info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Our data do not support a major role of iron status in the development of IHD in a healthy general population.

Association studies between childhood obesity and insulin gene (INS) variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphisms have not been confirmed in large cohorts. The aim of the study was to search an association between INS VNTR and obesity related phenotypes (history of obesity and insulin resistance) in a large cohort of obese children. 392 obese children (13.4±4.2y, BMI Zscore 4.3±1.1SD) and 370 adult controls who never have been obese (48.9±6.7y, BMI 22.0±2.0 kg/m2) were genotyped for INS VNTR by PCR-RFLP. Phenotypic characterization was performed in all obese children (anthropometric measurements, weight history, fasting plasma insulin and glucose concentrations, fasting leptin). Frequencies of INS VNTR genotypes were similar in Caucasians obese children and controls (Caucasian children: I/I 51%, I/III 39%, III/III 10%; Controls: I/I 46%, I/III 43%, III/III 10%). In non Caucasian children, allelic frequencies were significantly different (I/I 15%, I/III 39%, III/III 46% p<0.0001). INS VNTR were not associated with obesity related phenotypes in Caucasian obese children (age of obesity onset: I/I 4.3±0.6y vs I/III and III/III 4.2±0.8y, NS; BMI Zscore: I/I 4.7±0.2 SD vs I/III and III/III 4.6±0.2 SD, NS; weight gain per year: I/I 5.9±0.2 kg vs I/III and III/III 6.1±0.2 kg, NS; fasting insulin concentrations: I/I 16.9±1.5 μU/ml vs I/III and III/III 14.6±1.4 μU/ml, NS; HOMA: I/I 3.7±0.3 vs I/III and III/III 3.2±0.3, NS; leptin adjusted to fat mass: I/I 28.1±2.1 ng/ml vs I/III and III/III 30.6±2.0 ng/ml) after adjustment for age, sex, and Tanner stage. INS VNTR are not associated to obesity history and insulin resistance in our cohort of severely obese children.

Previous chapters of this book have stressed the growing interest in continuously monitoring and comparing distributions of health determinants across populations to better inform public health workers and guide needed actions. Several authors have pointed to the need for a worldwide collection of survey data. We deal in this chapter with what appears to be a major paradox of global surveillance projects to date: data are currently available from many independent and locally based health studies, but the results cannot be directly compared across populations because of methodological variability. Our objective in this chapter is to demonstrate the importance and feasibility of a regional and eventually a global surveillance system to monitor the determinants of population health by pooling data from local surveys. We posit that the integration of existing systems will help ensure that surveillance data collected worldwide are more directly comparable across populations. This approach will also contribute to including those regions of the world that lack even the most basic surveillance infra-structure and resources (e.g., records of births and deaths). Its success depends on recognising and sharing expertise among all partners, the development of a core monitoring instrument, and co-ordinated efforts at fund-raising for central functions such as database maintenance. To date, three main techniques have been used to compare data across national and international studies, namely (1) centralised, standardised studies based on a uniform protocol, (2) meta-analyses of published-and sometimes unpublished-results, and

A voluminous body of epidemiological research concerning the potential role of antioxidant nutrients in the prevention of cancers has accumulated over the past few decades. However, results of large recent intervention trials do not support a preventive effect against cancer for supplementation with antioxidant nutrients. Seemingly contradictory results between observational studies and randomised trials can be explained by the fact that doses used in clinical trials were much higher than the highest levels attained by the usual dietary intake which, in observational studies, were found to be associated with the lowest risk of cancer. Recently, the Supplementation en Vitamines et Mine raux Antioxydants (SU.VI.MAX) study, a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled primary prevention trial, tested the efficacy of supplementation with a combination of antioxidant vitamins and minerals, at nutritional doses, in reducing the cancer incidence in a general population not selected for risk factors. After 7.5 years, low-dose antioxidant supplementation lowered the total cancer incidence in men only. This may be explained by a lower baseline status of certain antioxidants in men compared to women. Finally, the effect of antioxidant supplementation on the incidence of cancer could depend on baseline antioxidant status (which differs from gender and/or nutritional status) and the health status of subjects (healthy v. cancer high-risk subjects). Antioxidant supplementation may have a beneficial effect upon cancer incidence only in healthy subjects who are not exposed to cancer risk and who have a particularly low baseline status. High doses of antioxidant supplementation may be deleterious in subjects in whom the initial phase of cancer development has already started, and they could be ineffective in well-nourished subjects with adequate antioxidant status.

The "SUpplémentation en VItamines et Minéraux AntioXydants" (SU.VI.MAX) study is a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled, primary-prevention trial designed to test the efficacy of a daily supplementation with antioxidant vitamins and minerals at nutritional doses, in reducing several major health problems in industrialized countries, and especially the main causes of premature death (cancers and cardiovascular diseases). This 8-year cohort study started in 1994 in France; 13,535 eligible subjects (women aged 35 to 60, and men aged 45 to 60) were included in 1994 and will be followed up for 8 years. In this paper are described conditions and practical aspects for the realisation of the biological bank developped on the first sample (1994) and completed in 1996 and 1999. Biological material (buffy coat and plasma samples) are saved and stored at -196 degrees C, -80 degrees C and -20 degrees C for any further tests planned at later date (case-control studies and/or validation of new hypothesis).

Obese adult carriers of functionally relevant MC4R mutations do not specifically present with binge-eating disorder or a history of early-onset obesity. The onset and severity of the obesity in the carriers is related to the functional severity of the MC4R mutations.