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Adult Risk Factors (adult + risk_factor)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Developmental programming of obesity in mammals

EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
P. D. Taylor
Converging lines of evidence from epidemiological studies and animal models now indicate that the origins of obesity and related metabolic disorders lie not only in the interaction between genes and traditional adult risk factors, such as unbalanced diet and physical inactivity, but also in the interplay between genes and the embryonic, fetal and early postnatal environment. Whilst studies in man initially focused on the relationship between low birth weight and risk of adult obesity and metabolic syndrome, evidence is also growing to suggest that increased birth weight and/or adiposity at birth can also lead to increased risk for childhood and adult obesity. Hence, there appears to be increased risk of obesity at both ends of the birth weight spectrum. Animal models, including both under- and overnutrition in pregnancy and lactation lend increasing support to the developmental origins of obesity. This review focuses upon the influence of the maternal nutritional and hormonal environment in pregnancy in permanently programming appetite and energy expenditure and the hormonal, neuronal and autocrine mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of energy balance in the offspring. We discuss the potential maternal programming ,vectors' and the molecular mechanisms that may lead to persistent pathophysiological changes resulting in subsequent disease. The perinatal environment, which appears to programme subsequent obesity, provides a potential therapeutic target, and work in this field will readily translate into improved interventional strategies to stem the growing epidemic of obesity, a disease which, once manifest, has proven particularly resistant to treatment. [source]

The association of plasma androgen levels with breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer risk factors among postmenopausal women

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 1 2010
Kim N. Danforth
Abstract Although androgens may play an etiologic role in breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers, little is known about factors that influence circulating androgen levels. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 646 postmenopausal women in the Nurses' Health Study to examine associations between adult risk factors for cancer, including the Rosner/Colditz breast cancer risk score, and plasma levels of testosterone, free testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA sulfate (DHEAS). All analyses were adjusted for age, laboratory batch and other cancer risk factors. Free testosterone levels were 79% higher among women with a body mass index of ,30 vs. <22 kg/m2 (p -trend <0.01) and 25% higher among women with a waist circumference of >89 vs. ,74 cm (p -trend = 0.02). Consuming >30 g of alcohol a day vs. none was associated with a 31% increase in DHEA and 59% increase in DHEAS levels (p -trend = 0.01 and <0.01, respectively). Smokers of ,25 cigarettes per day had 35% higher androstenedione and 44% higher testosterone levels than never smokers (p -value, F -test = 0.03 and 0.01, respectively). No significant associations were observed for height or time since menopause with any androgen. Testosterone and free testosterone levels were ,30% lower among women with a hysterectomy vs. without (both p -values < 0.01). Overall breast cancer risk was not associated with any of the androgens. Thus, several risk factors, including body size, alcohol intake, smoking and hysterectomy, were related to androgen levels among postmenopausal women, while others, including height and time since menopause, were not. Future studies are needed to clarify further which lifestyle factors modulate androgen levels. [source]

Perceived health of adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine

PAEDIATRIC & PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003
Tessa J. Roseboom
Summary People who were undernourished in early gestation are more obese, have a more atherogenic lipid profile, and altered blood coagulation and seem to have an increased risk of coronary heart disease. We now report on whether they also feel less healthy. We therefore assessed the perceived health of 50-year-old-men and women born alive as singletons around the time of the Dutch famine in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam. People who had been exposed to famine in early gestation, but not those exposed in mid- or late gestation, more often rated their health as poor (10.3% vs. to 4.9% in the unexposed, odds ratio (OR) 2.2 [1.0, 4.8]). The effect of exposure to famine in early gestation on perceived health could only partly be explained by an increased prevalence of coronary heart disease, respiratory diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia or cancer (adjusted OR 2.2 [0.9, 5.2]). Adjustment for adult risk factors (BMI, LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, blood pressure, smoking, lung function) also attenuated the results to some extent (adjusted OR 1.9 [0.6, 5.5]). People who were exposed to famine in early gestation were not only less healthy in terms of objective measures of health but they also felt less healthy. Because poor perceived health is a strong predictor of mortality, we may expect increased mortality in people who were exposed to famine in early gestation in the future. [source]

The excess burden of stroke in hospitalized adults with sickle cell disease,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2009
John J. Strouse
This report compares the relative rates and risk factors associated with stroke in adults versus children with sickle cell disease (SCD) in the United States over the last decade. We identified incident strokes in patients with SCD using ICD-9 codes for acute stroke and SCD and the California Patient Discharge Databases. We estimated SCD prevalence by using the incidence of SCD at birth with adjustment for early mortality from SCD. We identified 255 acute strokes (70 primary hemorrhagic and 185 ischemic) among 69,586 hospitalizations for SCD-related complications from 1998 to 2007. The rate of stroke in children [<18 years old (310/100,000 person-years)] was similar to young adults [18,34 years old (360/100,000 person-years)], but much higher in middle-aged [35,64 years old (1,160/100,000 person-years)] and elderly adults [,65 years old (4,700/100,000 person-years)]. Stroke was associated with hypertension in children and hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation, and renal disease in adults. Most acute strokes (75%) and in-hospital deaths from stroke (91%) occurred in adults. Our results suggest that the rate of stroke in SCD peaks in older adults and is three-fold higher than rates previously reported in African-Americans of similar age (35,64 years) without SCD. Stroke in SCD is associated with several known adult risk factors for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Studies for the primary and secondary prevention of stroke in adults with SCD are urgently needed. Am. J. Hematol. 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]