Epidemiology
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Living close to major roads or highways has been suggested to almost double the risk of dying from cardiopulmonary causes. We assessed whether long-term exposure to air pollution originating from motorized traffic and industrial sources is associated with total and cause-specific mortality in a cohort of women living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ⋯ Living close to major roads and chronic exposure to NO2 and PM10 may be associated with an increased mortality due to cardiopulmonary causes.
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Biography Historical Article
A conversation with John Pemberton. Interview by David Gunnell.
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Maternal cigarette smoking has been causally associated with an increased risk for stillbirth. Preliminary reports suggest an increased risk for stillbirth with smokeless tobacco use during pregnancy. ⋯ Smokeless tobacco use during pregnancy increases stillbirth risk, with a risk at least as great as that associated with maternal cigarette smoking.
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Preliminary data suggest that common genetic variation in immune response genes can contribute to the risk for spontaneous preterm birth and possibly small-for-gestational age (SGA). ⋯ Our results suggest that common genetic variants in proinflammatory cytokine genes could influence the risk for spontaneous preterm birth. Selected TNF/LTA haplotypes were associated with spontaneous preterm birth in both African-American and white subjects. Our data do not support an inflammatory etiology for SGA.
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Restricted fetal growth has been associated with increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease in later life. These associations may be due to processes during fetal development with long-term consequences for metabolic and cardiovascular function (the fetal origins hypothesis). However, it has also been hypothesized that common genetic factors could underlie both restricted fetal development and disease risk (the fetal insulin hypothesis). ⋯ Associations between offspring birth characteristics and parents' mortality could, at least in part, reflect genetic factors that influence both birth weight and cardiovascular disease risk.