Comparisons in demographic characteristics and comorbidities between cohorts with and without hepatitis C infection.

<p>ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme.</p

Incidences of stroke and Cox model measured hazard ratios of stroke associated with hepatitis C infection, demographic factors and comorbidities.

a<p>Per 1000 person-years.</p><p>ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme; CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio.</p

Multivariable Cox model measured hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for stroke.

<p>ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme; CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio.</p

Urban Fine Particulate Matter and Elements Associated with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Adolescents and Young Adults

The relationships between the elemental constituents of PM2.5 and atherosclerosis remain limited, especially in young populations. This study included 755 subjects aged 12–30 years in the Taipei metropolis. A land use regression model was used to estimate residential annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 and eight elemental constituents. We evaluated the percent differences in carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) with PM2.5 and elemental constituent exposures by linear regressions. Interquartile range increments for PM2.5 (4.5 μg/m3), sulfur (108.6 ng/m3), manganese (2.0 ng/m3), iron (34.5 ng/m3), copper (3.6 ng/m3), and zinc (20.7 ng/m3) were found to associate with 0.92% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.17–1.66), 0.51% (0.02–1.00), 0.36% (0.05–0.67), 0.98% (0.15–1.82), 0.74% (0.01–1.48), and 1.20% (0.33–2.08) higher CIMTs, respectively. Factor analysis identified four air pollution source-related factors, and the factors interpreted as traffic and industry sources were associated with higher CIMTs. Stratified analyses showed the estimates were more evident in subjects who were ≥18 years old, females, or who had lower household income. Our study results provide new insight into the impacts of source-specific air pollution, and future research on source-specific air pollution effects in young populations, especially in vulnerable subpopulations, is warranted

Basic characteristics of the study participants, specified by 25(OH)D concentration.

<p>Abbreviation: Q, quartile; SD, standard deviation; BP, blood pressure; HDL, high density lipoprotein; LDL, low density lipoprotein; HOMA, homeostasis model assessment; ANOVA and the chi-square tests were used to compare the means and proportions among quartiles.</p><p>Basic characteristics of the study participants, specified by 25(OH)D concentration.</p

Subgroup analysis for the adjusted relative risks and 95% confidence intervals of 25(OH)D concentrations in the study participants, according to baseline hypertension and diabetes status.

<p>Abbreviation: HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; CVD, cardiovascular disease; adjusted covariates as Model 3 included age, gender, body mass index, smoking, drinking, marital status, education level, job, sports activity, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol level. Baseline hypertension and diabetes status were used as the stratified factor and not included in each subgroup analysis</p><p>* Test for trend with a single term representative of the medians of each quartile</p><p>** Interaction test by comparing -2 likelihood ratio values between nested model and full model (adding three dummy variables and diabetes or hypertension status)</p><p>Subgroup analysis for the adjusted relative risks and 95% confidence intervals of 25(OH)D concentrations in the study participants, according to baseline hypertension and diabetes status.</p

The incidence cases, follow-up person-years, and the rates of cardiovascular disease events and all-cause deaths, and the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 25(OH)D concentrations in the study participants, according to quartiles.

<p>Abbreviation: HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; CVD, cardiovascular disease; py, person year;</p><p>Model 1: adjusted for age and gender,</p><p>Model 2: Model 1 & additionally adjusted for body mass index, smoking, drinking, marital status, education level, job, and sports activity,</p><p>Model 3: Model 2 & additionally adjusted for hypertension, diabetes, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol level,</p><p>Cox proportional hazards model was applied for estimating the relative risks and 95% confidence intervals</p><p>The incidence cases, follow-up person-years, and the rates of cardiovascular disease events and all-cause deaths, and the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 25(OH)D concentrations in the study participants, according to quartiles.</p

Total 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentration as a Predictor for All-Cause Death and Cardiovascular Event Risk among Ethnic Chinese Adults: A Cohort Study in a Taiwan Community

<div><p>Background</p><p>Evidence of an inverse association between serum 25-hydoroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and the risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular disease from prospective studies is inconsistent. We tested the relationship between 25(OH)D and the risk among adult ethnic Chinese in Taiwan.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We conducted a community-based cohort study of 1816 participants (age 60.2±10.2 yrs, 45.0% women) in the Chin-Shan Community Cardiovascular Cohort Study who were free of cardiovascular diseases at baseline and provided 25(OH)D measurements.</p><p>Results</p><p>During a median 9.6 (interquartile range, 8.8- 10.5) years’ follow-up period, totally 263 cases developed cardiovascular death events and 559 participants were documented to death from any cause. As 25(OH)D concentration increased, the incidence rates of cardiovascular events and all-cause death decreased progressively. 25(OH)D was inversely associated with all-cause death: the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.49 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.25-0.97) for the third quartile and a significant J-shape relationship was found. The performance measures by integrated discriminative improvement showed significant improvement after adding 25(OH)D information (0.14%, 95% CI, 0.03-0.31, P=0.050, for all-cause death and 0.32%, 95% CI, 0.02-0.62, P=0.018 for cardiovascular events).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>These findings suggested a modest inverse association between 25(OH)D and the risk of all-cause death among diabetic participants and a good predictive factor in the community. Further studies to investigate the mechanism of vitamin D role on health effect are warranted.</p></div

Improvement in discrimination performance and calibration for risk prediction of cardiovascular events and all-cause death in the multivariate-adjusted model after including 25(OH)D concentrations.

<p>AUC: area under the receiving operative characteristic curves; CI: confidence interval; HL: Hosmer-Lemeshow Goodness-of-Fit Test; CVD: cardiovascular disease; HT: hypertension; DM: diabetes mellitus; NRI: net reclassification improvement; IDI: integrated discrimination improvement;</p><p>Established risk factors included age, sex, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol</p><p>Improvement in discrimination performance and calibration for risk prediction of cardiovascular events and all-cause death in the multivariate-adjusted model after including 25(OH)D concentrations.</p

Relationship between 25(OH)D concentration and the risk of all-cause death among the subgroup population of diabetes.

<p>The multivariate adjusted hazard ratio is plotted as a function of the 25(OH)D value with the 95% confidence bands shown as the shaded areas (test for nonlinear relation, P = 0.031; test for overall significance of the curve, P = 0.07).</p