Biostatistics Commons^™

Food Insecurity And Adiposity Among Children And Adults Nhanes 2015-2016, Denise Vidal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Obesity is a preventable disease that has been associated with many adverse health outcomes. A possible factor that may influence adiposity development is food insecurity. Although several epidemiological studies have been conducted examining the association between food insecurity and adiposity among children and adults, results have been inconsistent. Objective: This cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between food insecurity and adiposity among children and adults using recent data from a representative sample of the US population. Methods: We examined 3,391 adults and 2,837 children from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2016. Household food insecurity was assessed using …

Epigenome-Wide Association Study Of Kidney Function Identifies Trans-Ethnic And Ethnic-Specific Loci, Charles E. Breeze, Anna Batorsky, Mi Kyeong Lee, Mindy D. Szeto, Xiaoguang Xu, Daniel L. Mccartney, Rong Jiang, Amit Patki, Holly J. Kramer, James M. Eales, Laura Raffield, Leslie Lange, Ethan Lange, Peter Durda, Yongmei Liu, Russ P. Tracy, David Van Den Berg, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium, Topmed Mesa Multi-Omics Working Group, Kathryn L. Evans, William E. Kraus, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation (DNAm) is associated with gene regulation and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function. Decreased eGFR is more common among US Hispanics and African Americans. The causes for this are poorly understood. We aimed to identify trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with eGFR using an agnostic, genome-wide approach.

METHODS: The study included up to 5428 participants from multi-ethnic studies for discovery and 8109 participants for replication. We tested the associations between whole blood DNAm and eGFR using beta values from Illumina 450K or EPIC arrays. Ethnicity-stratified analyses were performed using linear …

Maternal Methylmercury Exposure Through Rice Ingestion And Child Neurodevelopment In The First Three Years: A Prospective Cohort Study In Rural China, Sarah E. Rothenberg, Susan A. Korrick, Jihong Liu, Yanfen Nong, Chuan Hong, Eva P. Trinh, Xu Jiang, Fred J. Biasini, Fengxiu Ouyang

Faculty Publications

Background

Rice is an important dietary source for methylmercury; however, rice does not contain the same beneficial nutrients as fish. Our main objective was to assess associations of prenatal methylmercury exposure through rice ingestion with child neurodevelopment in rural China.

Methods

Eligible peripartum women were enrolled (n = 391), provided peripartum hair samples, and children’s neurodevelopment was assessed at 12 months (n = 264, 68%) and 36 months (n = 190, 48%) using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 2nd Edition, including the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) and the Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI). Associations between prenatal methylmercury …

Associations Between Family-Based Stress And Dietary Inflammatory Potential Among Families With Preschool-Aged Children, Valerie Hruska, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James R. Hébert Scd, Alison M. Duncan, Jess Hines, David W. L. Ma

Faculty Publications

Chronic stress is known to influence dietary choices, and stressed families often report poorer diet quality; however, little is known about how family-based stress is linked with dietary patterns that promote inflammation. This study investigated associations between family-based stress and the inflammatory potential of the diet among preschool-aged children and their parents. Parents (n = 212 mothers, n = 146 fathers) and children (n = 130 girls, n = 123 boys; aged 18 months to 5 years) from 241 families participating in the Guelph Family Health Study were included in the analyses. Parents reported levels of parenting distress, depressive symptoms, …

An Ensemble Of The Icluster Method To Analyze Longitudinal Lncrna Expression Data For Psoriasis Patients, Suyan Tian, Chi Wang

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated, inflammatory disorder of the skin with chronic inflammation and hyper-proliferation of the epidermis. Since psoriasis has genetic components and the diseased tissue of psoriasis is very easily accessible, it is natural to use high-throughput technologies to characterize psoriasis and thus seek targeted therapies. Transcriptional profiles change correspondingly after an intervention. Unlike cross-sectional gene expression data, longitudinal gene expression data can capture the dynamic changes and thus facilitate causal inference.

METHODS: Using the iCluster method as a building block, an ensemble method was proposed and applied to a longitudinal gene expression dataset for psoriasis, with the …

Understanding The Effect Of Adaptive Mutations On The Three-Dimensional Structure Of Rna, Justin Cook

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are variations in the genome where one base pair can differ between individuals.¹ SNPs occur throughout the genome and can correlate to a disease-state if they occur in a functional region of DNA.¹According to the central dogma of molecular biology, any variation in the DNA sequence will have a direct effect on the RNA sequence and will potentially alter the identity or conformation of a protein product. A single RNA molecule, due to intramolecular base pairing, can acquire a plethora of 3-D conformations that are described by its structural ensemble. One SNP, rs12477830, which …

Disparities In Meeting Uspstf Breast, Cervical, And Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines Among Women In The United States, Gabriel A. Benavidez, Anja Zgodic, Whitney Zahnd, Jan Eberth

Faculty Publications

Introduction

Many sociodemographic factors affect women’s ability to meet cancer screening guidelines. Our objective was to examine which sociodemographic characteristics were associated with women meeting US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening.

Methods

We used 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to examine the association between sociodemographic variables, such as race/ethnicity, rurality, education, and insurance status, and self-reported cancer screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer. We used multivariable log-binomial regression models to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and 95% CIs.

Results

Overall, the proportion of women meeting USPSTF guidelines for breast, cervical, …

Chromosome Xq23 Is Associated With Lower Atherogenic Lipid Concentrations And Favorable Cardiometabolic Indices, Pradeep Natarajan, Akhil Pampana, Sarah E. Graham, Sanni E. Ruotsalainen, James A. Perry, Paul S. De Vries, Jai G. Broome, James P. Pirruccello, Michael C. Honigberg, Krishna Aragam, Brooke Wolford, Jennifer A. Brody, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Moscati Arden, Stella Aslibekyan, Themistocles L. Assimes, Christie M. Ballantyne, Lawrence F. Bielak, Joshua C. Bis, Brian E. Cade, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10⁻⁷²), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 …

Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Inflammation In Japanese Men, Ayaka Kotemori, Norie Sawada, Motoki Iwasaki, Taiki Yamaji, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Junko Ishihara, Manami Inoue, Shoichiro Tsugane

Faculty Publications

Background: Dietary components are known to affect chronic low-grade inflammation status. The dietary inflammatory index (DII®) was developed to measure the potential impact of a diet on an individual's inflammatory status, and it has been validated mainly in Western countries.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the validity of the energy-adjusted DII (E-DIITM) using high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentration in Japanese men and women.

Methods: In total, 6,474 volunteers from a cancer-screening program (3,825 men and 2,649 women) completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and their hs-CRP concentrations were evaluated. E-DII scores were calculated on the basis of 30 food …

Change In Dietary Inflammatory Index Score Is Associated With Control Of Long-Term Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity In A Japanese Cohort: The Tomorrow Study, Yoshinari Matsumoto, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Yuko Sugioka, Masahiro Tada, Tadashi Okano, Kenji Mamoto, Kentaro Inui, Daiki Habu, James R. Hébert Scd, Tatsuya Koike

Faculty Publications

Background: The dietary inflammatory index (DII®), a quantitative measure of the inflammatory potential of daily food and nutrient intake, and associations between a variety of health outcomes have been reported. However, the association between DII score and disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is unclear. Therefore, this study was designed to test whether higher DII score contributes to disease activity and as a corollary, y, whether reducing DII score helps to achieve or maintain low disease activity or remission in patients with RA.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis using 6 years of data (from 2011 to 2017) …

Extension Of The Two-Step Approach For Informative Dropout In Survival Analysis, Cristina Murray-Krezan

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children is known to result in poor growth and quality of life, and frequently results in kidney failure. The Chronic Kidney Disease in Children study (CKiD) is a prospective cohort study enrolling children ages 1 to 16 to assess health outcomes in children with CKD including the effects of declining glomerular filtration rate and the resulting consequences of growth failure on morbidity. Quantification of the magnitude of the risk for decreased kidney function and, ultimately, failure has been achieved through a variety of studies, often including cohort studies such as the CKiD study. Longitudinal studies …

Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Related To Heart Failure Risk And Cardiac Function: A Case-Control Study In Heart Failure Patients, Jalal Moludi, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Soghra Alisgharzadeh, James R. Hébert Scd, Mohammad Alizadeh

Faculty Publications

Aims: Previous studies suggest that diet and inflammation are important risk factors for heart failure (HF); however, the associations remain unclear. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) was established to measure the inflammatory capacity of individuals' diet. This study aimed to explore the DII in HF subjects compared with controls. Methods and Results: We conducted a case–control (116 cases and 113 controls) study that recruited in the similar clinics. DII scores were calculated based on dietary intakes. N-Terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels and ejection fraction (EF) were assessed in both groups. In order to analyze DII scores with HF as …

Timing Of Term Elective Cesarean Section And Adverse Neonatal Outcomes: A Multi-Center Retrospective Cohort Study, Ayah Al Bizri, Nansi Boghossian, Anwar Nassar, Pascale Nakad, Dina Jaber, Rabih Chahine, Gaby Fallakha, Gjaotj Makhoul, Khalid Yunis

Faculty Publications

Background Rate of cesarean section (CS), including elective CS has globally increased. Studies have found that term elective CS before 39 weeks of gestation is associated with increased risk of adverse respiratory outcomes.

Objective To determine the rate of elective CS and examine the association between timing of elective term CS and adverse neonatal outcomes in a large population of Lebanese women.

Methods A Multi-Center Study was conducted using data from the National Collaborative Perinatal Neonatal Network database. Simple and multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between timing of term elective CS and adverse neonatal outcomes. …

Age And Sex Are Associated With The Plasma Lipidome: Findings From The Goldn Study, Emily Slade, Marguerite R. Irvin, Kevin Xie, Donna K. Arnett, Steven A. Claas, Tobias Kind, David W. Fardo, Gregory A. Graf

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background
Developing an understanding of the biochemistry of aging in both sexes is critical for managing disease throughout the lifespan. Lipidomic associations with age and sex have been reported, but prior studies are limited by measurements in serum rather than plasma or by participants taking lipid-lowering medications.

Methods
Our study included lipidomic data from 980 participants aged 18–87 years old from the Genetics of Lipid-Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN). Participants were off lipid-lowering medications for at least 4 weeks, and signal intensities of 413 known lipid species were measured in plasma. We examined linear age and sex associations with …

Interplay Between Social Media Use, Sleep Quality, And Mental Health In Youth: A Systematic Review, Rea Alonzo, Junayd Hussain, Saverio Stranges, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Social media applications are increasingly prominent among youth. This systematic review provides a comprehensive assessment of the literature on the relationship between active social media use, sleep quality, and common mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, and psychological distress) among youth. MEDLINE, PsychINFO, EMBASE and Scopus were searched for observational studies investigating this relationship among youth (aged 16–25). Thirty-six cross-sectional studies and six prospective cohort studies met the inclusion criteria. Among cross-sectional studies, significant associations between excessive social media use with poor mental health outcomes (n = 33), poor sleep quality (n = 24), and significant associations between poor sleep quality …

Quality Of Diabetes Care In Blended Fee-For-Service And Blended Capitation Payment Systems., Mary Aderayo Bamimore, Rose Anne Devlin, Gregory S Zaric, Amit X Garg, Sisira Sarma

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVES: In the middle to late 2000s, many family physicians switched from a Family Health Group (FHG; a blended fee-for-service model) to a Family Health Organization (FHO; a blended capitation model) in Ontario, Canada. The evidence on the link between physician remuneration schemes and quality of diabetes care is mixed in the literature. We examined whether physicians who switched from the FHG to FHO model provided better care for individuals living with diabetes relative to those who remained in the FHG model.

METHODS: Using longitudinal health administrative data from 2006 to 2016, we investigated the impact of physicians switching from …

A Simulation-Based Study Of Location-Shift Models Under Non-Normal Conditions, Ummay Khayrunnesa Anika

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, we compare ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized least squares (GLS), M- and quantile regression (QR) estimators for a continuous response variable under different scenarios by conducting a simulation study. We assess the performance of the estimators in terms of bias, average distance, mean squared error, coverage probability, and ratio of estimated standard error and empirical standard deviation. OLS estimator performs the best when the errors are homoscedastic normal or homoscedastic but skewed (exponential) having no outliers. GLS estimator shows good comparative results to QR when the errors are heteroscedastic normal or heteroscedastic heavy-tailed (t-distributed). The most satisfactory …

The Dietary Inflammatory Index Is Associated With Low Muscle Mass And Low Muscle Function In Older Australians, Marlene Gojanovic, Kara L. Holloway-Kew, Natalie K. Hyde, Mohammadreza Mohebbi, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James R. Hébert Scd., Adrienne O'Neil, Julie A. Pasco

Faculty Publications

Age-associated chronic, low grade systemic inflammation has been recognised as an important contributing factor in the development of sarcopenia; importantly, diet may regulate this process. This cross-sectional study examined the association of diet-related inflammation with components of sarcopenia. Participants (n = 809) aged 60–95 years from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study were studied. Body composition was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. In this study, low appendicular lean mass (ALM/height2, kg/m2) was defined as T-score < −1 and low muscle function as Timed-Up-and-Go >10 s over 3 m (TUG > 10). Dietary inflammatory index (DII®) scores, based on specific foods and nutrients, were computed using dietary data collected from a …

The Pharmaceutical Industry Contributes To Public Health, Karl E. Peace, Mario Keko

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Terrestrial Decapoda Diversity Across Three Ecological Zones In Mida Creek, Kenya, Reese Yount

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mangroves make up one of the most effective natural remedies at combating climate change today. They represent great commercial interest worldwide and yet, are being degraded at an unsustainable rate. If successful mangrove conservation plans are to be implemented for our posterity, mangrove ecosystems need to be better understood at the community level. Mangrove crabs make up the most diverse and populace mangrove inhabitants. They are classified as ecosystem engineers and their potential for being used as bioindicators makes them integral to assessing mangrove health. Yet, their diversity and distribution patterns are not well understood. The aim of this study …