scholarly journals Age- and Sex-Dependent Patterns of Gut Microbial Diversity in Human Adults

mSystems ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga ◽  
Scott T. Kelley ◽  
Yingfeng Chen ◽  
Juan S. Escobar ◽  
Noel T. Mueller ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Gut microbial diversity changes throughout the human life span and is known to be associated with host sex. We investigated the association of age, sex, and gut bacterial alpha diversity in three large cohorts of adults from four geographical regions: subjects from the United States and United Kingdom in the American Gut Project (AGP) citizen-science initiative and two independent cohorts of Colombians and Chinese. In three of the four cohorts, we observed a strong positive association between age and alpha diversity in young adults that plateaued after age 40 years. We also found sex-dependent differences that were more pronounced in younger adults than in middle-aged adults, with women having higher alpha diversity than men. In contrast to the other three cohorts, no association of alpha diversity with age or sex was observed in the Chinese cohort. The association of alpha diversity with age and sex remained after adjusting for cardiometabolic parameters in the Colombian cohort and antibiotic usage in the AGP cohort. We further attempted to predict the microbiota age in individuals using a machine-learning approach for the men and women in each cohort. Consistent with our alpha-diversity-based findings, U.S. and U.K. women had a significantly higher predicted microbiota age than men, with a reduced difference being seen above age 40 years. This difference was not observed in the Colombian cohort and was observed only in middle-aged Chinese adults. Together, our results provide new insights into the influence of age and sex on the biodiversity of the human gut microbiota during adulthood while highlighting similarities and differences across diverse cohorts. IMPORTANCE Microorganisms in the human gut play a role in health and disease, and in adults higher gut biodiversity has been linked to better health. Since gut microorganisms may be pivotal in the development of microbial therapies, understanding the factors that shape gut biodiversity is of utmost interest. We performed large-scale analyses of the relationship of age and sex to gut bacterial diversity in adult cohorts from four geographic regions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Colombia, and China. In the U.S., U.K., and Colombian cohorts, bacterial biodiversity correlated positively with age in young adults but plateaued at about age 40 years, with no positive association being found in middle-aged adults. Young, but not middle-aged, adult women had higher gut bacterial diversity than men, a pattern confirmed via supervised machine learning. Interestingly, in the Chinese cohort, minimal associations were observed between gut biodiversity and age or sex. Our results highlight the patterns of adult gut biodiversity and provide a framework for future research.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobo de la Cuesta-Zuluaga ◽  
Scott T. Kelley ◽  
Yingfeng Chen ◽  
Juan S. Escobar ◽  
Noel T. Mueller ◽  
...  

AbstractGut microbial diversity changes throughout the human lifespan and is known to be affected by host sex. We investigated the association of age, sex and gut bacterial alpha diversity in three large cohorts of adults from four geographical regions: US and UK cohorts in the American Gut Project, and two independent cohorts of Colombians and Chinese. In three of the four cohorts, we observed a strong positive association between age and alpha diversity in young adults that plateaued after age 40. We also found pronounced sex-dependent differences in younger but not middle-aged adults, and women had higher alpha diversity than men. In contrast, no association of alpha diversity with age or sex was observed in the Chinese cohort. These associations were maintained after adjusting for cardiometabolic parameters in the Colombian cohort and antibiotic usage in the AGP cohort, suggesting that these factors do not affect the association of alpha diversity with age and sex. We also used a machine learning approach to predict individual age based on the gut microbiome. Consistent with our alpha diversity-based findings, women had significantly higher predicted age than men in the US and UK cohort, with a reduced difference above age 40. This was not observed in the Colombian cohort and only in the group of middle-age adults in the Chinese cohort. Together, our results provide new insights into the influence of age and sex on biodiversity of the human gut microbiota during adulthood while highlighting similarities and differences across diverse cohorts.


Demography ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil K. Mehta ◽  
Virginia W. Chang

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A262-A263
Author(s):  
Sadhika Jagannathan ◽  
Mikayla Rodgers ◽  
Christina S McCrae ◽  
Mary Beth Miller ◽  
Ashley Curtis

Abstract Introduction COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory illness that was declared a pandemic in March 2020. During the course of COVID-19, studies have demonstrated worsening sleep quality and anxiety. No studies have examined age-related and sex-specific associations between COVID-19 anxiety and sleep in aging populations. We examined associations between COVID-19 anxiety and sleep, and evaluated age and sex as moderators, in middle-aged/older adults. Methods Two hundred and seventy-seven middle-aged/older adults aged 50+ (Mage=64.68, SD=7.83; 44% women) living in the United States who were cognitively healthy (no cognitive impairment/dementia/neurological disorders) completed an online Qualtrics survey in July/August 2020 measuring sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI) and COVID-19 anxiety (Coronavirus Anxiety Scale; CAS). Multiple regressions examined whether CAS was independently associated with or interacted with age or sex in its associations with PSQI total score/subscores (sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, daytime dysfunction), controlling for age, education, number of medical conditions, sleep/pain medication use, and COVID-19 status. Results CAS interacted with age (B=-.008, SE=.003 p=.02, R-squared=.02), not sex (p=.31), in its association with sleep duration. Higher CAS was associated with shorter sleep duration in oldest-older adults (~73 years old; B=.12, SE=.05, p=.01) and younger-older adults (~65 years old; B=.07, SE=.03, p=.02), not middle-aged adults (~57 years old, p=.47). CAS interacted with age (B=.01, SE=.004, p=.02), not sex (p=.56), in its association with sleep efficiency. Higher CAS was associated with worse sleep efficiency in oldest-older adults (B=.14, SE=.05, p=.009) and younger-older adults (B=.08, SE=.04, p=.03), not middle-aged adults (p=.60). Higher CAS was associated with greater daytime dysfunction (B=.26, SE=.07, p<.001) and higher PSQI total score (B=.82, SE=.33, p=.01), and did not interact with age or sex (ps>.05). Conclusion Increased COVID-19 anxiety is associated with several aspects of worse sleep (shorter sleep duration, sleep efficiency) in older adults but not middle-aged adults. Generally, in middle-aged/older adults, higher COVID-19 anxiety is associated with worse daytime dysfunction and overall sleep quality. Sex does not moderate these associations. Increased COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in aging populations may translate to increased anxiety and subsequent sleep disruptions. Interventions aimed at mitigating negative pandemic-related psychological and sleep outcomes may be particularly relevant for older adults. Support (if any):


2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042098076
Author(s):  
Otto Simonsson ◽  
Stephen Fisher ◽  
Maryanne Martin

In recent years, the practice of mindfulness has become increasingly popular, but there is very little evidence on how many and what kind of people have heard of and learnt to practise mindfulness. Using data from an online survey on a sample of 1013 adults in Britain in November 2018, this study aims to estimate the prevalence of mindfulness use among adults in Britain and to identify the sociodemographic and political characteristics associated with awareness and experience of mindfulness. The findings suggest that 15% of adults in Britain had learnt to practise mindfulness, which is significantly more than the finding that 2.5% of adults in the United States in 2012 had practised mindfulness in their lifetime. Although widespread, awareness of mindfulness was more common among women, unmarried adults, adults from middle and high-income households, and those who voted Remain in the 2016 Brexit Referendum. Higher levels of engagement with mindfulness, beyond awareness, were more likely among young and middle-aged adults, but otherwise not concentrated in any particular groups.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104515952110485
Author(s):  
Shalini Sahoo ◽  
Roberto J. Millar ◽  
Takashi Yamashita ◽  
Phyllis A. Cummins

Research on factors associated with motivation to learn (MtL) is limited, particularly among middle-aged adults and immigrants. This study examines educational attainment, literacy skills, and nativity (foreign-born vs. native-born) as predictors of MtL in middle-aged adults living in the United States. Nationally representative data of middle-aged adults between the ages of 40 and 65 years were obtained from the 2012/2014 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Structural equation models were used to assess the validity of the latent MtL construct and to examine the associations with the selected determinants in middle-aged adults. Postsecondary education degrees and higher literacy skills were linked with greater MtL. However, foreign-born individuals had lower MtL than their US-born counterparts. Educators and researchers should be aware of lower educational attainment, limited literacy skills, and being an immigrant as possible demoting factors of MtL, and in turn, barriers to lifelong learning participation among middle-aged adults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 338-338
Author(s):  
Soomi Lee ◽  
Claire Smith

Abstract For middle-aged adults, achieving adequate sleep is a challenge but essential for long-term health. The present study identified latent sleep profiles to clarify how multiple sleep variables (i.e., regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency, and duration) cooccur within middle-aged adults and the implications these holistic sleep experiences have for well-being. Three profiles emerged within the Midlife in the United States II dataset (MIDUS; N=4030, Mage=56.23 years): (i) good sleepers, (ii) nappers/poor night sleepers, and (iii) sufficient but irregular sleepers. Generally, good sleepers reported the best well-being, sufficient/irregular sleepers reported comparatively moderate well-being, and nappers/poor night sleepers reported the worst well-being across a variety of indicators (i.e., chronic health conditions, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and psychological well-being) after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Age moderated these associations. Our findings advance understanding of sleep health as a multifaceted construct and of its connection to well-being in middle-aged adults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 472
Author(s):  
Tyler C. Beck ◽  
Kyle R. Beck ◽  
Jordan Morningstar ◽  
Menny M. Benjamin ◽  
Russell A. Norris

Roughly 2.8% of annual hospitalizations are a result of adverse drug interactions in the United States, representing more than 245,000 hospitalizations. Drug–drug interactions commonly arise from major cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibition. Various approaches are routinely employed in order to reduce the incidence of adverse interactions, such as altering drug dosing schemes and/or minimizing the number of drugs prescribed; however, often, a reduction in the number of medications cannot be achieved without impacting therapeutic outcomes. Nearly 80% of drugs fail in development due to pharmacokinetic issues, outlining the importance of examining cytochrome interactions during preclinical drug design. In this review, we examined the physiochemical and structural properties of small molecule inhibitors of CYPs 3A4, 2D6, 2C19, 2C9, and 1A2. Although CYP inhibitors tend to have distinct physiochemical properties and structural features, these descriptors alone are insufficient to predict major cytochrome inhibition probability and affinity. Machine learning based in silico approaches may be employed as a more robust and accurate way of predicting CYP inhibition. These various approaches are highlighted in the review.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Mathieu D'Aquin ◽  
Stefan Dietze

The 29th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) was held online from the 19 th to the 23 rd of October 2020. CIKM is an annual computer science conference, focused on research at the intersection of information retrieval, machine learning, databases as well as semantic and knowledge-based technologies. Since it was first held in the United States in 1992, 28 conferences have been hosted in 9 countries around the world.


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