Search

Introduction: Electronic health (eHealth) applications have become a very large repository of health information which informs critical decisions relating to the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of patients. Poor information quality (IQ) within eHealth may compromise patient safety. Evaluation of IQ in eHealth is therefore necessary to promote patient safety. An IQ framework specifies what aspects of information to assess and how to conduct the assessment. This systematic review aims to identify dimensions within existing IQ frameworks in eHealth and develop a new IQ framework for assessment of eHealth. Method and Analysis: We will search EMBASE, Medline, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Maternity and Infant Care, PsycINFO, Global Health, Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, Health Management Information Consortium and reference lists of relevant publications for articles published in English until November 2018. Studies will be selected by two independent reviewers based on pre-specified eligibility criteria. Two reviewers will independently extract data in each eligible study using a pre-piloted Microsoft Excel data extraction form. Thematic synthesis will be employed to define IQ dimensions and develop a new IQ framework for eHealth. Ethics and Dissemination: Ethical approval is not required for this systematic review as primary data will not be collected. The result of the review will be disseminated through publication in an academic journal and scientific conferences. Keywords: Quality in healthcare, health informatics, telemedicine, systematic review, information quality Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42018097142

Previous case–control studies have suggested a possible increased risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) with physical activity (PA), but this association has never been studied in prospective cohort studies. We therefore assessed the association between PA and risk of death from ALS in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. A total of 472,100 individuals were included in the analysis, yielding 219 ALS deaths. At recruitment, information on PA was collected thorough standardised questionnaires. Total PA was expressed by the Cambridge Physical Activity Index (CPAI) and analysed in relation to ALS mortality, using Cox hazard models. Interactions with age, sex, and anthropometric measures were assessed. Total PA was weakly inversely associated with ALS mortality with a borderline statistically significant trend across categories (p = 0.042), with those physically active being 33 % less likely to die from ALS compared to those inactive: HR = 0.67 (95 % CI 0.42–1.06). Anthropometric measures, sex, and age did not modify the association with CPAI. The present study shows a slightly decreased—not increased like in case–control studies—risk of dying from ALS in those with high levels of total PA at enrolment. This association does not appear confounded by age, gender, anthropometry, smoking, and education. Ours was the first prospective cohort study on ALS and physical activity. © 2016, The Author(s).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate for the first time the association between body fat and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with an appropriate prospective study design. Methods: The EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study included 518,108 individuals recruited from the general population across 10 Western European countries. At recruitment, information on lifestyle was collected and anthropometric characteristics were measured. Cox hazard models were fitted to investigate the associations between anthropometric measures and ALS mortality. Results: Two hundred twenty-two ALS deaths (79 men and 143 women) occurred during the followup period (mean follow-up 5 13 years). There was a statistically significant interaction between categories of body mass index and sex regarding ALS risk (p 5 0.009): in men, a significant linear decrease of risk per unit of body mass index was observed (hazard ratio 5 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.86-0.99 per kg/m2); among women, the risk was more than 3-fold increased for underweight compared with normal-weight women. Among women, a significant risk reduction increasing the waist/hip ratio was also evident: women in the top quartile had less than half the risk of ALS compared with those in the bottom quartile (hazard ratio 5 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.25-0.93) with a borderline significant p value for trend across quartiles (p 5 0.056). Conclusion: Increased prediagnostic body fat is associated with a decreased risk of ALS mortality. © 2013 American Academy of Neurology.

Background: Physical activity has been identified as protective factor for invasive breast cancer risk, whereas comparable studies on in situ carcinoma are rare. Methods: The study included data from 283,827 women of the multinational European Prospective Investigation into C7ancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-cohort study. Detailed information on different types of physical activity conducted during the prior year, such as occupational, recreational, and household activity, as well as on important cofactors, was assessed at baseline. Adjusted HRs for in situ breast cancer were estimated by Cox proportional hazards models. Results: During a median follow-up period of 11.7 years, 1,059 incidents of breast carcinoma in situ were identified. In crude and adjusted multivariable models, no associations were found for occupational, household, and recreational physical activity. Furthermore, total physical activity was not associated with risk of in situ breast cancer. Comparing moderately inactive, moderately active, and active participants with inactive study participants resulted in adjusted HRs of 0.99 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.83-1.19], 0.99 (95% CI, 0.82-1.20), and 1.07 (95% CI, 0.81-1.40), respectively (P value of trend test: 0.788). No inverse associations were found in any substrata defined by age at diagnosis or body mass index (BMI) status. Conclusions: In this large prospective study, we did not find any evidence of an association between physical activity and in situ breast cancer risk. If not by chance, the contrast between our results for carcinoma in situ and the recognized inverse association for invasive breast cancer suggests that physical activity may have stronger effects on proliferation and late stage carcinogenesis. ©2012 AACR.

Background: Diet, lifestyle and heritable factors have been related to colorectal cancer risk; to date, their relevance to the overall scope of colorectal carcinogenesis, has not been clearly established.Aim and Methods: To evaluate whether distinguishing colorectal tissue by its histopathological and molecular characteristics sheds further light on the etiology of colorectal cancer. Five research questions addressed associations between diet, lifestyle and heritable factors, and specific tissue characteristics.Results: First, we observed that consumption of fruits, in particular citrus fruits, was associated with increased rectal glutathione S-transferase activity in a cross-sectional study of 94 Dutch individuals. Consumption of cruciferous vegetables was also associated with increased activity, but only among individuals who carried the GSTM1 genotype.Second, we observed that intake of vitamin B2 was inversely associated with adenomas with a K-ras mutation (n=81) but not with adenomas without a K-ras mutation (n=453) in a case-control study conducted in the Netherlands. A positive association with monounsaturated fat was confined to K-ras mutation-negative adenomas. We found indications for differential associations with some additional factors, but the epidemiological evidence on risk factors and K-ras mutations remains inconsistent.Third, in a cohort study of 26,769 American men, we observed that most risk factors were similarly associated with advanced (=1cm or with any villous characteristics or carcinoma in situ) and non-advanced colorectal adenomas after 17 years of follow-up. However, smoking had a stronger positive association with advanced adenomas than with non-advanced adenomas, and ahigh glycemic index was inversely associated with advanced but not with non-advanced adenomas.Fourth, associations with family history of colorectal cancer were stronger for men with multiple distal adenomas than for men with a single distal adenoma at first diagnosis, in the aforementioned cohort study among US men. Associations between family history, and advanced and non-advanced adenomas, were of similar strength, but a tendency towards a somewhat stronger association with non-advanced adenomas was found.Fifth, fruit consumption was inversely associated with hMLH1 protein-deficient colon cancer (n=54) but not with hMLH1 protein-proficient colon cancer (n=387) in a cohort study of 120,852 people who were followed-up over 7.3 years, while ignoring information from the initial 2.3 years of follow-up. Clear associations with consumption of vegetables, or nutrients related to fruits and vegetables, could not be detected.Conclusions: We showed that distinguishing colorectal tumors by their histopathological and molecular characteristics may indeed shed further light on the role of diet, lifestyle and heritable factors in colorectal carcinogenesis. Such an approach may alleviate some of the weaknesses of traditional epidemiology, but also adds another layer of complexity. It is a challenge for the future to develop a framework into which specific associations can be integrated, using risk markers signaling the molecular and biochemical pathways from normal to cancerous tissue.

Background - The early to intermediate stages of the majority of colorectal tumours are thought to be driven by aberrations in the Wnt (APC, CTNNB1) and Ras (K-ras) pathways. A smaller proportion of cancers shows mismatch repair deficiency. The aim of this study was to analyse the co-occurrence of these genetic alterations in relation to tumour and patient characteristics. Methods - In a group of 656 unselected sporadic colorectal cancer patients, aberrations in the APC, K-ras, CTNNB1 genes, and expression of hMLH1 were investigated. Additionally, tumours were divided in groups based on molecular features and compared with respect to patient's age at diagnosis, sex, family history of colorectal cancer, tumour sub-localisation, Dukes' stage and differentiation. Results - Mutations at the phosphorylation sites (codons 31, 33, 37, and 45) in the CTNNB1 gene were observed in tumours from only 5/464 patients. Tumours with truncating APC mutations and activating K-ras mutations in codons 12 and 13 occurred at similar frequencies (37% (245/656) and 36% (235/656), respectively). Seventeen percent of tumours harboured both an APC and a K-ras mutation (109/656). Nine percent of all tumours (58/656) lacked hMLH1 expression. Patients harbouring a tumour with absent hMLH1 expression were older, more often women, more often had proximal colon tumours that showed poorer differentiation when compared to patients harbouring tumours with an APC and/or K-ras mutation. Conclusion - CTNNB1 mutations seem to be of minor importance in sporadic colorectal cancer. The main differences in tumour and patient characteristics are found between groups of patients based on mismatch repair deficiency.

Schlesinger, Sabrina Aleksandrova, Krasimira Pischon, Tobias Fedirko, Veronika Jenab, Mazda Trepo, Elisabeth Boffetta, Paolo Dahm, Christina C Overvad, Kim Tjonneland, Anne Halkjaer, Jytte Fagherazzi, Guy Boutron-Ruault, Marie-Christine Carbonnel, Franck Kaaks, Rudolf Lukanova, Annekatrin Boeing, Heiner Trichopoulou, Antonia Bamia, Christina Lagiou, Pagona Palli, Domenico Grioni, Sara Panico, Salvatore Tumino, Rosario Vineis, Paolo Bueno-de-Mesquita, H B van den Berg, Saskia Peeters, Petra H M Braaten, Tonje Weiderpass, Elisabete Quiros, J Ramon Travier, Noemie Sanchez, Maria-Jose Navarro, Carmen Barricarte, Aurelio Dorronsoro, Miren Lindkvist, Bjorn Regner, Sara Werner, Marten Sund, Malin Khaw, Kay-Tee Wareham, Nicholas Travis, Ruth C Norat, Teresa Wark, Petra A Riboli, Elio Nothlings, Ute eng 11692/Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom G0401527/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom G1000143/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom MC_U106179471/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom British Heart Foundation/United Kingdom Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom Department of Health/United Kingdom Medical Research Council/United Kingdom Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2012/05/24 06:00 Int J Cancer. 2013 Feb 1;132(3):645-57. doi: 10.1002/ijc.27645. Epub 2012 Jun 13.; International audience; General obesity has been positively associated with risk of liver and probably with biliary tract cancer, but little is known about abdominal obesity or weight gain during adulthood. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to investigate associations between weight, body mass index, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), weight change during adulthood and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic (IBDC) and extrahepatic bile duct system cancer [EBDSC including gallbladder cancer (GBC)] among 359,525 men and women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Hepatitis B and C virus status was measured in a nested case-control subset. During a mean follow-up of 8.6 years, 177 cases of HCC, 58 cases of IBDC and 210 cases of EBDSC, including 76 cases of GBC, occurred. All anthropometric measures were positively associated with risk of HCC and GBC. WHtR showed the strongest association with HCC [relative risk (RR) comparing extreme tertiles 3.51, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.09-5.87; p(trend) < 0.0001] and with GBC (RR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.12-2.16 for an increment of one unit in WHtR). Weight gain during adulthood was also positively associated with HCC when comparing extreme tertiles (RR: 2.48, 95% CI: 1.49-4.13

Objective To compute the burden of cancer attributable to current and former alcohol consumption in eight European countries based on direct relative risk estimates from a cohort study. Design Combination of prospective cohort study with representative population based data on alcohol exposure. Setting Eight countries (France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Denmark) participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Participants 109 118 men and 254 870 women, mainly aged 37-70. Main outcome measures Hazard rate ratios expressing the relative risk of cancer incidence for former and current alcohol consumption among EPIC participants. Hazard rate ratios combined with representative information on alcohol consumption to calculate alcohol attributable fractions of causally related cancers by country and sex. Partial alcohol attributable fractions for consumption higher than the recommended upper limit (two drinks a day for men with about 24 g alcohol, one for women with about 12 g alcohol) and the estimated total annual number of cases of alcohol attributable cancer. Results If we assume causality, among men and women, 10% (95% confidence interval 7 to 13%) and 3% (1 to 5%) of the incidence of total cancer was attributable to former and current alcohol consumption in the selected European countries. For selected cancers the figures were 44% (31 to 56%) and 25% (5 to 46%) for upper aerodigestive tract, 33% (11 to 54%) and 18% (−3 to 38%) for liver, 17% (10 to 25%) and 4% (−1 to 10%) for colorectal cancer for men and women, respectively, and 5.0% (2 to 8%) for female breast cancer. A substantial part of the alcohol attributable fraction in 2008 was associated with alcohol consumption higher than the recommended upper limit: 33 037 of 178 578 alcohol related cancer cases in men and 17 470 of 397 043 alcohol related cases in women. Conclusions In western Europe, an important proportion of cases of cancer can be attributable to alcohol consumption, especially consumption higher than the recommended upper limits. These data support current political efforts to reduce or to abstain from alcohol consumption to reduce the incidence of cancer.