Medical Bulletin 08/ November/ 2024
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Here are the top medical news for the day:
Intake of Vitamin D During Pregnancy Increases Bone Strength in Children: Study Finds
Children whose mothers took extra vitamin D during pregnancy continue to have stronger bones at age seven, according to new research led by the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton (UHS). The findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Bone density scans revealed that children born to mothers who were given vitamin D supplements during pregnancy have greater bone mineral density in mid-childhood. Their bones contain more calcium and other minerals, making them stronger and less likely to break.
In 2009, researchers launched the MAVIDOS study, recruiting over 1000 women from Southampton, Oxford and Sheffield. During their pregnancy, the women were randomly allocated to two groups: One group took an extra 1,000 International Units per day of vitamin D. The other took a placebo tablet each day. The pregnant women, and the doctors and midwives looking after them, did not know which group they were in.
The researchers investigated whether the effects on bone health continued into mid-childhood. The team followed up with 454 children aged six to seven. These children were all born to mothers who took part in Southampton. The results confirmed that the beneficial effect on children’s bones was similar at ages four and six to seven.
Reference: Moon, R. J., D’Angelo, S., Curtis, E. M., Ward, K. A., Crozier, S. R., Schoenmakers, I., ... & Prentice, A. (2024). Pregnancy vitamin D supplementation and offspring bone mineral density in childhood follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Can Work Place Stress Be Silent Threat to Your Heart Health?
In a large multi-ethnic group of adults in the United States without cardiovascular disease, those with work-related stress were more likely to have unfavorable measures of cardiovascular health. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
For the analysis, investigators assessed data collected between 2000 and 2002 for 3,579 community-based men and women aged 45–84 years enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Cardiovascular health was determined based on seven metrics—smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose—with each metric contributing zero points, one point, or two points if in the poor, intermediate, or ideal range, respectively, for a range of 0–14 points.
Work-related stress, which was assessed through a questionnaire, was reported by 20% of participants. After adjusting for potentially influencing factors, individuals with work-related stress, had 25% and 27% lower odds of having average (9–10 points) and optimal (11–14 points) cardiovascular health scores, respectively, compared with individuals without work-related stress.
Reference: Work‐Related Stress Is Associated With Unfavorable Cardiovascular Health: The Multi‐Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, Ogunmoroti, Oluseye, Osibogun, Olatokunbo, Allen, Norrina B., Okunrintemi, Victor et al, doi: 10.1161/JAHA.124.035824, Journal of the American Heart Association, Wiley
Climb Stairs to Control Blood Pressure: Study Finds
New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity – such as uphill walking or stair-climbing – into your day may help to lower blood pressure.
The study, published in Circulation, was carried out by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL).
Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling, was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure.
The research team analysed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behaviour with another across the day is associated with blood pressure. Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure throughout the day and night. Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behaviour (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling or stair climbing.
The team modelled statistically what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behaviour for another in order to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 percent at a population level.
Reference: Blodgett, J., Stamatakis, E., Hamer, M., et al, ‘Device-measured 24-hour movement behaviours and blood pressure: a six-part compositional individual participant data analysis in the ProPASS Consortium’ (Circulation, 2024). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069820
Link Between Preterm Birth and Future Income
By analyzing all live births in Canada over a six-year period and following children for more than two decades, researchers found that preterm births and the related cognitive, development and physical health impacts of prematurity are associated with lower income, employment and university enrollment
Individuals born before 37 weeks of gestation, considered to be preterm infants, have, on average, lower employment income, university enrollment and educational attainment through age 28, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. In the new study, researchers used data on 2.4 million individuals born in Canada between 1990 and 1996. Information on the individuals’ birth, as well as their employment and education through 2018 was available.
The study found that, after controlling for baseline characteristics such as parental demographics, the average income of preterm-born individuals at ages 18 to 28 was 6% lower per year than those born at term. Those born preterm were also 2.13% less likely to be employed, 17% less likely to enroll in university, and 16% less likely to graduate with a university degree. For individuals born at the earliest gestation, 24-27 weeks, those associations were even stronger with a 17% lower annual income and a 45% decrease in rates of university enrollment and graduation.
Petros Pechlivanoglou, co-author of the study says: "While clinical care during the neonatal period is critical, our findings suggest that the development of long-term supports that go beyond clinical care may help mitigate the longer-term effects of preterm birth. Policymakers and society as a whole must recognize that the socioeconomic impact of preterm birth may extend into early adulthood and that considerations for ongoing support could be vital to ensuring this population has equal opportunity to thrive.”
Reference: Ahmed AM, Pullenayegum E, McDonald SD, Beltempo M, Premji SS, Pole JD, et al. (2024) Association between preterm birth and economic and educational outcomes in adulthood: A population-based matched cohort study. PLoS ONE 19(11): e0311895. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311895
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