Tromso study

Spousal bereavement is associated with health declines and increased mortality risk, but its specific impact on physical and cognitive capabilities is less studied. A historical cohort study design was applied including married Tromsø study participants (N=5739) aged 50-70 years with baseline self-reported overall health and health-related factors and measured capability (grip strength, finger tapping, digit symbol coding, and short-term recall) at follow-up. Participants had data from Tromsø4 (1994-1995) and Tromsø5 (2001), or Tromsø6 (2007-2008) and Tromsø7 (2015-2016)...

AIM: We aimed to investigate changes in pre-diagnostic concentrations of classic and 11-oxygenated androgens in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) cases and healthy controls, associations between androgen concentrations and T2DM, and the potential for androgens to improve the prediction of T2DM when considered in combination with established risk factors. METHODS: Androgen concentrations were analysed in serum samples from 116 T2DM cases and 138 controls at 3, pre-diagnostic time-points: 1986/87 (T1), 1994/95 (T2), and 2001 (T3)...

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have suggested that experimental pain sensitivity is associated with cognitive function. The aim of this study is to assess this relationship in a large population-based sample. METHODS: We included 5,753 participants (aged 40-84 years) from the seventh wave of the population-based Tromsø Study who had been examined with cognitive tests and experimental pain assessments, and for whom information on covariates were available. Cox regression models were fitted using standardized scores on cognitive tests (12-word immediate recall test, digit symbol coding test, and Mini-Mental State Examination [MMS-E]) as the independent variable and cold pressor or cuff pressure pain tolerance as the dependent variables...

Knowledge is needed regarding mechanisms acting between physical activity (PA) and chronic pain. We investigated whether cold pain tolerance mediates an effect of leisure-time physical activity on the risk of chronic pain 7 to 8 years later using consecutive surveys of the population-based Tromsø Study. We included participants with information on baseline leisure-time PA (LTPA) and the level of cold pressor-assessed cold pain tolerance, who reported chronic pain status at follow-up as any of the following: chronic pain for ≥3 months, widespread chronic pain, moderate-to-severe chronic pain, or widespread moderate-to-severe chronic pain...

AIM: To assess the relationship between periodontitis and experimental pain tolerance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants from the population-based seventh survey of the Tromsø Study with data on periodontitis were included (n = 3666, 40-84 years old, 51.6% women). Pain tolerance was assessed through (i) pressure pain tolerance (PPT) test with a computerized cuff pressure algometry on the leg, and (ii) cold-pressor tolerance (CPT) test where one hand was placed in circulating 3°C water...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the dose-response association between estimated cardiorespiratory fitness (eCRF) and risk of myocardial infarction (MI). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Adults who attended Tromsø Study surveys 4-6 (Janurary 1,1994-December 20, 2008) with no previous cardiovascular disease were followed up through December 31, 2014 for incident MI. Associations were examined using restricted cubic splines Fine and Gray regressions, adjusted for education, smoking, alcohol, diet, sex, adiposity, physical activity, study survey, and age (timescale) in the total cohort and subsamples with hyperlipidemia (n=2956), hypertension (n=8290), obesity (n=5784), metabolic syndrome (n=1410), smokers (n=3823), and poor diet (n=3463) and in those who were physically inactive (n=6255)...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) defines important risk factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases and other serious health conditions. This study aims to investigate the influence of different dietary patterns on MetS and its components, examining both associations and predictive performance. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study sample included 10,750 participants from the seventh survey of the cross-sectional, population-based Tromsø Study in Norway...

BACKGROUND: Myocardial infarction is likely to be experienced as a life-threatening and potentially traumatic event. Approximately one-third of patients with myocardial infarction experience clinically significant symptoms of anxiety/depression. However, it is unclear how many of these patients experience these symptoms because of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a clinical screening of individuals with a confirmed myocardial infarction diagnosis. Our goal was to examine the prevalence of PTSD in myocardial infarction patients and study how PTSD symptoms were associated with exposure to potentially traumatic events...

INTRODUCTION: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poor mental health and cognitive function. Individual-level SES and area-level SES (ASES) may affect mental health and cognitive function through lifestyle. We aimed to quantify the associations of ASES with mental health and cognitive function and examine the mediating role of lifestyle behaviours independent of individual-level SES in a Norwegian population. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we included 7211 participants (54% women) from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (2015-2016) (Tromsø7)...

BACKGROUND: Case-control studies indicate an association between lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels and psoriasis. Data from larger population-based cohorts including mild cases are sparse. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between 25(OH)D and psoriasis in a large population-based cohort, and assess possible effect modification by overweight. METHODS: Data from the Tromsø Study 2015-16 (Tromsø7), including 19520 subjects from the general population aged 40-79 years old, were analysed cross-sectionally...

Hand grip strength (HGS) is a key indicator of intrinsic capacity and has shown good predictive ability for morbidity and mortality. Reference values from normative populations are valuable, and such data from the Norwegian population are scarce. Normative values for the digital Jamar+ dynamometer are largely lacking.HGS was assessed in the Norwegian Tromsø study, survey 7 in 2015-2016 for 7824 participants (9324 invited) aged 40+ using a Jamar+ digital dynamometer, and three measurements for each hand were performed following the Southampton protocol...

BACKGROUND: Social-to-biological processes is one set of mechanisms underlying the relationship between social position and health. However, very few studies have focused on the relationship between social factors and biology at multiple time points. This work investigates the relationship between education and the dynamic changes in a composite Biological Health Score (BHS) using two time points seven years apart in a Norwegian adult population. METHODS: We used data from individuals aged 30 years and above who participated in Tromsø6 (2007-2008) and Tromsø7 (2015-2016) (n = 8117)...

BACKGROUND: Widely adopted criteria suggest using either low handgrip strength or poor chair stand performance to identify probable sarcopenia. However, there are limited direct comparisons of these measures in relation to important clinical endpoints. We aimed to compare associations between these two measures of probable sarcopenia and all-cause mortality. METHODS: Analyses included 7838 community-dwelling participants (55% women) aged 40-84 years from the seventh survey of the Tromsø Study (2015-2016), with handgrip strength assessed using a Jamar + Digital Dynamometer and a five-repetition chair stand test (5-CST) also undertaken...

OBJECTIVE: Associations between occupational physical activity (OPA) and mortality risks are inconclusive. We aimed to examine associations between (1) OPA separately and (2) jointly with leisure time physical activity (LTPA), and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality, over four decades with updated exposure and covariates every 6-8 years. METHODS: Adults aged 20-65 years from the Tromsø Study surveys Tromsø3-Tromsø7 (1986-2016) were included...

BACKGROUND: Although, studies from Norway indicate a reduction in dental caries experience, in Northern-Norway this non-communicable oral condition is still prevalent. There is conflicting evidence of presence of social inequalities in dental caries in an adult population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess an association between educational level and dental caries experience in adults in urban Tromsø municipality, Northern-Norway, using The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) framework of health determinants...

BACKGROUND: Indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) and health behaviours (HB) are widely used predictors of health variations. Their relative importance is hard to establish, because HB takes a mediating role in the link between SEP and health. We aim to provide new knowledge on how SEP and HB are related to health and wellbeing. METHODS: The analysis considered 14,713 Norwegians aged 40-63. Separate regressions were performed using two outcomes for health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5 L; EQ-VAS), and one for subjective wellbeing (Satisfaction with Life Scale)...

OBJECTIVES: The extent to which observed associations between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and incident diabetes are explained by obesity and hypertension remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association of hs-CRP with developing diabetes in a Norwegian general population sample. DESIGN: A cohort study using two population-based surveys of the Tromsø Study: the sixth survey Tromsø6 (2007-2008) as baseline and the seventh survey Tromsø7 (2015-2016) at follow-up...

OBJECTIVES: To analyze factors predicting mandibular cortical width (MCW) and mandibular cortical index (MCI) in adult females and males. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data on 427 females and 335 males aged 40-84 from The Tromsø study: Tromsø7 were used. T-score, age, menopausal status (for females), remaining teeth, and periodontal status were analyzed in linear and logistic regression analyses as predictors of MCW and MCI, respectively. RESULTS: T-score, age, and the number of remaining teeth significantly predicted MCW in females but not males...

INTRODUCTION: Educational inequality in multiple health behaviors is rarely monitored using data from the same individuals as they age. The aim of this study is to research changes in relative educational inequality in multiple variables related to health behavior (smoking, physical activity, alcohol intake, and body mass index), separately and collectively (healthy lifestyle), among middle-aged adults living in Northern Norway. METHODS: Data from adult respondents aged 32-87 in 2008 with repeated measurements in 2016 ( N = 8,906) were drawn from the sixth and seventh waves of the Tromsø Study...

INTRODUCTION: Adherence to healthy lifestyle recommendations has positive effects on cancer outcomes yet adherence is low among cancer survivors. Differences in adherence between women and men, phase of survivorship, and other factors that might increase adherence, like the use of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM), need to be explored. We aimed to study the adherence to national recommendations for a healthy diet (daily intake of ≥ 5 portions of fruit/vegetables), physical activity (150 min of moderate-intensity or 75 min of high-intensity/week), normal body mass index (BMI) (18...