Childhood health motivation and adult cardiometabolic health in the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (CDAH) study

Objective: This research examined if childhood health motivation was associated with adult health behaviors and objectively measured health outcomes.Method: Data were from the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health study. Children aged 9 to 15 years in 1985 completed a questionnaire with health motivation items. In 2004-2006, when aged 26 to 36, participants completed assessments of health behaviors (smoking, diet, alcohol consumption, and physical activity) and cardiometabolic outcomes (body mass index, carotid intima-media thickness from ultrasound, and HOMA insulin resistance from fasting blood samples). Structural path regression analyses examined pathways from health motivation in childhood to adult cardiometabolic outcomes, mediated via adult health behaviors measured concurrently, controlling for age, sex and socioeconomic position.Results: There were 6,230 (49% female) children with data on health motivation. There were two latent constructs: health motivation (4 items: visiting a dentist, visiting a doctor, knowing about your body, and eating a good diet) and risk motivation (3 items: not being a smoker, not being fat, and not drinking alcohol). Greater health motivation was directly associated with nonsmoking, lower carotid intima-media thickness, and lower body mass index in adulthood. Greater risk motivation was directly associated with smoking, higher alcohol consumption, and poorer diets in adulthood. It was also indirectly associated with higher carotid intima-media thickness and higher HOMA insulin resistance via poorer health behaviors.Conclusions: Health motivation during childhood appears important to maintain health across the life course. It could be a target for interventions to improve cardiovascular health in children and adults

General Relativity and Weyl Geometry

We show that the general theory of relativity can be formulated in the language of Weyl geometry. We develop the concept of Weyl frames and point out that the new mathematical formalism may lead to different pictures of the same gravitational phenomena. We show that in an arbitrary Weyl frame general relativity, which takes the form of a scalar-tensor gravitational theory, is invariant with respect to Weyl tranformations. A kew point in the development of the formalism is to build an action that is manifestly invariant with respect to Weyl transformations. When this action is expressed in terms of Riemannian geometry we find that the theory has some similarities with Brans-Dicke gravitational theory. In this scenario, the gravitational field is not described by the metric tensor only, but by a combination of both the metric and a geometrical scalar field. We illustrate this point by, firstly, discussing the Newtonian limit in an arbitrary frame, and, secondly, by examining how distinct geometrical and physical pictures of the same phenomena may arise in different frames. To give an example, we discuss the gravitational spectral shift as viewed in a general Weyl frame. We further explore the analogy of general relativity with scalar-tensor theories and show how a known Brans-Dicke vacuum solution may appear as a solution of general relativity theory when reinterpreted in a particular Weyl frame. Finally, we show that the so-called WIST gravity theories are mathematically equivalent to Brans-Dicke theory when viewed in a particular frame.Comment: LATEX, 22 page

Childhood Brain Tumours: Associations With Parental Occupational Exposure to Solvents

Background: Parental occupational exposures have been associated with childhood brain tumours (CBT), but results are inconsistent. Few studies have studied CBT risk and parental solvent exposure, suggesting a possible association. We examined the association between CBT and parental occupational exposure to solvents in a case–control study.Methods: Parents of 306 cases and 950 controls completed detailed occupational histories. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for both maternal and paternal exposure to benzene, other aromatics, aliphatics and chlorinated solvents in key time periods relative to the birth of their child. Adjustments were made for matching variables (child’s age, sex and state of residence), best parental education and occupational exposure to diesel exhaust.Results: An increased risk of CBT was observed with maternal occupational exposures to chlorinated solvents (OR=8.59, 95% CI 0.94–78.9) any time before birth. Paternal exposure to solvents in the year before conception was associated with an increased CBT risk: OR=1.55 (95% CI 0.99–2.43). This increased risk appeared to be mainly attributable to exposure to aromatic solvents: OR=2.72 (95% CI 0.94–7.86) for benzene and OR=1.76 (95% CI 1.10–2.82) for other aromatics.Conclusions: Our results indicate that parental occupational exposures to solvents may be related to an increased risk of CBT

Infectious diseases in the first year of life, perinatal characteristics and childhood acute leukaemia

The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of early common infections and perinatal characteristics in the aetiology of childhood common leukaemia. A case-control study was conducted from 1995 to 1998 in France, and included 473 incident cases of acute leukaemia (AL) (408 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), 65 acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) age-, sex- and region-matched with 567 population-based controls. Data on the medical history of the child and his/her environment were collected using self-administered questionnaires. Analyses were conducted using nonconditional logistic regression. A slight negative association with early infections was observed (OR=0.8; 95% CI (0.6-1.0)). The association was stronger for early gastrointestinal infections. Early day-care was found to be associated with a decreased risk of AL (OR=0.6; 95% CI (0.4-0.8) and OR=0.8; 95% CI (0.5-1.2) for day-care starting before age 3 months and between 3 and 6 months, respectively). No association with breast-feeding was observed, irrespective of its duration. A birth order of 4 or more was associated with a significantly increased risk of AL (OR=2.0; 95% CI (1.1-3.7) with ALL). A history of asthma was associated with a decreased risk of ALL (OR 0.5; 95% CI (0.3-0.90). Although the results regarding birth order and breast-feeding do not fit with Greaves' hypothesis, the study supports the hypothesis that early common infections may play a protective role in the aetiology of childhood leukaemia, although this effect was not more marked for common ALL