.

Adolescent weight and height are predictors of specific non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes among a cohort of 2,352,988 individuals aged 16 to 19 years.

Background: The age-adjusted annual incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has risen worldwide. This trend may be affected by the secular increase in height and the sharp upswing in adolescent overweight; these drive increased insulinlike growth factor 1 and chronic inflammation, which may play an etiologic role. This study examined the association of the body mass index (BMI) and height of adolescents with NHL subtypes, which have been insufficiently evaluated.

Private finance of services covered by the National Health Insurance package of benefits in Israel.

Background: Private health expenditure in systems of national health insurance has raised concern in many countries. The concern is mainly about the accessibility of care to the poor and the sick, and inequality in use and in health. The concern thus refers specifically to the care financed privately rather than to private health expenditure as defined in the national health accounts.