The Association Between Dietary Vitamin C and Sleep Disorders: A Cohort Study Based on UK Biobank.

Approximately 30% of adults globally suffer from sleep disorders. However, there are few longitudinal studies on the association between dietary vitamin C and sleep disorders. This study aimed to investigate the association between dietary vitamin C intake and various types of sleep disorders, including sleep apnea and insomnia.

Short-term lifestyle education on obesity reduction in adolescents.

Backgrounds: Obesity is increasing in adolescents in China. However, the awareness of obesity and prevention on related risk factors were not well known. We aim to assess the effectiveness of short-term health education intervention on obesity in Chinese adolescents.

Nomogram for predicting the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in older adults in Qingdao, China: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Objectives: To explore the risk factors for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and to establish a non-invasive tool for the screening of NAFLD in an older adult population.

Methods And Study Design: A total of 131,161 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. Participants were randomly divided into training and validation sets (7:3).

Association between famine exposure during infancy and childhood and the risk of chronic kidney disease in adulthood.

Background: Famine exposure in childhood is proven to be associated with multiple chornic disease in adult but has not been studied with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Aims: This study was conducted to identify the relationship between famine exposure during infancy and childhood - specifically, the Chinese famine of 1959-1961 - and the risk of adult-onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) among Chinese individuals.

Methods: This study included 2937 individuals from the Qingdao Diabetes Prevention Program.

DNA Methylation Mediated the Association of Body Mass Index With Blood Pressure in Chinese Monozygotic Twins.

Obesity is an established risk factor for hypertension, but the mechanisms are only partially understood. We examined whether body mass index (BMI)-related DNA methylation (DNAm) variation would mediate the association of BMI with blood pressure (BP). We first conducted a genomewide DNA methylation analysis in monozygotic twin pairs to detect BMI-related DNAm variation and then evaluated the mediating effect of DNAm on the relationship between BMI and BP levels using the causal inference test (CIT) method and mediation analysis.

Association of seafood consumption with cardiovascular disease among adults in Qingdao, China.

Background And Aims: The relationship between seafood consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is controversial, and studies have not considered competing risk events. Our study examined the association between a full range of seafood consumption and CVD incidence and mortality based on the Qingdao Diabetes Prevention Program.

Methods And Results: We followed up 5285 participants without CVD at baseline until December 31, 2021.

Famine exposure in early life and type 2 diabetes in adulthood: findings from prospective studies in China.

Background/objectives: This study examined the relationship between famine exposure in early life and the risk of type 2 diabetes in adulthood during the 1959-1961 Chinese Famine.

Subjects/methods: A total of 3,418 individuals aged 35-74 years free of diabetes from two studies in 2006 and 2009 were followed up prospectively in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Famine exposure was classified as unexposed (individuals born in 1962-1978), fetal exposed (individuals born in 1959-1961), child exposed (individuals born in 1949-1958), and adolescent/adult exposed (born in 1931-1948).

Modeling biological age using blood biomarkers and physical measurements in Chinese adults.

Background: This study aimed to: 1) assess the associations of biological age acceleration based on Klemera and Doubal's method (KDM-AA) with long-term risk of all-cause mortality; and 2) compare the association of KDM-AA with all-cause mortality among participants potentially at different stages of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) continuum.

Methods: The present study was based on a subpopulation of the China Kadoorie Biobank, with baseline survey during 2004-08. A total of 12,377 participants free of ischemic heart disease, stroke, or cancer at baseline were included, in which 8180 participants were identified to develop major coronary event (MCE), ischemic stroke (IS), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), and 4197 remained free of these cardiovascular diseases before 1 January 2014.

Relationship between dietary patterns and prediabetes, undiagnosed or diagnosed diabetes mellitus among adults in Qingdao: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Objectives: To identify the main dietary patterns of adults and investigate the cross-sectional associations of these dietary patterns with prediabetes and undiagnosed or diagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) in Qingdao, China.

Methods And Study Design: This study included 4,457 participants who were administered the semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis (PCA).

Sodium Alginate Prevents Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Modulating the Gut-Liver Axis in High-Fat Diet-Fed Rats.

Previous studies have suggested that the sodium alginate (SA) is beneficial for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), while the potential mechanisms are largely unknown. The present study aimed to clarify the effects and potential mechanisms of SA in preventing NAFLD via the gut−liver axis. Thirty-two male Sprague−Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: normal control group (NC); high-fat diet group (HFD); HFD with 50 mg/kg/d sodium alginate group (LSA); HFD with 150 mg/kg/d sodium alginate group (HSA).

Smoking remains associated with education after controlling for social background and genetic factors in a study of 18 twin cohorts.

We tested the causality between education and smoking using the natural experiment of discordant twin pairs allowing to optimally control for background genetic and childhood social factors. Data from 18 cohorts including 10,527 monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs discordant for education and smoking were analyzed by linear fixed effects regression models. Within twin pairs, education levels were lower among the currently smoking than among the never smoking co-twins and this education difference was larger within DZ than MZ pairs.

Design of a mutation-integrated trimeric RBD with broad protection against SARS-CoV-2.

The continuous emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants highlights the need of developing vaccines with broad protection. Here, according to the immune-escape capability and evolutionary convergence, the representative SARS-CoV-2 strains carrying the hotspot mutations were selected. Then, guided by structural and computational analyses, we present a mutation-integrated trimeric form of spike receptor-binding domain (mutI-tri-RBD) as a broadly protective vaccine candidate, which combined heterologous RBDs from different representative strains into a hybrid immunogen and integrated immune-escape hotspots into a single antigen.

Identification of key genes and pathways in type 2 diabetes mellitus and vitamin C metabolism through bioinformatics analysis.

Background And Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major global public health problem. Vitamin C (VC) can improve metabolic dysfunctions associated with T2DM. To establish an association between T2DM and VC metabolism, it is necessary to investigate the biological mechanisms of T2DM and VC.

Educational attainment of same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins: An individual-level pooled study of 19 twin cohorts.

Comparing twins from same- and opposite-sex pairs can provide information on potential sex differences in a variety of outcomes, including socioeconomic-related outcomes such as educational attainment. It has been suggested that this design can be applied to examine the putative role of intrauterine exposure to testosterone for educational attainment, but the evidence is still disputed. Thus, we established an international database of twin data from 11 countries with 88,290 individual dizygotic twins born over 100 years and tested for differences between twins from same- and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs in educational attainment.

Associations between anthropometric parameters (body mass index, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio) and newly diagnosed hyperuricemia in adults in Qingdao, China: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Objectives: To evaluate the association between anthropometric parameter of obesity and newly diagnosed hyperuricemia (HUA) in a general Chinese population.

Methods And Study Design: A population- based cross-sectional survey included 9 615 participants (3777 men and 5838 women) aged 35-74 years in 2006 and 2009 in Qingdao, China. The multivariate linear regression was used to assess the linear associations between anthropometric parameter of obesity [body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)] and serum uric acid.

A meta-analysis of the incidence rate of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with congenital heart disease.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of cardiac surgery. However, the incidence rate of AKI in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) greatly varies between reports owing to the different definitions used for AKI. Therefore, this study was designed as a meta-analysis aimed at summarizing the incidence rate of AKI in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) on the basis of different AKI criteria.

Genetic and environmental variation in educational attainment: an individual-based analysis of 28 twin cohorts.

We investigated the heritability of educational attainment and how it differed between birth cohorts and cultural-geographic regions. A classical twin design was applied to pooled data from 28 cohorts representing 16 countries and including 193,518 twins with information on educational attainment at 25 years of age or older. Genetic factors explained the major part of individual differences in educational attainment (heritability: a = 0.

Genetic and environmental influences on human height from infancy through adulthood at different levels of parental education.

Genetic factors explain a major proportion of human height variation, but differences in mean stature have also been found between socio-economic categories suggesting a possible effect of environment. By utilizing a classical twin design which allows decomposing the variation of height into genetic and environmental components, we tested the hypothesis that environmental variation in height is greater in offspring of lower educated parents. Twin data from 29 cohorts including 65,978 complete twin pairs with information on height at ages 1 to 69 years and on parental education were pooled allowing the analyses at different ages and in three geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia).

Triglycerides and Total Cholesterol Concentrations in Association with Hyperuricemia in Chinese Adults in Qingdao, China.

Objective: To assess the association between triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and hyperuricemia (HUA) in the general Chinese population.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional survey included 9680 participants aged 35-74 years in 2006 and 2009 in Qingdao, China. TG, TC and uric acid (UA) were measured.

Famine Exposure in Early Life and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Adulthood: Comparisons of Different Metabolic Syndrome Definitions.

This study examined the association between famine exposure in early life and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adulthood during the 1959-1961 Chinese Famine. Two cross-sectional surveys involving randomly selected Chinese adults aged 35-74 years in the Qingdao area were conducted. A total of 9,588 individuals were grouped into four birth cohorts of unexposed (born between January 1, 1962, and December 31, 1975), fetal-exposed (born between January 1, 1959, and December 31, 1961), childhood-exposed (born between January 1, 1949, and December 31, 1958), and adolescence/adult-exposed cohorts (born between January 1, 1931, and December 31, 1948).

Effect of Benzo[a]pyrene-DNA Adduct in Cord Blood on the Neurodevelopment of 12-Month-Old Infants in Qingdao City.

Introduction: The study was designed to explore the possible adverse effects of prenatal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the neurodevelopment of the infants at the age of 12 months in a birth cohort in Qingdao of China. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)-DNA adduct level in umbilical cord blood was measured by enzyme immunoassay.

Methods: Child neurodevelopment was assessed at both 6 months and 12 months of age using the Gesell Development Inventory (GDI).

The CODATwins Project: The Current Status and Recent Findings of COllaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity.

Synergistic effects of depression and obesity on type 2 diabetes incidence in Chinese adults.

Background: Cross-sectional studies have supported the association among depression, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, but the causality remains controversial in Chinese adults. In this longitudinal study, we evaluated the synergistic effect of depression and obesity on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Methods: This study included 2809 participants randomly selected from the Qingdao Diabetes Prevention Program, and their type 2 diabetes incidence was determined over a follow-up period of 3 years.

Parental Education and Genetics of BMI from Infancy to Old Age: A Pooled Analysis of 29 Twin Cohorts.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze how parental education modifies the genetic and environmental variances of BMI from infancy to old age in three geographic-cultural regions.

Methods: A pooled sample of 29 cohorts including 143,499 twin individuals with information on parental education and BMI from age 1 to 79 years (299,201 BMI measures) was analyzed by genetic twin modeling.

Results: Until 4 years of age, parental education was not consistently associated with BMI.

Association of current and former smoking with body mass index: A study of smoking discordant twin pairs from 21 twin cohorts.

Background: Smokers tend to weigh less than never smokers, while successful quitting leads to an increase in body weight. Because smokers and non-smokers may differ in genetic and environmental family background, we analysed data from twin pairs in which the co-twins differed by their smoking behaviour to evaluate if the association between smoking and body mass index (BMI) remains after controlling for family background.

Methods And Findings: The international CODATwins database includes information on smoking and BMI measured between 1960 and 2012 from 156,593 twin individuals 18-69 years of age.