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Beyond Lockdown: The Potential Side Effects of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic on Public Health.
Paltrinieri, S, Bressi, B, Costi, S, Mazzini, E, Cavuto, S, Ottone, M, De Panfilis, L, Fugazzaro, S, Rondini, E, Giorgi Rossi, P
Nutrients. 2021;(5)
Abstract
Lockdowns to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 have disrupted routines and behaviors, which could lead to a worsening of lifestyle and an increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to describe the changes in physical activity, diet, alcohol drinking, and cigarette smoking during lockdown. A self-administered online survey addressing adults living in a province in northern Italy was advertised through websites and social media. Citizens could access the survey in anonymity from 4 May until 15 June 2020. A total of 1826 adults completed the survey, with a worsening of physical activity (35.1%), diet (17.6%), alcohol drinking (12.5%), and cigarette smoking (7.7%) reported. In contrast, 33.5% reported an improvement in diet, 12.6% in alcohol drinking, 5.3% in physical activity and 4.1% in cigarette smoking. Female sex, young adult age, suspension of work activity, and symptoms of psychological distress were the factors associated with a greater likelihood of change, which was frequently for the worse. Lockdown had an impact on lifestyle, with some net beneficial effects on diet and mostly negative effects on physical activity. Public health measures should be implemented to avoid long-term negative effects of the lockdown, supporting individuals more prone to change for the worse.
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Urinary Tartaric Acid, a Biomarker of Wine Intake, Correlates with Lower Total and LDL Cholesterol.
Domínguez-López, I, Parilli-Moser, I, Arancibia-Riveros, C, Tresserra-Rimbau, A, Martínez-González, MA, Ortega-Azorín, C, Salas-Salvadó, J, Castañer, O, Lapetra, J, Arós, F, et al
Nutrients. 2021;(8)
Abstract
Postmenopausal women are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases due to changes in lipid profile and body fat, among others. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of urinary tartaric acid, a biomarker of wine consumption, with anthropometric (weight, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-height ratio), blood pressure, and biochemical variables (blood glucose and lipid profile) that may be affected during the menopausal transition. This sub-study of the PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea) trial included a sample of 230 women aged 60-80 years with high cardiovascular risk at baseline. Urine samples were diluted and filtered, and tartaric acid was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Correlations between tartaric acid and the study variables were adjusted for age, education level, smoking status, physical activity, BMI, cholesterol-lowering, antihypertensive, and insulin treatment, total energy intake, and consumption of fruits, vegetables, and raisins. A strong association was observed between wine consumption and urinary tartaric acid (0.01 μg/mg (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01, 0.01), p-value < 0.001). Total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol were inversely correlated with urinary tartaric acid (-3.13 μg/mg (-5.54, -0.71), p-value = 0.016 and -3.03 μg/mg (-5.62, -0.42), p-value = 0.027, respectively), whereas other biochemical and anthropometric variables were unrelated. The results suggest that wine consumption may have a positive effect on cardiovascular health in postmenopausal women, underpinning its nutraceutical properties.
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Hierarchical associations of alcohol use disorder symptoms in late adolescence with markers during early adolescence.
Kühn, S, Lisofsky, N, Banaschewski, T, Barker, G, Bokde, ALW, Bromberg, U, Büchel, C, Brühl, R, Quinlan, EB, Desrivières, S, et al
Addictive behaviors. 2020;:106130
Abstract
High adolescent alcohol consumption is predictive for alcohol problems later in life. To tailor interventions, early identification of risk groups for adolescent alcohol consumption is important. The IMAGEN dataset was utilized to investigate predictors for problematic alcohol consumption at age 18-20 years as a function self and parental personality and drug-related measures as well as life-events and cognitive variables all assessed at age 14 years (N = 1404). For this purpose the binary partitioning algorithm ctree was used in an explorative analysis. The algorithm recursively selects significant input variables and splits the outcome variable based on these, yielding a conditional inference tree. Four significant split variables, namely Place of residence, the Disorganization subscale of the Temperament and Character Inventory, Sex, and the Sexuality subscale of the life-events questionnaire were found to distinguish between adolescents scoring high or low on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test about five years later (all p < 0.001). The analyis adds to the literature on predictors of adolescent drinking problems using a large European sample. The identified split variables could easily be collected in community samples. If their validity is proven in independent samples, they could facilitate intervention studies in the field of adolescent alcohol prevention.
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Association of leukocyte DNA methylation changes with dietary folate and alcohol intake in the EPIC study.
Perrier, F, Viallon, V, Ambatipudi, S, Ghantous, A, Cuenin, C, Hernandez-Vargas, H, Chajès, V, Baglietto, L, Matejcic, M, Moreno-Macias, H, et al
Clinical epigenetics. 2019;(1):57
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is increasing evidence that folate, an important component of one-carbon metabolism, modulates the epigenome. Alcohol, which can disrupt folate absorption, is also known to affect the epigenome. We investigated the association of dietary folate and alcohol intake on leukocyte DNA methylation levels in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Leukocyte genome-wide DNA methylation profiles on approximately 450,000 CpG sites were acquired with Illumina HumanMethylation 450K BeadChip measured among 450 women control participants of a case-control study on breast cancer nested within the EPIC cohort. After data preprocessing using surrogate variable analysis to reduce systematic variation, associations of DNA methylation with dietary folate and alcohol intake, assessed with dietary questionnaires, were investigated using CpG site-specific linear models. Specific regions of the methylome were explored using differentially methylated region (DMR) analysis and fused lasso (FL) regressions. The DMR analysis combined results from the feature-specific analysis for a specific chromosome and using distances between features as weights whereas FL regression combined two penalties to encourage sparsity of single features and the difference between two consecutive features. RESULTS After correction for multiple testing, intake of dietary folate was not associated with methylation level at any DNA methylation site, while weak associations were observed between alcohol intake and methylation level at CpG sites cg03199996 and cg07382687, with qval = 0.029 and qval = 0.048, respectively. Interestingly, the DMR analysis revealed a total of 24 and 90 regions associated with dietary folate and alcohol, respectively. For alcohol intake, 6 of the 15 most significant DMRs were identified through FL. CONCLUSIONS Alcohol intake was associated with methylation levels at two CpG sites. Evidence from DMR and FL analyses indicated that dietary folate and alcohol intake may be associated with genomic regions with tumor suppressor activity such as the GSDMD and HOXA5 genes. These results were in line with the hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms play a role in the association between folate and alcohol, although further studies are warranted to clarify the importance of these mechanisms in cancer.
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Smoking, drinking, and depression: comorbidity in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.
McCarter, K, Baker, AL, Britton, B, Wolfenden, L, Wratten, C, Bauer, J, Halpin, SA, Carter, G, Beck, AK, Leigh, L, et al
Cancer medicine. 2018;(6):2382-2390
Abstract
We aimed to determine the prevalence and co-occurrence of tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, and depressive symptoms among a sample of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients undergoing radiotherapy. A total of 307 HNC patients participated in a multi-site stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a dietitian-delivered health behavior intervention in patients with HNC undergoing radiotherapy. During week one of radiotherapy patients completed measures of smoking, alcohol consumption, and level of depression. Approximately one-fifth (21%) of patients had two or more co-occurring problems: current smoking, hazardous alcohol use, and/or likely presence of a major depressive episode (MDE). Approximately one-third (34%) of the sample were current smokers, one-third (31%) were drinking hazardously and almost one-fifth (19%) had likely cases of depression. Comorbidity of smoking, hazardous alcohol use, and MDE is high in HNC patients, and interventions need to address this cluster of cancer risk factors.
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Impact of Alcohol and Coffee Intake on the Risk of Advanced Liver Fibrosis: A Longitudinal Analysis in HIV-HCV Coinfected Patients (ANRS HEPAVIH CO-13 Cohort).
Yaya, I, Marcellin, F, Costa, M, Morlat, P, Protopopescu, C, Pialoux, G, Santos, ME, Wittkop, L, Esterle, L, Gervais, A, et al
Nutrients. 2018;(6)
Abstract
BACKGROUND Coffee intake has been shown to modulate both the effect of ethanol on serum GGT activities in some alcohol consumers and the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis in some patients with chronic diseases. This study aimed to analyze the impact of coffee intake and alcohol consumption on advanced liver fibrosis (ALF) in HIV-HCV co-infected patients. METHODS ANRS CO13-HEPAVIH is a French, nationwide, multicenter cohort of HIV-HCV-co-infected patients. Sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical data including alcohol and coffee consumption were prospectively collected using annual self-administered questionnaires during five years of follow-up. Mixed logistic regression models were performed, relating coffee intake and alcohol consumption to ALF. RESULTS 1019 patients were included. At the last available visit, 5.8% reported high-risk alcohol consumption, 27.4% reported high coffee intake and 14.5% had ALF. Compared with patients with low coffee intake and high-risk alcohol consumption, patients with low coffee intake and low-risk alcohol consumption had a lower risk of ALF (aOR (95% CI) 0.24 (0.12–0.50)). In addition, patients with high coffee intake had a lower risk of ALF than the reference group (0.14 (0.03–0.64) in high-risk alcohol drinkers and 0.11 (0.05–0.25) in low-risk alcohol drinkers). CONCLUSIONS High coffee intake was associated with a low risk of liver fibrosis even in HIV-HCV co-infected patients with high-risk alcohol consumption.
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The effects of a patient activation intervention on smoking and excessive drinking cessations: results from the PAADRN randomized controlled trial.
Wolinsky, FD, Lou, Y, Edmonds, SW, Saag, KG, Roblin, DW, Wright, NC, Jones, MP, Cram, P, ,
Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA. 2017;(10):3055-3060
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Abstract
UNLABELLED Patients may exhibit risky bone health behaviors. In a large pragmatic clinical trial, we tested whether a tailored patient activation DXA result letter accompanied by a bone health brochure led to smoking and excessive drinking cessations. The intervention did not, however, alter these risky bone health behaviors. INTRODUCTION Besides dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) screening and pharmacotherapy when indicated, beneficial bone health behaviors including proper calcium and vitamin D intake and weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise should be encouraged. Similarly, risky bone health behaviors like smoking and excessive drinking should be discouraged. We examined whether a direct-to-patient activation intervention led to smoking and excessive drinking cessations. METHODS The Patient Activation after DXA Result Notification (PAADRN) pragmatic clinical trial enrolled 7749 patients between February 2012 and August 2014. Interviews occurred at baseline and 12 and 52 weeks later. Intervention subjects were mailed an individually tailored DXA results letter accompanied by a bone health educational brochure 4 weeks post-DXA. Usual care subjects were not sent these materials. Smoking and excessive drinking were assessed by self-report at each interview. Intention-to-treat linear probability models were used. RESULTS Mean age was 66.6 years, 83.8% were women, and 75.3% were Non-Hispanic-Whites. Smoking was reported at baseline by 7.6% of the intervention group vs. 7.7% of the usual care group (p = 0.873). Excessive drinking was reported at baseline by 6.5% of the intervention group vs. 6.5% of the usual care group (p = 0.968). Intention-to-treat analyses indicated no significant differences between the intervention vs. usual care groups at either 12 or 52 weeks post-DXA (all p values ≥ 0.346). CONCLUSION An individually tailored DXA result letter accompanied by an educational brochure did not lead to smoking or excessive drinking cessations in patients who received DXA. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT01507662.
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Angelica keiskei Koidzumi extracts improve some markers of liver function in habitual alcohol drinkers: a randomized double-blind clinical trial.
Noh, HM, Ahn, EM, Yun, JM, Cho, BL, Paek, YJ
Journal of medicinal food. 2015;(2):166-72
Abstract
Alcohol induces oxidative stress and inflammatory response, which can lead to hepatitis and cirrhosis. Previous studies reported that the extracts of Angelica keiskei Koidzumi (AKE) have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, suggesting that AKE could improve abnormalities associated with alcoholic liver disease. In this study, the effectiveness of AKE supplementation was assessed in 82 habitual alcohol drinkers (male: more than 14 units per week, female: more than 7 units per week) with abnormal liver biochemistry in a placebo-controlled, randomized double-blind trial over 12 weeks. Among the subjects, 65% (n=43) were heavy drinkers consuming more than 35 units per week. Among heavy drinkers, gamma-glutamyl transferase levels of 19 subjects per AKE-treated group were significantly decreased (21.16±37.63, P=.016) with significant differences observed compared to the 24 subjects per placebo group (P=.046). However, no significant differences were observed in aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels between the AKE- and placebo-treated groups. These results suggest that AKE supplementation might improve liver function in heavy drinkers.
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Alcohol consumption and the risk of renal cancers in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC).
Wozniak, MB, Brennan, P, Brenner, DR, Overvad, K, Olsen, A, Tjønneland, A, Boutron-Ruault, MC, Clavel-Chapelon, F, Fagherazzi, G, Katzke, V, et al
International journal of cancer. 2015;(8):1953-66
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Epidemiologic studies have reported that moderate alcohol consumption is inversely associated with the risk of renal cancer. However, there is no information available on the associations in renal cancer subsites. From 1992 through to 2010, 477,325 men and women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort were followed for incident renal cancers (n = 931). Baseline and lifetime alcohol consumption was assessed by country-specific, validated dietary questionnaires. Information on past alcohol consumption was collected by lifestyle questionnaires. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated from Cox proportional hazard models. In multivariate analysis, total alcohol consumption at baseline was inversely associated with renal cancer; the HR and 95% CI for the increasing categories of total alcohol consumption at recruitment versus the light drinkers category were 0.78 (0.62-0.99), 0.82 (0.64-1.04), 0.70 (0.55-0.90), 0.91 (0.63-1.30), respectively, (ptrend = 0.001). A similar relationship was observed for average lifetime alcohol consumption and for all renal cancer subsites combined or for renal parenchyma subsite. The trend was not observed in hypertensive individuals and not significant in smokers. In conclusion, moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a decreased risk of renal cancer.
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Alcohol intake and associated risk of major cardiovascular outcomes in women compared with men: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective observational studies.
Zheng, YL, Lian, F, Shi, Q, Zhang, C, Chen, YW, Zhou, YH, He, J
BMC public health. 2015;:773
Abstract
BACKGROUND The prevalence of alcohol intake is increasing among women in some populations. Alcohol consumption plays an important role in the risk of major cardiovascular outcomes and total mortality. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the association between alcohol intake and major cardiovascular outcomes or total mortality in women compared with men. METHODS We searched the PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases for relevant articles published prior to June 2014. Among these potential included prospective studies, the different dose categories of alcohol intake were compared with the lowest alcohol intake or non-drinkers between women and men for the outcomes of major cardiovascular or total mortality. RESULTS We included 23 prospective studies (18 cohorts) reporting data on 489,696 individuals. The summary relative risk ratio (RRR; female to male) for total mortality was significantly increased with moderate alcohol intake compared with the lowest alcohol intake (RRR, 1.10; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.00-1.21; P = 0.047); no such significance was observed with other levels of alcohol intake (low intake: RRR, 1.07; 95 % CI: 0.98-1.17; P = 0.143; heavy intake: RRR, 1.09; 95 % CI: 0.99-1.21; P = 0.084). There was no evidence of a sex difference in the relative risk for coronary disease, cardiac death, stroke, or ischemic stroke between participants with low to heavy alcohol intake compared with those who never consumed alcohol or had the lowest alcohol intake. CONCLUSIONS Women with moderate to heavy alcohol intake had a significantly increased risk of total mortality compared with men in multiple subpopulations. Control of alcohol intake should be considered for women, particularly for young women who may be susceptible to binge drinking.