Publications

These publications are examples of research made possible with data from CanPath and its regional cohorts.

2023

Added value of waist circumference to body mass index for predicting fracture risk in obesity: a prospective study from the CARTaGENE cohort

Authors: Anne-Frédérique Turcotte, Sonia Jean, Suzanne N Morin, Fabrice Mac-Way, Claudia Gagnon

The researchers aimed to assess associations between waist circumference (WC) and fracture incidence within BMI categories to examine whether BMI modifies the relationships. Using data from 18,236 CARTaGENE participants, they found that larger WC was associated with a greater risk for fractures among those in the normal-to-overweight category.

Read Publication
2023

Multivariate extension of penalized regression on summary statistics to construct polygenic risk scores for correlated traits

Authors: Meriem Bahda, Jasmin Ricard, Simon L. Girard, Michel Maziade, Maripier Isabelle, Alexandre Bureau

The authors developed a summary-statistics-based multivariate penalized regression approach to improve the prediction of complex human traits and disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, by considering genetic correlations between these conditions. The study utilized genotypes from 29,330 subjects from the CARTaGENE cohort to determine the predictive performance of polygenic risk scores (PRS) for genetically correlated traits in simulation for several PRS construction methods.

Read Publication
2023

Mental health service use and associated predisposing, enabling and need factors in community living adults and older adults across Canada

Authors: Helen-Maria Vasiliadis, Jessica Spagnolo, Marie-Josée Fleury, Jean-Philippe Gouin, Pasquale Roberge, Mary Bartram, Sébastien Grenier, Grace Shen-Tu, Jennifer E. Vena, JianLi Wang

The authors utilized data from the CanPath COVID-19 health survey (May to December 2020) to conduct multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine the association between mental health service use (MHSU) and predisposing, enabling, and need factors — derived from Andersen’s model of healthcare-seeking behaviour — among five regional cohorts. Among the 45,542 adults in the study population, 6.3% of respondents reported MHSU and need factors were consistently associated with MHSU.

Read Publication
2023

Mental health, cancer risk, and the mediating role of lifestyle factors in the CARTaGENE cohort study

Authors: Kaitlyn Gilham, Anne Gadermann, Trevor Dummer, Rachel A Murphy

This study investigates the associations between depression, anxiety, and cancer risk and the mediating effects of lifestyle. Using data from 34,571 CARTaGENE participants, researchers found positive links between mental health disorders, all cancers, and lung cancer risk, except for anxiety and lung cancer in women, where associations were lower when adjusting for sociodemographics, health and lifestyle. The study also found that smoking affected the relationship between mental health disorders and cancer risk. Overall, the study suggests that lifestyle factors, like smoking, may be important in understanding the relationship between mental health and cancer risk.

Read Publication
2022

The role of ultra-processed food consumption and depression on type 2 diabetes incidence: a prospective community study in Quebec, Canada

Authors: Akankasha Sen, Anne-Sophie Brazeau, Sonya Deschênes, Hugo Ramiro Melgar-Quiñonez, Norbert Schmitz

Researchers analyzed the association between depression and ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption as risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) using baseline data (2009-2010) from 3,880 CARTaGENE participants. Participants with high depressive symptoms and high UPF consumption were at the highest risk for T2D. The study suggests that early management and monitoring of both risk factors could be essential for diabetes prevention.

Read Publication
2022

Prediction of Cardiovascular Events by Pulse Waveform Parameters: Analysis of CARTaGENE

Authors: Louis-Charles Desbiens, Catherine Fortier, Annie-Claire Nadeau-Fredette, François Madore, Bernhard Hametner, Siegfried Wassertheurer, Mohsen Agharazii, Rémi Goupil

Researchers conducted the largest study to date evaluating non-invasive pulse waveform parameters’ association with cardiovascular events. By adding two waveform parameters to the existing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease score, they improved cardiovascular prediction and reclassified up to 5.7% of patients in another risk category.

Read Publication
2022

Harnessing the power of data linkage to enrich the cancer research ecosystem in Canada

Authors: Robin Urquhart, Philip Awadalla, Parveen Bhatti, Trevor Dummer, Simon Gravel, Jennifer Vena, Riaz Alvi, Philippe Broet, Cynthia Kendell, Victoria Kirsh, Guillaume Lettre, Kimberly Skead, Grace Shen-Tu, Ellen Sweeney, Donna Turner

This abstract discusses a project aimed at linking cancer registry and administrative health data to Canada’s largest population health study, the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath). The project seeks to enrich the cancer research ecosystem in Canada by providing researchers with a comprehensive dataset that includes genetics, environment, lifestyle, and behaviour data. The linked data will be made available through a cloud-based solution called the CanPath Data Safe Haven, which is accessible to researchers through secure access. The project will address concerns related to the accessibility of cancer data in Canada, bring more value to existing data, and support an enhanced understanding of the impacts of cancer on marginalized populations.

Read Publication
2022

Analyzing cohort studies with interval-censored data: A new model-based linear rank-type test

Authors: Rodolphe Jantzen, Pascale Tubert-Bitter, Philippe Broët

When analyzing cohort studies with interval-censored data, the researchers suggest that statisticians employ their proposed test to test survival distributions’ quality between two or more groups.

Read Publication
2022

Socio-Demographic Factors Associated With COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Middle-Aged Adults During the Quebec’s Vaccination Campaign

Authors: Rodolphe Jantzen, Mathieu Maltais, Philippe Broët

This study aimed to describe how socioeconomic and demographic characteristics affect vaccine hesitancy. Using data from 6,105 CARTaGENE participants, researchers found that those born outside of Canada and those with a household income under $100,000 had the greatest hesitancy.

Read Publication
2022

Lifestyle factors and lung cancer risk among never smokers in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath)

Authors: Rachel Murphy, Maryam Darvishian, Jia Qi, Yixian Chen, Quincy Chu, Jennifer Vena, Trevor J B Dummer, Nhu Le, Ellen Sweeney, Vanessa DeClercq, Scott A Grandy, Melanie R Keats, Yunsong Cui, Philip Awadalla, Darren R Brenner, Parveen Bhatti

Data from 950 CanPath participants were analyzed to understand why 15-25% of lung cancers occur in never smokers. Researchers found a link between lung cancer risk, sleep, and fruit and vegetable intake amongst never smokers.

Read Publication