Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE:Food insecurity is associated with childhood obesity possibly mediated through caregiver feeding practices and beliefs. We examined if caregiver feeding practices differed by household food security status in a diverse sample of infants. We hypothesize feeding practices differ based on food security status. PATIENTS AND METHODS/METHODS:Baseline cross-sectional analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial to prevent obesity. Included in the analysis was 842 caregivers of 2-month-old infants presenting for well-child care at 4 academic institutions. Food insecurity exposure was based on an affirmative answer to one of two items in a 2-item validated questionnaire. Chi-square tests examined the association between parent feeding practices and food security status. Logistic regression adjusted for covariates. Differences in caregiver feeding practices by food security status and race/ethnicity were explored with an interaction term (food security status x race/ethnicity). RESULTS:43% of families screened as food insecure. In adjusted logistic regression, parents from food-insecure households were more likely to endorse that "the best way to make an infant stop crying is to feed him/her" (aOR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.28-2.29); and "When my baby cries, I immediately feed him/her" (aOR: 1.40, 95%CI: 1.06-1.83). Food insecure caregivers less frequently endorsed paying attention to their baby when s/he is full or hungry (OR 0.57 95%CI: 0.34-0.96). Racial/ethnic differences in beliefs and behaviors were observed by food security status. CONCLUSIONS:During early infancy, feeding practices differed among caregivers by household food security status. Further research is needed to examine whether these practices are associated with increased risk of obesity and obesity-related morbidity.

OBJECTIVE:The goal of this study was to determine whether newborn concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and bisphenol A (BPA) are associated with early childhood growth. METHODS:A total of 1,954 singletons and 966 twins from the Upstate KIDS Study (born 2008-2010) were included in this study. Newborn dried blood spot concentrations of PFOS, PFOA, and BPA were quantified by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Children's weight and height were reported from birth through 3 years of age. Repeated measures were modeled using generalized linear mixed models. RESULTS:[-0.17 to -0.051] per 1 standard deviation increase in log PFOS and PFOA, respectively) and not with early obesity among singletons. Inconsistent associations were observed for twins. BPA levels were higher among neonates with a neonatal intensive care unit stay (P < 0.001), making associations difficult to interpret. CONCLUSIONS:Perfluorinated alkyl substances did not exhibit obesogenic associations with early measures of childhood growth. Blood-based BPA measures are limited by the nonpersistent nature of the chemical, and unknown sources from hospital settings may present only transient exposures.

Air quality conditions in the U.S. are reported to the general public via the regulatory-based Air Quality Index (AQI). The accuracy of AQI as a risk communication tool is dependent, in part, on an assumption of equivalent health risks for each of the index pollutants. Time-series analyses of 858,030 emergency department visits from 2005–2010 for respiratory diseases in two New York counties (Bronx and Queens) were completed using a Poisson generalized linear model in order to assess the equivalency of respiratory morbidity risk for four index pollutants. Excess respiratory risk per 1-AQI unit was approximately twice as high for ozone (0.16%, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.08, 0.24]) as compared with sulfur dioxide (0.09%, 95% CI [0.01, 0.16], nitrogen dioxide (0.07%, 95% CI [0.01, 0.15]), and fine particulate matter (0.07%, 95% CI [0.02, 0.12]). Unequal respiratory risks on a per-AQI-unit basis resulted in inconsistencies between reported AQI values and public health risks, especially during the ozone season. While still useful in reporting general air quality conditions to the public, AQI may be insufficiently precise to inform optimal daily behavior modification decisions

Primary care is the foundation of health care systems and has potential to alleviate inequities in population health. We examined multiple measures of adult primary care access, health status, and socioeconomic position at the New York City Council District level-a unit of analysis both relevant to and actionable by local policymakers. The results showed significant associations between measures of primary care access and health status after adjustment for socioeconomic factors. We found that an increase of 1 provider per 10 000 people was associated with a 1% decrease in diabetes rates and a 5% decrease in rates of adults without an influenza immunization. Furthermore, higher rates of primary care providers in high-poverty districts accepted Medicaid and had Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition, increasing constituent accessibility. Our findings highlight the significant contribution of primary care access to community health; policies and resource allocation must prioritize primary care facility siting and provider recruitment in low-access areas.

BACKGROUND:A federal assault weapons ban has been proposed as a way to reduce mass shootings in the U.S. (U.S). The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (A.W.B.) of 1994 made the manufacture and civilian use of a defined set of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines illegal. The ban expired in 2004. The period from 1994 to 2004 serves as a single-arm pre-post observational study to assess the effectiveness of this policy intervention. METHODS:Mass shooting data for 1981 to 2017 were obtained from three well-documented, referenced, and open-source sets of data, based on media reports. We calculated the yearly rates of mass shooting fatalities as a proportion of total firearm homicide deaths and per U.S. POPULATION/METHODS:We compared the 1994-2004 federal ban period to non-ban periods, using simple linear regression models for rates and a Poison model for counts with a year variable to control for trend. The relative effects of the ban period were estimated with odds ratios. RESULTS:Assault rifles accounted for 430 or 85.8% of the total 501 mass-shooting fatalities reported (95% CI 82.8, 88.9) in 44 mass-shooting incidents. Mass shootings in the U.S. accounted for an increasing proportion of all firearm-related homicides (coefficient for year = 0.7, p = 0.0003), with increment in year alone capturing over a third of the overall variance in the data (Adjusted R-squared = 0.3). In a linear regression model controlling for yearly trend, the federal ban period was associated with a statistically significant 9 fewer mass shooting related deaths per 10,000 firearm homicides (p = 0.03). Mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the federal ban period (Relative Rate = 0.30, 95% CI 0.22,0.39). CONCLUSIONS:Mass-shooting related homicides in the U.S. were reduced during the years of the federal assault weapons ban of 1994 to 2004. STUDY TYPE/METHODS:Observational LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III/IV.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:To describe the study protocol and baseline characteristics of the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES) III. DESIGN/METHODS:Cross-sectional, case-control study. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Three thousand two hundred sixty-six glaucoma patients and control participants without glaucoma of African or European descent were recruited from 5 study centers in different regions of the United States. METHODS:Individuals of African descent (AD) and European descent (ED) with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and control participants completed a detailed demographic and medical history interview. Standardized height, weight, and blood pressure measurements were obtained. Saliva and blood samples to provide serum, plasma, DNA, and RNA were collected for standardized processing. Visual fields, stereoscopic disc photographs, and details of the ophthalmic examination were obtained and transferred to the University of California, San Diego, Data Coordinating Center for standardized processing and quality review. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES/METHODS:Participant gender, age, race, body mass index, blood pressure, history of smoking and alcohol use in POAG patients and control participants were described. Ophthalmic measures included intraocular pressure, visual field mean deviation, central corneal thickness, glaucoma medication use, or past glaucoma surgery. Ocular conditions, including diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and past cataract surgery, were recorded. RESULTS:The 3266 ADAGES III study participants in this report include 2146 AD POAG patients, 695 ED POAG patients, 198 AD control participants, and 227 ED control participants. The AD POAG patients and control participants were significantly younger (both, 67.4 years) than ED POAG patients and control participants (73.4 and 70.2 years, respectively). After adjusting for age, AD POAG patients had different phenotypic characteristics compared with ED POAG patients, including higher intraocular pressure, worse visual acuity and visual field mean deviation, and thinner corneas (all P < 0.001). Family history of glaucoma did not differ between AD and ED POAG patients. CONCLUSIONS:With its large sample size, extensive specimen collection, and deep phenotyping of AD and ED glaucoma patients and control participants from different regions in the United States, the ADAGES III genomics study will address gaps in our knowledge of the genetics of POAG in this high-risk population.

OBJECTIVE:Find genetic contributions to glaucoma in African Americans. DESIGN/METHODS:Cross-sectional, case-control study. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:1875 POAG cases and 1709 controls, self-identified as African Descent (AD), from the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGESIII) and Wake Forest School of Medicine. METHODS:MegaChip genotypes were imputed to Thousand Genomes data. Association of SNPs with POAG and advanced POAG was tested by linear mixed model correcting for relatedness and population stratification. Genetic risk scores were tested by Receiver Operator Characteristics (ROC-AUC). MAIN OUTCOME/RESULTS:POAG defined by visual field loss without other non-ocular conditions (N=1875). Advanced POAG was defined by age-based mean deviation of visual field (N=946). RESULTS:) was observed, not in LD with the previously reported ED SNP. Additional previously identified loci associated with POAG in AD were: 8q22, AFAP1, TMCO1. An AUC of 0.62 was observed with an unweighted genetic risk score composed of 11 SNPs in candidate genes. Two additional risk scores were studied by using a penalized matrix decomposition with cross-validation; risk scores of 50 and 400 SNPs were identified with ROC of AUC=0.74 and AUC=0.94, respectively. CONCLUSIONS:A novel association with advanced POAG in the ENO4 locus was putatively identified in subjects of African descent. In addition to this finding, this GWAS in AD POAG subjects contributes to POAG genetics by identification of novel signals in prior loci (9p21), as well as advancing the fine-mapping of regions due to shorter average linkage disequilibrium (FNDC3B). While not useful without confirmation and clinical trials, the use of genetic risk scores demonstrated that considerable AD-specific genetic information remains in these data.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW:The presence of viruses in urine (urine virome) typically reflects infection in the kidneys and urinary tract. The urinary virome is associated with HIV-associated nephropathy and chronic glomerulosclerosis. There are many associations of this microbiome with human diseases that remain to be described. This manuscript reviews emerging data on relationships between kidney disease and urinary tract infection/colonization with JC polyomavirus (JCPyV). RECENT FINDINGS:Approximately 30% of the adult population sheds JCPyV in the urine. Further, urinary tract infection with one polyomavirus strain appears to inhibit secondary infections. The presence of urinary JCPyV and BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) replication were measured with polymerase chain reaction in African Americans to assess relationships with apolipoprotein L1 gene (APOL1)-associated nephropathy. Urinary JCPyV was associated with paradoxically lower rates of nephropathy in those with APOL1 high-risk genotypes. Subsequent studies revealed African Americans with JCPyV viruria had lower rates of nondiabetic nephropathy independent from APOL1. SUMMARY:Urinary tract JCPyV replication is common and associates with lower rates of nephropathy. This relationship is observed in diverse settings. Results support a host immune system that fails to eradicate nonnephropathic viruses and is also less likely to manifest renal parenchymal inflammation resulting in glomerulosclerosis.

We used the Health Belief Model (HBM) to explore factors associated with readiness for genetic counseling among breast cancer survivors. Breast cancer survivors meeting NCCN genetic counseling referral criteria completed questionnaires capturing demographic and clinical information and factors guided by the HBM, including health beliefs, psychosocial variables, and cues to action. Using logistic regression, we examined whether the above variables differed based on readiness group (pre-contemplators, who did not plan to make a genetic counseling appointment, and contemplators, who planned to make a genetic counseling appointment in the next 1-6 months). Of 111 participants, 57% were pre-contemplators and 43% were contemplators. Higher cancer worry was associated with increased odds of being a contemplator (OR = 2.99; 95% CI = 1.37-6.54) and higher perceived barriers to genetic counseling were associated with decreased odds of being a contemplator (OR = 0.31; 95% CI = 0.11-0.85). Those who reported a family member encouraged them to get tested were more likely to be contemplators (OR = 3.57; 95% CI = 1.19-10.70). Our results suggest key factors for predicting genetic counseling readiness include cancer worry, perceived barriers, and family influence. There is need for increased genetic counseling awareness. Better understanding of factors related to survivors' decisions about counseling can inform tailored interventions to improve uptake and ultimately reduce cancer recurrence risk.