Lifestyle Behavioral Factors and Integrative Successful Aging Among Puerto Ricans Living in the Mainland United States.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed multidimensional models for predicting successful aging that incorporate both physical and cognitive-psychosocial elements among minority populations. This study aimed to establish a comprehensive lifestyle behavioral factors (cLBF) score and an integrative successful aging (ISA) score and explore their associations among older Puerto Rican adults. METHODS: Data were assessed from 889 adults (45-75 years) participating in the longitudinal (baseline and 2-year follow-up) Boston Puerto Rican Health Study. Higher cLBF score (range 0-10) indicates healthier behaviors (nonsmoking, lack of sedentarism, physical activity, high diet quality, and adequate sleep). The physical domain score of ISA included 8 components (functional impairment, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, arthritis, osteoporosis) and ranged 0-11. The cognitive-psychosocial domain of ISA included 5 components (cognitive impairment, depressive symptoms, social support, perceived stress, and self-rated health) and ranged 0-10. The sum of both domains comprised the ISA score, ranging 0-21. Higher scores of ISA and its domains indicate more successful aging. RESULTS: At 2 years, the mean ± SD of cLBF score was 4.9 ± 1.8, and ISA was 10.1 ± 3.3. In multivariable-adjusted models, cLBF score was significantly and positively associated with 2-year change in overall ISA (ß [95% CI]: 0.15 [0.07, 0.24] points), in physical domain (0.09 [0.04, 0.13] points), and in cognitive-psychosocial domain (0.08 [0.02, 0.14] points). CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining healthier lifestyle behaviors may contribute to successful aging through both physical and cognitive-psychosocial domains. The results support using a multidimensional definition of successful aging in Puerto Ricans and evaluating it in other populations.

A review of maternal prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors-implications for research on perinatal outcomes in the ECHO program.

Exposures to environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors during pregnancy have been individually associated with adverse perinatal outcomes related to birthweight and gestational age, but are not often considered in combination. We review types of psychosocial stressors and instruments used to assess them and classes of environmental chemical exposures that are known to adversely impact perinatal outcomes, and identify studies relevant studies. We discuss the National Institutes of Health's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program that has combined existing longitudinal cohorts that include more than 50,000 children across the U.S. We describe future opportunities for investigators to use this important new resource for addressing relevant and critical research questions to maternal health. Of the 84 cohorts in ECHO, 38 collected data on environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors and perinatal outcomes. The diverse ECHO pregnancy cohorts provide capacity to compare regions with distinct place-based environmental and social stressors.

Meta-omics analysis of elite athletes identifies a performance-enhancing microbe that functions via lactate metabolism.

The human gut microbiome is linked to many states of human health and disease1. The metabolic repertoire of the gut microbiome is vast, but the health implications of these bacterial pathways are poorly understood. In this study, we identify a link between members of the genus Veillonella and exercise performance. We observed an increase in Veillonella relative abundance in marathon runners postmarathon and isolated a strain of Veillonella atypica from stool samples. Inoculation of this strain into mice significantly increased exhaustive treadmill run time. Veillonella utilize lactate as their sole carbon source, which prompted us to perform a shotgun metagenomic analysis in a cohort of elite athletes, finding that every gene in a major pathway metabolizing lactate to propionate is at higher relative abundance postexercise. Using 13C3-labeled lactate in mice, we demonstrate that serum lactate crosses the epithelial barrier into the lumen of the gut. We also show that intrarectal instillation of propionate is sufficient to reproduce the increased treadmill run time performance observed with V. atypica gavage. Taken together, these studies reveal that V. atypica improves run time via its metabolic conversion of exercise-induced lactate into propionate, thereby identifying a natural, microbiome-encoded enzymatic process that enhances athletic performance.

Fine Particle Sources and Cognitive Function in An Older Puerto Rican Cohort in Greater Boston.

BACKGROUND: Puerto Ricans living in the mainland US have substantially higher rates of impairment to cognitive performance as compared to non-Hispanic Whites, with air pollutant exposures a potential risk factor. We investigated whether exposures to specific air pollution sources were associated with performance across several cognitive domains in a cohort of Puerto Rican older adults. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between sources of PM2.5 and cognitive performance in each of five cognitive domains. METHODS: We obtained demographic, health, and cognitive function data for 1500 elderly participants of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS). Cognitive function was assessed in each of two waves for five domains: verbal memory, recognition, mental processing, and executive and visuospatial function. To these data, we linked concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its components, black carbon (BC), nickel, sulfur, and silicon, as tracers for PM2.5 from traffic, oil combustion, coal combustion, and resuspended dust, respectively. Associations between each PM2.5 component and cognitive domain were examined using linear mixed models. RESULTS: One year moving average exposures to BC were significantly associated with decreased verbal memory (-0.38;95% CI: -0.46,-0.30), recognition (-0.35; 95% CI: -0.46,-0.25), mental processing (-1.14; 95% CI: -1.55,-0.74), and executive function (-0.94; 95% CI: -1.31,-0.56). Similar associations were found for nickel. Associations for sulfur, and silicon, and PM2.5 were generally null, although sulfur (-0.51; 95% CI -0.75,-0.28) silicon (-0.25; 95% CI: -0.36,-0.13) and PM2.5 (-0.35; 95% CI: -0.57,-0.12) were associated with decreased recognition. CONCLUSION: Long-term exposures to BC and nickel, tracers of traffic and oil combustion, respectively, were associated with decreased cognitive function across all domains, except visuospatial function.