Analysis of Myocarditis Among 252 Million mRNA-1273 Recipients Worldwide

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Analysis of Myocarditis Among 252 Million mRNA-1273 Recipients Worldwide via Clinical Infectious Diseases Advance Access Abstract Background Growing evidence indicates a causal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and myocarditis. Post-authorization safety data have also identified myocarditis as a rare safety event following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among adolescent and young adult males after dose 2. We further evaluated the potential risk by querying the Moderna global safety database for myocarditis/myopericarditis reports among mRNA-1273 recipients worldwide. M ethods Myocarditis/myopericarditis reports from December 18, 2020, to February 15, 2022, were reviewed and classified. The reported rate after any known mRNA-1273 dose was calculated according to age and sex, then compared to a population-based incidence rate to calculate observed-to-expected rate ratios (RR). Results During the study period, 3017 myocarditis/myopericarditis cases among 252 million mRNA-1273 recipients were reported to the Moderna global safety database. The overall reporting rate was 9.23 per 100,000 person-years, which was similar to the expected reference rate (9.0 cases per 100,000 person-years; RR [95% CI], 1.03 [0.97-1.08]). When stratified by sex and age, observed rates were highest for males aged <40 years, particularly those 18-24 years (53.76 per 100,000 person-years), which was higher than expected (RR [95% CI], 3.10 [2.68-3.58]). When considering only cases occurring within 7 days of a known dose, the observed rate was highest for males aged 18-24 years after dose 2 (4.23 per 100,000 doses administered). Conclusion Myocarditis/myopericarditis rates were not higher than expected for the overall population of mRNA-1273 recipients but were higher than expected in males aged 18-24 years, with most cases occurring 7 days after dose 2. View on Web

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Combining Urinary Biomarker Data From Studies With Different Measures of Urinary Dilution

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Combining Urinary Biomarker Data From Studies With Different Measures of Urinary Dilution via Epidemiology - Current Issue Background: Guidance is lacking for how to combine urinary biomarker data across studies that use different measures of urinary dilution, that is, creatinine or specific gravity. Methods: Among 741 pregnant participants from four sites of The Infant Development and Environment Study (TIDES) cohort, we assessed the relation of maternal urinary di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) concentrations with preterm birth. We compared scenarios in which all sites measured either urinary creatinine or specific gravity, or where measure of dilution differed by site. In addition to a scenario with no dilution adjustment, we applied and compared three dilution-adjustment approaches: a standard regression-based approach for creatinine, a standard approach for specific gravity (Boeniger method), and a more recently developed approach that has been applied to both (covariate-adjusted standardization method). For each scenario and dilution-adjustment method, we estimated the association between a doubling in the molar sum of DEHP (∑DEHP) and odds of preterm birth using logistic regression. Results: All dilution-adjustment approaches yielded comparable associations (odds ratio [OR]) that were larger in magnitude than when we did not perform dilution adjustment. A doubling of ∑DEHP was associated with 9% greater odds of preterm birth (OR = 1.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91, 1.30) when applying no dilution-adjustment method, whereas dilution-adjusted point estimates were higher, and similar across all scenarios and methods: 1.13–1.20 (regression-based), 1.15–1.18 (Boeniger), and 1.14–1.21 (covariate-adjusted standardization). Conclusions: In our applied example, we demonstrate that it is possible and straightforward to combine urinary biomarker data across studies when measures of dilution differ. View on Web

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Causal Effect of Chronic Pain on Mortality Through Opioid Prescriptions: Application of the Front-Door Formula

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Causal Effect of Chronic Pain on Mortality Through Opioid Prescriptions: Application of the Front-Door Formula via Epidemiology - Current Issue Background: Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is strongly associated with the epidemic of opioid overdosing events. However, the causal links between chronic pain, opioid prescriptions, and mortality remain unclear. Methods: This study included 13,884 US adults aged ≥20 years who provided data on chronic pain in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2004 with linkage to mortality databases through 2015. We employed the generalized form of the front-door formula within the structural causal model framework to investigate the causal effect of chronic pain on all-cause mortality mediated by opioid prescriptions. Results: We identified a total of 718 participants at 3 years of follow-up and 1260 participants at 5 years as having died from all causes. Opioid prescriptions increased the risk of all-cause mortality with an estimated odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) = 1.5 (1.1, 1.9) at 3 years and 1.3 (1.1, 1.6) at 5 years. The front-door formula revealed that chronic pain increased the risk of all-cause mortality through opioid prescriptions; OR = 1.06 (1.01, 1.11) at 3 years and 1.03 (1.01, 1.06) at 5 years. Our bias analysis showed that our findings based on the front-door formula were likely robust to plausible sources of bias from uncontrolled exposure–mediator or mediator–outcome confounding. Conclusions: Chronic pain increased the risk of all-cause mortality through opioid prescriptions. Our findings highlight the importance of careful guideline-based chronic pain management to prevent death from possibly inappropriate opioid prescriptions driven by chronic pain. View on Web

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Prenatal Exposure to Insecticides and Weight Trajectories Among South African Children in the VHEMBE Birth Cohort

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Prenatal Exposure to Insecticides and Weight Trajectories Among South African Children in the VHEMBE Birth Cohort via Epidemiology - Current Issue Background: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) or pyrethroid insecticides are sprayed inside dwellings for malaria vector control, resulting in high exposure to millions of people, including pregnant women. These chemicals disrupt endocrine function and may affect child growth. To our knowledge, few studies have investigated the potential impact of prenatal exposure to DDT or pyrethroids on growth trajectories. Methods: We investigated associations between gestational insecticide exposure and child growth trajectories in the Venda Health Examination of Mothers, Babies and their Environment, a birth cohort of 751 children born between 2012 and 2013 in South Africa. Based on child weight measured at follow-up and abstracted from medical records, we modeled weight trajectories from birth to 5 years using SuperImposition, Translation and Rotation, which estimated two child-specific parameters: size (average weight) and tempo (age at peak weight velocity). We estimated associations between peripartum maternal concentrations of serum DDT, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene, or urinary pyrethroid metabolites and SuperImposition, Translation and Rotation parameters using marginal structural models. Results: We observed that a 10-fold increase in maternal concentrations of the pyrethroid metabolite trans-3-(2,2,-dicholorvinyl)-2,2-dimethyl-cyclopropane carboxylic acid was associated with a 21g (95% confidence interval = −40, −1.6) smaller size among boys but found no association among girls (Pinteraction = 0.07). Estimates suggested that pyrethroids may be associated with earlier tempo but were imprecise. We observed no association with serum DDT or dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene. Conclusions: Inverse associations between pyrethroids and weight trajectory parameters among boys are consistent with hypothesized disruption of androgen pathways and with our previous research in this population, and support the endocrine-disrupting potential of pyrethroids in humans. View on Web

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Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure and the Risk of Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Childhood: A Cohort Study With Triangulation

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure and the Risk of Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Childhood: A Cohort Study With Triangulation via Epidemiology - Current Issue Background: Uncontrolled confounding from maternal depression and genetic and environmental factors is expected in studies investigating the effect of prenatal antidepressant exposure on the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood and may explain inconsistencies in the existing evidence. We aimed to assess this effect using triangulation. Methods: Using population-based health registries, we conducted a nationwide cohort study of all children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2017 and followed through 2018 for ADHD. We assessed the effect of prenatal antidepressant exposure on the risk of ADHD in childhood by comparing children with and without prenatal antidepressant exposure in terms of adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs), adjusted incidence rate differences (IRDs), and adjusted risk differences (RDs) and the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We triangulated results from four different analytic approaches: an overall analysis, a negative control analysis, a sibling analysis, and a former-user analysis. Results: The overall study cohort consisted of 1,253,362 children, among whom 28,910 (2.3%) had prenatal antidepressant exposure. ADHD during follow-up was diagnosed among 1,411 (4.9%) of the exposed and in 37,196 (3.0%) of the unexposed children. Triangulation suggested an IRR of 1.09–1.15; an IRD less than 1 case/1,000 person-years, and an RD of 0.9%–2.2% over an up to 18-year period. Conclusions: Based on triangulation, we estimated a modest effect of prenatal antidepressant exposure on the risk of ADHD in childhood. However, considering the limitations of our approaches, this observed association may be partially due to residual biases. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B935. View on Web

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Use of Recently Vaccinated Individuals to Detect Bias in Test-Negative Case–Control Studies of COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Use of Recently Vaccinated Individuals to Detect Bias in Test-Negative Case–Control Studies of COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness via Epidemiology - Current Issue Postauthorization observational studies play a key role in understanding COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness following the demonstration of efficacy in clinical trials. Although bias due to confounding, selection bias, and misclassification can be mitigated through careful study design, unmeasured confounding is likely to remain in these observational studies. Phase III trials of COVID-19 vaccines have shown that protection from vaccination does not occur immediately, meaning that COVID-19 risk should be similar in recently vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, in the absence of confounding or other bias. Several studies have used the estimated effectiveness among recently vaccinated individuals as a negative control exposure to detect bias in vaccine effectiveness estimates. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical framework to describe the interpretation of such a bias indicator in test-negative studies, and outline strong assumptions that would allow vaccine effectiveness among recently vaccinated individuals to serve as a negative control exposure. View on Web

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Incretin-Based Drugs and the Incidence of Prostate Cancer Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Incretin-Based Drugs and the Incidence of Prostate Cancer Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes via Epidemiology - Current Issue Background: There is some evidence that glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors have chemopreventive effects on prostate cancer cells but real-world evidence for this possible effect is lacking. Thus, the objective of this study was to estimate whether use of GLP-1 receptor agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors, separately, is associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer among patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: We assembled two new-user, active-comparator cohorts using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2007 to 2019). The first cohort included 5,063 initiators of GLP-1 receptor agonists and 112,955 of sulfonylureas. The second cohort included 53,529 initiators of DPP-4 inhibitors and 114,417 of sulfonylureas. We fit Cox proportional hazards models to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for prostate cancer. We weighted the models using propensity score fine stratification, which considered over 50 potential confounders. Results: GLP-1 receptor agonists were associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer when compared with sulfonylureas (incidence rates = 156.4 vs. 232.0 per 100,000 person-years, respectively; HR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.43, 0.99). DPP-4 inhibitors were also associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer when compared with sulfonylureas (incidence rates = 316.2 vs. 350.5 events per 100,000 person-years, respectively; HR = 0.90; 95% CI = 0.81, 1.00). Conclusions: The results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors, separately, may decrease the risk of prostate cancer when compared with the use of sulfonylureas. View on Web

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Gestational hypertensive disorders and maternal breast cancer risk in a nationwide cohort of 40,720 parous women

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Gestational hypertensive disorders and maternal breast cancer risk in a nationwide cohort of 40,720 parous women via Epidemiology - Published Ahead-of-Print Background: Pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension are hypothesized to be associated with reduced maternal breast cancer risk, but the epidemiologic evidence is inconclusive. Our objective was to examine associations between gestational hypertensive disorders and breast cancer in a nationwide cohort of women with a family history of breast cancer. Methods: Women ages 35-74 years who had a sister previously diagnosed with breast cancer, but had never had breast cancer themselves, were enrolled in the Sister Study from 2003-2009 (N=50,884). At enrollment, participants reported diagnoses of eclampsia, pre-eclampsia, or gestational hypertension in each pregnancy. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate HRs and 95% CIs for the association between history of a gestational hypertensive disorder and incident invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ among 40,720 parous women. We used age as the time scale and adjusted for birth cohort, race–ethnicity, and reproductive, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors. We examined effect measure modification by risk factors for gestational hypertensive disease and breast cancer and assessed possible etiologic heterogeneity across tumor characteristics. Results: The prevalence of gestational hypertensive disease was 12%. During follow-up (mean=10.9 years), 3198 eligible women self-reported a breast cancer diagnosis. History of a gestational hypertensive disorder was not associated with breast cancer risk (HR=1.0, 95% CI 0.90, 1.1). We did not observe clear evidence of effect measure modification or etiologic heterogeneity. Conclusions: History of a gestational hypertensive disorder was not associated with breast cancer risk in a cohort of women with a first-degree family history of breast cancer. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. View on Web

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