Publications

Background: Even before the onset of age-related diseases, obesity might be a contributing factor to the cumulative burden of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation throughout the life course. Obesity may therefore contribute to accelerated shortening of telomeres. Consequently, obese persons are more likely to have shorter telomeres, but the association between body mass index (BMI) and leukocyte telomere length (TL) might differ across the ...

Evidence suggests that adverse experiences in childhood are associated with psychosis. To examine the association between childhood adversity and trauma (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, neglect, parental death, and bullying) and psychosis outcome, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and Web of Science were searched from January 1980 through November 2011. We included prospective cohort studies, large-scale cross-sectional ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread pollutants that may impact youth adiposity patterns. We investigated cross-sectional associations between PFAS and body mass index (BMI) in teenagers/adolescents across nine European countries within the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) initiative. We used data from 1957 teenagers (12-18 yrs) that were part of the HBM4EU aligned studies, consisting of nine HBM studies (NEBII, ...

Background: This study aims to illustrate the differences between approaches proposed for apportioning disability to different diseases in a multicausal situation, i.e. the unadjusted attributable fraction (AF), the adjusted AF, the average AF and the attribution method (AM). This information is useful to better interpret results obtained from cross-sectional data and help policy makers decide on public health strategies. Methods: Data for 29931 ...

Background: Exposure to phthalate/DINCH metabolites can induce human reproductive toxicity, however, their endocrine-disrupting mechanisms are not fully elucidated. Objective: To investigate the association between concentrations of phthalate/DINCH metabolites, serum kisspeptin, and reproductive hormones among European teenagers from three of the HBM4EU Aligned Studies. Methods: In 733 Belgian (FLEHS IV study), Slovak (PCB cohort follow-up), and ...

Objectives: To examine the independent and combined association of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) on both systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in adolescents from two observational studies. Methods: Participants from two cross-sectional studies, one conducted in Europe (n = 3,308; HELENA study) and the other in Brazil (n = 991; BRACAH study), were selected by complex sampling. Systolic and diastolic blood ...

Background: Elevated blood eosinophils have been associated with lower lung function and are believed to be associated with accelerated lung function decline. Method: Blood eosinophils were measured in four cohorts: <45 years cohort within the Vlagtwedde-Vlaardingen (V&V) study, the Uppsala cohort of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS-Uppsala; <45 years), >= 45 years cohort within the V&V study, and the ...

Background: Associations between increased dietary fat and decreased carbohydrate intake with circulating HDL and non-HDL cholesterol have not been conclusively determined. Objective: We assessed these relations in 8 European observational human studies participating in the European Nutritional Phenotype Assessment and Data Sharing Initiative (ENPADASI) using harmonized data. Methods: Dietary macronutrient intake was recorded using ...