Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: Cohort Consortium Vitamin D Pooling Project of Rarer Cancers

Results from epidemiologic studies examining pancreatic cancer risk and vitamin D intake or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations (the best indicator of vitamin D derived from diet and sun) have been inconsistent. Therefore, the authors conducted a pooled nested case-control study of participants from 8 cohorts within the Cohort Consortium Vitamin D Pooling Project of Rarer Cancers (VDPP) (1974–2006) to evaluate whether prediagnostic circulating 25(OH)D concentrations were associated with the development of pancreatic cancer. In total, 952 incident pancreatic adenocarcinoma cases occurred among participants (median follow-up, 6.5 years). Controls (n = 1,333) were matched to each case by cohort, age, sex, race/ethnicity, date of blood draw, and follow-up time. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to calculate smoking-, body mass index-, and diabetes-adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for pancreatic cancer. Clinically relevant 25(OH)D cutpoints were compared with a referent category of 50–<75 nmol/L. No significant associations were observed for participants with lower 25(OH)D status. However, a high 25(OH)D concentration (≥100 nmol/L) was associated with a statistically significant 2-fold increase in pancreatic cancer risk overall (odds ratio = 2.12, 95% confidence interval: 1.23, 3.64). Given this result, recommendations to increase vitamin D concentrations in healthy persons for the prevention of cancer should be carefully considered

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Risk of Lung Cancer in Male Smokers: A Nested Case-Control Study

A role for vitamin D in cancer risk reduction has been hypothesized, but few data exist for lung cancer. We investigated the relationship between vitamin D status, using circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], and lung cancer risk in a nested case-control study within the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study of Finnish male smokers.Lung cancer cases (n = 500) were randomly selected based on month of blood collection, and 500 controls were matched to them based on age and blood collection date. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using multivariate-adjusted conditional logistic regression. To account for seasonal variation in 25(OH)D concentrations, season-specific and season-standardized quintiles of 25(OH)D were examined, and models were also stratified on season of blood collection (darker season = November-April and sunnier season = May-October). Pre-determined, clinically-defined cutpoints for 25(OH)D and 25(OH)D as a continuous measure were also examined.Overall, 25(OH)D was not associated with lung cancer. Risks were 1.08 (95% CI 0.67-1.75) and 0.83 (95% CI 0.53-1.31) in the highest vs. lowest season-specific and season-standardized quintiles of 25(OH)D, respectively, and 0.91 (95% CI 0.48-1.72) for the ≥75 vs. <25 nmol/L clinical categories. Inverse associations were, however, suggested for subjects with blood collections from November-April, with ORs of 0.77 (95% CI 0.41-1.45, p-trend = 0.05) and 0.65 (95% CI 0.37-1.14, p-trend = 0.07) in the highest vs. lowest season-specific and season-standardized quintiles of 25(OH)D, respectively, and 0.61 (95% CI 0.24-1.52, p-trend = 0.01) for ≥75 vs. <25 nmol/L. We also found 11% lower risk for a 10 nmol/L increase in 25(OH)D in the darker season based on the continuous measure (OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.81-0.98, p = 0.02).In this prospective study of male smokers, circulating 25(OH)D was not associated with lung cancer risk overall, although inverse associations were suggested among those whose blood was drawn during darker months

Pivoting Health Promotional Efforts Among Fathers

The ideas of “father” and “family” as they are traditionally defined may possibly limit the effectiveness of parenting interventions among certain groups of contemporary fathers. Strongly held normative beliefs portraying men as daft caregivers and/or characterizing most families as traditional with mother serving as primary caregiver may not be appropriately addressing the needs of many modern American families. Each father has his unique needs and sets of skills that must be taken into consideration when developing health outreach programs. Essentially, effective parenting curriculum should be tailored to specific types of fathers. Health promotion and health education professionals need to become aware of these newly emerging fathers in order to create more relevant and effective educational programs. This discussion is an attempt to bring awareness to this issue and help facilitate a transition from a singular approach to fatherhood outreach rooted in traditional characterizations of “family” and “father” to a more diverse, multifactorial approach addressing more unique populations of fathers, hereby called Generation F. A pedagogical guideline to assist in developing more effective interventions targeting fathers is presented

Children and race in South African magazine advertising: Pre- and post-apartheid

This article reviews how South African marketers portray children in magazine advertisements in two very distinct periods in the country's history, namely before and after the ANC government came into power in 1994. A longitudinal study (over a 17 -year period) was conducted to determine the incidence, and how marketers in the new South Africa depict children of different races in full page magazine advertisements. The relevance of the findings for South African marketers is highlighted and suggestions for further research are proposed. AFRIKAANS: Hierdie artikel gee 'n oorsig van die gebruik van kindermodelle in tydskrifreklame vóór en na die ANC-regering in 1994 aan bewind gekom het. 'n Longitudinale studie is oor 'n 17-jaar tydperk onderneem om onder meer vas te stel wat die voorkomssyfers is, asook die wyse waarop bemarkers kinders van verskillende rasse in volblad-tydskrifadvertensies uitbeeld. Die relevansie van die studie vir Suid Afrikaanse bemarkers word uitgelig, en voorstelle vir toekomstige navorsing word gemaak