Physical Activity Is Associated With Lower Long-Term Incidence of Anxiety in a Population-Based, Large-Scale Study

Physical activity may prevent anxiety, but the importance of exercise intensity, sex-specific mechanisms, and duration of the effects remains largely unknown. We used an observational study design to follow 395,369 individuals for up to 21 years to investigate if participation in an ultralong-distance cross-country ski race (Vasaloppet, up to 90 km) was associated with a lower risk of developing anxiety. Skiers in the race and matched non-skiers from the general population were studied after participation in the race using the Swedish population and patient registries. Skiers (n = 197,685, median age 36 years, 38% women) had a significantly lower risk of developing anxiety during the follow-up compared to non-skiers (adjusted hazard ratio, HR 0.42). However, among women, higher physical performance (measured as the finishing time to complete the race, a proxy for higher exercise dose) was associated with an increased risk of anxiety compared to slower skiing women (HR 2.00). For men, the finishing time of the race did not significantly impact the risk of anxiety. Our results support the recommendations of engaging in physical activity to decrease the risk of anxiety in both men and women. The impact of physical performance level on the risk of anxiety requires further investigations among women.

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Changes in healthcare seeking and lifestyle in old aged individuals during COVID-19 lockdown in Germany: the population-based AugUR study

BMC Geriatrics ◽

10.1186/s12877-021-02677-x ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Caroline Brandl ◽

Martina E. Zimmermann ◽

Felix Günther ◽

Alexander Dietl ◽

Helmut Küchenhoff ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Population Based ◽

Medical Conditions ◽

Healthcare Seeking ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Containment Measures ◽

Health Related ◽

The Impact ◽

Study Center

Abstract Background Containment measures in the COVID-19 pandemic protected individuals at high risk, particularly individuals at old age, but little is known about how these measures affected health-related behavior of old aged individuals. We aimed to investigate the impact of the spring 2020 lockdown in Germany on healthcare-seeking and health-related lifestyle in the old aged and to identify susceptible subgroups. Methods We conducted a follow-up survey among the pre-pandemically well-characterized participants of our AugUR cohort study, residents in/around Regensburg aged 70+ years and relatively mobile. A self-completion questionnaire on current behavior, perceived changes, and SARS-Cov-2 infection was mailed in May 2020, shortly before contact restrictions ended. Pre-pandemic lifestyle and medical conditions were derived from previous study center visits. Results Among 1850 survey participants (73–98 years; net-response 89%), 74% were at increased risk for severe COVID-19 according to medical conditions; four participants reported SARS-CoV-2 infection (0.2%). Participants reported changes in behavior: 29% refrained from medical appointments, 14% increased TV consumption, 26% reported less physical activity, but no systematic increase of smoking or alcohol consumption. When comparing during- and pre-lockdown reports of lifestyle within participant, we found the same pattern as for the reported perceived changes. Women and the more educated were more susceptible to changes. Worse QOL was perceived by 38%. Conclusions Our data suggest that the spring 2020 lockdown did not affect the lifestyle of a majority of the mobile old aged individuals, but the substantial proportions with decreased physical activity and healthcare-seeking are markers of collateral damage.

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Differential Risk of Incident Fractures Depending on Intensity and Frequency of Physical Activity According to Cognitive Status: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study

Frontiers in Medicine ◽

10.3389/fmed.2020.572466 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Dong Woo Kang ◽

Sheng-Min Wang ◽

Yoo Hyun Um ◽

Hae-Ran Na ◽

Nak-Young Kim ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Older Adults ◽

Vertebral Fractures ◽

High Frequency ◽

Large Scale ◽

Screening Program ◽

Cognitive Status ◽

Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽

Increased Risk ◽

The Impact

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated an increased risk of fractures in subjects with various degrees of cognitive impairments. Recently, there has been growing recognition of the vital effect of physical activity (PA) on delay and prevention of fractures in older adults.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the optimal intensity and frequency of PA needed to prevent fractures in cognitively preserved older adults (CP), participants with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), and dementia patients using a large-scale nationwide cohort study.Methods: Data from a nationwide health screening program for individuals at the transitional age of 66 years were used in this study. A total of 968,240 subjects was enrolled, followed from 2007 to 2014, and classified as CP (n = 759,874), SCD (n = 195,365), or dementia group (n = 13,001). Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) by demographic and known risk factors for fractures were evaluated to identify the impact of various frequency and intensity PA on the occurrence of hip, vertebral, and limb fractures.Results: In CP participants, the most noticeable reduction of hip and vertebral fracture risk was shown in those performing vigorous-intensity PA at least three times per week. In the SCD group, the risk decrement in hip and vertebral fractures was most prominent in subjects who performed multiple-intensity PAs at least three times a week regardless of intensity. In the dementia group, only high-frequency walking and high-frequency & multiple-intensity PA decreased the risk of hip fractures compared with absence of PA.Conclusion: These findings suggest a role for various PA intensity and frequency levels to prevent hip and vertebral fractures according to cognitive status. Further study is needed to validate the effects of PA intensity and frequency proposed in this study on fractures according to cognitive status.

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The Impact of Lifetime Work and Non-work Physical Activity on Physical Fitness Among White – and Blue – Collar Retirees: A Cross-Sectional Study

Frontiers in Medicine ◽

10.3389/fmed.2021.745929 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Tomasz Trzmiel ◽

Anna Pieczyńska ◽

Ewa Zasadzka ◽

Mariola Pawlaczyk

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Physical Fitness ◽

Physical Performance ◽

Large Scale ◽

White Collar ◽

Blue Collar ◽

Occupational Activity ◽

Work Related ◽

White Collar Workers ◽

The Impact

Objective: The literature offers significant amount of data on the effects of occupational activity on health, with a distinct link between retirement and health among the most frequently tackled topics. Studies on the relationship between past occupational activity and physical fitness among older retirees remain scarce. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of physical activity on physical fitness in white- and blue-collar retirees.Methods: A total of 200 participants (aged ≥60) were included in the study. Lifetime physical activity was assessed using the Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire. Mean MET/week/year values of total Physical Activity and for each domain separately (occupational, sports, household) were calculated. Participants were stratified to blue- or white- collar group. Physical performance, hand-grip strength (HGS) and pulmonary function were assessed.Results: Mean total MET/week/year values for the blue- and the white-collar workers were 140.48 ± 55.13 and 100.75 ± 35.98, respectively. No statistically significant differences in physical performance scores were found between the white- and blue- collar groups. Adjustment for age, sex weight and height revealed a statistically significant association between work-related PA FEV*1 in the blue-collar group. White – collar workers presented higher odds ratio for membership in highest quartile in regard to short physical performance battery test score.Conclusion: Only minimal association of type of occupation on physical fitness were found despite statistically significant differences between mean intensity and duration of sports- and work-related lifetime physical activity. These findings may indicate that the type of past work is not an independent factor influencing the state of a person in old age. Large-scale investigations with physically fit and unfit participants, are necessary.

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A nutrigenetics approach to study the impact of genetic and lifestyle factors on cardiometabolic traits in various ethnic groups: findings from the GeNuIne Collaboration

Proceedings of The Nutrition Society ◽

10.1017/s0029665119001186 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 194-204 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Karani S. Vimaleswaran

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Groups ◽

Large Scale ◽

South Asians ◽

Genetic Risk Score ◽

High Protein Diet ◽

Population Based ◽

Collaborative Project ◽

Increased Risk ◽

The Impact ◽

Cardiometabolic Traits

Several studies on gene–diet interactions (nutrigenetics) have been performed in western populations; however, there are only a few studies to date in lower middle-income countries (LMIC). A large-scale collaborative project called gene–nutrient interactions (GeNuIne) Collaboration, the main objective of which is to investigate the effect of GeNuIne on cardiometabolic traits using population-based studies from various ethnic groups, has been initiated at the University of Reading, UK. While South Asians with higher genetic risk score (GRS) showed a higher risk of obesity in response to a high-carbohydrate diet, South East and Western Asian populations with higher GRS showed an increased risk of central obesity in response to a high-protein diet. The paper also provides a summary of other gene–diet interaction analyses that were performed in LMIC as part of this collaborative project and gives an overview of how these nutrigenetic findings can be translated to personalised and public health approaches for the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and CVD.

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Association of physical activity with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in 7666 adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): more physical activity is better

British Journal of Sports Medicine ◽

10.1136/bjsports-2020-101987 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. bjsports-2020-101987

Author(s):

Soonil Kwon ◽

Hyun-Jung Lee ◽

Kyung-Do Han ◽

Da Hye Kim ◽

Seung-Pyo Lee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy ◽

Cardiovascular Mortality ◽

Population Based ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

Younger Age ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Study Population ◽

Vigorous Intensity ◽

The Impact

ObjectivesRecommendations on physical activity (PA) for adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are not well established. We investigated the association of PA intensity with mortality in the general adult HCM population.MethodsA nationwide population-based cohort of individuals with HCM who underwent health check-ups including questionnaires on PA levels were identified from the years 2009 to 2016 in the National Health Insurance Service database. Subjects who reported no PA at baseline were excluded. To estimate each individual’s PA level, the PA score (PAS) was calculated based on the self-reported questionnaires, and the study population was categorised into three groups according to tertiles of PAS. The associations of PAS with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality were analysed.ResultsA total of 7666 participants (mean age 59.5 years, 29.9% were women) were followed up for a mean 5.3±2.0 years. All-cause and cardiovascular mortality progressively decreased from the lowest to the highest tertiles of PA intensity: 9.1% (4.7%), 8.9% (3.8%) and 6.4% (2.7%), respectively (p-for-trend=0.0144 and 0.0023, respectively). Of note, compared with the middle PA group, the highest PA group did not have an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.78, (95% CI 0.63 to 0.95) and HR 0.75 (95% CI 0.54 to 1.03), respectively). All subgroup and sensitivity analyses consistently showed that all-cause and cardiovascular mortality did not increase with higher PA levels.ConclusionsModerate-to-vigorous-intensity PA, in a middle-aged population of patients with HCM, was associated with progressive reduction of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The impact of vigorous-intensity PA on a younger age group requires further investigation.

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Body mass index and risk of all-cause mortality in normotensive and hypertensive adults: The Rural Chinese Cohort Study

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s1368980021001592 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

Qionggui Zhou ◽

Xuejiao Liu ◽

Yang Zhao ◽

Pei Qin ◽

Yongcheng Ren ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

Population Based ◽

Normal Weight ◽

Sensitivity Analyses ◽

Hypertension Status ◽

Moderation Effect ◽

Increased Risk ◽

All Cause Mortality ◽

Chinese Cohort ◽

The Impact

Abstract Objective: The impact of baseline hypertension status on the BMI–mortality association is still unclear. We aimed to examine the moderation effect of hypertension on the BMI–mortality association using a rural Chinese cohort. Design: In this cohort study, we investigated the incident of mortality according to different BMI categories by hypertension status. Setting: Longitudinal population-based cohort Participants: 17,262 adults ≥18 years were recruited from July to August of 2013 and July to August of 2014 from a rural area in China. Results: During a median 6-year follow-up, we recorded 1109 deaths (610 with and 499 without hypertension). In adjusted models, as compared with BMI 22-24 kg/m2, with BMI ≤18, 18-20, 20-22, 24-26, 26-28, 28-30 and >30 kg/m2, the HRs (95% CI) for mortality in normotensive participants were 1.92 (1.23-3.00), 1.44 (1.01-2.05), 1.14 (0.82-1.58), 0.96 (0.70-1.31), 0.96 (0.65-1.43), 1.32 (0.81-2.14), and 1.32 (0.74-2.35) respectively, and in hypertensive participants were 1.85 (1.08-3.17), 1.67 (1.17-2.39), 1.29 (0.95-1.75), 1.20 (0.91-1.58), 1.10 (0.83-1.46), 1.10 (0.80-1.52), and 0.61 (0.40-0.94) respectively. The risk of mortality was lower in individuals with hypertension with overweight or obesity versus normal weight, especially in older hypertensives (≥60 years old). Sensitivity analyses gave consistent results for both normotensive and hypertensive participants. Conclusions: Low BMI was significantly associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality regardless of hypertension status in rural Chinese adults, but high BMI decreased the mortality risk among individuals with hypertension, especially in older hypertensives.

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Sibling Alcohol Use Disorder Is Associated With Increased Risk for Suicide Attempt

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/21677026211025041 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 216770262110250

Author(s):

Mallory E. Stephenson ◽

Sara Larsson Lönn ◽

Jessica E. Salvatore ◽

Jan Sundquist ◽

Kenneth S. Kendler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Use ◽

Suicide Attempt ◽

Alcohol Use Disorder ◽

Cox Regression ◽

Population Based ◽

Swedish Population ◽

Sibling Pairs ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Using Data ◽

Shared Genetic

The association between having a sibling diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and risk for suicide attempt may be attributable to shared genetic liability between AUD and suicidal behavior, effects of environmental exposure to a sibling’s AUD, or both. To distinguish between these alternatives, we conducted a series of Cox regression models using data derived from Swedish population-based registers with national coverage. Among full sibling pairs (656,807 males and 607,096 females), we found that, even after we accounted for the proband’s AUD status, the proband’s risk for suicide attempt was significantly elevated when the proband’s sibling was affected by AUD. Furthermore, the proband’s risk for suicide attempt was consistently higher when the sibling’s AUD registration had occurred more recently. Our findings provide evidence for exposure to sibling AUD as an environmental risk factor for suicide attempt and suggest that clinical outreach may be warranted following a sibling’s diagnosis with AUD.

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Multi-GPU approach to global induction of classification trees for large-scale data mining

Applied Intelligence ◽

10.1007/s10489-020-01952-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Krzysztof Jurczuk ◽

Marcin Czajkowski ◽

Marek Kretowski

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Large Scale ◽

Real Life ◽

Population Based ◽

Tree Structure ◽

Global Approach ◽

Data Parallel ◽

Large Scale Data ◽

The Impact ◽

Scale Data

AbstractThis paper concerns the evolutionary induction of decision trees (DT) for large-scale data. Such a global approach is one of the alternatives to the top-down inducers. It searches for the tree structure and tests simultaneously and thus gives improvements in the prediction and size of resulting classifiers in many situations. However, it is the population-based and iterative approach that can be too computationally demanding to apply for big data mining directly. The paper demonstrates that this barrier can be overcome by smart distributed/parallel processing. Moreover, we ask the question whether the global approach can truly compete with the greedy systems for large-scale data. For this purpose, we propose a novel multi-GPU approach. It incorporates the knowledge of global DT induction and evolutionary algorithm parallelization together with efficient utilization of memory and computing GPU’s resources. The searches for the tree structure and tests are performed simultaneously on a CPU, while the fitness calculations are delegated to GPUs. Data-parallel decomposition strategy and CUDA framework are applied. Experimental validation is performed on both artificial and real-life datasets. In both cases, the obtained acceleration is very satisfactory. The solution is able to process even billions of instances in a few hours on a single workstation equipped with 4 GPUs. The impact of data characteristics (size and dimension) on convergence and speedup of the evolutionary search is also shown. When the number of GPUs grows, nearly linear scalability is observed what suggests that data size boundaries for evolutionary DT mining are fading.

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Physical Activity and the Risk of COVID-19 Infection and Mortality: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10071539 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 1539

Author(s):

Dong-Hyuk Cho ◽

Sun Ju Lee ◽

Sae Young Jae ◽

Woo Joo Kim ◽

Seong Jun Ha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Lower Risk ◽

Population Based ◽

Control Group ◽

Metabolic Equivalent ◽

South Korean ◽

Public Health Screening ◽

Metabolic Equivalent Of Task ◽

Korean National Health Insurance ◽

Respiratory Coronavirus

Regular physical activity (PA) is known to reduce the risk of serious community-acquired infections. We examined the association of PA with the morbidity and mortality resulting from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection in the South Korean population. Patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 and who underwent public health screening between 2014 and 2017 (n = 6288) were included. Age- and sex-matched controls (n = 125,772) were randomly selected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. Leisure-time PA was assessed using a self-reported questionnaire. The mean PA levels were lower in the patient than in the control group (558.2 ± 516.3 vs. 580.2 ± 525.7 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-min/week, p = 0.001). Patients with moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) were associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 morbidity (odds ratio (OR), 0.90; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.86–0.95). In addition, a standard deviation (SD) increment in MET/week (525.3 MET-min/week) was associated with a 4% decrease in the risk of COVID-19 morbidity (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93–0.99). MVPA and an SD increment in MET/week were associated with lower mortality (MVPA: OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.26–0.87; per SD increment: OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.48–0.88). Higher levels of regular PA were associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and mortality, highlighting the importance of maintaining appropriate levels of PA along with social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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