Publications

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

2022

Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the built environment and walking: effect modification by socioeconomic status

Authors: Chelsea D Christie, Christine M Friedenreich, Jennifer E Vena, Liam Turley, Gavin R McCormack

Using data from 703 Alberta’s Tomorrow Project participants, researchers found that changes to the built environment are not associated with changes in walking amongst adults after relocation. They also had weak findings that changes in walkability due to relocation may more strongly affect walking for adults with lower socioeconomic status.

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2022

Substituting bouts of sedentary behavior with physical activity: adopting positive lifestyle choices in people with a history of cancer

Authors: Lee Ingle, Samantha Ruilova, Yunsung Cui, Vanessa DeClercq, Ellen Sweeney, Zhijie Michael Yu, Cynthia C Forbes

This study aimed to determine the association between substituting sitting time with other daily activities and changes in waist circumference amongst people with cancer history. The researchers found that small changes to minimize their sitting time help reduce waist circumference, possibly offsetting other adverse health outcomes.

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2022

Anti-Hyperglycemic Medication Adherence and Health Services Utilization in People with Diabetes: A Longitudinal Study of Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Authors: Ming Ye, Jennifer E Vena, Jeffrey A Johnson, Grace Shen-Tu, Dean T Eurich

This study aimed to describe how time-varying anti-hyperglycemic medication adherence relates to healthcare utilization for those with diabetes. Using data from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project participants, researchers found that poor drug adherence related to higher healthcare utilization in the short term but less over the long term.

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2022

Negative Association of Smoking History With Clinically Manifest Cardiac Sarcoidosis: A Case-Control Study

Authors: Chenchen Xu, Pablo B Nery, Christiane Wiefels, Rob S Beanlands, Stewart D Spence, Daniel Juneau, Steven Promislow, Kevin Boczar, Robert A deKemp, David H Birnie

Researchers aimed to explore whether smoking was associated with a specific sarcoidosis phenotype, primarily in Caucasian patients with clinically manifest cardiac sarcoidosis (CS). Ontario Health Study participants’ data were used as controls, while the cases came from the Cardiac Sarcoidosis Multi-Center Prospective Cohort Study. They found a strong association between smoking history and clinically manifest CS, but more research is required to understand whether these associations have therapeutic potential.

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2022

Applying Machine Learning to Arsenic Species and Metallomics Profiles of Toenails to Evaluate Associations of Environmental Arsenic with Incident Cancer Cases

Authors: Sheida Majouni, Jong Sung Kim, Ellen Sweeney, Erin Keltie, Syed Sibte Raza Abidi

This preliminary study aimed to understand the association between environmental metal pathogenicity and carcinogenicity and prostate cancer. Researchers used toenails to capture arsenic exposure!

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2022

Recombination affects allele-specific expression of deleterious variants in human populations

Authors: Michelle P Harwood, Isabel Alves, Hilary Edgington, Mawusse Agbessi, Vanessa Bruat, David Soave, Fabien C Lamaze, Marie-Julie Favé, Philip Awadalla

This study investigates how changes in the genetic makeup of a population, influenced by random genetic drift and selective forces, impact the variation in observable traits over time. The researchers found that specific factors like recombination rates and population size affect patterns of allele-specific gene expression, with regions of high recombination showing a higher efficiency in using this mechanism to suppress harmful genetic variations.

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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.

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2022

The Genetic and Molecular Analyses of RAD51C and RAD51D Identifies Rare Variants Implicated in Hereditary Ovarian Cancer from a Genetically Unique Population

Authors: Wejdan M Alenezi, Larissa Milano, Caitlin T Fierheller, Corinne Serruya, Timothée Revil, Kathleen K Oros, Supriya Behl, Suzanna L Arcand, Porangana Nayar, Dan Spiegelman, Simon Gravel, Anne-Marie Mes-Masson, Diane Provencher, William D Foulkes, Zaki El Haffaf, Guy Rouleau, Luigi Bouchard, Celia M T Greenwood, Jean-Yves Masson, Jiannis Ragoussis, Patricia N Tonin

This study aimed to identify specific genetic mutations associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. The mutations they discovered were found in many early-onset cases, particularly RAD51D, suggesting their role in hereditary ovarian cancer and the importance of the genes in the development of this disease.

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2022

A dietary carbohydrate – gut Parasutterella – human fatty acid biosynthesis metabolic axis in obesity and type 2 diabetes

Authors: Lea Henneke, Kristina Schlicht, Nadia A. Andreani, Tim Hollstein, Tobias Demetrowitsch, Carina Knappe, Katharina Hartmann, Julia Jensen-Kroll, Nathalie Rohmann, Daniela Pohlschneider, Corinna Geisler, Dominik M. Schulte, Ute Settgast, Kathrin Türk, Johannes Zimmermann, Christoph Kaleta, John F. Baines, Jane Shearer, Shrushti Shah, Grace Shen-Tu, Karin Schwarz, Andre Franke, Stefan Schreiber, Matthias Laudes

This study aimed to characterize Parasutterella, a gut bacteria, in a European cohort. 438 participants from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project were included to validate the results of this study. Researchers found that this bacteria have a role in type 2 diabetes and obesity.

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2022

Health-Related and Behavioral Factors Associated With Lung Cancer Stage at Diagnosis: Observations From Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Authors: Michelle L. Aktary, Monica Ghebrial, Qinggang Wang, Lorraine Shack, Paula J. Robson, Karen A. Kopciuk

This study examined sociodemographic characteristics and health-related factors and their associations with subsequent lung cancer stage at diagnosis. Using data from 221 Alberta’s Tomorrow Project participants, researchers found that a history of sunburn in the past year and more prostate-specific antigen tests were protective against late-stage lung cancer diagnosis, whereas physical activity increased late-stage cancer diagnosis odds.

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