Proposal summaries
B4487 - Macronutrient balance and carbohydrate quality for optimal growth trajectory and cardiometabolic health of children - 06/12/2023
Our diets are made up of a mixture of different nutrients that can impact our health in various ways. Nutrition studies that only look at one thing at a time, like comparing high-fat to low-fat diets, often miss out on how these nutrients interact with each other and affect our metabolism. This can lead to confusing and conflicting conclusions about how nutrients influence diseases like diabetes or obesity. To truly understand what diet is best for our health, we need to consider how nutrients work together. A nutrition science methodology called nutritional geometry (NG) helps with this. It's a tool that shows how different nutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) in our food can affect things like our body weight, our appetite, our blood glucose and cholesterol levels. This approach has been used successfully in various animals, from flies to humans, to figure out how different diets affect markers of health and lifespan.
In recent years, scientists have been using the NG approach to study the diets of children and adults. For example, in Australian children, they found that having less protein compared to fat and carbs in the diet was linked to starting puberty earlier. In Finnish children, the amount of energy they got from protein affected how many calories they ate in a day. So, it's not just about how much of each nutrient we eat, but also about how they work together. In this project, we aim to use the NG methodology to study how diets with different ratios of protein, fat and carbohydrate influence their health status and risk of obesity and diabetes across different stages of childhood.
When it comes to carbohydrates, the quality matters too, not just the quantity. Carbs are the major source of energy for the majority of population, but not all carbs are the same. The glycemic index (GI) is a way to measure how quickly a food makes our blood sugar rise and glycemic load (GL) is a measure of how much the food will raise a person's blood glucose level after eating it. In this project, we will generate evidence for the relationship between GI and GL of the diet in childhood and its link with growth, development, obesity and various markers of health. In addition, sugary drinks with fructose can be bad for our health, even if they have a lower GI compared to other sugars. This is because fructose can make our liver create more fat, leading to weight gain and other issues. So, it's not just about the type of carbs we eat, but how they affect our bodies in different ways. Therefore, we will assess how the level of fructose in the diet predisposes a child to the risk of obesity and diabetes.
B4482 - Epigenome-wide DNA methylation associations with mental health and brain structure - 22/01/2024
Adolescence is the age of onset of many common mental disorders. The roles of epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), has increasingly been recognised in neurological and psychiatric disorders, brain development, and aging. Investigating the relationships between DNAm and mental health, particularly in children and adolescents, is crucial for identifying early biomarkers and for enhancing our understanding of biological mechanisms underlying risk for and onset of mental illness at this developmentally sensitive period.
B4483 - Exploring the impact of cardiopulmonary fitness on exercise blood pressure cardiac output and peripheral blood flow - 06/12/2023
Blood pressure rises during exercise as a result of changes in the amount of blood the heart pumps and changes in the circulation within skeletal muscle. An exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise can indicate poor cardiovascular health but recent work suggests an exaggerated exercise BP only indicates poor cardiovascular health when cardiopulmonary fitness (aerobic fitness) is low. In this project we propose to explore the effect of fitness on exercise blood pressure and the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Sex differences in all metrics and associations will also be explored to get a better understanding of cardiovascular health in young men and women.
B4484 - Student 2 Exploring the impact of cardiopulmonary fitness on exercise blood pressure cardiac output and peripheral blood flow - 06/12/2023
Blood pressure rises during exercise as a result of changes in the amount of blood the heart pumps and changes in the circulation within skeletal muscle. An exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise can indicate poor cardiovascular health but recent work suggests an exaggerated exercise BP only indicates poor cardiovascular health when cardiopulmonary fitness (aerobic fitness) is low. In this project we propose to explore the effect of fitness on exercise blood pressure and the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Sex differences in all metrics and associations will also be explored to get a better understanding of cardiovascular health in young men and women.
B4477 - The role of attachment in infancy with mental and physical health and relationship outcomes in early adulthood - 04/12/2023
Attachment theory suggests that when babies are born, their main aim is to connect with and stay close to their caregiver. This behaviour has developed over time to help them survive. Scientists have come up with different attachment styles, like secure, avoidant, anxious, and disorganised. Previous studies have found that how well a child bonds with their caregiver can affect things like blood pressure, stress, habits, self-esteem, wellbeing and how they form and keep stable adult relationships. The upcoming research project will investigate the strength and direction of the relationship between attachment and later health and relationship outcomes.
B4478 - The role of attachment in infancy with mental and physical health and relationship outcomes in early adulthood 2 - 04/12/2023
Attachment theory suggests that when babies are born, their main aim is to connect with and stay close to their caregiver. This behaviour has developed over time to help them survive. Scientists have come up with different attachment styles, like secure, avoidant, anxious, and disorganised. Previous studies have found that how well a child bonds with their caregiver can affect things like blood pressure, stress, habits, self-esteem, wellbeing and how they form and keep stable adult relationships. The upcoming research project will investigate the strength and direction of the relationship between attachment and later health and relationship outcomes.
B4479 - The role of attachment in infancy with mental and physical health and relationship outcomes in early adulthood 3 - 04/12/2023
Attachment theory suggests that when babies are born, their main aim is to connect with and stay close to their caregiver. This behaviour has developed over time to help them survive. Scientists have come up with different attachment styles, like secure, avoidant, anxious, and disorganised. Previous studies have found that how well a child bonds with their caregiver can affect things like blood pressure, stress, habits, self-esteem, wellbeing and how they form and keep stable adult relationships. The upcoming research project will investigate the strength and direction of the relationship between attachment and later health and relationship outcomes.
B4480 - The role of attachment in infancy with mental and physical health and relationship outcomes in early adulthood 4 - 04/12/2023
Attachment theory suggests that when babies are born, their main aim is to connect with and stay close to their caregiver. This behaviour has developed over time to help them survive. Scientists have come up with different attachment styles, like secure, avoidant, anxious, and disorganised. Previous studies have found that how well a child bonds with their caregiver can affect things like blood pressure, stress, habits, self-esteem, wellbeing and how they form and keep stable adult relationships. The upcoming research project will investigate the strength and direction of the relationship between attachment and later health and relationship outcomes.
B4474 - Exploring the Interplay of Genetic Psychosocial and Metabolic-Immune Nexus in Mental Development Trajectories - 18/12/2023
Unraveling the Link Between Our Bodies and Minds
Ever wondered why our mental well-being is so unique to each of us? Our research project is like a treasure hunt for answers. We believe our mental health is indeed influenced by a complex web of factors, with a spotlight on our immune and metabolic systems.
What We're Doing:
We're investigating the interrelationships among our genes, the surrounding environment, and the internal mechanisms of our bodies. These factors significantly impact how we think, feel, and live. Our objective is to comprehend the roles played by our immune and metabolic systems in this intricate web of connections.
Why It's Important:
Mental health is a big part of life, and we want to help people live their best lives. By studying how our genes, environment, and our body's inner processes influence our mental well-being, we aim to uncover new insights into mental health and develop effective interventions.
How We're Doing It:
We're collecting information from a diverse group of individuals, collecting information, and studying their genes. Additiionally, brain imaging is being conducted to gain a better understanding of how the brain works. We'll keep following these individuals over time to observe any changes that may occur.
What We Hope to Discover:
Our goal is to explore the connetion between our immune and metabolic systems and our mental well-being. By connecting the dots between genes, our environment, and how our bodies function, we aimto uncover new ways to enhance people's happiness and overall quality of life.
In a nutshell, our research is like solving a puzzle. We're dedicated to understanding how our genes, the environment, and our body's inner workings come together to create our unique stories and help us live our best lives.
B4469 - Investigating whether religion/spiritual beliefs and behaviours moderate associations between hearing and mental health - 01/12/2023
Hearing loss is in the top ten disabilities in England and second globally for prevalence of impairment. In the UK, around 40% of people aged 50 years old and 71% of people aged 70 years and older have hearing loss. Deterioration of hearing typically starts in the 4th decade of life and risk is increased by noise exposure, genetics and social determinants of health.
Acquired hearing loss can affect communication, mental health, social participation, employment and quality of life. Hearing loss is associated with both anxiety and depression. Hearing loss is also associated with higher risk of loneliness and social isolation, with a potentially greater impact for women compared to men. The impact of hearing loss also extends to communication partners, affecting partners’ social life, quality of life and relationship satisfaction.
Religious and spiritual beliefs and behaviours (RSBB) may provide mechanisms by which people are able to cope with stress, or provide a source of social and emotional support. Recent data supports that RSBB can have a positive influence on living with sensory impairment, both hearing and vision loss. Lee and Park (2022) examine activities of successful ageing and health, and the influence of sensory impairment using data from the US 2015–2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. They identified that for those with sensory impairment, participation in religious activity was associated with better reported health. A study of older adults living with age related macular degeneration identified that spirituality and religion were important coping factors promoting emotional well-being. This project will investigate whether self-reported hearing difficulties of study parents are associated with poorer mental health, social isolation and loneliness. If poorer outcomes are identified, we will examine whether RSBB moderates the association, using relevant RSBB-linked questions from ALSPAC questionnaires
B4476 - DNA methylation proxy of alcohol intake - 01/12/2023
DNA methylation patterns in blood samples are known to be influenced by a variety of exposures including lifestyle factors including smoking, alcohol consumption and diet. Although many of these exposures can be reasonably accurately assessed by self-report questionnaire, there are significant advantages to having objective measures of these exposures using biological samples over self-report which is known to be unreliable, especially for long-term exposures. We therefore propose to construct and validate an accurate DNA methylation-based model of long-term alcohol intake using data from a large number of cohort studies including ALSPAC.
B4473 - Association between ideal cardiovascular health and grey matter phenotypes in the young - 01/12/2023
Accumulating evidence implicates poor cardiovascular health in later life as a major risk factor for compromised brain health and eventual dementia. How early the association between cardiovascular and brain health begins to emerge, however, is unclear. In 2022, the American
Heart Association (AHA) created ‘Life’s Essential 8 (LE8)’ – a risk score aimed at quantifying ideal cardiovascular health behaviours within large populations in order to predict future disease. This risk score consists of eight modifiable factors known to influence cardiovascular
disease – namely body weight, physical activity, diet, sleep, smoking, total cholesterol, glucose, and blood pressure – and has been shown to already associate with the subclinical development of early cardiovascular risk in from as early as childhood.
B4470 - Tinnitus and depression in children young adults and the role of religion/spiritual beliefs and behaviours - 05/12/2023
Tinnitus is defined as a sound in the head or ears that occurs in the absence of any external acoustic source and while there is no single agreed-upon definition of tinnitus, it is estimated to affect between 5.1% to 42.7 % of the population, with a higher prevalence in men than women. Most people habituate to tinnitus, however, in some individuals it has a significant impact on their quality of life and causes debilitating problems such as depression, anxiety, frustration and insomnia. Current research suggests a strong association between tinnitus, psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress. Severe tinnitus can lead to distressing catastrophic thoughts, and although suicide is rare, suicidal thoughts are common amongst severe sufferers.
Tinnitus is also a common experience in children and prevalence rates are reported to be similar to the adult population. Insomnia, listening and attention difficulties are the main psychological factors associated with tinnitus in children. However, little is known about the psychological impact of tinnitus in children, yet emerging studies in this field have identified anxiety and depression as problematic emotional response to tinnitus. Furthermore, there has been limited research on how tinnitus manifests in children, and addressing this knowledge gap is crucial in understanding and predicting the relationship between tinnitus and psychological disorders presenting in adulthood, as children develop into adults with or without tinnitus. Therefore, there is a need for further studies to define the life course of tinnitus from childhood to adulthood in order to gain a better understanding of the role early tinnitus and psychological disorders play in the development of tinnitus severity and distress in to adulthood.
Religious and spiritual beliefs and behaviours (RSBB) may provide mechanisms by which people are able to cope with stress or provide a source of social and emotional support. Recent data supports that RSBB can have a positive influence on adults living with sensory impairment, both hearing and vision loss. For children, longitudinal data indicates that RSBB can support psychological adjustment. These data suggest that children in families with RSBB may be at lower risk of psychological disorders if they experience tinnitus.
B4468 - Fish intakes in childhood and neurodevelopmental outcomes - 27/11/2023
Seafood is a major source of essential nutrients such as long chain fatty acids, selenium, iodine and vitamin D. There is debate over whether these essential nutrients offset the potential adverse effects of mercury - a widespread environmental toxin which can accumulate in seafood. Current NHS guidance for pregnancy advises eating no more than 2 portions (approximately 280g) oily fish a week. Previous studies have utilised ALSPAC data to assess the possible benefits and harms of different levels of maternal seafood intake during pregnancy on a child's development, e.g., Hibbeln et al. (2007) modelled the association between maternal fish intake during pregnancy and cognitive development in offspring.
However, there is no current modelling of the relationship between childhood intake of fish and neurodevelopmental outcomes in ALSPAC. This project aims to use existing data from ALSPAC, to examine the possibility of a connection between childhood fish intake and cognitive development. We will look at ALSPAC data collected from food frequency questionnaires on fish intake during childhood, as well as later data on neurodevelopmental indicators (IQ, DDS, SDS). This may subsequently assist with informing nutrition guidance on fish intake in childhood.
B4467 - SITAR enhancements to support generalisable reproducible and efficient state-of-the-art analysis of individual growth curves - 01/12/2023
Adolescence is characterised by rapid growth in height and changes in body composition. These growth patterns can be influenced by early life factors and have consequences for adult health. The SITAR (Super Imposition by Translation and Rotation) method of growth curve analysis summarises individual growth patterns using three parameters (size, timing, and intensity) that are estimated as random effects, plus a cubic spline estimate of the average growth curve. SITAR was designed to simplify the analysis of adolescent height growth curves in individuals and it explains over 95% of the age-specific variance in height, making it an effective summary of individual growth patterns. However, SITAR assumes a plateau or constant growth at the end of the growth spurt which means it fails to properly fit outcomes whose growth continues into adulthood (e.g., weight, adiposity, lean mass and bone mass) and as such its use beyond height remains limited. SITAR also depends on arbitrary selection of the number and spacing of knots in the cubic spline which makes it susceptible to overfitting and confirmation bias, and it uses older (slower) software to fit models. SITAR random effects can be related to earlier growth-affecting exposures or later health outcomes making it relevant for translational medicine and life course epidemiology however, these analyses are often performed in two-stages which can lead to bias due to underestimated standard errors. Lastly, to overcome data sharing challenges, international consortia are increasingly turning to privacy-preserving software that can facilitate remote multicohort research, with the DataSHIELD platform, one of the most widely used software, however, DataSHIELD currently lacks implementation of SITAR. The aim of this project is improve the generalisability, reproducibility, and efficiency of SITAR and to empower researchers with essential information and tools for the best-practice analysis of individual growth patterns and their determinants and outcomes. The project will address the current limitations described above by tackling the outstanding methodological issues, creating R software to implement the new insights and developing resources to guide researchers through their analyses. Methodological developments will include generalising SITAR to allow it to accurately fit weight, adiposity, lean mass, and bone mass, approaches to fit SITAR models in more efficient software, implementing P-splines as alternatives to estimate of the average growth curve, approaches to obtain unbiased standard errors when relating growth curve features to exposures or outcomes, and DataSHIELD modules to implement SITAR. Methods will be tested using repeated data from four prospective cohort studies from the UK, USA, and Canada, and simulation studies. An R library, workshop, and interactive guidance will enable statisticians and epidemiologists to apply the method relatively simply.
B4466 - Developmental trajectories in people born after assisted reproductive technology - 01/12/2023
This project aims to understand the long-term developmental trajectories of people conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART has led to over 10 million births and is an established and increasingly used treatment for infertility (disease affecting 1 in 6 couples). Addressing concerns that ART is a prenatal stressor that can have adverse effects on offspring long-term health is a major research priority however, existing evidence is limited by use of selected and small samples with short follow-up and lack of repeat measures.
B4451 - Genotypes phenotypes and environmental correlates of success in weight loss maintenance for children and adolescents - 05/12/2023
Leveraging the genomic and observational data, this study can contribute to revealing the mystery of weight maintenance after weight loss: In most existing obesity interventions, weight loss is always followed by a weight plateau and then weight regain. Only about 15 - 25% of individuals can achieve and maintain a 10% or more significant weight loss with ongoing intervention. In this context, the mystery of weight loss maintenance should be revealed to compare the interactions of weight loss and maintenance.
Therefore, this study aims to explore the genotypes, phenotypes, and environmental correlates of success in weight loss maintenance for children and adolescents by leveraging the genomic and observational data from ALSPAC. According to ALSPAC anthropometry data and the WHO BMI-for-age standards, overweight individuals whose BMI achieves a normal weight range in follow-up years will be enrolled in the analyses. The degree of weight regain will be estimated by the fluctuation of BMI z-scores in follow-up years. This study can be beneficial to interventions aiming at sustaining lost weight, one of the most challenging problems for most individuals with obesity.
B4465 - Looking through the epigenome to better understand ADHD and co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions - 23/11/2023
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) has symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, or both. However, patients
with ADHD often experience symptoms of other disorders such as autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), epilepsy, conduct disorder, or anxiety symptoms. Previously, it was
reported that there are shared heritability and cognitive process across the
conditions, implying that there are common underlying biopsychological factors
that have not been identified.Epigenetic biomarkers, especially blood DNA
methylation (DNAm) became significantly important in understanding
neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD. Even though the associations
between DNAm and each condition were investigated, there is a limited amount of
research on DNAm biomarkers across ADHD-related phenotypes (ADHD and cooccurring
symptoms). We hypothesized that the underlying biological factors
would be specific to clusters of conditions and could be used as a diagnosis factor
for children. Therefore, we propose to investigate the relationships between each
of the individual traits linked to ADHD and DNAm to reveal their epigenetic
similarities and differences. The epigenetic similarities and differences will give indepth
insight to understand ADHD. We will use a series of computational methods
including EWAS and machine learning to investigate the DNAm biomarkers of
complex ADHD-related phenotypes from around 1500 participants from the Avon
Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
B4463 - Looking through the epigenome to better understand ADHD and co-occurring traits - 23/11/2023
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) has symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, or both. However, patients
with ADHD often experience symptoms of other disorders such as autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), epilepsy, conduct disorder, or anxiety symptoms. Previously, it was
reported that there are shared heritability and cognitive process across the
conditions, implying that there are common underlying biopsychological factors
that have not been identified.Epigenetic biomarkers, especially blood DNA
methylation (DNAm) became significantly important in understanding
neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD. Even though the associations
between DNAm and each condition were investigated, there is a limited amount of
research on DNAm biomarkers across ADHD-related phenotypes (ADHD and cooccurring
symptoms). We hypothesized that the underlying biological factors
would be specific to clusters of conditions and could be used as a diagnosis factor
for children. Therefore, we propose to investigate the relationships between each
of the individual traits linked to ADHD and DNAm to reveal their epigenetic
similarities and differences. The epigenetic similarities and differences will give indepth
insight to understand ADHD. We will use a series of computational methods
including EWAS and machine learning to investigate the DNAm biomarkers of
complex ADHD-related phenotypes from around 1500 participants from the Avon
Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
B4464 - Looking through the epigenome to better understand ADHD and co-occurring neurodevelopmental traits - 23/11/2023
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) has symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, or both. However, patients
with ADHD often experience symptoms of other disorders such as autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), epilepsy, conduct disorder, or anxiety symptoms. Previously, it was
reported that there are shared heritability and cognitive process across the
conditions, implying that there are common underlying biopsychological factors
that have not been identified.Epigenetic biomarkers, especially blood DNA
methylation (DNAm) became significantly important in understanding
neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD. Even though the associations
between DNAm and each condition were investigated, there is a limited amount of
research on DNAm biomarkers across ADHD-related phenotypes (ADHD and cooccurring
symptoms). We hypothesized that the underlying biological factors
would be specific to clusters of conditions and could be used as a diagnosis factor
for children. Therefore, we propose to investigate the relationships between each
of the individual traits linked to ADHD and DNAm to reveal their epigenetic
similarities and differences. The epigenetic similarities and differences will give indepth
insight to understand ADHD. We will use a series of computational methods
including EWAS and machine learning to investigate the DNAm biomarkers of
complex ADHD-related phenotypes from around 1500 participants from the Avon
Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.