Publications

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

2017

Polygenic risk scores distinguish patients from non‐affected adult relatives and from normal controls in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder multi‐affected kindreds

Authors: Sebastien Boies, Chantal Merette, Thomas Paccalet, Michel Maziade, Alexandre Bureau

This study confirmed the usefulness of PRS in capturing the contribution of common genetic variants to the risk of SZ and BD in densely affected families.

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2017

Measures of excess body weight and anthropometry among adult Albertans: cross-sectional results from Alberta’s tomorrow project cohort

Authors: Darren Brenner, Abbey Poirier, Tiffany Haig, Alianu Akawung, Christine Friedenrich Paul Robson

In this article they described the prevalence of excess body weight and abdominal obesity in participants with ATP. In this study, 76.8% of men and 59.5% of women reported a BMI of 25% or greater. As such many of the people studied were overweight and two thirds reported abdominal obesity. They will encourage the Albertans to improve their energy balance and reduce the burden of chronic disease.

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2017

Systemic use of antibiotics and risk of diabetes in adults: A nested case‐control study of Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Authors: Ming Ye, Paula Robson, Dean Eurich, Jennifer Vena, Jian-Yi Xu, Jefferey A Johnson

The study looked at the relationship between use of antibiotics and risk of diabetes. For this study they did a case control assessment and used logistical regression to determine the relationship between diabetes and antibitoics. They looked at 1676 cases and 13401 controls. They found 17.9% received more than 5 courses of antibiotics compared to 13.8% of controls. They found after adjusting for clinical and difficult-to-capture lifestyle data we found no association between systemic use of antibiotics and risk of diabetes.

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2017

Patterns and predictors of adherence to colorectal cancer screening recommendations in Alberta’s Tomorrow Project participants stratified by risk

Authors: Nathan M. Solbak, Jian-Yi Xu, Jennifer E. Vena, Ala Al Rajabi, Sanaz Vaseghi, Heather K. Whelan & S Elizabeth McGregor

The research team wanted to determine how colorectal cancer screening was relevant to modifiable behavior for cancer control. They looked at 9641 particpants and were grouped based on their age, family history, and etiology. Screening status was compared between enrollment and follow up to determine a screening pattern over time. It was determined that 77% of participants fell into an average-risk level, based on their age. However 90+% of people were at a higher risk based on their family history status. Many people did not do their CRC screening (less than 50%). They would have to take a closer look at the risk strata to determine how bad the risk is.

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2017

Perceived Susceptibility to Developing Cancer and Cancer Screening Behaviour: A Longitudinal Analysis of Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Authors: Meghan Gilfoyle

Using data from the ATP cohort, this thesis asked the research questions: 1) Is PS to developing cancer associated with the incidence of mammography,
prostate-specific antigen, sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy screening tests? 2) Does an individual’s
perceived susceptibility affect screening behaviour differently between tests?

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2017

Association between Diet Quality and Adiposity in the Atlantic PATH Cohort

Authors: Vanessa DeClerq, Yunsong Cui, Trevor Dummer, Cynthia Forbes, Scott Grandy,Melanie Keats, Louise Parker, Ellen Sweeney, Zhijie Michael Yu

This research was done to assess the association between diet quality and adiposity. They found that the diet quality was very different among provinces, an area of concern was people who consumed only 1-2 servings of fruits/vegetables today. Adiposity was positively associated with consumption of excess meat, snack foods, sweetners, diet soft drinks, and fast food. It was shown that people who ate whole grains and green tea had lower levels of adiposity.

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2017

Cohort Profile: The Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (Atlantic PATH) Study

Authors: E Sweeney, Y Cui, V DeClercq, P Devichand, C Forbes, S Grandy, J M T Hicks, M Keats, L Parker, D Thompson, M Volodarsky, Z M Yu, T J B Dummer

The PATH study wants to 1) develop a databank containing health/health-related measures 2) encourage/facilitate use of the databank . The idea is to provide information about risk factors for disease and then hopefully prevent it.

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2017

Relationship Between Adiponectin and apoB in Individuals With Diabetes in the Atlantic PATH Cohort

Authors: Vanessa DeClerq, Yunsong Cui, Trevor Dummer, Cynthia Forbes, Scott Grandy,Melanie Keats, Louise Parker, Ellen Sweeney, Zhijie Michael Yu, Roger McLeod

They waned to see if there was a relationship between biomarkers of apidose issue and cardiovasular comorbidities risk in BMI. They 480 people in their study, half of which were diabetic and half were not. It was found that plasma adiponectin levels were lower in diabetic patients than those who are not. Plasma apoB levels were similar between participants with and without diabetes.

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2017

Associations of Coffee, Diet Drinks, and Non-Nutritive Sweetener Use with Depression among Populations in Eastern Canada

Authors: Zhijie Yu, Lousie Parker, Trevor Dummer

They did a cross-sectional study to show the association between coffee/diet drinks/sweetners and depression. It was found there was a significant relationship between depression and consumption of sweetners/diet drinks. These symptoms were seen more in women than men.

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2017

Diet quality is associated with reduced incidence of cancer and self-reported chronic disease: Observations from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Authors: Nathan Solbak, Jian-Yi Xu, Jennifer Vena, Ilona Csizmadi, Heather Whelan, Paula Robson

This study looked at food quality and how it is associated with risk of cancer and chronic disease. There were 25169 participants enrolled and it was found that the better the diet quality, the lower the risk of cancer.

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