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Background: Subjective well-being (SWB) is associated with social support in cross-sectional studies. However, it remains unclear whether and how social support predicts SWB longitudinally, especially during the COVID-19 contingency. Methods: By adopting a prospective design, the current work addressed this research question in a sample of 594 participants from the U.K. The data were collected via the online platform, Prolific, at two time points (June, 2020 and August, 2021) with a 14-month interval. Descriptive analysis and a moderated mediation model were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Results: Baseline social support was a significant predictor of subjective well-being (SWB) 14 months later, even after controlling for baseline SWB and other covariates such as personality traits. Additionally, affect balance (i.e., the affective component of SWB) fully mediated the link between baseline social support and subsequent life satisfaction (i.e., the cognitive component of SWB). Moreover, household income moderated this relationship, indicating a stronger mediation for individuals with lower monthly household income. Conclusion: The present work sheds light on the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of the association between social support and different components of SWB during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statins are widely used for cardiovascular disease prevention but their effects on cognition remain unclear. Statins reduce cholesterol concentration and have been suggested to provide both beneficial and detrimental effects. Our aim was to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between statin use and cognitive performance, and whether blood low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, glucose, C-reactive protein, and vitamin D biomarkers mediated this association. We used participants from the UK biobank aged 40–69 without neurological and psychiatric disorders (n  = 147 502 and n  = 24 355, respectively). We performed linear regression to evaluate the association between statin use and cognitive performance and, mediation analysis to quantify the total, direct, indirect effects and the proportion meditated by blood biomarkers. Statin use was associated with lower cognitive performance at baseline (β = −0.40 [−0.53, −0.28], p  = <.0001), and this association was mediated by low-density lipoprotein (proportion mediated = 51.4%, p  = .002), C-reactive protein (proportion mediated = −11%, p  = .006) and blood glucose (proportion mediated = 2.6%, p  = .018) concentrations. However, statin use was not associated with cognitive performance, measured 8 years later (β = −0.003 [−0.11, 0.10], p  = .96). Our findings suggest that statins are associated with lower short-term cognitive performance by lowering low-density lipoprotein and raising blood glucose concentrations, and better performance by lowering C-reactive protein concentrations. In contrast, statins have no effect on long-term cognition and remain beneficial in reducing cardiovascular risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The cerebellum and the brainstem are two brain structures involved in pain processing and modulation that have also been associated with migraine pathophysiology. The aim of this study was to investigate possible associations between the morphology of the cerebellum and brainstem and migraine, focusing on gray matter differences in these brain areas. Methods: The analyses were based on data from 712 individuals with migraine and 45,681 healthy controls from the UK Biobank study. Generalized linear models were used to estimate the mean gray matter volumetric differences in the brainstem and the cerebellum. The models were adjusted for important biological covariates such as BMI, age, sex, total brain volume, diastolic blood pressure, alcohol intake frequency, current tobacco smoking, assessment center, material deprivation, ethnic background, and a wide variety of health conditions. Secondary analyses investigated volumetric correlation between cerebellar sub-regions. Results: We found larger gray matter volumes in the cerebellar sub-regions V (mean difference: 72 mm 3 , 95% CI [13, 132]), crus I (mean difference: 259 mm 3 , 95% CI [9, 510]), VIIIa (mean difference: 120 mm 3 , 95% CI [0.9, 238]), and X (mean difference: 14 mm 3 , 95% CI [1, 27]). Conclusions: Individuals with migraine show larger gray matter volumes in several cerebellar sub-regions than controls. These findings support the hypothesis that the cerebellum plays a role in the pathophysiology of migraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migraine and depression are two of the most common and debilitating conditions. From a clinical perspective, they are mostly prevalent in women and manifest a partial overlapping symptomatology. Despite the high level of comorbidity, previous studies hardly investigated possible common patterns in brain volumetric differences compared to healthy subjects. Therefore, the current study investigates and compares the volumetric difference patterns in sub-cortical regions between participants with migraine or depression in comparison to healthy controls. Methods: The study included data from 43 930 participants of the large UK Biobank cohort. Using official ICD10 diagnosis, we selected 712 participants with migraine, 1 853 with depression and 23 942 healthy controls. We estimated mean volumetric difference between the groups for the different sub-cortical brain regions using generalized linear regression models, conditioning the model within the levels of BMI, age, sex, ethnical background, diastolic blood pressure, current tobacco smoking, alcohol intake frequency, Assessment Centre, Indices of Multiple Deprivation, comorbidities and total brain volume. Results: We detected larger overall volume of the caudate (mean difference: 66, 95% CI [-3, 135]) and of the thalamus (mean difference: 103 mm3, 95% CI [-2, 208]) in migraineurs than healthy controls. We also observed that individuals with depression appear to have also larger overall (mean difference: 47 mm3, 95% CI [-7, 100]) and gray matter (mean difference: 49 mm3, 95% CI [2, 95]) putamen volumes than healthy controls, as well as larger amygdala volume (mean difference: 17 mm3, 95% CI [-7, 40]). Conclusion: Migraineurs manifested larger overall volumes at the level of the nucleus caudate and of the thalamus, which might imply abnormal pain modulation and increased migraine susceptibility. Larger amygdala and putamen volumes in participants with depression than controls might be due to increased neuronal activity in these regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low job satisfaction has been associated with both negative health and negative organizational outcomes. Knowledge on which factors influence job satisfaction remains limited. This study assesses the associations between job satisfaction and three personality traits related to cognitive- and inhibitory control: delay discounting, risk-taking and sensation seeking (DRS-traits). Delay discounting and sensation seeking were inferred using self-reported behavioral data and health measurements for 80,676 participants in the UK Biobank. Multiple linear regression analysis produced beta coefficients and confidence intervals for each DRS-trait and job satisfaction. Analyses were adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and sleep quality. A combination of the three DRS-traits (CDRS) was assessed as well. Delay discounting and risk-taking were associated with, respectively, lower and higher job satisfaction in both sexes. Sensation seeking had no significant association with job satisfaction for either sex. The combined score, CDRS, was only negatively associated with job satisfaction in females but not in males. We discuss that the negative association between delay discounting and job satisfaction may be due to career related delay discounting effects, but also highlight that low job satisfaction itself may also lead to increased delay discounting. Additionally, we discuss why increased risk-taking behavior may have a positive effect on job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality is a strong determinant for several health-related behaviours and has been linked to the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, the reports of personality's mediating role have been inconsistent with no data available from large population-based cohorts. The study aimed to create proxies for the Big Five personality traits, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism, to examine the longitudinal relationship between personality and myocardial infarction in the UK Biobank. The study sample comprised of 484,205 participants (55% female, 45% male, mean age 56.4 ± 8.1 years) from UK Biobank cohort with a mean follow-up of 7 years. The personality proxies sociability, warmth, diligence, curiosity and nervousness were created using self-reported data on psychological factors, mental health and social support, to match the facets of the Big Five traits. As neuroticism is the only Big Five personality trait available in the UK Biobank, it was included to validate the personality proxies. Myocardial infarction outcome information was collected from hospital records, death registries or was self-reported. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard regression were used to estimate odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratios (HR), respectively with 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for demographics (age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity), health-related factors (BMI, diabetes, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) and lifestyle factors (alcohol intake, smoking, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity). Diligence was found to be significantly associated with lower prevalent myocardial infarction [OR: 0.87; (CI 0.84–0.89)] and lower incident myocardial infarction [HR: 0.88; (CI 0.85–0.92)]. Sociability was also protective against prevalent [OR: 0.89; (CI 0.87–0.92)] and incident [HR: 0.90; (CI 0.87–0.93)] myocardial infarction. Conversely, nervousness inferred a higher risk for both prevalent [OR: 1.10; (CI 1.08–1.12)] and incident [HR: 1.07; (CI 1.04–1.09)] myocardial infarction during follow-up. Sex-stratified analyses revealed that nervousness significantly increases the risk for incident myocardial infarction among women [HR: 1.13; (CI 1.08–1.19)] compared to men [HR: 1.05; (CI 1.02–1.08)]. By using our created proxies, we were able to investigate the impact of personality on the development of myocardial infarction. Persons with higher levels of diligence and sociability mimicking predominantly conscientiousness and extraversion personalities respectively are less likely to experience myocardial infarction, while personalities predominantly characterised by nervousness pose higher risk for developing myocardial infarction. These initial findings invite further validation of the use of the personality proxies in UK Biobank cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migraine represents one of the most prevalent neurological conditions worldwide. It is a disabling condition with high impact on the working situation of migraineurs. Interestingly, gender-related differences regarding an association of migraine with important occupational characteristics has been hardly studied. Methods: The current study scrutinizes gender-specific differences in the prevalence of migraine across a broad spectrum of occupational categories, shedding also light on associations with important job-related features such as shift work, job satisfaction, and physical activity. The study included data from 415 712 participants from the UK Biobank cohort, using the official ICD10 diagnosis of migraine and other health conditions as selection criteria. Prevalence ratios of migraineurs compared to healthy controls among different occupational categories and job-related variables were estimated using log-binomial regression analyses. Statistical models were adjusted for important sociodemographic features such as age, BMI, ethnicity, education and neuroticism. To better highlight specific differences between men and women we stratified by sex. Results: We detected a differential prevalence pattern of migraine in relation to different job categories between men and women. Especially in men, migraine appears to be more prevalent in highly physically demanding occupations (PR 1.38, 95% CI [0.93, 2.04]). Furthermore, migraine is also more prevalent in jobs that frequently involve shift or night shift work compared to healthy controls. Interestingly, this prevalence is especially high in women (shift work PR 1.45, 95% CI [1.14, 1.83], night shift work PR 1.46, 95% CI [0.93, 2.31]). Conclusion: Our results show that migraine is genderdependently associated with physically demanding jobs and shift working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Personality traits and cognition have been linked to the risk for obesity. • We examined neuroticism and cognitive performance in 170,310 overweight and obese. • Reduced reasoning and short-term memory were associated with overweight/obesity. • Low neuroticism was associated with overweight, and with better cognition. • Neuroticism might partly mediate the link between cognition and BMI. Abstract Background A growing body of research has linked personality traits to cognitive performance. This relationship might play a role in the predisposition toward obesity. Neuroticism and executive function seem to be particularly involved, and reduced executive function has been proposed to underlie the association of neuroticism with sedentary behaviors and fatty food consumption. Despite the link between neuroticism, cognitive functions and obesity has been largely reported, conflicting evidence exists. Moreover, information regarding other cognitive domains, and studies on overweight individuals, are still scarce. Methods We examined cross-sectional associations of neuroticism and cognitive function with overweight and obesity in a sample of 170 310 individuals from the UK Biobank cohort, adjusted for sociodemographic and life-style factors. Measures on fluid intelligence (FI) (reasoning ability), trail making test (TMT) (executive function), numeric memory test and pairs matching (PM) task (short-term memory) were extracted from the database. Correlations between neuroticism and cognitive performance were explored. Moreover, we investigated whether neuroticism and executive function could predict BMI variability over time. Results Reduced FI and short-term memory were associated with overweight and obesity, while reduced executive function was associated with obesity but not with overweight. Low neuroticism was associated with being overweight rather than lean or obese independently of gender and life-style. Furthermore, baseline neuroticism scores could predict BMI variations over 5–10 years follow-up, and high neuroticism correlated with lower cognitive performance. Conclusions Lower cognitive performance is associated with both overweight and obesity, except for executive function, which was only related to obesity. Neuroticism correlated with performance on most of the cognitive domains tested, supporting the link between personality and cognition. Our findings also support the role of neuroticism in leading to greater weight variability over time, rather than to overweight/obesity itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Migraine is a prevalent condition causing a substantial level of disability worldwide. Despite this, the pathophysiological mechanisms are not fully understood. Migraine often co‐occurs with gastrointestinal disorders, but the direction of a potential causal link is unclear. The aim of this project was to investigate the associations between migraine and several gastrointestinal disorders in the same cohort in order to determine the relative strengths of these associations. Methods: This cross‐sectional study examined whether migraine is associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), peptic ulcers, Helicobacter pylori (HP) infections, celiac disease, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Baseline data covering 489,753 UK Biobank participants (migraine group: n = 14,180) were analyzed using Pearson's chi‐square tests and adjusted binary logistic regression models. Results: Migraine was significantly associated with IBS (odds ratio [OR] 2.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.08–2.40, p <.001) and peptic ulcers (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.35–1.77, p <.001). Migraine was not associated with HP infection (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.04–1.73, p =.024), celiac disease (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.04–1.60, p =.023), Crohn's disease (OR 1.08, 95% CI 0.80–1.45, p =.617) or ulcerative colitis (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.79–1.27, p =.979) after adjusting for multiple testing. Conclusions: Migraine was associated with IBS and peptic ulcers in this large population‐based cohort. The associations with HP infection, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis did not reach significance, suggesting a weaker link between migraine and autoimmune gastrointestinal conditions or HP infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Fruit and vegetable consumption may modulate brain volumes. • Salad/raw vegetable intake is positively associated with total white matter volume. • Fresh fruit intake is positively associated with regional grey matter (GM) volumes. • These GM areas are robustly involved in dementia and depression. • Fresh fruit intake may play a protective role against dementia and depression. The benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables are widely accepted. While previous studies suggest a protective role of fruits and vegetables against a variety of diseases such as dementia and depression, the biological mechanisms/effects remain unclear. Here we investigated the effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on brain structure. Particularly on grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes, regional GM volumes and subcortical volumes. Cross-sectional imaging data from UK Biobank cohort was used. A total of 9925 participants (Mean age 62.4 ± 7.5 years, 51.1 % men) were included in the present analysis. Measures included fruit and vegetable intake, other dietary patterns and a number of selected lifestyle factors and clinical data. Brain volumes were derived from structural brain magnetic resonance imaging. General linear model was used to study the associations between brain volumes and fruit/vegetable intakes. After adjusting for selected confounding factors, salad/raw vegetable intake showed a positive association with total white matter volume, fresh fruit intake showed a negative association with total grey matter (GM) volume. Regional GM analyses showed that higher fresh fruit intake was associated with larger GM volume in the left hippocampus, right temporal occipital fusiform cortex, left postcentral gyrus, right precentral gyrus, and right juxtapositional lobule cortex. We conclude that fruit and vegetable consumption seems to specifically modulate brain volumes. In particular, fresh fruit intake may have a protective role in specific cortical areas such as the hippocampus, areas robustly involved in the pathophysiology of dementia and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are used to suppress gastric acid secretion in several gastrointestinal conditions. While these drugs are generally well tolerated, their long-term use may be associated with different adverse effects, including migraine. We analyzed the association between treatment with PPIs (omeprazole, esomeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole and rabeprazole) and migraine prevalence in the UK Biobank cohort through a cross-sectional analysis (using baseline data for 468,280 participants, 16,390 of whom had migraine) and a longitudinal analysis (including 145,007 participants with no migraine at baseline, of whom 3786 had probable migraine without aura [MWOA] and 9981 probable migraine with aura [MWA] or both MWOA and MWA at an average follow-up time of 10.06 years). We also evaluated the modulating role of the metabolizer phenotype of CYP2C19, the major enzyme involved in PPI clearance. Treatment with PPIs was associated with higher migraine prevalence at baseline (odds ratio [OR] = 1.25, p < 0.0001). CYP2C19 rapid metabolizer phenotype was associated with lower prevalence of migraine exclusively in participants treated with PPIs (OR = 0.89, p = 0.029). In addition, treatment with PPIs was associated with higher incidence of both probable MWOA (OR = 1.24, p = 0.002) and MWA (OR = 1.43, p < 0.0001) at follow-up. Treatment with PPIs and CYP2C19 poor metabolizer status were associated with higher incidence of probable chronic migraine exclusively in men. Our results suggest a significant association between treatment with PPIs and migraine in this large population-based cohort and support a potential relevant role of gender and CYP2C19 phenotype. [Display omitted] • Treatment with PPIs was associated with higher migraine prevalence at baseline. • Migraine prevalence was lower in CYP2C19 rapid metabolizers treated with PPIs. • PPI intake was associated with higher incidence of probable migraine at follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time spent outdoors has been previously related to several cardiovascular risk factors, implying that it may confer either beneficial or harmful effects on cardiovascular health. However, no large population-based studies have examined the relation between time spent outdoors and myocardial infarction and stroke. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal relation between time spent outdoors and myocardial infarction and stroke in large UK population‐based cohort. A total of 446,648 participants from UK Biobank were included in the study of which 431,146 participants (56% females and 44% males with a mean age of 56.4 ± 8.1 years) were followed for a median time of 7 years. Time spent outdoors was self-reported and participants were stratified into quantiles (less than 1.5 [reference group]; 1.5 to 2.4; 2.5 to 3.5 and more than 3.5 h per day outdoors). Myocardial infarction and stroke events were either collected from hospital records and death registries or were self-reported by the participants. Cox proportional hazard regression was used for the analysis. In addition to age and sex, analyses were adjusted for potential demographic (TDI, ethnic background, current employment status), lifestyle (alcohol intake frequency, current tobacco use, sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity), health related factors (BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) and environmental indicators (NO 2 , NO x , PM 10 , PM 2.5-10 , PM 2,5 , noise pollution, % greenspace, % natural environment and % water). A 20% increased risk for myocardial infarction incidence was observed among participants who reported spending more than 3.5 h/day outdoors (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.06–1.36) compared to the reference group. A trend was also observed for stroke (HR: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.97–1.34). Findings from the present study indicate that spending more than 3.5 h/day outdoors is a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke. Future research is needed to further understand the relation between time spent outdoors and cardiovascular disease. • The time spent outdoor could influence cardiovascular health. • Longer time spent outdoor may be a risk factor for myocardial infraction and stroke. • This association is independent of several confounding factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of oxytocin-related genes in social-cognitive function has been previously established, but structural brain mechanisms underlying this link remain poorly understood. Utilizing a substantial dataset from the UK Biobank (N ≈ 30,000), this research determined associations between variations in ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within three oxytocin pathway genes (i.e., the oxytocin/neurophysin I prepropetide gene, the cluster of differentiation 38 glycoprotein gene, the oxytocin receptor gene) and whole-brain gray matter volume. Carriers of the AA or AG genotypes of the oxytocin receptor gene rs237851 SNP exhibited significantly larger hippocampal volume than carriers of the GG genotype. These results support the link between variations in the oxytocin receptor gene and hippocampal structure, with possible impact on social-cognitive function such as social recognition memory., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors have nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe facial pain disease of uncertain pathophysiology and unclear genetic background. Although recent research has reported a more important role of genetic factors in TN pathogenesis, few candidate genes have been proposed to date. The present study aimed to identify independent genetic variants in the protein-coding genes associated with TN. We focused on genes previously linked to TN based on the results of four proteomic studies conducted by our research team. The goal was to validate these findings on the genetic level to enhance our understanding of the role of genetics in TN. The study is based on the participants from UK Biobank cohort. Following quality control, 175 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 17 genes were selected. The study sample comprised of diagnosed TN cases (N = 555) and randomly matched controls (N = 6245) based on specific criteria. Two SNPs corresponding to C8B rs706484 [odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)): 1.357 (1.158-1.590); p: 0.00016] and MFG-E8 rs2015495 [OR (95% CI): 1.313 (1.134-1.521); p: 0.00028] showed significant positive association with TN, indicating a positive effect of the SNP alleles on gene expression and disease risk. Interestingly, both SNPs are Expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTLs), and are associated with changes in the expression activity of their corresponding gene. Our findings suggest novel genetic associations between C8B, a key component of the complement system, and MFG-E8, which plays a role in regulating neuroinflammation, in relation to TN. The identified genetic variations may help explain why some individuals develop TN while others do not, indicating a potential genetic predisposition to the condition., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aim: To test the hypothesis that liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 (LEAP2) genetic variants might influence the susceptibility to human obesity., Methods: Using data from the UK Biobank, we identified independent LEAP2 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and examined their associations with obesity traits and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) concentration. These associations were evaluated for both individual SNPs and after combining them into a genetic risk score (GRS LEAP2 ) using linear and logistic regression models. Sex-stratified analyses were also conducted., Results: Five SNPs showed positive associations with obesity-related traits. rs57880964 was associated with body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI), in the total population and among women. Four independent SNPs were positively associated with higher serum IGF-1 concentrations in both men and women. GRS LEAP2 was associated with BMI and WHRadjBMI only in women and with serum IGF-1 concentration in both sexes., Conclusions: These findings reveal sex-specific associations between key LEAP2 gene variants and several obesity traits, while also indicating a strong independent association of LEAP2 variants with serum IGF-1 concentration., (© 2024 The Author(s). Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aims: Job satisfaction plays an important role for the life quality and health of working individuals. While studies have shown that self-reported mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression are associated with job satisfaction, a large population-based study exploring and comparing self-reported physician posed diagnosed conditions and their association with job satisfaction and job tenure is missing. This study addresses the gap along with exploring the impact of the neurotic personality trait and other possible contributing factors., Methods: Sixteen mental health disorders diagnosed by physicians, categorised into four major groups were investigated in relation to employment status (108,711 participants) and in relation to job satisfaction and job tenure (34,808 participants). Analyses were performed using linear regression adjusted for age, sex, townsend deprivation index, body mass index, education, physical activity, work hours and neuroticism., Results: Neurotic and stress disorders, eating disorders and other mental health disorders were strongly associated with lower job satisfaction and shorter job tenure in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Neuroticism was strongly linked to job satisfaction but was not associated with job tenure., Conclusions: Study findings clarify the complex relationship of mental health with job satisfaction and job tenure, which is very important to understand in designing measures to improve working life participation of individuals with mental health issues., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: There is a growing interest in how personality may be related to the risk of developing disease. Associations between personality and stroke have so far only been studied in relation to stroke mortality. However, many stroke survivors suffer severe impairment of quality of life due to sequelae such as aphasia, hemiparesis, depression and anxiety. In this study we assess the association between personality and risk of stroke, regardless of mortality., Methods: Using self-reported data on psychological factors, mental health and social support, proxies for the Big Five personality traits were developed for 482,535 participants in the UK Biobank. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard models, with 95% confidence intervals (CI), were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and hazard ratios (HR) between each personality trait and stroke prevalence (N = 6793) and incidence (N = 3312), respectively. Models were adjusted for demographic, health-related, and lifestyle factors., Results: Diligence and sociability were associated with a lower risk of stroke incidence in the fully adjusted model (respectively: [HR = 0.92; 95% CI = (0.88, 0.96)], [HR = 0.93; 95% CI = (0.89, 0.97)]). However, nervousness, curiosity and warmth were not significantly associated with a risk of stroke incidence., Conclusions: Individuals with higher levels of diligence and sociability may be at a reduced risk of developing stroke. With respect to the debated role of neuroticism in relation to cardiovascular disease, we did not find evidence of an association between nervousness and risk of developing stroke., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Deficiency of vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, mostly in vegetarians, is found to be associated with depression and adverse neurological function. We investigated whether vitamin B6, B12, and folate have an effect on brain structure, especially among depressed people who follow a specific diet. The study sample comprised 9426 participants from the UK Biobank cohort with a mean age of 62.4 years. A generalized linear model controlling for age, sex, body mass index, ethnicity, town send deprivation index, educational qualification, smoking, and alcohol intake was used to test the association between study groups and structural brain volumes. Depression was more prevalent, and intake of vitamin B6 and B12 was lower among vegetarians, while non-vegetarians had a lower intake of folate. Overall, no significant association was observed between vitamin B6, B12, and folate intakes and both global and subcortical brain volumes among participants with depression. However, vitamin B12 intake was positively associated with right pallidum among non-depressed participants, and a significant interaction between vitamin B12 intake and depression status on the right pallidum was observed. Also, a significant interaction between folate intake and depression status on grey matter (GM) volume and left thalamus was observed. Upon diet stratification, folate intake is associated with total brain volume and GM volume among vegetarians with depression. Furthermore, no significant associations were observed for subcortical regions. Our findings suggest that dietary intake of vitamin B6 and B12 might have an effect on brain structure. Vegetarians, particularly those who suffer from depression may benefit from supplementing their diets with vitamins B6, B12, and folate to ensure brain health. Further studies, especially with a larger sample size and longitudinal design, are needed to confirm these findings.

To reveal new insights into statin cognitive effects, we performed an observational study on a population-based sample of 245,731 control and 55,114 statin-taking individuals from the UK Biobank. Cognitive performance in terms of reaction time, working memory and fluid intelligence was analysed at baseline and two follow-ups (within 5-10 years). Subjects were classified depending on age (up to 65 and over 65 years) and treatment duration (1-4 years, 5-10 years and over 10 years). Data were adjusted for health- and cognition-related covariates. Subjects generally improved in test performance with repeated assessment and middle-aged persons performed better than older persons. The effect of statin use differed considerably between the two age groups, with a beneficial effect on reaction time in older persons and fluid intelligence in both age groups, and a negative effect on working memory in younger subjects. Our analysis suggests a modulatory impact of age on the cognitive side effects of statins, revealing a possible reason for profoundly inconsistent findings on statin-related cognitive effects in the literature. The study highlights the importance of characterising modifiers of statin effects to improve knowledge and shape guidelines for clinicians when prescribing statins and evaluating their side effects in patients.

Job-related stress has been associated with poor health outcomes but little is known about the causal nature of these findings. We employed Mendelian randomisation (MR) approach to investigate the causal effect of neuroticism, education, and physical activity on job satisfaction. Trait-specific genetic risk score (GRS) based on recent genome wide association studies were used as instrumental variables (IV) using the UK Biobank cohort (N = 315,536). Both single variable and multivariable MR analyses were used to determine the effect of each trait on job satisfaction. We observed a clear evidence of a causal association between neuroticism and job satisfaction. In single variable MR, one standard deviation (1 SD) higher genetically determined neuroticism score (4.07 units) was associated with -0.31 units lower job satisfaction (95% confidence interval (CI): -0.38 to -0.24; P = 9.5 × 10 -20 ). The causal associations remained significant after performing sensitivity analyses by excluding invalid genetic variants from GRS Neuroticism (β(95%CI): -0.28(-0.35 to -0.21); P = 3.4 x 10 -15 ). Education (0.02; -0.08 to 0.12; 0.67) and physical activity (0.08; -0.34 to 0.50; 0.70) did not show any evidence for causal association with job satisfaction. When genetic instruments for neuroticism, education and physical activity were included together, the association of neuroticism score with job satisfaction was reduced by only -0.01 units, suggesting an independent inverse causal association between neuroticism score (P = 2.7 x 10 -17 ) and job satisfaction. Our findings show an independent causal association between neuroticism score and job satisfaction. Physically active lifestyle may help to increase job satisfaction despite presence of high neuroticism scores. Our study highlights the importance of considering the confounding effect of negative personality traits for studies on job satisfaction.