The EPIC-Norfolk StudyIn response to the coronavirus pandemic, the UK government has initiated six National Core Studies to conduct research into COVID-19.
EPIC-Norfolk has been invited to take part in one of these studies — the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC).
The UK LLC will bring together information from longitudinal study volunteers with their routine records in a secure way. This will help researchers work towards improving health and wellbeing throughout and beyond COVID-19.
A new study published today in Nature Medicine has identified key risk factors that increase the likelihood of individuals developing not only one but multiple non-communicable diseases, which include cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.
The analysis of over 11,000 people found that rather than being due to chance, there are often underlying biological links in individuals with multimorbidity, which is defined as the co-occurrence of two or more long-term health conditions and is a growing public health challenge.
Multimorbidity, which affects about two thirds of people aged 65 years or over in the UK, impairs an individual’s quality of life over and above the cumulative burden from each individual disease. Understanding which diseases co-occur not at random but through common mechanisms can aid the identification of preventive strategies and lead to improvements in health care.
Sarcopenia is characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass and function during aging and affects more than 50 million people worldwide over the age of 50 years old. Skeletal muscle is involved in voluntary movement and structural support and so a reduction in amount and strength can lead to frailty, reduced quality of life, and death. It may also cause metabolic disturbances, affecting conversion of food to energy in the body, with implications for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Vitamin C is a nutrient found in fruits and vegetables and can help defend the cells and tissues that make up the body from potentially harmful free radical substances. Unopposed these free radicals can contribute to the destruction of muscle, thus speeding up age-related decline.
This study examined the relationship between dietary and blood vitamin C and the estimated mass of muscle in individuals within a large group of older men and women. We found people with the highest amounts of vitamin C in their diet or blood had greater estimated muscle mass, compared to those with the lowest amounts. This study suggests that dietary vitamin C is relevant for muscle health in older people and may be useful for preventing age 40 related muscle loss. [Read more…]
The majority of patients who require treatment in an acute hospital setting are older people and many have multiple chronic conditions. Known as “multimorbidity”, many studies have shown it to predict an increased rate of mortality. However, few community-based studies have considered the predictors of future hospital admissions with multimorbidity. This study explores the relationship between this condition and potentially modifiable lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and low plant food intake.
The study found that in people initially free of disease:
– age and male sex predicted subsequent incident hospital admissions with multimorbidity
– smoking, body mass index > 30, physical inactivity and a diet low in fruit and vegetables were all independently associated with the condition
Modest differences in lifestyle may have the potential to mitigate the future burden of multimorbidity in the population. [Read more…]
Lack of physical activity and exercise are known risk factors for major health conditions, including cognitive impairments such as memory and concentration problems. However, evidence as to whether physical activity actually protects against cognitive decline has often been mixed and inconclusive. This study examined the relationship between physical activity during work and leisure separately and later life cognition. Participants were from the EPIC-Norfolk study, aged 40-79 years old at baseline, from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and educational attainment.
The study found:
Men and women aged 40-79 are at significantly lower (25-27%) risk of long or frequent hospital admissions if they do some form of physical activity, a new paper from the EPIC-Norfolk study suggests.
Inactive participants in the study spent just over 4 days more in hospital over the next ten years than those who did at least some physical activity, whether for work or leisure. And similar results were observed 10 years later when the same participants were 50-90 years old.
The study, by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care and MRC Epidemiology Unit, calculates that for every inactive person who started to take at least some exercise, the NHS could save around £247 per year. This would equate to around 7% of the UK’s per capita health expenditure. [Read more…]
A Mediterranean diet is characterised by high intake of plant-based foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts and cereals) and olive oil, moderate intake of fish and alcohol and low intake of dairy products and red and processed meat. Studies have shown that many of these dietary components of the Mediterranean diet play an important role in bone and muscle health. We proposed that the additive effects of these individual dietary components would have a greater impact on musculoskeletal health. The aim of the study was therefore to examine associations between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and key indicators of bone and muscle status, including fracture incidence, bone density and muscle mass. [Read more…]
Previous research has shown that physical activity is good for our bodies and minds, and spending too much time sedentary (sitting) tends to do the opposite for our health.
Physical activity is increasingly being measured using accelerometry devices, which track intensity and duration of body movement. The use of accelerometers is an advance over the previously used self-report methods, which are prone to measurement error from imprecise and biased recall, and can thereby mask the true nature and magnitude of associations.
Our study examined whether prior activity patterns were associated with later health outcomes. The large sample of detailed data on accelerometer-measured physical activity in EPIC-Norfolk, along with incident disease data and a long follow-up duration made EPIC-Norfolk an ideal study for this work. [Read more…]
Meeting minimum public health recommendations could prevent nearly one in two deaths linked to physical inactivity
Keeping physically active or becoming more active during middle and older age is associated with a lower risk of death, regardless of past activity levels or existing health conditions, suggests a large UK study published today by The BMJ.
The new findings indicate that at the population level, meeting and maintaining at least the minimum public health recommendations (equivalent to 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity) would potentially prevent 46% of deaths associated with physical inactivity. [Read more…]
People who are less likely to put on excess fat around their hips due to their genes are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes and heart attacks, according to a new study led by scientists from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
While it has long been recognised that an “apple-shaped” body is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, the new research sheds light on the specific genetics linked to this body shape and the potential mechanisms behind the increased risk. The researchers suggest that their findings, published in JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association, may help to better identify individuals at risk of developing these conditions and inform their subsequent treatment.
The researchers studied the genetic profiles of over 600,000 participants from several large UK and international studies – including the UK Biobank, Fenland, EPIC-Norfolk, and EPIC-Interact – and identified over 200 genetic variants that predispose people to a higher waist-to-hip ratio, a measure of the “apple shaped” body. Using this data, the researchers identified two specific groups of genetic variants that increased waist-to-hip ratio – one exclusively via lower hip fat and the other exclusively via higher waist (abdominal) fat. [Read more…]
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