Suchergebnisse

Abstract
With the outbreak of COVID-19 across Europe, anonymized telecommunications data provides a key insight into population level mobility and assessing the impact and effectiveness of containment measures. Vodafone's response across its global footprint was fast and delivered key new metrics for the pandemic that have proven to be useful for a number of external entities. Cooperation with national governments and supra-national entities to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic was a key part of Vodafone's response, and in this article the different methodologies developed are analyzed, as well as the key collaborations established in this context. In this article we also analyze the regulatory challenges found, and how these can pose a risk of the full benefits of these insights not being harnessed, despite clear and efficient Privacy and Ethics assessments to ensure individual safety and data privacy.

<p class="Pa7"><strong>Objective: </strong>To examine the association of abdominal muscle area with coronary artery calcium (CAC) presence, extent, and pro­gression in a multi-ethnic cohort of older, community-dwelling post-menopausal women.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Design and Setting: </strong>Cross-sectional and longitudinal population-based cohort.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Participants: </strong>The sample comprised 179 non-Hispanic White women, 116 Filipina women and 144 African American women, all without known CVD, who underwent chest and abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans twice about four years apart for abdominal muscle and fat, as well as CAC.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Main Outcome Measures: </strong>CAC presence, extent and progression.</p><p class="Default"><strong>Results: </strong>There was a significant interaction of ethnicity with baseline oblique muscle area (p-for-interaction .01), and marginally significant interactions with baseline total and paraspinal muscle for change in CAC (p-for-interactions both .09). Among Fili­pina women, each standard deviation (SD) greater total muscle area was associated with a 26% (95% CI (-43%, -4%), <em>P</em>=.02) reduced rate of change in CAC; higher paraspinal and oblique muscle area were associated with a 24% (-38%, -6%, <em>P</em>=.01) and a 37% (-53%, -16%, <em>P</em>=.0002) reduced rate of change in CAC, respectively. These associations were not significant in African American or non-Hispanic White women. There were no significant associations of abdominal muscle with CAC presence or extent, nor were there significant ethnicity by muscle interactions in these models.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Among Filipina women, greater abdominal muscle mass is associated with a decreased rate of CAC progression. Higher muscle mass may be important for this group in reducing CVD outcomes. <em>Ethn Dis. </em>2015;25(4):435-442; doi:10.18865/ ed.25.4.435</p>

Objective: Smoking is a well-known cardio­vascular risk factor associated with weight loss. We aimed to evaluate the association between smoking, serum leptin levels, and abdominal fat.Design: Cross-sectionalSetting: Data from examinations 2 or 3 (2002-2005) of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)Participants: 1,875 asymptomatic, commu­nity-dwelling adultsMain Outcomes Measures: We used multivariable linear regression models to assess the race/ethnicity-specific associations between smoking, serum loge-leptin levels, and computed tomography ascertained abdominal fat. Results were adjusted for de­mographic and relevant clinical covariates.Results: Participants (mean age 64.5±9.6 years; 50.6% women; 42.2% former, 11.4% current smokers) were White (40.1%), His­panic (25.8%), African American (21.1%), and Chinese (13.0%). Overall, median (25th – 75th percentile) leptin levels were signifi­cantly lower among current (11.14 ng/mL; 4.13 – 26.18) and former smokers (11.68 ng/mL; 4.72 – 27.57), as compared with never smokers (15.61 ng/mL; 3.05 – 30.12) (P<.001). The difference in median leptin levels between current and never smok­ers were significantly higher for Hispan­ics (Δ9.64 ng/mL) and African Americans (Δ8.81 ng/mL) than Whites (Δ2.10 ng/mL) and Chinese (Δ4.70 ng/mL) (P<.001). After adjustment for total abdominal fat, loge- leptin levels remained lower for former (-.14 [-.22 – -.07]) and current (-.17 [-.28 – -.05]) smokers, compared with never smokers. Results differed by race/ethnicity, with signif­icantly lower loge-leptin levels observed only among current and former African Ameri­cans and Hispanic smokers, compared with their never smoker counterparts. (Ps for interaction <.05)Conclusions: Among smokers, leptin levels significantly vary by race/ethnicity. Former and current smoking are associ­ated with lower leptin levels, although this may be restricted to Hispanics and African Americans. Ethn Dis. 2018;28(4):531-538; doi:10.18865/ed.28.4.531

Thoracic aortic calcium (TAC) has been associated with a higher prevalence of coronary arterial calcium (CAC). The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between TAC with both incident CAC and CAC progression in a cohort from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). MESA is a prospective cohort study of 6,814 participants free of clinical cardiovascular disease at entry who underwent non-contrast cardiac computed tomography scanning at baseline examination and at a 2 year follow up. We investigated the independent association between TAC and incident CAC among those without CAC at baseline and between TAC and CAC progression among those with CAC at baseline. The final study population consisted of 5,755 (84%) individuals (62±10 years, 48% males) who had a follow up CAC score an average of 2.4 years later. Incident CAC was significantly higher among those with TAC versus without TAC at baseline (11 per 100 person years versus 6 per 100 person years). Similarly, TAC was associated with a higher CAC change (p<0.0001) in those with some CAC at baseline. In demographic & follow-up duration adjusted analysis, TAC was associated with both incident CAC (RR 1.72; P < 0.0001) as well as with a greater CAC change (RR for 1(st) and 4(th) quartiles and 95% CI: RR 2.89; −3.16, 8.95; RR 24.21; 18.25, 30.18. In conclusion, TAC is associated with incidence and progression of CAC. Detection of TAC may improve risk stratification efforts. Future clinical outcomes studies are needed to support such approach.