Annals of Epidemiology

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether underlying infertility and mode of conception are associated with childhood behavioral disorders. METHODS: Oversampling on fertility treatment exposure using vital records, the Upstate KIDS Study followed 2057 children (of 1754 mothers) from birth to 11 years. Type of fertility treatment and time to pregnancy (TTP) were self-reported. Mothers completed annual questionnaires reporting symptomology, diagnoses and medications at 7-11 years of age...

PURPOSE: A substantial proportion of global deaths is attributed to unhealthy diet, which can be assessed at baseline or longitudinally. We demonstrated how to simultaneously correct for random measurement error, correlations, and skewness in the estimation of associations between dietary intake and all-cause mortality. METHODS: We applied a multivariate joint model (MJM) that simultaneously corrected for random measurement error, skewness, and correlation among longitudinally measured intake levels of cholesterol, total fat, dietary fiber, and energy with all-cause mortality using US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey linked to the National Death Index mortality data...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between sexual orientation and screen use (screen time and problematic screen use) in a demographically diverse national sample of early adolescents in the U.S. METHODS: We analyzed cross-sectional data from Year 2 of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N=10,339, 2018-2020, ages 10-14 years). Multiple linear regression analyses estimated the association between sexual orientation and recreational screen time, as well as problematic use of video games, social media, and mobile phones...

PURPOSE: To examine the association between pre-existing cardiovascular disorders and the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among community-dwelling adults in the United States (US). METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), encompassing 28,848 nationally representative participants aged ≥18. We examined the association by two age groups, younger adults (aged 18-59) and older adults (aged>60). Weighted analyses were conducted to consider the complex sampling design used in the NHIS...

PURPOSE: Compare occurrence of self-inflicted injuries among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth to that of their cisgender peers while accounting for mental health diagnoses. METHODS: Review of electronic health records from three integrated health care systems identified 1087 transfeminine and 1431 transmasculine adolescents and young adults. Poisson regression was used to calculate prevalence ratios comparing the proportion of TGD participants with at least one self-inflicted injury (a surrogate for suicide attempt) before index date (first evidence of TGD status) to the corresponding proportions in presumed cisgender male and female referents matched on age, race/ethnicity and health plan...

PURPOSE: To investigate associations between glucose measurements during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth (PTB). METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of commercially insured women with singleton live births in the United States from 2003-2021 using longitudinal medical claims, socioeconomic data, and eight glucose results from different types of fasting and post-load tests performed between 24-28 weeks of gestation for gestational diabetes screening. Risk ratios of PTB (<37 weeks) were estimated via Poisson regression for z-standardized glucose measures...

PURPOSE: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) remains a serious cause of infections in the U.S. and worldwide. In the U.S., methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections. This study identifies 'best' to 'worst' infection trends from 2002 to 2016, using group-based trajectory modelling approach. METHODS: Electronic health records of children living in the southeastern U.S. with S. aureus infections from 2002-2016 were retrospectively studied, by applying a group-based trajectory model to estimate infection trends (low, high, very high), and then assess spatial significance of these trends at the census tract level; we focused on community onset (CO) infections and not those considered healthcare acquired...

Prior studies of cardiovascular health (CVH) disparities among immigrants of South Asian-origin in the United States (U.S.) have examined South Asians as one homogenous group, focused primarily on Indian-origin immigrants, and examined risk at the individual level. We present current knowledge and evidence gaps about CVH in the three largest South Asian-origin populations in the U.S.- Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani- and draw on socioecological and lifecourse frameworks to propose a conceptual framework for investigating multilevel risk and protective factors of CVH across these groups...

PURPOSE: Stress and elevated maternal glycemia have negative effects on pregnancy. We evaluated the association of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), a marker of chronic stress, with insulin resistance and gestational diabetes (GDM). METHODS: 527 women from Lima, Peru, provided a hair sample in the second trimester of their pregnancy to measure HCC using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Each 6 cm of hair captured HCC in early (T1=1-12 weeks) and mid-pregnancy (T2=13-24 weeks)...

PURPOSE: The etiology of cyanotic congenital heart defects (CCHD) is not well understood. There is scarce data on racial/ethnic disparities in maternal infection and CCHD. We evaluated the relation of maternal infections during pregnancy and risk of CCHD in the United States, and to assess if this association vary by race/ethnicity. METHODS: Data were from the National Vital Statistics System comprising of 35.3 million singleton live births among mothers aged 15-49 years from 2011-2020...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the association of change in food insecurity over time with cognitive function in midlife, and whether depressive symptoms mediated that relationship. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Change in food insecurity in 2000-2005 was coded as 'persistently food-secure', 'persistently food-insecure', 'became food-insecure', and 'became food-secure'. Depressive symptoms were measured in 2010, and cognitive function was measured in 2015...

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship of fibroids in pregnancy, preterm birth, and neonatal anthropometry. METHODS: Pregnant women (n=2,578) in the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies - Singletons cohort had up to 6 ultrasounds across pregnancy. Sonographers recorded fibroid number and volume of the 3 largest fibroids. Trained personnel measured neonatal anthropometry. Linear and logistic regression compared neonatal anthropometry and pregnancy outcomes among pregnancies with versus without fibroids...

PURPOSE: When studying health risks across a large geographic region such as a state or province, researchers often assume that finer resolution data on health outcomes and risk factors will improve inferences by avoiding ecological bias and other issues associated with geographic aggregation. However, coarser resolution data (e.g., at the town or county level) are more commonly publicly available and packaged for easier access, allowing for rapid analyses. The advantages and limitations of using finer resolution data, which may improve precision at the cost of time spent gaining access and processing data, have not been considered in detail to date...

PURPOSE: Incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer is substantially higher in Asian/Pacific Islanders (APIs) than other racial groups. Examining age-specific incidence patterns by racial group and histology could inform disease etiology. METHODS: We analyzed data from 2000 through 2019 from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program to compare age-specific incidence rates of nasopharyngeal cancer in non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks, NH APIs, and Hispanics to NH Whites using incidence rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs)...

PURPOSE: Risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections has increased due to the ongoing opioid epidemic and unsafe injection practices. We estimated the prevalence and incidence of HIV and HCV diagnoses among people who inject drugs from hospital-based clinical encounters. METHODS: We linked clinical encounters at an Atlanta hospital during 2012-2018 with state HIV and HCV surveillance records to examine the prevalence of infections at discharge and incidence of infections post clinical encounter...

OBJECTIVES: Assess cardiovascular health (CVH) during early childhood using the American Heart Association's recently-updated construct, Life's Essential 8 (LE8); examine concordance in CVH status per LE8 vs. Life's Simple 7 (LS7); and identify perinatal correlates of high CVH per LE8. METHODS: We applied LE8 and LS7 to data from 305 children aged 4-7 years in Denver, CO; estimated % low, moderate, high, and optimal CVH; assessed concordance in CVH status based on LE8 and LS7 using contingency tables; and used multivariable logistic regression to identify early-life correlates of high CVH per LE8...

PURPOSE: To examine the association of residential mobility, as a proxy for environmental influences, with childhood inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) risk. METHODS: Using nationwide register-based dataset, all 2038 IBD cases in Finland diagnosed at ages <15 years in 1992-2016 were individually matched by sex and age with five controls employing risk set sampling. Complete residential histories of the subjects were constructed from birth until the index date (diagnosis date of the case)...

PURPOSE: Given the nature of the co-occurring epidemics of HCV and fatal stimulant overdose, we sought to assess the prevalence of HCV among opioid and stimulant positive overdoses. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine prevalence of HCV among fatal drug overdoses in Tennessee using 2019-2020 data from the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS). We defined history of HCV using surveillance data and autopsy reports. Descriptive statistics were calculated for circumstances of overdose deaths for different categories of opioid and stimulant positivity on toxicology...

PURPOSE: The American College of Epidemiology (ACE) held its 2021 Annual Meeting virtually, September 8-10, with a conference theme of "From Womb to Tomb: Insights from Health Emergencies". The ACE Ethics Committee hosted a symposium session in recognition of the ethical and social challenges brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic and on the occasion of the publication of the third edition of the classic text, Ethics and Epidemiology. The ACE Ethics Committee invited the book editor and contributing authors to present at the symposium session titled "Current Ethical and Social Issues in Epidemiology...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have established associations between body mass index (BMI) and breast cancer, but fat mass is a more direct measure of the amount of fat tissue in the body than BMI. AIMS: This study examined the association between body fat mass (BFM), fat-free mass (FFM) and other anthropometric measures and breast cancer in postmenopausal women according to use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: From the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort established during 1993-1997, 24,219 postmenopausal women were included who had anthropometric and bioimpedance measurements performed by a laboratory technician at baseline...