Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE: Recent evidence has suggested that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) may contribute to cardiometabolic and kidney dysfunction by increasing oxidative stress, but little is known about impacts in childhood. STUDY DESIGN: We performed cross-sectional analyses of 660 adolescents aged 12-19 years in the 2003-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using levels of 10 monohydroxylated urinary PAH metabolites as our exposure. Our primary outcomes of interest were biomarkers of oxidative stress and renal function, including estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR), insulin resistance, and serum uric acid, gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and C-reactive protein (CRP). RESULTS: We observed statistically significant associations between PAH metabolites and levels of serum GGT, CRP, uric acid and eGFR. Each 100% increase in 2-hydroxyphenanthrene was related to a 3.36% increase in uric acid (95% CI: 0.338-6.372; p=0.032), a 3.86% increase in GGT (95% CI: 1.361-6.362; p=0.005) and a 16.78% increase in CRP (95% CI: 1.848-31.689; p=0.029). Each 100% increase in 4-hydroxyphenanthrene was associated with a 6.18% increase in GGT (95% CI: 4.064-8.301; p<0.001) and a 13.66% increase in CRP (95% CI: 2.764-24.564; p=0.017). Each 100% increase in 9-hydroxyfluorene was associated with a 2.58% increase in GGT (95% CI: 0.389-4776; p=0.024). Each 100% increase in 3-hydroxyphenanthrene was associated with a 2.66% decrease in eGFR (95% CI: -4.979 to -0.331; p=0.028). CONCLUSIONS: Urinary PAH metabolites were associated with serum uric acid, GGT and CRP, suggesting possible impacts on cardiometabolic and kidney function in adolescents. Prospective work is needed to investigate the potential long-term health consequences of these findings.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality has been on the decline in the United States for decades. However, declines in IHD mortality have been slower in certain groups, including young women and black individuals. HYPOTHESIS: Trends in IHD vary by age, sex, and race in New York City (NYC). Young female minorities are a vulnerable group that may warrant renewed efforts to reduce IHD. METHODS: IHD mortality trends were assessed in NYC 1980-2008. NYC Vital Statistics data were obtained for analysis. Age-specific IHD mortality rates and confidence bounds were estimated. Trends in IHD mortality were compared by age and race/ethnicity using linear regression of log-transformed mortality rates. Rates and trends in IHD mortality rates were compared between subgroups defined by age, sex and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: The decline in IHD mortality rates slowed in 1999 among individuals aged 35-54 years but not >/=55. IHD mortality rates were higher among young men than women age 35-54, but annual declines in IHD mortality were slower for women. Black women age 35-54 had higher IHD mortality rates and slower declines in IHD mortality than women of other race/ethnicity groups. IHD mortality trends were similar in black and white men age 35-54. CONCLUSIONS: The decline in IHD mortality rates has slowed in recent years among younger, but not older, individuals in NYC. There was an association between sex and race/ethnicity on IHD mortality rates and trends. Young black women may benefit from targeted medical and public health interventions to reduce IHD mortality.

BACKGROUND: Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid), a conditionally essential sulfur-containing amino acid, is mainly obtained from diet in humans. Experimental studies have shown that taurine's main biological actions include bile salt conjugation, blood pressure regulation, anti-oxidation, and anti-inflammation. METHODS: We conducted a prospective case-control study nested in the New York University Women's Health Study, a cohort study involving 14,274 women enrolled since 1985. Taurine was measured in pre-diagnostic serum samples of 241 stroke cases and 479 matched controls. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant association between serum taurine and stroke risk in the overall study population. The adjusted ORs for stroke were 1.0 (reference), 0.87 (95% CI, 0.59-1.28), and 1.03 (95% CI, 0.69-1.54) in increasing tertiles of taurine (64.3-126.6, 126.7-152.9, and 153.0-308.5 nmol/mL, respectively). A significant inverse association between serum taurine and stroke risk was observed among never smokers, with an adjusted OR of 0.66 (95% CI, 0.37-1.18) and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.26-0.94) for the second and third tertile, respectively (p for trend = 0.01), but not among past or current smokers (p for interaction < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: We observed no overall association between serum taurine and stroke risk, although a protective effect was observed in never smokers, which requires further investigation. Taurine, Stroke, Epidemiology, Prospective, Case-control study, NYUWHS.

The main purpose of this study was to identify policy maker opinions and attitudes towards children's environmental health (CEH), potential barriers to child-specific protective legislation and implementation in northwest China, and evaluate knowledge and attitudes about CEH before and after an educational conference. We conducted seventy-two interviews with regional officials, researchers and non-governmental organization representatives from five provinces, and surveyed participants (forty-seven) before and after an educational conference in northwest China about CEH. Interviews identified general consensus among participants of the adverse effects of air pollution on children, yet few participants knew of policies to protect them. Barriers identified included limited funding and enforcement, weak regional governments and absence of child-specific policy-making. After the conference, substantially greater self-efficacy was identified for lead, mercury, air pollution and polychlorinated biphenyls (+0.57-0.72 on a 1-5 Likert scale, p = 0.002-0.013), and the scientific knowledge for the role of environment in children's health (+0.58, p = 0.015), and health care provider control (+0.52, p = 0.025) were rated more strongly. We conclude that policy makers in Northwest China appreciate that children are uniquely vulnerable, though additional regulations are needed to account for that vulnerability. Further research should examine effectiveness of the intervention on a larger scale and scope, and evaluate the usefulness of such interventions in translating research into improved care/reduced exposure to environmental hazards.

PURPOSE: Experimental studies demonstrate that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) inhibit inflammatory eicosanoids generated by omega-6 PUFAs. Epidemiologic studies on dietary omega-3 PUFA intake show consistent inverse associations with breast cancer incidence among Asian populations, where omega-3, relative to omega-6, intake is high. In contrast, associations are inconsistent among Western populations, where intake of omega-3, relative to omega-6, is low. We hypothesized that examining interactions between omega-3 and omega-6 would help elucidate the PUFA-breast cancer association in the United States. METHODS: In a Long Island, New York, population-based study of 1463 breast cancer cases and 1500 controls, we estimated multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using unconditional logistic regression to examine interactions between omega-3 and omega-6 intake. RESULTS: We observed a super-additive interaction (relative excess risk due to interaction = 0.41; 95% confidence interval = 0.06-0.76) between omega-3 and omega-6 intake in association with breast cancer incidence, although the CIs for the joint exposure of low omega-3/high omega-6 compared to high omega-3/low omega-6 intake were wide (odds ratio = 1.20; 95% confidence interval = 0.85-1.69). CONCLUSIONS: Breast cancer risk reduction may be possible for U.S. women with dietary consumption of higher omega-3, which has anti-inflammatory properties, in concert with lower omega-6, which induces inflammation. Replication from future U.S.-based investigations is needed.

The case cohort (CCH) design is a cost-effective design for assessing genetic susceptibility with time-to-event data especially when the event rate is low. In this work, we propose a powerful pseudo-score test for assessing the association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the event time under the CCH design. The pseudo-score is derived from a pseudo-likelihood which is an estimated retrospective likelihood that treats the SNP genotype as the dependent variable and time-to-event outcome and other covariates as independent variables. It exploits the fact that the genetic variable is often distributed independent of covariates or only related to a low-dimensional subset. Estimates of hazard ratio parameters for association can be obtained by maximizing the pseudo-likelihood. A unique advantage of our method is that it allows the censoring distribution to depend on covariates that are only measured for the CCH sample while not requiring the knowledge of follow-up or covariate information on subjects not selected into the CCH sample. In addition to these flexibilities, the proposed method has high relative efficiency compared with commonly used alternative approaches. We study large sample properties of this method and assess its finite sample performance using both simulated and real data examples.

OBJECTIVES: Epidemiological and molecular studies have shown that sleep duration is associated with metabolic syndrome (MtS), a disease that is on the rise in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We aim to investigate the association between sleep duration and selected cardiometabolic risk factors of MtS in a Saudi Arabian population. SETTING: Secondary care was given to the participants. There were 2 participating centres, shopping malls in North and South Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANTS: We recruited 2686 participants over a 1-year study period. Participants were selected based on their willingness. The only criterion for exclusion was living in the area (North or South Jeddah) for less than 15 years. PLANNED AND PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants were measured for blood sugar levels, blood pressure and body mass index. All participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire. RESULTS: There was a positive association between longer sleep duration and obesity, hypertension and hyperglycaemia. The adjusted ORs for obesity, hypertension and hyperglycaemia were 1.54 (95% CI 1.20 to 1.98), 1.89 (95% CI 1.45 to 2.48) and 1.59 (95% CI 1.19 to 2.13), respectively, in participants sleeping >8 h/night, as compared with those sleeping 7 h. The positive associations between longer sleep duration, defined as sleeping >7 h, and the disease status, did not differ from other risk factors such as physical activity and nutrition. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first epidemiological study reporting on the association between sleep duration and cardiometabolic risk factors of MtS in a Saudi Arabian population. Sleep durations of 8 h or greater were found to be associated with all 3 cardiometabolic risk factors: obesity, hypertension and hyperglycaemia, and this relationship was not confounded by quality of nutrition or physical activity levels.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and mounting evidence indicates that toxicant exposures can profoundly impact on CVD risk. Epidemiologic studies have suggested that arsenic (As) exposure is positively related to increases in blood pressure (BP), a primary CVD risk factor. However, evidence of whether genetic susceptibility can modify the association between As and BP are lacking. In this study, we used mixed effects models adjusted for potential confounders to examine the interaction between As exposure from well water and potential genetic modifiers on longitudinal change in BP over approximately 7years of follow-up in 1137 subjects selected from the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS) cohort in Bangladesh. Genotyping was conducted for 235 SNPs in 18 genes related to As metabolism, oxidative stress and endothelial function. We observed interactions between 44 SNPs with well water As for one or more BP outcome measures (systolic, diastolic, or pulse pressure (PP)) over the course of follow-up. The interaction between CYBA rs3794624 and well water As on annual PP remained statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons (FDR-adjusted p for interaction=0.05). Among individuals with the rs3794624 variant genotype, well water As was associated with a 2.23mmHg (95% CI: 1.14-3.32) greater annual increase in PP, while among those with the wild type, well water As was associated with a 0.13mmHg (95% CI: 0.02-0.23) greater annual increase in PP. Our results suggest that genetic variability may contribute to As-associated increases in BP over time.

Publisher: Abstract available from the publisher. OABL- RUS