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Background: Few studies have examined the role of long-term (≥1 year) ambient temperature with quantitative traits of early-stage cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as carotid intima-medial thickness (cIMT). Our objective was to examine associations between temperature and cIMT, a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis., Methods: This study examined data from 3257 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, aged 18-30 years at baseline (1985-1986). We used North America Land Data Assimilation System data to derive 12 metrics of ambient daily temperature: Mean, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation temperature in summer, winter, and year-round. We examined associations with cIMT in separate cross-sectional multivariable models at CARDIA year 20 (2005-2006) as well as stratified analyses by self-reported race and sex. We also prospectively examined cumulative temperature by summing temperature variables from Y0-Y20., Results: Accounting for study center attenuated most associations between cIMT and ambient temperature exposure, but the winter standard deviation remained associated (overall β = -0.0104 mm/°C, 95 % CI: -0.0150 to -0.0059). Minimum summer temperature was also associated with cIMT in the overall study population (β = 0.0020 mm/°C, 95 % CI: 0.0005-0.0035). Associations did not differ substantially by race, but women had stronger associations than men. Cumulative temperature was not associated with cIMT., Conclusions: Our findings suggest a role of geography, particularly ambient temperature in cIMT. Future research to address potential residual confounding is necessary, but if validated these findings have implications for policy and strategies to mitigate health impacts of climate change., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: and Purpose: Cadmium has been associated with risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke. Human cadmium exposure occurs primarily through diet and tobacco smoke. Recent cohort studies have found an association with stroke, but residual confounding from smoking, could not be ruled out. We therefore conducted a case-cohort study to evaluate whether cadmium is associated with stroke in never-smokers., Methods: The Danish Diet Cancer and Health cohort consists of Danes 50-64 years old, recruited in 1993-1997. From never-smoking cohort members without previous cancer or stroke we sampled a sub-cohort of 1200 persons. We also identified all (n = 534) cases in the cohort with a validated stroke diagnosis between baseline and 2009. We quantified cadmium and creatinine concentrations from baseline urine samples and used cadmium per creatinine as our main exposure metric. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with age as time scale and adjusting for BMI, education and urinary cotinine with and without stratification by sex., Results: The median urinary cadmium concentration was 0.21 μg cadmium/g creatinine in cases and 0.19 μg/g in the sub-cohort. The majority (83%) of stroke cases were diagnosed with ischemic stroke. The HR for stroke in the highest quartile of exposure (median 0.44 μg/g creatinine) was 1.11 (95% CI: 0.79-1.54) compared with the lowest quartile (median 0.10 μg/g creatinine). The HR per inter quartile range (IQR, 0.19 μg/g creatinine) was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.92-1.12). Among men, the HR per IQR higher levels of cadmium (0.16 μg/g creatinine) was 1.18 (95% CI: 0.92-1.52), and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.89-1.12) among women. Adjusting for creatinine or using osmolality instead of creatinine standardization generally attenuated observed relationships., Conclusions: Our results do not support that low levels of cadmium exposure among never-smokers are strongly associated with risk of stroke, although results varied somewhat by sex and method of accounting for urinary dilution., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)