Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:The Physician Payment Sunshine Act was implemented to provide transparency to financial transactions between industry and physicians. Under this law, the Open Payments Program (OPP) was created to publicly disclose all transactions and inform patients of potential conflicts of interest. Collaboration between industry and cardiothoracic surgeon-scientists is essential in developing new approaches to treating patients with cardiac disease. The objective of this study is to characterize industry payments to cardiothoracic surgeons as reported by the OPP. METHODS:We used the first wave of Physician Payment Sunshine Act data (August 2013 to December 2013) to assess industry payments made to cardiothoracic surgeons. RESULTS:Cardiothoracic surgeons (n = 2,495) received a total of $4,417,545 during a 5-month period. Cardiothoracic surgeons comprised 0.5% of all persons in the OPP and received 0.9% of total disclosed industry funding. Among cardiothoracic surgeons receiving funding, 34% received payments less than $100, 43% received payments of $100 to $999, 19% received payments of $1,000 to $9,999, 4% received payments of $10,000 to $99,999, and 0.2% received payments of more than $100,000. The median was $181 (interquartile range [IQR]: $60 to $843) and the mean ± SD was $1,771 ± $7,664. The largest payment to an individual surgeon was $159,444. The three largest median payments made to cardiothoracic surgeons by expense category were royalty fees $8,398 (IQR: $536 to $12,316), speaker fees $3,600 (IQR: $1,500 to $8,000), and honoraria $3,344 (IQR: $1,563 to $7,350). CONCLUSIONS:Among cardiothoracic surgeons who are listed as recipients of nonresearch industry payments, 50% of cardiothoracic surgeons received less than $181. Awareness of the OPP data is critical for cardiothoracic surgeons, as it provides a means to prevent potential public misconceptions about industry payments within the specialty that may affect patient trust.

BACKGROUND:Frail individuals are at increased risk for poor outcomes, including adverse drug events. Kidney function is often compromised in frailty and is a key consideration in medication choice and dosing; however, creatinine-based measures of kidney function may be biased in frail individuals. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:Observational study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:4,987 community-dwelling older men and women with complete data who participated in visit 5 of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (2011-2013). PREDICTORS/METHODS:) and urine albumin-creatinine ratio. OUTCOME/RESULTS:Frailty, defined using established criteria of 3 or more frailty characteristics (weight loss, slowness, exhaustion, weakness, and low physical activity). RESULTS:). Hyperpolypharmacy (taking ≥10 classes of medications) was more common in frail individuals (54% vs 38% of nonfrail), including classes requiring kidney clearance (eg, digoxin) and associated with falls and subsequent complications (eg, hypnotic/sedatives and anticoagulants). LIMITATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:Cross-sectional study design. CONCLUSIONS:. Given the substantial medication burden and uncertainty in chronic kidney disease classification, confirmation of kidney function with alternative biomarkers may be warranted to ensure careful prescribing practices in this vulnerable population.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Most prior studies investigating the association of lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) with physical function were small or analyzed selected populations (e.g., patients at vascular clinics or persons with reduced function), leaving particular uncertainty regarding the association in the general community. METHODS:Among 5262 ARIC participants (age 71-90 years during 2011-2013), we assessed the cross-sectional association of ankle-brachial index (ABI) with the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) score (0-12), its individual components (chair stands, standing balance, and gait speed) (0-4 points each), and grip strength after accounting for potential confounders, including a history of coronary disease, stroke, or heart failure. RESULTS:There were 411 participants (7.8%) with low ABI ≤0.90 and 469 (8.9%) participants with borderline low ABI 0.91-1.00. Both ABI ≤0.90 and 0.91-1.00 were independently associated with poor physical function (SPPB score ≤6) compared to ABI 1.11-1.20 (adjusted odds ratio 2.10 [95% CI 1.55-2.84] and 1.86 [1.38-2.51], respectively). The patterns were largely consistent across subgroups by clinical conditions (e.g., leg pain or other cardiovascular diseases), in every SPPB component, and for grip strength. ABI >1.3 (472 participants [9.0%]), indicative of non-compressible pedal arteries, was related to lower physical function as well but did not necessarily reach significance. CONCLUSIONS:In community-dwelling older adults, low and borderline low ABI suggestive of PAD were independently associated with poorer systemic physical function compared to those with normal ABI. Clinical attention to PAD as a potential contributor to poor physical function is warranted in community-dwelling older adults.

Theory suggests that early experiences may calibrate the "threshold activity" of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in childhood. Particularly challenging or particularly supportive environments are posited to manifest in heightened physiological sensitivity to context. Using longitudinal data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292), we tested whether links between maternal sensitivity and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity aligned with these predictions. Specifically, we tested whether the magnitude of the within-person relation between maternal sensitivity and children's cortisol levels, a proxy for physiological sensitivity to context, was especially pronounced for children who typically experienced particularly low or high levels of maternal sensitivity over time. Our results were consistent with these hypotheses. Between children, lower levels of mean maternal sensitivity (7-24 months) were associated with higher mean cortisol levels across this period (measured as a basal sample collected at each visit). However, the magnitude and direction of the within-person relation was contingent on children's average levels of maternal sensitivity over time. Increases in maternal sensitivity were associated with contemporaneous cortisol decreases for children with typically low-sensitive mothers, whereas sensitivity increases were associated with cortisol increases for children with typically high-sensitive mothers. No within-child effects were evident at moderate levels of maternal sensitivity.

When delaying gratification, both motivational and regulatory processes are likely to be at play; however, the relative contributions of motivational and regulatory influences on delay behavior are unclear. By examining behavioral responses during a delay task, this study sought to examine the motivational (anticipatory behavior) and regulatory mechanisms (executive function and self-control strategies) underlying children's self-regulation. The participants, 65 5- to 9-year-old children (Mage=7.19years, SD=0.89), were video-recorded during a delay procedure and later coded for anticipatory behaviors (e.g., gazing intensely at the tablet) and self-control strategies. Children also completed two executive function (EF) tasks. We found that anticipatory behavior was curvilinearly related to delay time. Children showing either very low or very high levels of anticipatory behavior were not able to wait the entire time. Furthermore, our results indicated that anticipatory behavior interacted with EF to predict delay time. Specifically, anticipatory behavior was negatively related to delay time only if EF abilities were low. Finally, self-control strategies also interacted with EF to predict children's ability to delay. Spontaneous engagement in self-control strategies such as fidgeting and engagement in alternative activities were beneficial for children with low EF but were unrelated to delay time for children with high EF. Results indicate the value of examining motivational and regulatory influences on delay behavior. Lapses in self-regulation may be due to the combination of powerful impulsigenic (i.e., anticipatory behavior) and weak volitional processes (i.e., EF, self-control strategies).

Research has long acknowledged the centrality of parents' subjective experiences in the caregiving role for the organization of parenting behaviors and family functioning. Recent scientific advances in cognitive process models and in the neurobiology of parenting indicate that parenting is shaped in part by conscious and nonconscious cognitive processes. This study extends a growing literature on neurocognitive models of parenting by exploring the extent to which attention processes in parents operate independently and interactively with intrapsychic processes, proximal interpersonal stressors, and the larger socioeconomic context to predict perceptions of parenting hassles in primarily low-income Latino/a parents of young children living in urban areas of concentrated disadvantage (N = 185). Analyses indicated that parent reports of anxiety, intimate partner violence, and perceptions of financial hardship each uniquely predicted parents' perceptions of daily parenting hassles. Parents' attentional bias toward threat interacted with anxiety symptoms such that parents experiencing high levels of attention bias toward threat in combination with high levels of anxiety reported significantly more daily parenting hassles. Findings from the current study provide insight into the ways in which neurocognitive processes affect one aspect of parenting, with implications for programs and policies designed to support parenting for families in poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record

OBJECTIVE:Many individuals with prediabetes have evidence of subclinical myocardial damage and are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). If subclinical myocardial damage is independently associated with incident diabetes, this may contribute to the understanding of the association between diabetes and CVD. This study was conducted to determine whether high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) is associated with incident diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:Using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox models, we prospectively analyzed 8,153 participants without known diabetes or CVD. We used the Harrell C statistic to investigate whether hs-cTnT added incremental prognostic information for diabetes prediction. RESULTS:During a median of 13 years of follow-up, there were 1,830 incident cases of diagnosed diabetes. After adjustment for demographics and traditional risk factors, participants with a baseline hs-cTnT of 9-13 ng/L or ≥14 ng/L had a significantly increased risk for diabetes compared to those with an hs-cTnT of ≤5 ng/L, with hazard ratios of 1.14 (95% CI 0.99-1.33) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.03-1.53), respectively (P = 0.018 for trend). Linear spline modeling that included adjustment for baseline fasting glucose suggested an increased risk of incident diabetes for participants with hs-cTnT levels >8 ng/L. Furthermore, the addition of hs-cTnT to fully adjusted models that included glucose significantly improved the prediction of incident diabetes from 0.7636 to 0.7644 (P = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS:Participants with elevated hs-cTnT levels at baseline had an increased risk of incident diabetes, suggesting that the measurement of hs-cTnT may incorporate an underlying pathophysiologic overlap between diabetes and CVD not captured by other traditional risk factors. Measurement of hs-cTnT may be useful to identify individuals at an increased risk for incident diabetes and CVD in order to provide early and more intensive risk factor modification.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies identified associations between maternal obesity and childhood neurodevelopment, but few examined paternal obesity despite potentially distinct genetic/epigenetic effects related to developmental programming. METHODS: Upstate KIDS (2008-2010) recruited mothers from New York State (excluding New York City) at approximately 4 months postpartum. Parents completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) when their children were 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age corrected for gestation. The ASQ is validated to screen for delays in 5 developmental domains (ie, fine motor, gross motor, communication, personal-social functioning, and problem-solving ability). Analyses included 3759 singletons and 1062 nonrelated twins with >/=1 ASQs returned. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by using generalized linear mixed models accounting for maternal covariates (ie, age, race, education, insurance, marital status, parity, and pregnancy smoking). RESULTS: Compared with normal/underweight mothers (BMI <25), children of obese mothers (26% with BMI >/=30) had increased odds of failing the fine motor domain (aOR 1.67; confidence interval 1.12-2.47). The association remained after additional adjustment for paternal BMI (1.67; 1.11-2.52). Paternal obesity (29%) was associated with increased risk of failing the personal-social domain (1.75; 1.13-2.71), albeit attenuated after adjustment for maternal obesity (aOR 1.71; 1.08-2.70). Children whose parents both had BMI >/=35 were likely to additionally fail the problem-solving domain (2.93; 1.09-7.85). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that maternal and paternal obesity are each associated with specific delays in early childhood development, emphasizing the importance of family information when screening child development.