What is the role of obesity in the aetiology of arsenic-related disease?
They took a large number of samples from people in Nova Scotia and determined that those who were obese had lower levels of arsenic concentrations in their bodies. The samples were taken from 960 people aged 35-60 between 2009-2010. Dietary patterns were also assessed along with drinking water.
Understanding the translation of scientific knowledge about arsenic risk exposure among private well water users in Nova Scotia
This article explored the knowledge of arsenic risk exposure among a well users in 5 areas of Nova Scotia assessed to be at risk of arsenic occurrence in groundwater. The risk ranged from low-high and was assessed over time. It was found that more women were at risk, where 71% of affected well-users were women. About 74% had a really good knowledge of the well water. A fair number of these people use their water as their drinking and 33% seemed confident the water was safe to drink.
Intrapersonal and social environment correlates of leisure-time physical activity for cancer prevention: a cross-sectional study among Canadian adults.
This study looked at physical activity and cancer prevention . The study team used self-administered questionnares and monitored how much exercise each test subject got. The were able to determine that adults do not really get enough exercise for cancer risk reduction.
Prevalence, Awareness, and Management of CKD and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Publicly Funded Health Care
The CARTaGENE study evaluated BP, lipid, and diabetes profiles as well as various treatments over 20,000 random individuals between ages 40-69. Many patiens were not aware of their health conditions or how best to achieve their targets to achieve better health. Study concluded that self-awareness is quite low.
Relationship between drinking water and toenail arsenic concentrations among a cohort of Nova Scotians
They evaluated the relationship between arsenic concentrations in drinking water and toenail clippings among a cohort of Nova Scotians. A total of 960 men and women aged 35 to 69 years provided home drinking water and toenail clipping sample. They determined that those who were obese had lower concentrations of arsenic in their bodies than those in normal weight ranges.
Cognitive Testing of the STAR-Q: Insights in Activity and Sedentary Time Reporting
STAR-Q is essentially a questionnare that determines how to assess overall activity/sedendary behaviour. The reason for this study was that they wanted to see how active people are. Participants from the Alberta Tomorrow Project were used.
Whole-Exome Sequencing Reveals a Rapid Change in the Frequency of Rare Functional Variants in a Founding Population of Humans
This study indicated that French populations contain a larger proportion of putatively damaging functional variants which could explain incidence of genetic disease in the province. There is a need for deep cataloguing of genetic variants by rescheduling worldwide human populations in order to truly assess disease risk.
Exploiting gene expression variation to capture gene-environment interactions for disease
The two researchers surveyed the current state of the concept of transcriptional gene-environment interactions and discuss its utility for mapping disease genotypes. The article noted human transcriptome is still fairly new in the literature and could have more information brought about it.
Identification of a Breast Cancer Susceptibility Locus at 4q31.22 Using a Genome-Wide Association Study Paradigm
The study design also encompassed the 11 variants from GWASs previously reported by various consortia between the years 2007-2009 to (i) enable comparisons of effect sizes, and (ii) identify putative prognostic variants across studies. All SNP associations reported with breast cancer were also adjusted for body mass index (BMI). We report a strong association with 4q31.22-rs1429142 (combined per allele odds ratio and 95% confidence interval = 1.28 [1.17-1.41] and P combined = 1.5×10(-7)), when adjusted for BMI.
Cohort profile of the CARTaGENE study: Quebec’s population-based biobank for public health and personalized genomics
Over 20 000 participants consented to visiting 1 of 12 assessment sites where detailed health and socio-demographic information, physiological measures and biological samples (blood, serum and urine) were captured for a total of 650 variables. Significant correlations of diseases and chronic conditions are observed across these regions, implicating complex interactions, some of which we describe for major chronic conditions.