Biomedical subjects

Qimei He

Publications and source records attributed to Qimei He.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Midlife risk factors and healthy survival in men.

CONTEXT: Healthy survival has no clear phenotypic definition, and little is known about its attributes, particularly in men. OBJECTIVE: To test whether midlife biological, lifestyle, and sociodemographic risk factors are associated with overall survival and exceptional survival (free of a set of major diseases and impairments). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective cohort study within the Honolulu Heart Program/Honolulu Asia Aging Study. A total of 5820 Japanese American middle-aged men (mean age, 54 [range, 45-68] years) free of morbidity and functional impairments were followed for up to 40 years (1965-2005) to assess overall and exceptional survival. Exceptional survival was defined as survival to a specified age (75, 80, 85, or 90 years) without incidence of 6 major chronic diseases and without physical and cognitive impairment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Overall survival and exceptional survival. RESULTS: Of 5820 original participants, 2451 participants (42%) survived to age 85 years and 655 participants (11%) met the criteria for exceptional survival to age 85 years. High grip strength and avoidance of overweight, hyperglycemia, hypertension, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption were associated with both overall and exceptional survival. In addition, high education and avoidance of hypertriglyceridemia were associated with exceptional survival, and lack of a marital partner was associated with mortality before age 85 years. Risk factor models based on cumulative risk factors (survival risk score) suggest that the probability of survival to oldest age is as high as 69% with no risk factors and as low as 22% with 6 or more risk factors. The probability of exceptional survival to age 85 years was 55% with no risk factors but decreased to 9% with 6 or more risk factors. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that avoidance of certain risk factors in midlife is associated with the probability of a long and healthy life among men.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Siblings of Okinawan centenarians share lifelong mortality advantages.

Okinawa, an isolated island prefecture of Japan, has among the highest prevalence of exceptionally long-lived individuals in the world; therefore, we hypothesized that, within this population, genes that confer a familial survival advantage might have clustered. We analyzed the pedigrees of 348 centenarian families with 1142 siblings and compared sibling survival with that of the 1890 Okinawan general population cohort. Both male and female centenarian siblings experienced approximately half the mortality of their birth cohort-matched counterparts. This mortality advantage was sustained and did not diminish with age in contrast to many environmentally based mortality gradients, such as education and income. Cumulative survival advantages for this centenarian sibling cohort increased over the life span such that female centenarian siblings had a 2.58-fold likelihood, and male siblings a 5.43-fold likelihood, versus their birth cohorts, of reaching the age of 90 years. These data support a significant familial component to exceptional human longevity.

Aged, 80 and over↗

PubMed2006

The prevalence and prognosis of a Brugada-type electrocardiogram in a population of middle-aged Japanese-American men with follow-up of three decades.

BACKGROUND: The Brugada syndrome is an inherited arrhythmogenic and nonstructural heart disease associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death from ventricular fibrillation. There are conflicting data about its prevalence and prognosis. Particularly, population-based studies are lacking in the United States and other countries. METHODS: A total of 8006 Japanese-American men aged 45 to 68 years participated in the initial examination of the Honolulu Heart Program during the period of 1965 through 1968. After excluding prevalent cases with coronary heart disease, 864 electrocardiograms coded as right bundle branch block were reviewed using the specified criteria for Brugada-type electrocardiogram. Baseline characteristics and the prognosis of Brugada-type electrocardiogram were compared with 5983 control subjects who had electrocardiograms coded as normal at the initial examination. RESULTS: There were 12 typical cases and 11 atypical cases of Brugada-type electrocardiogram at the initial examination (prevalence, 0.15% and 0.14%, respectively). Analysis of baseline characteristics revealed no difference between control cases and either typical or atypical Brugada-type electrocardiogram cases except significantly lower body mass index in subjects with Brugada-type electrocardiogram. During the 30-year follow-up period, none of the subjects died suddenly within 24 hours after the onset of symptoms. Survival analysis revealed no significant difference between case and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: Brugada-type electrocardiograms among middle-aged or elderly Japanese-American men are uncommon and are not associated with increased risk of either sudden death or total mortality.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗

PubMed2006

Disability and depression: investigating a complex relation using physical performance measures.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the relation of physical performance measures with depressive symptoms in older men. METHOD: A cross-sectional, multivariate comparison of several measures of upper- and lower-extremity performance and their relation with depressive symptoms was performed in 2,856 older Japanese American men, aged 71-93 years, who participated in the fourth examination of the Honolulu Heart Program. Depressive symptoms were measured using an 11-item version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale. A score of at least 9 (from a maximum score of 33) is considered clinically significant. Timed functional performance tests, including walking and repeated chair stands, were used to assess lower-extremity performance; handgrip strength was used as an indicator of upper-extremity performance. RESULTS: Two hundred eighty-three participants (9.9%) had a score of 9 or greater on the 11-question CES-D Scale and were considered to be at high risk for depression. Time to walk 10 feet and time to complete five chair stands were significantly longer in those with depressive symptoms, whereas handgrip strength was significantly lower. Only the association of gait speed (time to walk 10 feet) and depressive symptoms remained significant when all physical performance measures were simultaneously included in a multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate physical performance measures, particularly gait speed, may be important potential correlates of depression in community-dwelling older men.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Locating disease genes using Bayesian variable selection with the Haseman-Elston method.

BACKGROUND: We applied stochastic search variable selection (SSVS), a Bayesian model selection method, to the simulated data of Genetic Analysis Workshop 13. We used SSVS with the revisited Haseman-Elston method to find the markers linked to the loci determining change in cholesterol over time. To study gene-gene interaction (epistasis) and gene-environment interaction, we adopted prior structures, which incorporate the relationship among the predictors. This allows SSVS to search in the model space more efficiently and avoid the less likely models. RESULTS: In applying SSVS, instead of looking at the posterior distribution of each of the candidate models, which is sensitive to the setting of the prior, we ranked the candidate variables (markers) according to their marginal posterior probability, which was shown to be more robust to the prior. Compared with traditional methods that consider one marker at a time, our method considers all markers simultaneously and obtains more favorable results. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that SSVS is a powerful method for identifying linked markers using the Haseman-Elston method, even for weak effects. SSVS is very effective because it does a smart search over the entire model space.

Bayes Theorem↗

PubMed2003

A genome-wide scan for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG): the Barbados Family Study of Open-Angle Glaucoma.

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is characterized by damage to the optic nerve with associated loss of vision. Six named genetic loci have been identified as contributing to POAG susceptibility by genetic linkage analysis of mostly Caucasian families, and two of the six causative genes have been identified. The Barbados Family Study of Open-Angle Glaucoma (BFSG) was designed to evaluate the genetic component of POAG in a population of African descent. A genome-wide scan was performed on 1327 individuals from 146 families in Barbados, West Indies. Linkage results were based on models and parameter estimates derived from a segregation analysis of these families, and on model-free analyses. Two-point LOD scores >1.0 were identified on chromosomes 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, and 14, with increased multipoint LOD scores being found on chromosomes 2, 10, and 14. Fine mapping was subsequently carried out and indicated that POAG may be linked to intervals on chromosome 2q between D2S2188 and D2S2178 and chromosome 10p between D10S1477 and D10S601. Heterogeneity testing strongly supports linkage for glaucoma to at least one of these regions and suggests possible linkages to both. Although TIGR/myocilin and optineurin mutations have been shown to be causally linked to POAG in other populations, findings from this study do not support either of these as causative genes in an Afro-Caribbean population known to have relatively high rates of POAG.

Barbados↗