Reaction time and incident cancer: 25 years of follow-up of study members in the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey

<b>Objectives</b><p></p> To investigate the association of reaction time with cancer incidence.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> 6900 individuals aged 18 to 94 years who participated in the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey in 1984/1985 and were followed for a cancer registration for 25 years.<p></p> <b>Results</b><p></p> Disease surveillance gave rise to 1015 cancer events from all sites. In general, there was essentially no clear pattern of association for either simple or choice reaction time with cancer of all sites combined, nor specific malignancies. However, selected associations were found for lung cancer, colorectal cancer and skin cancer.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b><p></p> In the present study, reaction time and its components were not generally related to cancer risk

Depressive symptoms and obesity: instrumental variable analysis using mother–offspring pairs in the 1970 British Cohort Study

Background: The extent to which depression and obesity are causally related remains to be determined. We used intergenerational data on mother–offspring pairs in an instrumental variable analysis to examine the longitudinal association between adolescent depressive symptoms and body mass index (BMI) in adulthood. Methods: A total of 4733 mother–offspring pairs were identified from the 1970 British Cohort Study. Mothers completed the Malaise Inventory to assess depressive symptoms on three occasions across their offsprings' childhood/adolescence (aged 5, 10 and 16 years). Height and weight were recorded in mother and offspring (aged 16 years). Measures of height, weight and the Malaise Inventory were repeated in the participant at the age of 42 years. Results: Maternal malaise score was associated with offspring malaise score, thus confirming the validity of the chosen instrumental variable. A higher mother’s malaise score was associated with higher offspring BMI at follow-up (B=0.043; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.013, 0.072). There was a higher risk of adulthood offspring obesity in mothers with two or three episodes of depression compared with one or none (odds ratio, 1.42; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.76). The maternal malaise–offspring BMI association remained (P=0.003) after adjustment for offspring malaise score, suggesting that maternal mental health influences offspring obesity through mechanisms other than depression. Results from standard and instrumental variable analyses did not support a causal pathway in a direction from BMI to depression. Conclusions: Our data support a causal pathway linking adolescent depressive symptoms to adiposity in adulthood over 26 years follow-up. The reverse direction, that is, adiposity to depression, was not supported

Association of nursery and early school attendance with later health behaviours, biomedical risk factors, and mortality: evidence from four decades of follow-up of participants in the 1958 birth cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although early life education for improved long-term health and the amelioration of socioeconomically generated inequalities in chronic disease is advocated in influential policy statements, the evidence base is very modest. AIMS: To address this dearth of evidence using data from a representative UK national birth cohort study. METHODS: The analytical sample comprised men and women in the 1958 birth cohort study with prospectively gathered data on attendance at nursery or primary school before the age of 5 years who had gone on to participate in social survey at 42 years (n=11 374), or a biomedical survey at 44/5 years of age (n=9210), or had data on vital status from 18 to 55 years (n=17 657). RESULTS: Relative to study members who had not attended nursery, in those who had, there was in fact a higher prevalence of smoking and high alcohol intake in middle age. Conversely, nursery attenders had more favourable levels of lung function and systolic blood pressure in middle age. This apparent association between nursery attendance and lower systolic blood pressure was confined to study members from more deprived social backgrounds of origin (P value for interaction 0.030). There was no apparent link between early school attendance and any behavioural or biological risk factor. Neither nursery nor early school attendance was clearly related to mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS: We found no clear evidence for an association of either attendance at nursery or primary school before the age of 5 years and health outcomes around four decades later

Childhood Body Weight in Relation to Cause-Specific Mortality: 67 Year Follow-up of Participants in the 1947 Scottish Mental Survey

The association between childhood body weight and adult health has been little-examined, and findings are inconsistent. In a representative sample of the Scottish nation (the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947), we examined the association between body mass index measured at 11 years of age and future cause-specific mortality by age 77 years. In this cohort study, a maximum of 67 years of follow-up of 3839 study members gave rise to 1568 deaths (758 from cardiovascular disease, 610 from any malignancy). After adjustment for covariates, there was some evidence of a relation between elevated childhood body mass index and rates of mortality ascribed to all-causes (hazard ratio per 1 SD increase in body mass index; 95% confidence interval: 1.09; 1.03, 1.14), cardiovascular disease (1.09; 1.01, 1.17), all cancers combined (1.12; 1.03, 1.21), smoking-related cancers (1.13; 1.03, 1.25), and breast cancer in women (1.27; 1.04, 1.56). In conclusion, we provide further observational evidence for the need for weight control measures in youth

Insulin-like growth factor 1 and risk of depression in older people: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Depressive disorders are a leading cause of disability in older age. Although the role of psychosocial and behavioural predictors has been well examined, little is known about the biological origins of depression. Findings from animal studies have implicated insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in the aetiology of this disorder. A total of 6017 older adults (mean age of 65.7 years; 55% women) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing provided serum levels of IGF-1 (mean=15.9 nmol l(-1), s.d. 5.7) during a nurse visit in 2008. Depression symptoms were assessed in the same year and again in 2012 using the eight-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Self-reports of a physician-diagnosis of depression were also collected at both time points. In separate analyses for men and women, the results from both the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses revealed a 'U'-shaped pattern of association, such that lower and higher levels of IGF-1 were associated with a slightly elevated risk of depression, whereas the lowest risk was seen around the median levels. Thus, in men, with the lowest quintile of IGF-1 as the referent, the age-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of developing depression symptoms after 4 years of follow-up, for increasing quintiles of IGF-1, were: 0.51 (0.28-0.91), 0.50 (0.27-0.92), 0.63 (0.35-1.15) and 0.63 (0.35-1.13) (P-value for quadratic association 0.002). Some attenuation of these effects was apparent after adjustment for co-morbidity, socioeconomic status and health behaviours. In conclusion, in the present study of older adults, there was some evidence that moderate levels of IGF-1 levels conferred a reduced risk of depression

Adherence to healthy dietary guidelines and future depressive symptoms: evidence for sex differentials in the Whitehall II study.

It has been suggested that dietary patterns are associated with future risk of depressive symptoms. However, there is a paucity of prospective data that have examined the temporality of this relation

Association of inflammation with specific symptoms of depression in a general population of older people: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Elevated levels of inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein, are well documented in people with depression. Few studies have examined whether the association between inflammation and depression is symptom specific, and differs according to antidepressant treatment. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N=5909), cross-sectional analyses revealed a significant dose-response association between C-reactive protein and the symptoms of fatigue (P<0.001), restless sleep (P=0.03), low energy (P=0.02) and feeling depressed (P=0.04), but not other symptoms. These associations were absent in users of anti-depressant medication. Our findings suggest the C-reactive protein-depression association is symptom-specific and modified by antidepressant treatment

Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 in relation to future hearing impairment: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) is associated with cardiovascular disease, itself a risk factor for hearing impairment, and, in animal studies, molecular evidence suggests a role for IGF-1 in hearing function. However, the link between IGF-1 and the occurrence of hearing impairment is untested in population-based studies of humans. A total of 4390 participants aged ≥50 y (mean [SD] age 64.2 [8.0] years at baseline, 55% women) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing provided serum levels of IGF-1 in 2008 and again in 2012. Hearing acuity was assessed by an objective hearing test (HearCheck handheld device) in 2014 when the prevalence was 38.2%. In the full cohort, IGF-1 was not associated with subsequent hearing impairment (OR5nmol/L increase; 95% CI: 1.01; 0.94, 1.09). However, this relationship appeared to differ by age (p-value for interaction = 0.03). Thus, in younger participants (aged 50-60 y, n = 1400), IGF-1 was associated with lower odds of hearing impairment (0.86; 0.73, 1.00) after adjustment for a range of potential confounders. Among people ≥60 y (n = 2990) there was a non-significant 'J'-shaped association. Our observational evidence that higher levels of IGF-1 appeared to confer some protection against hearing impairment in some older adults warrants replication in other prospective cohort studies

Examining the Long-Term Association of Personality With Cause-Specific Mortality in London: Four Decades of Mortality Surveillance in the Original Whitehall Smoking Cessation Trial

The personality domains of extraversion and neuroticism are regarded as being stable individual psychological characteristics, yet it remains unclear whether they are associated with chronic disease over an extended period of time. In a randomized controlled trial of smoking cessation nested within the original prospective Whitehall Study (1967–2012), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was administered to 832 male self-declared smokers who had undergone a medical examination during which their levels of extraversion and neuroticism were quantified. In the 42-year follow-up period, there were 781 deaths. In analyses in which participants from both trial arms were pooled, there was little evidence of a robust relation of either personality domain with death from all causes, coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, or cancer in any of our analyses. We therefore found no support for a role of either extraversion or neuroticism as determinants of long-term mortality risk