Mitochondrial superclusters influence age of onset of Parkinson’s disease in a gender specific manner in the Cypriot population: A case-control study

Despite evidence supporting an involvement of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of some neurodegenerative disorders, there are inconsistent findings concerning mitochondrial haplogroups and their association to neurodegenerative disorders, including idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD).To test this hypothesis for the Greek-Cypriot population, a cohort of 230 PD patients and 457 healthy matched controls were recruited. Mitochondrial haplogroup distributions for cases and controls were determined. Association tests were carried out between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD.Mitochondrial haplogroup U was associated with a reduced PD risk in the Cypriot population. After pooling mitochondrial haplogroups together into haplogroup clusters and superclusters, association tests demonstrated a significantly protective effect of mitochondrial haplogroup cluster N (xR) and supercluster LMN for PD risk only in females. In addition, for female PD cases belonging to UKJT and R (xH, xUKJT) haplogroup, the odds of having a later age of onset of PD were 13 and 15 times respectively higher than the odds for female cases with an H haplogroup.Statistically significant associations regarding PD risk and PD age of onset were mostly detected for females thus suggesting that gender is a risk modifier between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD status / PD age of onset. The biological mechanisms behind this gender specificity remain to be determined

Social inequality in obesity in an Eastern Mediterranean population: evidence from a national health survey in Cyprus

Background. We aimed to explore socioeconomic factors associated with obesity among adults and to investigate social inequality in obesity prevalence in Cyprus. Study design. Cross-sectional study Methods. We conducted a survey among 3,021 Greek-Cypriots aged 25-64 years, collecting self-reported demographics, health behaviors, socioeconomic characteristics and anthropometric measurements. We performed univariable and multivariable (adjusting for demographics and health behaviors) sex-specific Poisson’s regression with robust variance, reporting adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals. Results. The prevalence of obesity was 22% among males and 17% among females. According to univariable analyses, higher obesity prevalence was associated with increased age, decreased physical activity and decreased alcohol consumption in both genders. In addition, obesity was associated with refugee status and former smoking in males and with a higher healthy diet score in females. There was a clear linear decrease in obesity prevalence each step up the socioeconomic hierarchy in both genders. In the fully adjusted model, a clear inverse gradient in obesity prevalence by educational attainment was observed in females (p=0.002), while, in males, lower obesity prevalence remained significantly associated with the highest level of family-net income and educational attainment (aPR:0.48; 95% CI:0.27-0.84 and aPR:0.46; 95% CI:0.25-0.84, respectively). Occupational social class was not associated with obesity. Conclusions. This study highlights striking social inequalities in obesity in an Eastern Mediterranean population, which only recently moved from rural living to high levels of development. We recommend that public health interventions should address education - and income-related barriers, as a means of tackling health inequalitie

Dairy intake, blood pressure and incident hypertension in a general British population: The 1946 birth cohort

We aimed to examine the association between intake of different subgroups of dairy products and blood pressure and incident hypertension 10 years later, adjusting for confounding factors