Associations between the neighbourhood characteristics and body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio: Findings from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project
This study estimated the associations between neighbourhood characteristics and self-reported body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) risk categories among Canadian men and women.
The association between job strain, depressive symptoms, and cardiovascular disease risk: results from a cross-sectional population-based study in Québec, Canada
This study investigated whether there is an association between job strain and cardiovascular disease risk score, when depressive symptoms are controlled for. The results suggest that the job strain is associated with CVD risk score and that this association is not explained by depressive symptoms. Similar associations were observed for males and females.
Comparison of fracture prediction tools in individuals without and with early chronic kidney disease: A population-based analysis of CARTaGENE
This study analyzed the CARTaGENE cohort to see how patients with chronic kidney disease were affected by bone fractures.
Quantifying the Predictive Accuracy of a Polygenic Risk Score for Predicting Incident Cancer Cases: Application to the CARTaGENE Cohort
This study evaluated the 5-year predictivity of an 18-single nucleotide polymorphism PRS for incident breast cancer cases in the CARTaGENE cohort using pseudo R^2 indices. It concluded that the proposed pseudo-R^2 is easy to implement and well suited to evaluate PRS for predicting incident events in cohort studies.
Founder BRCA1/BRCA2/PALB2 pathogenic variants in French-Canadian breast cancer cases and controls
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of genetic testing for these variants of the BRCA gene in Montreal French Canadians. A total of 555 breast cancer cases unselected for family history or age of diagnosis were genotyped, along with 1940 controls without a personal or family history of cancer. Almost 10% of the early onset cases of BC were heterozygous for founder BRCA1 or BRCA2. 7 of the 20 variants of the breast cancer gene tested for were found in this study.
The Relationship of Sleep Duration with Ethnicity and Chronic Disease in a Canadian General Population Cohort
This study used questionnaire data from the Ontario Health Study to determine how ethnicity-specific differences in sleep duration affect health outcomes. It was found that both sleep duration and ethnicity were independent significant predictors for various morbidities such as diabetes, stroke, and depression.
Association of Glomerular Hyperfiltration and Cardiovascular Risk in Middle-Aged Healthy Individuals
In this cohort study of 9,515 patients with health information accessed through the CARTaGENE cohort, glomerular hyperfiltration was shown to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events in middle-aged healthy individuals. This suggests that glomerular hyperfiltration could be a useful cardiovascular biomarker in this population.
Physical Activity is Associated With Reduced Prevalence of Self-Reported Obstructive Sleep Apnea in a Large, General Population Cohort Study
The researchers used Ontario Health Study data to determine if physical activity would reduce the prevalence of OSA. Upon determining the prevalence of OSA, the reseachers were able to do a cross sectional analysis to determine that increased physical activity had a statistical significance of (P ≤ 0.045). Moderate activity did not have much of an impact on the prevalence of OSA. These results showed that increased physical activity would be a preventative measure for OSA.
Reduced Cognitive Assessment Scores Among Individuals With Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Detected Vascular Brain Injury
This study investigated if scores on a cognitive screen were lower in individuals with higher cardiovascular risk, and those with covert vascular brain injury. Among a middle-aged community-dwelling population, scores on a cognitive screen were lower in individuals with higher cardiovascular risk factors or MRI vascular brain injury. Much of the population attributable risk of low cognitive scores can be attributed to lower educational attainment, higher cardiovascular risk factors, and MRI vascular brain injury.
Analysis of mitochondrial m1A/G RNA modification reveals links to nuclear genetic variants and associated disease processes
The study identified links between mitochondrial RNA modification levels and genetic variants in the nuclear genome, including a missense mutation in LONP1, and found that genetic variants within MRPP3 and TRMT61B are associated with RNA modification levels across a large number of tissues.