American journal of epidemiology
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Inflammation is implicated in preterm birth, but genetic studies of inflammatory genes have yielded inconsistent results. Maternal DNA from 1,646 participants in the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Cohort, enrolled in Orange and Wake counties, North Carolina (1995-2005), were genotyped for 432 tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 30 candidate genes. Gene-level and SNP associations were modeled within strata of genetic ancestry. ⋯ SNPs tagging a locus control region for IL4 and IL13 were associated with an increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth for European Americans (rs3091307; risk ratio = 1.9; 95% confidence interval: 1.4, 2.5). Although gene-level associations were detected only in European Americans, single-SNP associations among European and African Americans were often similar in direction, though estimated with less precision among African Americans. In conclusion, we identified novel associations between variants in the natural killer cell immune pathway and prematurity in this biracial US population.
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Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy has been linked to the risk of childhood cancer, but the evidence remains inconclusive. In the present study, we used land use regression modeling to estimate prenatal exposures to traffic exhaust and evaluate the associations with cancer risk in very young children. Participants in the Air Pollution and Childhood Cancers Study who were 5 years of age or younger and diagnosed with cancer between 1988 and 2008 were had their records linked to California birth certificates, and controls were selected from birth certificates. ⋯ Second- and third-trimester exposures increased the odds of bilateral retinoblastoma. No associations were found for annual average exposures without temporal components or for any other cancer type. These results lend support to a link between prenatal exposure to traffic exhaust and the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and bilateral retinoblastoma.
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Biography Historical Article
Snippets from the past: the evolution of Wade Hampton Frost's epidemiology as viewed from the American Journal of Hygiene/Epidemiology.
Wade Hampton Frost, who was a Professor of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University from 1919 to 1938, spurred the development of epidemiologic methods. His 6 publications in the American Journal of Hygiene, which later became the American Journal of Epidemiology, comprise a 1928 Cutter lecture on a theory of epidemics, a survey-based study of tonsillectomy and immunity to Corynebacterium diphtheriae (1931), 2 papers from a longitudinal study of the incidence of minor respiratory diseases (1933 and 1935), an attack rate ratio analysis of the decline of diphtheria in Baltimore (1936), and a 1936 lecture on the age, time, and cohort analysis of tuberculosis mortality. These 6 American Journal of Hygiene /American Journal of Epidemiology papers attest that Frost's personal evolution mirrored that of the emerging "early" epidemiology: The scope of epidemiology extended beyond the study of epidemics of acute infectious diseases, and rigorous comparative study designs and their associated quantitative methods came to light.
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The BODE index was developed as a prognostic mortality risk tool for persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It incorporates 4 measures: body mass index, lung obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity. The intent of this study was to examine how well a BODE-like index constructed using a simpler lung function measure, peak expiratory flow, in combination with physical functioning and symptom information more readily found in survey data (a quasi-BODE index), performs in identifying persons at higher risk of mortality and whether it may be extended as an assessment of mortality risk to persons without diagnosed COPD. ⋯ The quasi-BODE index is a multidimensional health status instrument based on the BODE index, which is a good predictor of mortality. The quasi-BODE index was compiled using simple measures of physical and respiratory function. It is a potentially useful prognostic instrument for older adult populations with or without COPD, including those with severe physical limitations, particularly when combined with demographic factors and comorbid conditions.