Annals of epidemiology
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Annals of epidemiology · Jun 2016
Comparative StudyNational Safe Routes to School program and risk of school-age pedestrian and bicyclist injury.
Safe Routes to School (SRTS) was a federally funded transportation program for facilitating physically active commuting to and from school in children through improvements of the built environment. There is evidence that SRTS programs increase walking and bicycling in school-age children, but their impact on pedestrian and bicyclist safety has not been adequately examined. We investigate the impact and effects of the SRTS program on school-age pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in a nationwide sample in the United States. ⋯ Implementation of the SRTS program appears to have contributed to improving traffic safety for school-age children in the United States.
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Annals of epidemiology · May 2016
Review Comparative StudyBrain-gut-microbiota axis: challenges for translation in psychiatry.
The accruing data linking the gut microbiome to the development and function of the central nervous system has been proposed as a paradigm shift in neuroscience. The gut microbiota can communicate with the brain via neuroimmune, neuroendocrine, and neural pathways comprising the brain-gut-microbiota axis. Dysfunctional neuroimmune pathways are implicated in stress-related psychiatric disorders. ⋯ Evidence of altered gut microbiota composition and function in psychiatric patients is limited and cannot be regarded as proven. Moreover the efficacy of targeting the gut microbiota has not yet been established, and needs further investigation.
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Annals of epidemiology · Mar 2016
Genetically predicted 17beta-estradiol and cardiovascular risk factors in women: a Mendelian randomization analysis using young women in Hong Kong and older women in the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study.
The role of estrogen in cardiovascular health remains contested with discrepancies between findings from randomized controlled trials and observational studies. Mendelian randomization, which assesses the effect of lifelong endogenous exposure, may help elucidate these discrepancies. ⋯ Lifetime exposure to estrogen does not appear to be cardioprotective via the cardiovascular disease-related risk factors examined.
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Annals of epidemiology · Jan 2016
Quantifying the improvement in sepsis diagnosis, documentation, and coding: the marginal causal effect of year of hospitalization on sepsis diagnosis.
To quantify the coinciding improvement in the clinical diagnosis of sepsis, its documentation in the electronic health records, and subsequent medical coding of sepsis for billing purposes in recent years. ⋯ Patients with similar characteristics and risk factors had a higher of probability of getting diagnosed, documented, and coded for sepsis in 2012 than in previous years, which contributed to an apparent increase in sepsis incidence.
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Annals of epidemiology · Jan 2016
Racism in the form of micro aggressions and the risk of preterm birth among black women.
This study sought to examine whether perceived interpersonal racism in the form of racial micro aggressions was associated with preterm birth (PTB) and whether the presence of depressive symptoms and perceived stress modified the association. ⋯ Our findings suggest that racism, at least in the form of racial micro aggressions, may not further impact a group already at high risk for PTB (those with severe depressive symptoms), but may increase the risk of PTB for women at lower baseline risk.