Body Configuration as a Predictor of Mortality: Comparison of Five Anthropometric Measures in a 12 Year Follow-Up of the Norwegian HUNT 2 Study

Background: Distribution of body fat is more important than the amount of fat as a prognostic factor for life expectancy. Despite that, body mass index (BMI) still holds its status as the most used indicator of obesity in clinical work. Methods: We assessed the association of five different anthropometric measures with mortality in general and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in particular using Cox proportional hazards models. Predictive properties were compared by computing integrated discrimination improvement and net reclassification improvement for two different prediction models. The measures studied were BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). The study population was a prospective cohort of 62,223 Norwegians, age 20–79, followed up for mortality from 1995–1997 to the end of 2008 (mean follow-up 12.0 years) in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT 2). Results: After adjusting for age, smoking and physical activity WHR and WHtR were found to be the strongest predictors of death. Hazard ratios (HRs) for CVD mortality per increase in WHR of one standard deviation were 1.23 for men and 1.27 for women. For WHtR, these HRs were 1.24 for men and 1.23 for women. WHR offered the greatest integrated discrimination improvement to the prediction models studied, followed by WHtR and waist circumference. Hip circumference was in strong inverse association with mortality when adjusting for waist circumference. In all analyses, BMI had weaker association with mortality than three of the other four measures studied. Conclusions: Our study adds further knowledge to the evidence that BMI is not the most appropriate measure of obesity in everyday clinical practice. WHR can reliably be measured and is as easy to calculate as BMI and is currently better documented than WHtR. It appears reasonable to recommend WHR as the primary measure of body composition and obesity

Midlife psychological stress and risk of dementia: a 35-year longitudinal population study.” Brain 133

The number of people with dementia has increased dramatically with global ageing. Nevertheless, the pathogeneses of these diseases are not sufficiently understood. The present study aims to analyse the relationship between psychological stress in midlife and the development of dementia in late-life. A representative sample of females (n = 1462) aged 38-60 years were examined in 1968-69 and re-examined in 1974-75, 1980-81, 1992-93 and 2000-03. Psychological stress was rated according to a standardized question in 1968, 1974 and 1980. Dementia was diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria based on information from neuropsychiatric examinations, informant interviews, hospital records and registry data. During the 35-year follow-up, 161 females developed dementia (105 Alzheimer's disease, 40 vascular dementia and 16 other dementias). We found that the risk of dementia (hazard ratios, 95% confidence intervals) was increased in females reporting frequent/constant stress in 1968 (1.60, 1.10-2.34), in 1974 (1.65, 1.12-2.41) and in 1980 (1.60, 1.01-2.52). Frequent/ constant stress reported in 1968 and 1974 was associated with Alzheimer's disease. Reporting stress at one, two or three examinations was related to a sequentially higher dementia risk. Compared to females reporting no stress, hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident dementia were 1.10 (0.71-1.71) for females reporting frequent/constant stress at one examination, 1.73 (1.01-2.95) for those reporting stress at two examinations and 2.51 (1.33-4.77) at three examinations. To conclude, we found an association between psychological stress in middle-aged women and development of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease. More studies are needed to confirm our findings and to study potential neurobiological mechanisms of these associations

Trends in Metal Oxide Stability for Nanorods, Nanotubes, and Surfaces

The formation energies of nanostructures play an important role in determining their properties, including the catalytic activity. For the case of 15 different rutile and 8 different perovskite metal oxides, we find that the density functional theory (DFT) calculated formation energies of (2,2) nanorods, (3,3) nanotubes, and the (110) and (100) surfaces may be described semi-quantitatively by the fraction of metal--oxygen bonds broken and the bonding band centers in the bulk metal oxide

Quantitative Analysis of Aortic Atherosclerosis in Korean Female: A Necropsy Study

To assess the regional difference and influence of the biological variables on atherosclerosis in female, we analyzed 7 segments of aorta (2 ascending, 3 thoracic, and 2 abdominal) from 90 superficially healthy Korean women (39±14 yr of age) who died from external causes. Tissue specimens were macroscopically examined and histopathologically divided into 7 grades for scoring (ATHERO, from 0=intact, to 6=thrombi formation). Lumen diameter (LD), wall thickness (WT), intima thickness (INT), and media thickness (MED) were obtained by computed morphometry. Atherosclerosis was common in the distal infrarenal (C2), proximal thoracic (B1), and proximal ascending (A1) segments. Total 95.6% of all subjects had atherosclerosis of variable degree in one or more segments, but an aneurysmal change was not found. The number of atherosclerotic segments and atherosclerosis score in the 7 segments increased with aging. However, the body size did not affect the aortic size and ATHERO. With aging, LD and INT of the A1, B1 and C2 increased (p<.00001); WT of the B1 and C2 increased (p<.01); and MED of C2 decreased (p<.01). LD and WT of the B1 and C2 (p<.05), INT of the A1, B1 and C2 (p<.00001) increased, and MED of C2 decreased (p<.01) with ATHERO. These data suggest that age is simple but a reliable parameter for estimating the progression of atherosclerosis

Birth weight in relation to leisure time physical activity in adolescence and adulthood: meta-analysis of results from 13 nordic cohorts

Peer reviewe

Lipids as risk factors in women?

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn Skoða/Opna(view/open)Many studies have confirmed that high blood cholesterol levels are related to an increased risk of CHÍD. Most of these studies have been carried out on middle aged men. The results, however, have been interpreted as being also pertinent for women. The aim of this study was to investigate blood lipids as risk factors for CHD in women as studied both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The population sample studied initially 1968-69 comprised 1462 women living in Göteborg at that time (participation rate 90.1%). They were selected according to certain age strata and predetermined birthdates divisible by six. The women were restudied six and 12 years later. In the cross-sectional study of myocardial infarction in women, women in the population study were used as a control group and compared with all women who survived MI in Göteborg during the period 1968-70. The longitudinal follow-up is still going on, especially regarding causes of death. 24- year follow-up is planned for 1992-93. Studied cross-sectionally, there was a significant over- representation of women with MI who had triglyceride values above the median values of the population sample. The cholesterol values of women with MI, however, were no higher than in the general population of women. Studied longitudinally it was found that women who had initial triglyceride values >2.2 mmol/1 had significantly increased risk for MI, stroke and death of all causes. In women with initial cholesterol levels > 8.0 mmol/1 only a trend for MI was seen. This, however, was not confirmed in multivariate analysis for cholesterol, but was still strongly positive for triglycerides after taking cholesterol into account as a confounding factor. The waste to hip ratio greater than 0.8 was also shown to be an independend risk factor for CHD in women. We conclude that elevation of serum triglycerides is the main lipid risk factor for CHD in women, and that elevated serum cholesterol is of minor importance.Í umræðu um áhættuþætti kransæðasjúkdóma og annarra hjarta- og æðasjúkdóma hefur áhuginn á síðustu árum einkum beinst að blóðfitum. Astæður þessa eru meðal annars þær að komið hafa á markaðinn ný lyf sem lækka blóðfitu og að nýlega hafa birst álit sérfræðihópa frá Bandaríkjunum (1) og Svíþjóð (2) um meðferð við of háum blóðfitum. Flestar rannsóknir á of háum blóðfitum hafa hingað til verið gerðar á karlmönnum. Í álitsgerðum sérfræðinefnda hafa niðurstöður rannsókna á körlum einnig verið yfirfærðar á konur. Niðurstöður okkar úr hóprannsókn á konum í Gautaborg benda hins vegar til þess að mikilvægt sé að gera mun á körlum og konum þegar verið er að meta blóðfitu sem áhættuþátt hjarta- og æðasjúkdóma og einnig að taka beri tillit til aldurs. Tilgangur þessarar greinar er því að taka saman eigin rannsóknir á blóðfitum sem áhættuþáttum hjarta- og æðasjúkdóma hjá konum og bera þær saman við aðrar sambærilegar rannsóknir um þetta efni