Sugar intake among German adolescents: trends from 1990-2016 based on biomarker excretion in 24-h urine samples

Trend analyses based on dietary records suggest decreases in the intakes of total (TS), added (AS) and free sugar (FS) since 2005 among children and adolescents in Germany. In terms of age trends, TS intake decreased with increasing age. However, self-reported sugar intake in epidemiological studies is criticized, as it may be prone to bias due to selective underreporting. Furthermore, adolescents are more susceptible to underreporting than children. We thus analyzed time and age trends in urinary fructose excretion (FE), sucrose excretion (SE) and the sum of both (FE+SE) as biomarkers for sugar intake among 8.5-16.5-year-old adolescents. Urinary sugar excretion was measured by UPLC-MS/MS in 997 24-h urine samples collected from 239 boys and 253 girls participating in the DONALD study cohort between 1990 and 2016. Time and age trends of log-transformed FE, SE and FE+SE were analyzed using polynomial mixed-effects regression models. Between 1990 and 2016 FE as well as FE+SE decreased (linear time trend: p=0.0272 and p<0.0001, respectively). A minor increase in excretion during adolescence was confined to FE (linear age trend: p=0.0017). The present 24-h excretion measurements support a previously reported dietary-record based decline in sugar intake since 2005. However, the previous seen dietary record-based decrease in TS from childhood to late adolescence was not confirmed by our biomarker analysis, suggesting a constant sugar intake for the period of adolescence

Changes in Total Energy, Nutrients and Food Group Intake among Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic&mdash;Results of the DONALD Study

The COVID-19 pandemic may have changed the habitual lifestyles of children and adolescents, in particular, due to the closure of kindergartens and schools. To investigate the impact of the pandemic on nutrients and food intake of children and adolescents in Germany, we analyzed repeated 3-day weighed dietary records from 108 participants (3&ndash;18 years; females: n = 45, males: n = 63) of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study. Polynomial mixed-effects regression models were used to identify prospective changes in dietary intake (total energy (TEI), carbohydrates, fat, protein, free sugar, ultra-processed foods, fruits and vegetables, sugar sweetened beverages and juices) before and during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the current analysis, we have chosen the first months of the pandemic (March 2020&ndash;August 2020), as this was the period with the most restrictions in Germany so far (kindergarten, school and restaurant closures; contact and outdoor activity restrictions). No significant changes in either the selected nutrients or food groups were observed. However, children and adolescents recorded a significantly lower TEI during the pandemic (&beta; = &minus;109.65, p = 0.0062). Results remained significant after the exclusion of participants with under-reported records (&beta; = &minus;95.77, p = 0.0063). While macronutrient intake did not change, descriptive data indicate a non-significant decrease in sugar sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods intake. We suggest that children and adolescents from high socioeconomic families may have adapted lifestyle changes during the pandemic

Effect of Dietary Sugar Intake on Biomarkers of Subclinical Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intervention Studies

It has been postulated that dietary sugar consumption contributes to increased inflammatory processes in humans, and that this may be specific to fructose (alone, in sucrose or in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)). Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis and systematic literature review to evaluate the relevance of fructose, sucrose, HFCS, and glucose consumption for systemic levels of biomarkers of subclinical inflammation. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane libraries were searched for controlled intervention studies that report the effects of dietary sugar intake on (hs)CRP, IL-6, IL-18, IL-1RA, TNF-&alpha;, MCP-1, sICAM-1, sE-selectin, or adiponectin. Included studies were conducted on adults or adolescents with &ge;20 participants and &ge;2 weeks duration. Thirteen studies investigating 1141 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Sufficient studies (&ge;3) to pool were only available for (hs)CRP. Using a random effects model, pooled effects of the interventions (investigated as mean difference (MD)) revealed no differences in (hs)CRP between fructose intervention and glucose control groups (MD: &minus;0.03 mg/L (95% CI: &minus;0.52, 0.46), I2 = 44%). Similarly, no differences were observed between HFCS and sucrose interventions (MD: 0.21 mg/L (&minus;0.11, 0.53), I2 = 0%). The quality of evidence was evaluated using Nutrigrade, and was rated low for these two comparisons. The limited evidence available to date does not support the hypothesis that dietary fructose, as found alone or in HFCS, contributes more to subclinical inflammation than other dietary sugars

Synthetic data generation for a longitudinal cohort study -- Evaluation, method extension and reproduction of published data analysis results

Access to individual-level health data is essential for gaining new insights and advancing science. In particular, modern methods based on artificial intelligence rely on the availability of and access to large datasets. In the health sector, access to individual-level data is often challenging due to privacy concerns. A promising alternative is the generation of fully synthetic data, i.e. data generated through a randomised process that have similar statistical properties as the original data, but do not have a one-to-one correspondence with the original individual-level records. In this study, we use a state-of-the-art synthetic data generation method and perform in-depth quality analyses of the generated data for a specific use case in the field of nutrition. We demonstrate the need for careful analyses of synthetic data that go beyond descriptive statistics and provide valuable insights into how to realise the full potential of synthetic datasets. By extending the methods, but also by thoroughly analysing the effects of sampling from a trained model, we are able to largely reproduce significant real-world analysis results in the chosen use case

NFDI4Health Online Training Workshop on Research Data Management in (Bio-)Medicine

Day 1) Introduction to Research data management (RDM)-Fundamental concepts. Day 2)A step forward to making data FAIR with NFDI4Healt

Relevance of fructose intake in adolescence for fatty liver indices in young adulthood

Purpose To examine the association between fructose intake in adolescence and fatty liver indices (hepatic steatosis index (HSI), fatty liver index (FLI)) in young adulthood. Methods Overall, 246 participants of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study who had a fasting blood sample in adulthood (18–36 years), at least two 3-day weighed dietary records for calculating fructose intakes and other fructose-containing sugars (total (TS), free (FS), added sugar (AS)) as well as two complete 24-h urine samples for calculating sugar excretion (fructose excretion (FE), fructose + sucrose excretion (FE + SE)) in adolescence (males: 9.5–16.5 years; females: 8.5–15.5 years) were analysed using multivariable linear regression analyses. Results On the level of dietary intake, no prospective associations were observed between adolescent fructose intake and both adult fatty liver indices, whereas higher FS intakes were associated with lower levels of HSI (Ptrend = 0.02) and FLI (Ptrend = 0.03). On the urinary excretion level, however, a higher FE (Ptrend = 0.03) and FE + SE (Ptrend = 0.01) in adolescence were prospectively related to higher adult FLI values. No associations were observed between adolescent sugar excretion and adult HSI. Conclusion The present study does not provide unambiguous support for a detrimental impact of adolescent fructose intake on adult liver health. Nonetheless, further examinations estimating exposure by means of urinary excretion as well as dietary intake levels appear warranted

Building the Next Generation of Data Savvy Biomedical Researchers

&lt;p&gt;The poster describes the training activities on Research Data Management (RDM) within the NFDI4Health - the National Research Data Infrastructure for Personal Health Data.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;We acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): NFDI4Health no. 442326535; the Federal Ministry for Science and Education (BMBF) and EU's Reconstruction and Resilience Facility: Data Literacy Alliance (DALIA): no. 16DWWQP07A; and support by the U Bremen Research Alliance and the Federal State of Bremen

Chronic disease outcome metadata from German observational studies – public availability and FAIR principles

Abstract Metadata from epidemiological studies, including chronic disease outcome metadata (CDOM), are important to be findable to allow interpretability and reusability. We propose a comprehensive metadata schema and used it to assess public availability and findability of CDOM from German population-based observational studies participating in the consortium National Research Data Infrastructure for Personal Health Data (NFDI4Health). Additionally, principal investigators from the included studies completed a checklist evaluating consistency with FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability) within their studies. Overall, six of sixteen studies had complete publicly available CDOM. The most frequent CDOM source was scientific publications and the most frequently missing metadata were availability of codes of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Principal investigators’ main perceived barriers for consistency with FAIR principles were limited human and financial resources. Our results reveal that CDOM from German population-based studies have incomplete availability and limited findability. There is a need to make CDOM publicly available in searchable platforms or metadata catalogues to improve their FAIRness, which requires human and financial resources