Aims/Hypothesis: Early recognition of those at high risk for diabetes as well as diabetes itself can permit preventive management, but many Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed. We sought to determine whether routinely available outpatient random plasma glucose (RPG) would be useful to facilitate the diagnosis of diabetes. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 942,446 U.S. Veterans without diagnosed diabetes, ≥3 RPG in a baseline year, and ≥1 primary care visit/year during 5-year follow-up. ...
Aug 08, 2019
Chronic stress is a major underlying origin of the top leading causes of death, globally. Yet, the mechanistic explanation of the association between stress and disease is poorly understood. This stems from the inability to adequately measure stress in its naturally occurring state and the extreme heterogeneity by inter and intraindividual characteristics. The growth and availability of digital technologies involving wearable devices and mobile phone apps afford the opportunity to dramatically i...
Aug 06, 2019
Background: This research is an investigation into the role of expert quotes in health news, specifically whether news articles containing a quote from an independent expert are less often exaggerated than articles without such a quote. Methods: Retrospective quantitative content analysis of journal articles, press releases, and associated news articles was performed. The investigated sample are press releases on peer-reviewed health research and the associated research articles and news stories...
Jul 30, 2019
Background: Some individuals with autism find it challenging to use and understand language in conversation, despite having good abilities in core aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary. This suggests that pragmatic skills (such as understanding implied meanings in conversation) are separable from core language skills. However, it has been surprisingly difficult to demonstrate this dissociation in the general population. We propose that this may be because prior studies have used tas...
Jul 26, 2019
Relationship problems among school children can lead to bullying situations. In this regard, it should be noted that, among healthy lifestyle habits, sports practice (non-competitive) promotes responsibility and improves coexistence. The objective of the present study was to analyze the incidence of the frequency of practice of healthy physical activity on the risks of students directly involved in school bullying (harasser and victim) by gender. The participants of the study were 1,248 students...
Jul 24, 2019
Introduction: The Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group (DPWG) indicated a list of actionable genotypes that affect patients’ response to more 50 drugs; these drugs which show variable effects based on patients’ genetic traits were named as pharmacogenetics (PGX) drugs. Preemptive genetic testing before using these drugs may protect certain patients from serious adverse reactions and could help in avoiding treatment failures. The objectives of this study include identifying the rate of PGX drug u...
Jul 23, 2019
Objectives: To explore if short term, high dose vitamin D supplementation is safe and improves balance in persons with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: A pilot randomized, double-blind intervention trial to measure the effects of 16 weeks of high dose vitamin D (10,000 IU/day) on balance as well as other motor and non-motor features of PD. We measured balance, gait, strength, falls, cognition, mood, PD severity, and quality of life before and after 16 weeks of high dose vitamin D supplementati...
Jul 22, 2019
As public health advertisements move online, it becomes possible to run inexpensive randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) thereof. Here we report the results of an online RCT to improve food choices and integrate exercise into daily activities of internet users. People searching for pre-specified terms were randomized to receive one of several professionally developed campaign advertisements or the “status quo” (ads that would otherwise have been served). For 1-month pre-intervention and post-inte...
Jul 19, 2019
Background: Reducing diet costs may lead to the selection of energy-dense foods, such as refined grains or foods high in added sugars and/or fats, which can lower overall dietary quality. We examined the longitudinal association between the monetary value of the diet (MVD) and the overall dietary quality across sex, race and income groups. Methods and findings: Longitudinal data from 1,466 adult urban participants from Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) stu...
Jul 18, 2019
Keeping commitments to others can be difficult, and we know that people sometimes fail to keep them. How does a speaker’s ability to keep commitments affect children’s practical decisions to trust and their epistemic decisions to learn? An amassing body of research documents children’s trust in testimonial learning decisions, which can be moved in the face of epistemic and moral evidence about an agent. However, other bases for trust go largely unexplored in this literature, such as interpersona...
Jul 17, 2019
Background: In order to improve interventions for problem gambling, there is a need for studies that can highlight psychological factors that support the desire to reduce gambling. Objective: To explore online problem gamblers' motivation for change by studying participants' reactions to an online treatment referral website designed to motivate at-risk gamblers to seek help. Design: A qualitative evaluation study, combining focus groups and in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using the gener...
Jul 16, 2019
Climate change impacts on health—including increased exposures to heat, poor air quality, extreme weather events, altered vector-borne disease transmission, reduced water quality, and decreased food security—affect men and women differently, depending on local geographic and socioeconomic factors. Climate change threatens to widen existing gender-based health disparities, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Health impacts, and gender differences in those impacts, are mediated through...
Jul 15, 2019
Purpose: Cardiologists are known to consider patients' race when treating heart failure, but their views on the benefits and harms of this practice are largely undocumented. We set out to explore cardiologists' perspectives on the benefits and harms of race-based drug labels and guidelines. Specifically, we focused on isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine hydrochloride (sold in a patented form as BiDil), a combination of drugs recommended for the treatment of black patients receiving optimal medi...
Jul 12, 2019
As the sport of outdoor rock climbing rapidly grows, there is increasing pressure to understand how it can affect communities of organisms in cliff habitats. To that end, we surveyed 32 cliff sites in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and assessed the relative roles of human recreation and natural habitat features as drivers of bird diversity and activity. We detected only native avian species during our observations. Whereas avian abundance was not affected by climbing, avian species diversity and commun...
Jul 11, 2019
Rationale & objective: As the prevalence of obesity continues to rise in the United States, it is important to understand its impact on the lifetime risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Study design: The CKD Health Policy Model was used to simulate the lifetime risk of CKD for those with and without obesity at baseline. Model structure was updated for glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decline to incorporate new longitudinal data from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study. Setti...
Jul 10, 2019
Continuity is a critical but often neglected function of high-quality primary care and has three core domains: relational, informational and managerial continuity. Improving continuity is feasible in low-income and middle-income country health systems by using comprehensive empanelment systems or community-based follow-up programmes to improve retention in care. Continuity must receive more attention, measurement and improvement efforts, in order to achieve equitable, high-quality health for all...
Jul 09, 2019
We studied whether medical conditions across 21 broad categories were predictable from social media content across approximately 20 million words written by 999 consenting patients. Facebook language significantly improved upon the prediction accuracy of demographic variables for 18 of the 21 disease categories; it was particularly effective at predicting diabetes and mental health conditions including anxiety, depression and psychoses. Social media data are a quantifiable link into the otherwis...
Jul 08, 2019
Dietary intake of adult vegetarians from large prospective studies has been well-characterized but is rarely reported in vegetarian adolescents. Our objective was to describe and compare the dietary intake of vegetarian adolescents with their non-vegetarian counterparts in a population known to espouse healthy living. Adolescents (n = 534) aged 12–18 years old from middle and high schools near major Adventist universities in Michigan and Southern California provided dietary, demographic, and ant...
Jul 04, 2019
Purpose of Review: Effective responses to the US opioid overdose epidemic rely on accurate and timely drug overdose mortality data, which are generated from medicolegal death investigations (MDI) and certifications of overdose deaths. We identify nuances of MDI and certification of overdose deaths that can influence drug overdose mortality surveillance, as well as recent research, recommendations, and epidemiological tools for improved identification and quantification of specific drug involveme...
Jul 03, 2019
Early life adversity (ELA) contributes to behavioral impulsivity along with risk for substance use disorders, both accompanied by blunted stress-axis reactivity. However, the biological contributors to blunted stress reactivity are not known. We took advantage of the fact that women have significant opioid inhibition of cortisol output by using the opioid antagonist, naltrexone, to unmask opioid interactions due to ELA. We administered 50 mg of naltrexone or placebo to 72 healthy women (23 years...
Jul 02, 2019
We investigated the effect of snacking habits in childhood on changes in body mass index (BMI) and high BMI in adolescence and adulthood. In total, 2141 Japanese children from the Ibaraki Children’s Cohort Study were evaluated at age 6 years (baseline), then at ages 12 and 22 years. We examined associations between snacking (scheduled times, when children wanted, and freely) at age 6 years and changes in BMI over time and the proportion of high BMI at ages 12 and 22 years, using time-dependent m...
Jul 01, 2019
Exposure to media coverage of mass violence has been shown to predict poorer mental health symptomology. However, it is unknown whether such media coverage can have ubiquitous effects on average community members, extending to biological and perceptual processes that underlie everyday decision making and behavior. Here, we used a repeated-measures design over the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings to track participants’ self-reported distress, their eye blink startle reactivity wh...
Jun 27, 2019
Background: The NOVA food classification scheme divides foods into ultra-processed, processed, unprocessed, and culinary ingredients. Ultra-processed foods contribute >60% of energy to diets in the US. Objective: To characterize ultra-processed foods by energy density, nutrient density, and monetary cost. Methods: The 384 component foods of Fred Hutch (FHCRC) food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), were assigned to 4 NOVA categories and to 7 USDA MyPyramid food groups. Energy density was kcal/g. ...
Jun 27, 2019
Background: Life satisfaction is a cognitive and evaluative judgement of one’s outlook on life and an integral component of subjective wellbeing. There is a strong association between life satisfaction and mental and physical health, but it is currently unclear how environmental factors may influence life satisfaction. Our aim was to investigate the association between environmental factors and life satisfaction and to gain a better understanding of general life satisfaction statistics in the EU...
Jun 26, 2019
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most severe neurodegenerative diseases among elderly people. Different pathogenic factors for Alzheimer’s disease have been posited and studied in recent decades, but no effective treatment has been found, necessitating further studies. In this Viewpoint article, we assess studies on the mechanisms underlying the accumulation of amyloid (Aβ) peptide and the formation of Aβ oligomers because their accumulation in amyloid plaques in brain tissue has become a well-...
Jun 25, 2019
Demographic and income disparities may impact food accessibility. Research has not yet well documented the precise location of healthy and unhealthy food resources around children’s homes and schools. The objective of this study was to examine the food environment around homes and schools for all public school children, stratified by race/ethnicity and poverty status. This cross-sectional study linked data on the exact home and school addresses of a population-based sample of public school child...
Jun 24, 2019
Objectives: While patients’ health priorities should inform healthcare, strategies for doing so are lacking for patients with multiple conditions. We describe challenges to, and strategies that support, patients’ priorities-aligned decision-making. Design: Participant observation qualitative study. Setting: Primary care and cardiology practices in Connecticut. Participants: Ten primary care clinicians, five cardiologists, and the Patient Priorities implementation team (four geriatricians, physic...
Jun 21, 2019
A substantial body of work has depicted a positive association between physical exercise and cognition, although the key factors driving that link are still a matter of scientific debate. Here, we aimed to contribute further to that topic by pooling the data from seven studies (N = 361) conducted by our research group to examine whether cardiovascular fitness (VO2), sport type participation (externally-paced (e.g., football or basketball) and self-paced (e.g., triathlon or track and field athlet...
Jun 19, 2019
Fibromyalgia (FM) is one of the most frequent generalized pain disorders with poorly understood neurobiological mechanisms. This condition accounts for an enormous proportion of healthcare costs. Despite extensive research, the etiology of FM is unknown and thus, there is no disease modifying therapy available for this condition. We show that most (if not all) patients with FM belong to a distinct population that can be segregated from a control group by their glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) lev...
Jun 18, 2019
Objective: To investigate the incidence of trampoline park injuries (TPIs) at a local recreational facility and to quantify the burden on emergency and orthopaedic services at our institute. Methods: All patients that presented to the Emergency Department (ED) from the trampoline park via ambulance from July 2014 to November 2015 were included in the study. Patients’ medical records were reviewed for clinical details including date, location and type of injury, treatment received, length of stay...
Jun 17, 2019
