Publications

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

2017

Allele-specific expression reveals interactions between genetic variation and environment

Authors: David Knowles, Joe Davis, Hilary Edgington, Anil Raj, Marie-Julie Fave, Xiaowei Zhu, James Potash, Myrna Weissman, Jianxin Shin, Douglas Levinson, Philip Awadalla, Sara Mostafavi, Stephen Montgomery, Alexis Battle

Combining whole-blood RNA-seq with extensive environmental annotations collected from 922 human individuals, we identified 35 GxE interactions, compared with only four using standard GxE interaction testing. EAGLE provides new opportunities for researchers to identify GxE interactions using functional genomic data.

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2017

Industrial air emissions, and proximity to major industrial emitters, are associated with anti-citrullinated protein antibodies

Authors: Sasha Bernatsky, Audrey Smargiassi, Lawrence Joseph, Philip Awadalla, Ines Colmega, Marie Hudson, Marvin Fritzler

They assessed the relationships between PM25, SO2, and ACPA which is a marker for RA, they found there was a positive association between ACPA and industrial PM2.5/SO2 emissions. Finally there was a correlation between air pollution from industrial emissions and ACPA suggests a role for these exposures in RA.

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2017

Changes in body mass index and incidence of diabetes: A longitudinal study of Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Cohort

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

The study objective was to figure out the association between BMI changes over a given period of time, and the number of new diabetes cases. When there was a BMI increase, there was a higher risk of developing diabetes and with the BMI reduction, there was lower risk of diabetes. This was the case for the those who were overweight, there was no association with underweight or normal BMI populations.

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2017

Multimorbidity in Atlantic Canada and association with low levels of physical activity

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

It was reported that 38% of participants had 2 or more chronic diseases and women were more likely to be affected. People with multimorbid individuals were more likely to be inactive. It is important to implement physical activity prescription.

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2017

Inherited Chromosomally Integrated Human Herpesvirus 6 and Breast Cancer

Authors: Annie Gravel, Isabelle Dubuc, Angela Brooks-Wilson, Kristan Aronson, Jacques Simard, Hector Velasquez-Garcia, John Spinelli, Louis Flamand

There is a condition that affects 1% of the population where iciHHV-6 and they wanted to do know if such a mutation predisposes a person to cancer development. They found there was no statistically significant association between HHV-6 and breast cancer in women.

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2017

Deep genealogical analysis of a large cohort of participants in the CARTaGENE project (Quebec, Canada)

Authors: Marc Tremblay & Gabrielle Rouleau

The main objective of this study was to reconstruct, analyse, and compare ascending genologies of participants to CARTaGENE. They found 5110 genealogies were from four Quebec regions were constructed. They were able to find ancestry going back to the 17th century.

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2017

Self-Report Dietary Assessment Tools Used in Canadian Research: A Scoping Review

Authors: Sharon I Kirkpatrick, Lana Vanderlee, Amanda Raffoul, Jackie Stapleton, Ilona Csizmadi, Beatrice A Boucher, Isabelle Massarelli, Isabelle Rondeau, Paula J Robson

This study did a scoping review of the literature using several search engines. They looked at different food frequencies and 24 recalls. Dietary was a big measurement of this study and they said that ways to improve the application of current evidence on best practices in dietary assessment have the potential to support a stronger literature for diet and health.

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2017

The Comparative Reliability and Feasibility of the Past-Year Canadian Diet History Questionnaire II: Comparison of the Paper and Web

Authors: Geraldine Lo Siou, Ilona Cszimadi, Beatrice Boucher, Alianu Akawung, Heather Whelan, Michelle Sharma, Ala Al Rajabi, Jennifer Vena, Sharon Kirkpatrick, Anita Koushik, Isabelle Massarelli, Isabelle Rondreau, Paula Robson

This study looked at evaluating the intra-and inter-version reliability, feasability, and accetability of the Canadian Diet History Questionnaire II in a sub-sample of 648 adults. They were assigned either web or paper, 59% preferred the web version.

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2017

Lessons from Studies to Evaluate an Online 24-Hour Recall for Use with Children and Adults in Canada

Authors: Sharon Kirkpatrick, Anne Gilsing, Erin Hobbin, Nathan Solbak, Angela Wallace, Jess Haines, Alexandra Mayhew, Sarah Orr, Parminder Raina, Paula Robson, Jocelyn Sacco, Heather Whelan

This team looked at the Automated Self-Administered 24-h assessment tool and looked at 5 studies that looked at feasibility and accessibility There was a high acceptance of ADA24 in diverse samples but it was not always intuitive for everyone (kids and older adults).

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2017

Alberta’s Tomorrow Project: adherence to cancer prevention recommendations pertaining to diet, physical activity and body size

Authors: Heather Whelan, Jian-Yi Xu, Sanaz Vaseghi, Geraldine Lo Siou

This article explored a cross sectional adherence to preventing cancer. They were scored on a scale of 0-7, 0 being the least and 7 being the most. 14% of the people had scores of 5 or more, and 60% had scores of 3 or less. This means that adherence to cancer prevention is quite low in this study.

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