Adult weight gain and diabetes among African American and White adults in southeastern US communities

To examine associations between adult weight gain and diabetes among African Americans and whites

Sedentary and Physically Active Behavior Patterns Among Low-Income African-American and White Adults Living in the Southeastern United States

Increased sedentary behavior and lack of physical activity are associated with increased risk for many chronic diseases. Differences in leisure-time physical activity between African American and white adults have been suggested to partially explain racial disparities in chronic disease outcomes, but expanding the definition of physical activity to include household and occupational activities may reduce or even eliminate racial differences in total physical activity. The objective of this study was to describe patterns of active and sedentary behaviors in black and white adults and to examine these behaviors across demographic measures. Sedentary and physically active behaviors were obtained from a validated physical activity questionnaire in 23,021 black men, 9,899 white men, 32,214 black women, and 15,425 white women (age 40–79) at enrollment into the Southern Community Cohort Study. Descriptive statistics for sedentary time; light, moderate, and vigorous household/occupational activity; sports/exercise; total activity; and meeting current physical activity recommendations via sports/exercise were examined for each race-sex group. Adjusted means were calculated using multiple linear regression models across demographic measures. Study participants spent approximately 60% of waking time in sedentary behaviors. Blacks reported more television viewing time than whites (45 minutes for females, 15 minutes for males), but when sitting time was expressed as a proportion of overall awake time, minimal racial differences were found. Patterns of light, moderate, and vigorous household/occupational activity were similar in all race/sex groups. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans were followed by 16% of women and 25% of men independent of race. Overall, black and white men and women in this study spent the majority of their daily time in sedentary behaviors and less than one-fourth followed current guidelines for physical activity. These results indicate that public health campaigns should focus on both reducing sedentary behavior and increasing physical activity in all adult US populations

Magnesium, vitamin D status and mortality: results from US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001 to 2006 and NHANES III

Background: Magnesium plays an essential role in the synthesis and metabolism of vitamin D and magnesium supplementation substantially reversed the resistance to vitamin D treatment in patients with magnesium-dependent vitamin-D-resistant rickets. We hypothesized that dietary magnesium alone, particularly its interaction with vitamin D intake, contributes to serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels, and the associations between serum 25(OH)D and risk of mortality may be modified by magnesium intake level. Methods: We tested these novel hypotheses utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001 to 2006, a population-based cross-sectional study, and the NHANES III cohort, a population-based cohort study. Serum 25(OH)D was used to define vitamin D status. Mortality outcomes in the NHANES III cohort were determined by using probabilistic linkage with the National Death Index (NDI). Results: High intake of total, dietary or supplemental magnesium was independently associated with significantly reduced risks of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency respectively. Intake of magnesium significantly interacted with intake of vitamin D in relation to risk of both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. Additionally, the inverse association between total magnesium intake and vitamin D insufficiency primarily appeared among populations at high risk of vitamin D insufficiency. Furthermore, the associations of serum 25(OH)D with mortality, particularly due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and colorectal cancer, were modified by magnesium intake, and the inverse associations were primarily present among those with magnesium intake above the median. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings indicate it is possible that magnesium intake alone or its interaction with vitamin D intake may contribute to vitamin D status. The associations between serum 25(OH)D and risk of mortality may be modified by the intake level of magnesium. Future studies, including cohort studies and clinical trials, are necessary to confirm the findings

Individual and neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics in relation to smoking prevalence among black and white adults in the Southeastern United States: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Low individual-level socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher prevalence of cigarette smoking. Recent work has examined whether neighborhood-level SES may affect smoking behavior independently from individual-level measures. However, few comparisons of neighborhood-level effects on smoking by race and gender are available.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional data from adults age 40-79 enrolled in the Southern Community Cohort Study from 2002-2009 (19, 561 black males; 27, 412 black females; 6, 231 white males; 11, 756 white females) were used in Robust Poisson regression models to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for current smoking in relation to individual-level SES characteristics obtained via interview and neighborhood-level SES characteristics represented by demographic measures from US Census block groups matched to participant home addresses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Several neighborhood-level SES characteristics were modestly associated with increased smoking after adjustment for individual-level factors including lower percentage of adults with a college education and lower percentage of owner-occupied households among blacks but not whites; lower percentage of households with interest, dividends, or net rental income among white males; and lower percentage of employed adults among black females.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Lower neighborhood-level SES is associated with increased smoking suggesting that cessation programs may benefit from targeting higher-risk neighborhoods as well as individuals.</p

Sedentary Behavior, Physical Activity, and Likelihood of Breast Cancer among Black and White Women: A Report from the Southern Community Cohort Study

Increased physical activity has been shown to be protective for breast cancer although few studies have examined this association in black women. In addition, limited evidence to date indicates that sedentary behavior may be an independent risk factor for breast cancer. We examined sedentary behavior and physical activity in relation to subsequent incident breast cancer in a nested case-control study within 546 cases (374 among black women) and 2,184 matched controls enrolled in the Southern Community Cohort Study. Sedentary and physically active behaviors were assessed via self-report at study baseline (2002–2009) using a validated physical activity questionnaire. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate mutually adjusted odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for quartiles of sedentary and physical activity measures in relation to breast cancer risk. Being in the highest versus lowest quartile of total sedentary behavior (≥12 hours/day versus <5.5 hours/day) was associated with increased odds of breast cancer among white women (OR=1.94 [95% CI 1.01–3.70], p for trend=0.1) but not black women (OR=1.23 [95% CI 0.82–1.83], p for trend=0.6) after adjustment for physical activity. After adjustment for sedentary activity, greater physical activity was associated with reduced odds for breast cancer among white women (p for trend=0.03) only. In conclusion, independent of one another, sedentary behavior and physical activity are risk factors for breast cancer among white women. Differences in these associations between black and white women require further investigation. Reducing sedentary behavior and increasing physical activity are potentially independent targets for breast cancer prevention interventions

Physical Activity and Obesity Gap Between Black and White Women in the Southeastern U.S.

Differences between black and white women in the associations of sedentary and active behaviors and obesity are mostly unknown

Evaluation of a Questionnaire to Assess Sedentary and Active Behaviors in the Southern Community Cohort Study

Low physical activity (PA) is linked to cancer and other diseases prevalent in racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. This study evaluated the PA questionnaire (PAQ) used in the Southern Cohort Community Study, a prospective investigation of health disparities between African-American and white adults

Common Variation in Vitamin D Pathway Genes Predicts Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels among African Americans

Vitamin D is implicated in a wide range of health outcomes, and although environmental predictors of vitamin D levels are known, the genetic drivers of vitamin D status remain to be clarified. African Americans are a group at particularly high risk for vitamin D insufficiency but to date have been virtually absent from studies of genetic predictors of circulating vitamin D levels. Within the Southern Community Cohort Study, we investigated the association between 94 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five vitamin D pathway genes (GC, VDR, CYP2R1, CYP24A1, CYP27B1) and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels among 379 African American and 379 Caucasian participants. We found statistically significant associations with three SNPs (rs2298849 and rs2282679 in the GC gene, and rs10877012 in the CYP27B1 gene), although only for African Americans. A genotype score, representing the number of risk alleles across the three SNPs, alone accounted for 4.6% of the variation in serum vitamin D among African Americans. A genotype score of 5 (vs. 1) was also associated with a 7.1 ng/mL reduction in serum 25(OH)D levels and a six-fold risk of vitamin D insufficiency (<20 ng/mL) (odds ratio 6.0, p = 0.01) among African Americans. With African ancestry determined from a panel of 276 ancestry informative SNPs, we found that high risk genotypes did not cluster among those with higher African ancestry. This study is one of the first to investigate common genetic variation in relation to vitamin D levels in African Americans, and the first to evaluate how vitamin D-associated genotypes vary in relation to African ancestry. These results suggest that further evaluation of genetic contributors to vitamin D status among African Americans may help provide insights regarding racial health disparities or enable the identification of subgroups especially in need of vitamin D-related interventions