OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between obese-years and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Boston, USA. PARTICIPANTS: 5036 participants of the Framingham Heart Study were examined. METHODS: Obese-years was calculated by multiplying for each participant the number of body mass index (BMI) units above 29 kg/m(2) by the number ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate if urban Africans displayed lower levels of atheroprotective high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) when presenting with communicable versus non-communicable forms of heart disease (HD) as both acute infection and chronic inflammation reduce HDLC levels. DESIGN: Hospital registry of 5328 de novo cases of HD over a 3-year period. SETTING: Cardiology Unit, Bar...

OBJECTIVE: To assess in a single cohort whether annual weight and waist circumference (WC) change has varied over time. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study with three surveys (1) 1999/2000; (2) 2004/2005 and (3) 2011/2012. Generalised linear mixed models with random effects were used to compare annualised weight and WC change between surveys 1 and 2 (period 1) with that between surveys 2 and 3...

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the annual occurrence/incidence of bacterial infections, and their association with chronic hyperglycemia and diabetic nephropathy, in patients with type 1 diabetes. DESIGN: In a register-based follow-up study, we investigated the frequency of bacterial infections in patients with type 1 diabetes (n=4748) and age-matched and sex-matched non-diabetic control...

Sedentary time is a modifiable determinant of poor health, and in older adults, reducing sedentary time may be an important first step in adopting and maintaining a more active lifestyle. The primary purpose of this consensus statement is to provide an integrated perspective on current knowledge and expert opinion pertaining to sedentary behaviour in older adults on the topics of measurement, a...

BACKGROUND: Subepicardial delayed gadolinium enhancement (DGE) patches without underlying cardiomyopathy is poorly understood. It is often reported as the result of prior silent myocarditis. Its prognostic relevance in asymptomatic athletes is unknown; therefore, medical clearance for competitive sports participation is debated. This case series aims to relate this pattern of DGE in athletes...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate how and when changes in workplace sitting time occurred following a workplace intervention to inform evaluation of intervention success. METHOD: The 4-week Stand Up Comcare study (June-September 2011) aimed to reduce workplace sitting time via regularly interrupting and replacing sitting time throughout the day. Activity monitor (activPAL3) workplace data from contr...

The time that children and adults spend sedentary-put simply, doing too much sitting as distinct from doing too little physical activity-has recently been proposed as a population-wide, ubiquitous influence on health outcomes. It has been argued that sedentary time is likely to be additional to the risks associated with insufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. New evidence identifie...

BACKGROUND/AIM: Sedentary behaviour is associated with increased risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Plasma fibrinogen and C reactive protein (CRP)-key inflammatory and/or haemostatic markers-may contribute to this association; however, few studies have examined their relationships with sedentary behaviours. We examined associations of overall sitting and TV viewing time with fibr...

INTRODUCTION: There is a paucity of data examining the effects of weight change on knee joint structures and symptoms. This study examined the effect of weight change on change in knee cartilage volume and symptoms in an obese cohort. METHODS: 112 obese subjects (Body Mass Index ≥30 kg/m(2)) were recruited from various community sources to examine the effect of obesity on musculoskeletal hea...

INTRODUCTION: Meniscal tears are commonly found on MRI and increase the risk for radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA). While meniscectomy is recommended when knee pain is severe or functionally disabling, it is unclear how to best treat meniscal tears without these symptoms. The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the effect of weight change on knee cartilage and pain in a cohort of...

Patients with advanced cancer often succumb to complications arising from striated muscle wasting associated with cachexia. Excessive activation of the type IIB activin receptor (ActRIIB) is considered an important mechanism underlying this wasting, where circulating procachectic factors bind ActRIIB and ultimately lead to the phosphorylation of SMAD2/3. Therapeutics that antagonize the binding...

Previous studies demonstrated that liver X receptor (LXR) agonists inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication by upregulating cholesterol transporter ATP-binding cassette A1 (ABCA1), suppressing HIV production, and reducing infectivity of produced virions. In this study, we extended these observations by analyzing the effect of the LXR agonist T0901317 [N-[4-(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-...

Cyclophilins exert both intracellular and extracellular activities related to immune responses and inflammation, which have been implicated in pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Pan-inhibition of cyclophilins has both pro- and antiatherosclerotic properties, but specific contributions of extracellular and intracellular cyclophilins to these effects have not been characterized. Here, using selecti...

Raising high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels is proposed as an attractive target to treat cardiovascular disease. However, a number of clinical studies examining the effect of HDL-raising therapies have been prematurely halted due to futility. Therefore there is a need for alternative therapies. Infusion of reconstituted HDL (rHDL) particles is still considered as a viable approach to increasi...

BACKGROUND: This study examined associations of perceived and objectively measured neighborhood environmental attributes with leisure-time sitting for transport among middle-to-older aged Japanese adults. METHOD: Data were collected using a postal survey of 998 adults aged 40 to 69 years. Generalized linear modeling with a gamma distribution and a log link was used to examine association...

BACKGROUND: To determine whether alternating bouts of sitting and standing at work influences daily workplace energy expenditure (EE). METHODS: Twenty-three overweight/obese office workers (mean ± SD; age: 48.2 ± 7.9 y, body mass index: 29.6 ± 4.0 kg/m2) undertook two 5-day experimental conditions in an equal, randomized order. Participants wore a "metabolic armband" (SenseWear Armband Mini)...

BACKGROUND: Too much sitting, including time spent sitting in cars, is associated with poor health outcomes. Identifying the built-environment attributes that may reduce vehicular sitting time can inform future initiatives linking the public health, urban design, and transportation sectors. METHODS: Data collected in 2003-2004 from adult residents (n = 2521) of Adelaide, Australia were used....

BACKGROUND: We examined associations of individual, psychosocial and environmental characteristics with 4-year changes in walking among middle-to-older aged adults; few such studies have employed prospective designs. METHODS: Walking for transport and walking for recreation were assessed during 2003-2004 (baseline) and 2007-2008 (follow-up) among 445 adults aged 50-65 years residing in Adelaid...

Sedentary behaviors (involving prolonged sitting) can be associated detrimentally with health outcomes. Older adults, the most sedentary age group, are especially at risk due to their high levels of television viewing time. This study examined individual, social, and physical environmental correlates of older adults' television viewing. Data on daily television viewing time, plus individual, so...