Biomarkers have different directions of association with prematurity; for significant biomarkers, the strength of association increases with biomarker concentration. Our results provide important information that could be used to guide additional studies aimed at determining mechanisms that contribute to preterm birth.

Even in this relatively lean Chinese adolescent cohort, short sleep duration was significantly associated with higher adiposity measures and lower lean body mass in females. The results of this study indicate that the observed association between short sleep duration and higher BMI is most likely mediated by factors associated with total and central adiposity rather than lean body mass.

Maternal obesity is associated with a variety of common diseases in the offspring. One possible underlying mechanism could be maternal obesity induced alterations in DNA methylation. However, this hypothesis is yet to be tested. We performed epigenomic mapping of cord blood among 308 Black mother-infant pairs delivered at term at the Boston Medical Center using the Illumina HumanMethylation27 BeadChip. Linear regression and pathway analyses were conducted to evaluate the associations between DNA methylation levels and prepregnancy maternal BMI (<25, 25–30, ≥30 kg/m2). The methylation levels of 20 CpG sites were associated with maternal BMI at a significance level of P-value <10−4 in the overall sample, and boys and girls, separately. One CpG site remained statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons (FDR corrected P-value = 0.04) and was annotated to a potential cancer gene, ZCCHC10. Some of the other CpG site annotated genes appear to be critical to the development of cancers and cardiovascular diseases (i.e., WNT16, C18orf8, ANGPTL2, SAPCD2, ADCY3, PRR16, ERBB2, DOK2, PLAC1). Significant findings from pathway analysis, such as infectious and inflammatory and lipid metabolism pathways, lends support for the potential impact of maternal BMI on the above stated disorders. This study demonstrates that prepregnancy maternal BMI might lead to alterations in offspring DNA methylation in genes relevant to the development of a range of complex chronic diseases, providing evidence of trans-generational influence on disease susceptibility via epigenetic mechanism.

BackgroundType 2 diabetes is associated with acute and chronic complications and poses a large economic, social, and medical burden on patients and their families as well as society.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the direct economic burden of type 2 diabetes in China. Data source: systematic review on cost of illness, health care costs, direct service costs, drug costs, and health expenditures in relation to type 2 diabetes was conducted up to 2014 using databases such as Pubmed; EBSCO; Elsevier ScienceDirect, Web of Science; and a series of Chinese databases, including Wanfang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and the China Science and Technology Journal Database. Factors influencing hospitalization and drug fees were also identified. Study eligibility criteria: (1) estimation of the direct economic burden including hospitalization and outpatient cost of type 2 diabetes patients in China; (2) evaluation of the factors influencing the direct economic burden. Articles only focusing on the cost-effectiveness analysis of diabetes drugs were excluded.ResultsThe direct economic burden of type 2 diabetes has increased over time in China, and in 2008, the direct medical cost reached $9.1 billion, Both outpatient and inpatient costs have increased. Income level, type of medical insurance, the level of hospital care, and type and number of complications are primary factors influencing diabetes related hospitalization costs. Compared to urban areas, the direct non-medical cost of type 2 diabetes in rural areas is significantly greater.ConclusionsThe direct economic burden of type 2 diabetes poses a significant challenge to China. To address the economic burden associated with type 2 diabetes, measures need to be taken to reduce prevalence rate and severity of diabetes and hospitalization cost.

Nowadays, the vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines is being promoted worldwide, professionals and common people are very concerned about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. No published systematic review and meta-analysis has assessed the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines based on data from phase III clinical trials. Therefore, this study has estimated the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines and the differences between vaccine types. PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, medRxiv databases and two websites were used to retrieve the studies. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled efficacy and safety with risk ratio (RR). A total of eight studies, seven COVID-19 vaccines and 158,204 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. All the vaccines had a good preventive effect on COVID-19 (RR = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.09–0.32), and the mRNA vaccine (RR = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.03–0.09) was the most effective against COVID-19, while the inactivated vaccine (RR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.19–0.54) was the least. In terms of safety, the risk of overall adverse events showed an increase in the vaccine group after the first (RR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.03–2.05) or second (RR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.04–2.20) injection. However, compared with the first injection, the risk of local (RR = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.02–6.83 vs. RR = 2.25, 95% CI: 0.52–9.75) and systemic (RR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.21–1.46 vs. RR = 1.59, 95% CI: 0.84–3.01) adverse events decreased after the second injection. As for the mRNA vaccine, the risk of overall adverse events increased significantly, compared with the placebo, no matter whether it was the first (RR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.80–1.86) or the second (RR = 2.16, 95% CI = 2.11–2.20) injection. All the COVID-19 vaccines that have published the data of phase III clinical trials have excellent efficacy, and the risk of adverse events is acceptable. The mRNA vaccines were the most effective against COVID-19, meanwhile the risk and grade of adverse events was minimal, compared to that of severe symptoms induced by COVID-19.

We found a strong joint effect of prematurity and chorioamnionitis on early childhood wheezing. This effect was stronger in African American subjects.

SummaryBackground-The increasing prevalence of food allergy (FA) is a growing clinical and public health problem. The contribution of genetic factors to FA remains largely unknown.

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