761 results match your criteria: "Slone Epidemiology Center[Affiliation]"

Use of Practices to Reduce of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death among Caregivers of Opioid Exposed Newborns.

J Addict Med

December 2024

From the Department of Pediatrics, UMass Chan School of Medicine, Worcester, MA (MGP, AE); Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (FR, CP, SK, MC); Divisions of General Academic Pediatrics and Newborn Medicine, Mass General for Children, Boston, MA (DMS); Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO (BC, HF, EC); Department of Pediatrics, UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate, Worcester, MA (KH); Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA (TH); and Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA (EMW).

Objectives: Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) occurs disproportionately among opioid exposed newborns (OENs) compared to those unexposed. The extent that primary caregivers of OENs adhere to SUID-reducing infant care practices is unknown. We examined rates of SUID-reducing practices (smoking cessation, breastfeeding, and safe sleep [supine sleep, room-sharing not bed-sharing, nonuse of soft bedding or objects]) in a pilot sample of caregivers of OENs.

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Refining breast cancer genetic risk and biology through multi-ancestry fine-mapping analyses of 192 risk regions.

Nat Genet

January 2025

Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.

Genome-wide association studies have identified approximately 200 genetic risk loci for breast cancer, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known breast cancer risk loci using genome-wide association study data from 172,737 female breast cancer cases and 242,009 controls of African, Asian and European ancestry. We identified 332 independent association signals for breast cancer risk, including 131 signals not reported previously, and for 50 of them, we narrowed the credible causal variants down to a single variant.

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Case-control studies of sun exposure and ultraviolet radiation (UVR) have consistently reported inverse associations with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk, but prospective studies have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored these exposures in relation to multiple myeloma (MM) risk. To further evaluate these associations with NHL and MM risk and identify etiologically relevant exposure timing, we pooled data on 566,693 individuals from 6 United States (U.

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Background: Although digital technology represents a growing field aiming to revolutionize early Alzheimer disease risk prediction and monitoring, the perspectives of older adults on an integrated digital brain health platform have not been investigated.

Objective: This study aims to understand the perspectives of older adults on a digital brain health platform by conducting semistructured interviews and analyzing their transcriptions by natural language processing.

Methods: The study included 28 participants from the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, all of whom engaged with a digital brain health platform over an initial assessment period of 14 days.

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Purpose: To determine the relationship between germline pathogenic variants (PV) in cancer predisposition genes and the risk of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Experimental Design: Germline PV frequencies in breast cancer predisposition genes (ATM, BARD1, BRCA1, BRCA2, CDH1, CHEK2, PALB2, RAD51C, and RAD51D) were compared between DCIS cases and unaffected controls and between DCIS and invasive ductal breast cancer (IDC) cases from a clinical testing cohort (n = 9,887), a population-based cohort (n = 3,876), and the UK Biobank (n = 2,421). The risk of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) for DCIS cases with PV was estimated in the population-based cohort.

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In most countries, males have ~2-3 times higher incidence of primary liver cancer than females. Sex hormones have been hypothesized to contribute to these differences, but the evidence remains unclear. Using data from the UK Biobank, which included ~200,000 males and ~180,000 postmenopausal females who provided blood samples at recruitment, we estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for a doubling in hormone concentration from multivariable adjusted Cox regression for circulating total testosterone, sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and free testosterone concentrations and risk of primary liver cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • Approximately 28.2% of mothers reported falling asleep while feeding their infants, with most cases being unplanned.
  • The study found no significant differences in FAF based on sociodemographic factors, but feeding location played a role—mothers feeding in a chair were less likely to FAF compared to those feeding in bed.
  • Mothers who received education on safe sleep practices reported notably lower rates of FAF, suggesting the importance of providing guidance to new parents on safe infant feeding practices.
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Background: Physical activity has emerged as a modifiable behavioral factor to improve cognitive function. However, research on adherence to remote monitoring of physical activity in older adults is limited.

Objective: This study aimed to assess adherence to remote monitoring of physical activity in older adults within a pilot cohort from objective user data, providing insights for the scalability of such monitoring approaches in larger, more comprehensive future studies.

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  • The study investigates the link between childhood abuse and the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly focusing on female health professionals.
  • Using data from the Nurses' Health Study II, researchers analyzed reports of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and confirmed IBD diagnoses through medical records.
  • Results indicate that women with a history of severe childhood abuse had a significantly higher risk of Crohn's disease, but no similar association was found for ulcerative colitis.
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  • About one-third of US adults have tattoos, raising concerns about potential long-term health risks, including exposure to carcinogens and immune responses.
  • A case-control study comparing 820 individuals with hematologic cancers to 8200 controls found no overall strong link between tattoos and major blood cancers but revealed some associations in younger adults (ages 20-60) for rarer types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and certain myeloid neoplasms.
  • While the results were not definitive, they suggest a possible increased risk of specific hematologic cancers tied to tattooing, indicating a need for further research, especially given the high tattoo prevalence in younger adults.
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  • * In a study of participants from the Black Women's Health Study, those with the highest PMD showed a 53% increased odds of developing breast cancer compared to those with the lowest.
  • * The increased risk was significant for both estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) cancers, emphasizing PMD as a critical risk factor for breast cancer in Black women.
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Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones) is a frequently occurring urologic condition resulting in significant patient morbidity and healthcare costs. Despite the higher prevalence of metabolic risk factors for nephrolithiasis among Black women, there have been few epidemiologic studies of kidney stones focusing on this group. We describe demographic and health characteristics, diagnostics, and metabolic profiles of US Black women with self-reported kidney stones.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how cardiovascular risk factors relate to the risk of developing all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease, with a focus on sex differences.
  • Data from the Framingham Heart Study involving over 4,000 participants showed that high Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP) scores significantly increase the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, especially in women.
  • The findings highlight the need for sex-specific interventions and further research to understand the mechanisms behind these associations.
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Background: Protein abundance levels, sensitive to both physiological changes and external interventions, are useful for assessing the Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk and treatment efficacy. However, identifying proteomic prognostic markers for AD is challenging by their high dimensionality and inherent correlations.

Methods: Our study analyzed 1128 plasma proteins, measured by the SOMAscan platform, from 858 participants 55 years and older (mean age 63 years, 52.

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Liver Cancer: Progress and Priorities.

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev

October 2024

Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

Liver cancer, the sixth most frequently occurring cancer in the world and the third most common cause of cancer mortality, has wide geographical variation in both incidence and mortality rates. At the end of the 20th century, incidence rates began declining in some high-rate areas and increasing in some lower-rate areas. These trends were undoubtedly driven by the shifting contributions of both well-established and more novel risk factors.

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Article Synopsis
  • Elevated mammographic density (MD) is a significant risk factor for breast cancer, and this study investigates how factors like childbirth, age at first birth, and breastfeeding relate to MD in a large group of women across different countries.
  • The research analyzed data from 11,755 women aged 35-85 years, focusing on how factors such as the number of births and the timing of the first birth influence measurements of MD.
  • The findings suggest that having more children decreases MD, while older age at first birth is linked to higher MD, particularly in post-menopausal women, highlighting the complex relationships between reproductive factors and breast density.
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  • Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health concern, and understanding how genetic and environmental factors interact can help identify at-risk groups.
  • This study analyzed data from over 45,000 CRC cases to assess both multiplicative and additive interactions between genetic risk scores and various environmental factors, finding no multiplicative interactions but significant additive ones for high genetic susceptibility individuals.
  • Results suggest that individuals with high genetic risk could benefit more from lifestyle interventions like reducing alcohol intake or increasing fruit and fiber consumption, emphasizing the need for targeted prevention strategies in CRC care.
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  • Clinical genetic testing helps find cancer risks by identifying gene changes, but some of these changes are confusing because we don't know what they mean (called VUS).
  • Researchers studied a huge number of breast cancer patients and healthy people to understand these confusing gene changes better.
  • They found that their method of analyzing data closely matches what other experts say about which gene changes are harmless or harmful, giving more information about 785 unclear changes.
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  • The American Cancer Society suggests that doctors should talk to women about endometrial cancer risks when they reach menopause, but more younger women under 50 are being diagnosed.
  • A study looked at nearly 14,000 women with endometrial cancer and found that factors like body weight and diabetes increase the risk for both younger and older women.
  • Educating women about these risk factors could help reduce the number of cases, as many endometrial cancer cases in both age groups are linked to these factors.
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Background: With the aging global population and the rising burden of Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRDs), there is a growing focus on identifying mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to enable timely interventions that could potentially slow down the onset of clinical dementia. The production of speech by an individual is a cognitively complex task that engages various cognitive domains. The ease of audio data collection highlights the potential cost-effectiveness and noninvasive nature of using human speech as a tool for cognitive assessment.

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Background And Objectives: The lack of provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) to families with languages other than English (LOE) is a highly modifiable driver of health care inequities. In a nationally representative sample of level 2 to 4 US NICUs, we examined patterns and predictors of communication practices for families with LOE and ascertained clinical leaders' beliefs about barriers to CLAS provision.

Methods: We surveyed clinical leaders from 500 randomly selected US NICUs.

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Background: High mammographic density is one of the strongest breast cancer risk factors; however, determinants of high mammographic density are understudied in Black women. We assessed growth and development factors across the lifecourse in relation to mammographic density.

Methods: Within the Black Women's Health Study, we used Cumulus software to assess percent mammographic density from digital screening mammograms for 5,905 women ages 40 to 74 years.

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Associations Between Glucose Metabolism Measures and Amyloid-β and Tau Load on PET 14 Years Later: Findings From the Framingham Heart Study.

Diabetes Care

October 2024

Alzheimer Center Limburg, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the relationship between glucose metabolism and the development of tau pathology, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, in middle-aged adults without dementia.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 288 participants, examining their fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels and later PET scans for amyloid-β and tau loads.
  • Results showed that elevated plasma glucose correlated with increased tau load after 14 years, particularly in individuals who were not carriers of the APOE ε4 allele, while insulin levels and HOMA-IR did not show significant associations with either amyloid-β or tau.
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