Relationships of psychosocial factors to dietary intakes of preadolescent girls from diverse backgrounds

Family and personal factors that might be related to the development of food selection and eating patterns have not been well studied in children. The aim of this study was to examine whether such psychosocial factors differ in girls from four culturally diverse Girl Scout troops and how these factors are associated with dietary intakes. The social measures and dietary assessments were all obtained at baseline on subjects who were participating in a small nutrition education programme. The programme enrolled girls and one parent for each girl from four Girl Scout troops in Detroit, Michigan. The social factors assessed included girls’ emotionality and use of food to regulate emotions, their general attitudes about health, eating and body image, and self-perceptions of their competence. Dietary intakes also were assessed in both the girls and their parents. There were large differences between troops in ethnicity and parent education level, and there were differences in dietary intakes as well. The psychosocial factors assessed in this study, however, did not differ significantly by troop. When the psychosocial factors were examined for their relationships to dietary factors, there was an indication that families which reported higher self-competence and academic competence in their daughters also had healthier eating patterns in their daughters. This was a small study, but the data suggest that simple comparisons between ethnic groups may not adequately capture the complexity of family and psychosocial factors contributing to good dietary practices.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73597/1/j.1740-8709.2006.00051.x.pd

Perspectives on the future of epidemiology: A framework for training

Over the past century, the field of epidemiology has evolved and adapted to changing public health needs. Challenges include newly emerging public health concerns across broad and diverse content areas, new methods, and vast data sources. We recognize the need to engage and educate the next generation of epidemiologists and prepare them to tackle these issues of the 21st century. In this commentary, we suggest a skeleton framework upon which departments of epidemiology should build their curriculum. We propose domains that include applied epidemiology, biological and social determinants of health, communication, creativity and ability to collaborate and lead, statistical methods, and study design. We believe all students should gain skills across these domains to tackle the challenges posed to us. The aim is to train smart thinkers, not technicians, to embrace challenges and move the expanding field of epidemiology forward

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of multiple myeloma among men and women of African ancestry

Persons of African ancestry (AA) have a twofold higher risk for multiple myeloma (MM) compared with persons of European ancestry (EA). Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) support a genetic contribution to MM etiology in individuals of EA. Little is known about genetic risk factors for MM in individuals of AA. We performed a meta-analysis of 2 GWASs ofMMin 1813 cases and 8871 controls and conducted an admixture mapping scan to identify risk alleles. We fine-mapped the 23 known susceptibility loci to find markers that could better capture MM risk in individuals of AA and constructed a polygenic risk score (PRS) to assess the aggregated effect of known MM risk alleles. In GWAS meta-analysis, we identified 2 suggestive novel loci located at 9p24.3 and 9p13.1 at P < 1 × 10-6; however, no genome-wide significant association was noted. In admixture mapping, we observed a genome-wide significant inverse association between local AA at 2p24.1-23.1 and MM risk in AA individuals. Of the 23 known EA risk variants, 20 showed directional consistency, and 9 replicated at P < .05 in AA individuals. In 8 regions, we identified markers that better captureMMrisk in persons with AA. AA individuals with a PRS in the top 10% had a 1.82-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.56-2.11) increased MM risk compared with those with average risk (25%-75%). The strongest functional association was between the risk allele for variant rs56219066 at 5q15 and lower ELL2 expression (P = 5.1 × 10-12). Our study shows that common genetic variation contributes to MM risk in individuals with AA