Building competency to deal with environmental health challenges: experiences and a proposal

The global landscape of professional training in environmental health, encompassing ecological public health or environmental public health, lacks consistent global implementation for training programs for public health practitioners, clinical professionals, and individuals across various disciplines, as well as standardized curricula for undergraduates. This training gap is related to the overall lack of capacity in addressing…

Socio-Economic Inequalities in Beliefs About Cancer and its Causes: Evidence From two Population Surveys

Objective People’s beliefs about cancer can affect the actions they take to prevent and detect the disease. We investigated socio-economic inequalities in beliefs about cancer and its causes in the general population. Methods We analyzed data from the representative probabilistic Spanish Oncobarometer survey (N = 4769, 2020) and the non-probabilistic weight-corrected Spanish Cancer Awareness Survey (N = 1029, 2022).…

Associations of milk, dairy products, calcium and vitamin D intake with risk of developing Parkinson´s disease within the EPIC4ND cohort

Literature indicates a potential association between dairy consumption and risk of Parkinson´s disease (PD), especially among men, yet the results remain inconclusive. We investigated this association in a large prospective European cohort. Dietary and non-dietary data was collected from 183,225 participants of the EPIC-for-Neurodegenerative-Diseases (EPIC4ND) cohort, a sub-cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer…

Palliative sedation at the end of life: prevalence, characteristics and possible determinants

Background Palliative Sedation (PS) at the end of life is practiced and perceived differently by health professionals depending on the geographical location in which they provide their health care. Taking into account this heterogeneity, it is necessary to expand knowledge and provide data on this clinical practice in different contexts and countries. On the other…

Vitamin D metabolism-related single nucleotide polymorphisms in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease risk

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the world’s major public health problems. It is characterized by a major inflammatory response, where vitamin D, due to its role in regulating the immune system, and genetic variants involved in its metabolism may play an essential role. The aim of this study is to evaluate…

Trends in cutaneous malignant melanoma incidence, mortality and survival over three decades: a population-based study in Southern Spain

Background Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) represents a global public health problem. Epidemiological studies about CMM trends tend to focus on single indicators or lack information about tumour characteristics that can help gain a more thorough understanding of CMM epidemiology. Objectives To fill this gap, we studied CMM trends in incidence, mortality and survival over three…

Gut Microbial Metabolites and Future Risk of Parkinson’s Disease: A Metabolome-Wide Association Study

Background Alterations in gut microbiota are observed in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Previous studies on microbiota-derived metabolites in PD were small-scale and post-diagnosis, raising concerns about reverse causality. Objectives Our goal was to prospectively investigate the association between plasma microbial metabolites and PD risk within a metabolomics framework. Methods A nested case–control study within the prospective…

Communicating Probabilities of Cervical Cancer Screening Results with Icon Arrays or Tree Diagrams: A Longitudinal Experiment

Simple graphical displays such as icon arrays and tree diagrams have been proposed for communicating health risks and supporting informed decisions. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) uses tree diagrams to communicate the chances of different cervical cancer screening results, but their effectiveness has not been compared to icon arrays. We conducted a well-powered longitudinal…

Sex- and site-specific associations of circulating lipocalin 2 and incident colorectal cancer: Results from the EPIC cohort

Experimental research has uncovered lipocalin 2 (LCN2) as a novel biomarker implicated in the modulation of intestinal inflammation, metabolic homeostasis, and colon carcinogenesis. However, evidence from human research has been scant. We, therefore, explored the association of pre-diagnostic circulating LCN2 concentrations with incident colorectal cancer (CRC) in a nested case–control study within the in the…

Micronutrients, Vitamin D, and Inflammatory Biomarkers in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Causal Inference Studies

Context Experimental and observational studies suggest that circulating micronutrients, including vitamin D (VD), may increase COVID-19 risk and its associated outcomes. Mendelian randomization (MR) studies provide valuable insight into the causal relationship between an exposure and disease outcomes. Objectives The aim was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of causal inference studies that apply MR…