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Aims: The first aim of this study was to provide prevalence suicidal feelings over time (past week, past month, past year and lifetime) in a population-based sample of old to very old adults without dementia. Does prevalence change with rising age? The second aim was to examine the fluctuation of suicidal feelings over time. How does this coincide with depression status? Methods: Data were derived from the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies (the H70 studies) which are multidisciplinary longitudinal studies on ageing. A representative sample of adults in Gothenburg, Sweden with birth years 1901–1944 were invited to take part in a longitudinal health study on ageing and participated at one or more occasions during 1986–2014. The sample consisted of 6668 observations originating from 3972 participants without dementia between the ages of 70 and 108, including 1604 participants with multiple examination times. Suicidal feelings were examined during a psychiatric interview using the Paykel questions (life not worth living, death wishes, thoughts of taking own life, seriously considered taking life, attempted suicide). Results: Prevalence figures for suicidal feelings of any severity were as follows: past week 4.8%, past month 6.7%, past year 11.2% and lifetime 25.2%. Prevalence rates increased with age in the total group and in women but not in men. Suicidal feelings were common in participants with concurrent major or minor depression, but over a third of the participants who reported suicidal feelings did not fulfil criteria for these diagnoses nor did they present elevated mean depressive symptom scores. The majority of participants consistently reported no experience of suicidal feelings over multiple examination times, but fluctuation was more common in women compared with men. Conclusion: Suicidal feelings in late-life are uncommon in individuals without depression indicating that such behaviour is not a widespread, normative phenomenon. However, such feelings may occur outside the context of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:Individual lifestyle behaviours have independently been associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors in children. This study aimed to identify clustered lifestyle behaviours (dietary, physical activity (PA) and sedentary indicators) and to examine their association with CVD risk factors in children aged 2-9 years.SUBJECTS/METHODS:Participants included 4619 children (51.6% boys) from eight European countries participating in the IDEFICS cross-sectional baseline survey (2007-2008). Insulin resistance, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, triglycerides, sum of two skinfolds and systolic blood pressure (SBP) z-scores were summed to compute a CVD risk score. Cluster analyses stratified by sex and age groups (2 to <6 years; 6-9 years) were performed using parental-reported data on fruit, vegetables and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) consumption, PA performance and television video/DVD viewing.RESULTS:Five clusters were identified. Associations between CVD risk factors and score, and clusters were obtained by multiple linear regression using cluster 5 ('low beverages consumption and low sedentary') as the reference cluster. SBP was positively associated with clusters 1 ('physically active'; β=1.34; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.02, 2.67), 2 ('sedentary'; β=1.84; 95% CI: 0.57, 3.11), 3 ('physically active and sedentary'; β=1.45; 95% CI: 0.15, 2.75) and 4 ('healthy diet'; β=1.83; 95% CI: 0.50, 3.17) in older boys. A positive association was observed between CVD risk score and clusters 2 (β=0.60; 95% CI: 0.20, 1.01), 3 (β=0.55; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.97) and 4 (β=0.60, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.02) in older boys.CONCLUSIONS:Low television/video/DVD viewing levels and low SSB consumption may result in a healthier CVD profile rather than having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables or being physically active in (pre-)school children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Measurement errors in dietary data lead to attenuated estimates of associations between dietary exposures and health outcomes. The present study aimed to compare and evaluate different approaches of handling implausible reports by exemplary analysis of the association between dietary intakes (total energy, soft drinks, fruits/vegetables) and overweight/obesity in children.Design: Cross-sectional multicentre study.Setting: Kindergartens/schools from eight European countries participating in the IDEFICS Study.Subjects: Children (n 5357) aged 2-9 years who provided one 24 h dietary recall and complete covariate information.Results: The 24 h recalls were classified into three reporting groups according to adapted Goldberg cut-offs: under-report, plausible report or over-report. In the basic logistic multilevel model (adjusted for age and sex, including study centre as random effect), the dietary exposures showed no significant association with overweight/obesity (energy intake: OR=0·996 (95 % CI 0·983, 1·010); soft drinks: OR = 0·999 (95 % CI 0·986, 1·013)) and revealed even a positive association for fruits/vegetables (OR = 1·009 (95 % CI 1·001, 1·018)). When adding the reporting group (dummy variables) and a propensity score for misreporting as adjustment terms, associations became significant for energy intake as well as soft drinks (energy: OR = 1·074 (95 % CI 1·053, 1·096); soft drinks: OR = 1·015 (95 % CI 1·000, 1·031)) and the association between fruits/vegetables and overweight/obesity pointed to the reverse direction compared with the basic model (OR = 0·993 (95 % CI 0·984, 1·002)).Conclusions: Associations between dietary exposures and health outcomes are strongly affected or even masked by measurement errors. In the present analysis consideration of the reporting group and inclusion of a propensity score for misreporting turned out to be useful tools to counteract attenuation of effect estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To determine the nutritional adequacy and acceptability to children of vegetarian lunches served on 'Thursday Veggie Day' - a public health initiative in Ghent (Belgium) primary schools.Design: A comparison of food leftovers from main courses on regular days and Thursdays was made using a visual plate waste method. The nutritional value of the vegetarian meat analogue and meat components of main courses served on five 'Thursday Veggie Days' and five comparable conventional main courses was evaluated using three criteria (maximum 30 % of energy from fat, maximum of one-third of fat as saturated fat and minimum 1.5 g of dietary fibre per 420 kJ).Setting: Two canteens from primary schools in Ghent, Belgium, participating in the 'Thursday Veggie Day' campaign.Subjects: Primary-school children aged between 6 and 12 years.Results: In total, 1242 and 472 main course plate waste observations of conventional and vegetarian menus, respectively, were evaluated. There was no significant difference in plate waste between vegetarian (16.7 %) and conventional (17.3 %) main courses. Overall, the five vegetarian components were found to be nutritionally adequate with a mean score of 2.2 out of 3, compared with 0.4 for the meat component. However, three of the vegetarian components provided >30 % of energy from fat and, in one, the amount of saturated fat exceeded one-third of total fat.Conclusions: Vegetarian canteen meals offered as part of 'Thursday Veggie Day' appear to be nutritionally appropriate and as acceptable as conventional main courses to children in primary schools in Ghent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Salivary cortisol has been widely used to assess childhood stress. Yet, there is no consensus on reference concentrations, awakening response, guideline compliance and contribution of sampling factors to the variation in children's salivary cortisol levels. Methods: Samples were collected from 444 Belgian children participating in the ChiBS study (5-11 years old) on two consecutive weekdays at four moments: awakening, 30 min later, 60 min later and in the evening. A checklist requested awakening time, collection hours and guideline compliance. Results: Reference values were determined. Mixed model analyses revealed that age, time compliance and awakening time contributed significantly to the variance in cortisol levels. In only 52.5% of the children a cortisol morning increase was observed. Participants with no morning increase showed higher awakening but lower post-awakening concentrations on that day, and the morning response showed a small negative correlation with the time lag between first and second sampling. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the importance of excluding extreme time deviation and correcting for age and awakening time. Appearance of a cortisol morning increase was only found in approximately half of the children, suggesting the absence of the cortisol awakening response as a general characteristic. Also, this could partially be explained by poor time compliance. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To evaluate the influence of a standardised sampling protocol and process quality across the different IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) centres on the results of the biochemical measurements.Design:Baseline survey within the community-based intervention study.Subjects:A total of 16 224 children, aged 2-8 years, enrolled in the IDEFICS baseline survey in 8 European countries. Venous or capillary blood samples were collected from 12 430 children, urine samples from 13 890 children and saliva samples from 14 019 children.Methods:A set of quality indicators was recorded for the biological blood, urine and saliva samples collected during the IDEFICS study. Results of blood and urine measurements were analysed and stratified by selected quality indicators.Results:Concentrations of biological markers in blood and urine measured during the IDEFICS baseline survey are associated with several quality indicators assessed in this study. Between-country variations of these biomarkers are described. It was confirmed that fasting has a big influence on the concentration of certain biomarkers. Biomarkers in morning urine samples may be erroneous if the study subjects void during the night or if samples are not taken from the very first morning urine.Conclusions:The analysed data underline that a standardised sampling protocol is of major importance, especially in multicentre studies, but non-compliance is ever present in spite of well-defined standard operation procedures. Deviations from the protocol should therefore always be documented to avoid error pertaining to the concentration of biological markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]