0000000000171073
AUTHOR
Laura Pulkki-råback
Does higher education protect against obesity? Evidence using Mendelian randomization
Objectives. The aim of this explorative study was to examine the effect of education on obesity using Mendelian randomization. Methods. Participants (N = 2011) were from the on- going nationally representative Young Finns Study (YFS) that began in 1980 when six cohorts (aged 30, 33, 36, 39, 42 and 45 in 2007) were recruited. The average value of BMI (kg/m(2)) measurements in 2007 and 2011 and genetic information were linked to comprehensive register based information on the years of education in 2007. We first used a linear regression (Ordinary Least Squares, OLS) to estimate the relationship between education and BMI. To identify a causal relationship, we exploited Mendelian randomization …
Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age
AbstractChildhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50%. Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap. We also meta-analyzed within subsets of the data, i.e., within rater, instrument and age. SNP-heritability for the overall meta-analysis (AGGoverall) was 3.31% (SE = 0.0038). We found no genome-wide significant SNPs for AGGoverall. The gene-based analysis returned three sign…
Factors associated with six-year weight change in young and middle-aged adults in the Young Finns Study
Objective. To examine factors associated with weight change and obesity risk in young and middle-aged adults. Subjects/methods. The Young Finns Study with its 923 women and 792 men aged 24–39 years at baseline were followed for six years. Variables associated with the weight change were investigated with regression models. Results. The average weight change was 0.45 kg/year in women and 0.58 kg/year in men. In women, weight change was steady across all ages. In men, weight changes were more pronounced in younger age groups. In women (weight gain > 2 kg, n = 490), medication for anxiety, low occupational status, high baseline BMI (body mass index), high intake of sweet beverages, high chi…
Do childhood infections affect labour market outcomes in adulthood and, if so, how?
A burgeoning body of literature suggests that poor childhood health leads to adverse health outcomes. lower educational attainment and weaker labour market outcomes in adulthood. We focus on an important but under-researched topic, which is the role played by infection-related hospitalization (IRH) in childhood and its links to labour market outcomes later in life. The participants aged 24-30 years in 2001 N =1706 were drawn from the Young Finns Study, which includes comprehensive registry data on IRHs in childhood at ages 0-18 years. These data are linked to longitudinal registry information on labour market outcomes (2001-2012) and parental background (1980). The estimations were performe…
School achievement in adolescence and the risk of mental disorders in early adulthood: a Finnish nationwide register study
AbstractSchool grades in adolescence have been linked to later psychiatric outcomes, but large-scale nationwide studies across the spectrum of mental disorders are scarce. In the present study, we examined the risk of a wide array of mental disorders in adulthood, as well as the risk of comorbidity, associated with school achievement in adolescence. We used population-based cohort data comprising all individuals born in Finland over the period 1980–2000 (N = 1,070,880) who were followed from age 15 or 16 until a diagnosis of mental disorder, emigration, death, or December 2017, whichever came first. Final grade average from comprehensive school was the exposure, and the first diagnosed ment…
Harmonization of Neuroticism and Extraversion phenotypes across inventories and cohorts in the Genetics of Personality Consortium:an application of Item Response Theory
Mega- or meta-analytic studies (e.g. genome-wide association studies) are increasingly used in behavior genetics. An issue in such studies is that phenotypes are often measured by different instruments across study cohorts, requiring harmonization of measures so that more powerful fixed effect meta-analyses can be employed. Within the Genetics of Personality Consortium, we demonstrate for two clinically relevant personality traits, Neuroticism and Extraversion, how Item-Response Theory (IRT) can be applied to map item data from different inventories to the same underlying constructs. Personality item data were analyzed in >160,000 individuals from 23 cohorts across Europe, USA and Australia…
Relative age at school entry, school performance and long-term labour market outcomes
This article examines the impact of relative age at school entry on school performance, educational attainment and labour market outcomes later in life. We find that the advantages of maturity at school entry are short-lived with relative age having no impact on the years of formal education, adulthood earnings or employment. Our findings are consistent with the view that assumes modest maturity effects in countries where formal education begins late and there are no ability-differentiated learning groups at initial grades. peerReviewed
Biomarkers and Long-Term Labour Market Outcomes: The Case of Creatine
I evaluate the impact of the UK Working Time Regulations 1998, which introduced mandatory paid holiday entitlement. The regulation gave (nearly) all workers the right to a minimum of 4 weeks of paid holiday per a year. With constant weekly pay this change amounts effectively to an increase in the real hourly wage of about 8.5% for someone going from 0 to 4 weeks paid holiday per year, which should lead to adjustments in employment. For employees I use complementary log-log regression to account for right-censoring of employment spells. I find no increase in the hazard to exit employment within a year after treatment. Adjustments in wages cannot explain this result as they are increasing for…
Socioeconomic position at the age of 30 and the later risk of a mental disorder : a nationwide population-based register study
BackgroundA study was undertaken to examine the association between multiple indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) at the age of 30 and the subsequent risk of the most common mental disorders.MethodsAll persons born in Finland between 1966 and 1986 who were alive and living in Finland at the end of the year when they turned 30 were included. Educational attainment, employment status and personal total income were used as the alternative measures of SEP. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association of SEP at the age of 30 with later risk of mental disorders. Additional analyses were conducted using a sibling design to account for otherwise unobserved shared famil…
Personality, occupational sorting and routine work
Purpose – A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict workers’ selection into nonroutine abstract, non-routine service and routine jobs. Design/methodology/approach – Building on the work by Barrick et al. (2013), this article first presents how the theory of purposeful work behaviour can be used to explain how individuals with different levels of Type A components sort into abstract, service and routine jobs. Then, using longitudinal data, it examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict occupation…
Does Childhood Temperamental Activity Predict Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior over a 30-Year Period? Evidence from the Young Finns Study
We examined associations between childhood temperamental activity, physical activity (PA), and television (TV) viewing over a 30-year period. The participants (1220 boys and 1237 girls) were aged 3, 6, 9, and 12 years in 1980 and were followed until 2011. Temperamental activity was evaluated by participants' mothers at baseline. The PA was assessed based on maternal ratings of the child from ages 3 to 6 and via self-report age from the age of 9 across all measurements. TV viewing was assessed using self-reports taken from 2001 to 2011. The associations between temperamental activity and the level and change of PA and TV viewing were determined using linear growth modeling stratified by gend…
Parental Physical Activity Associates With Offspring's Physical Activity Until Middle Age: A 30-Year Study.
Background:Parents’ physical activity associates with their children’s physical activity. Prospective designs assessing this association are rare. This study examined how parents’ physical activity was associated with their children’s physical activity from childhood to middle adulthood in a 30-year prospective, population-based setting.Methods:Participants (n = 3596) were from the ongoing Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study started in 1980. Participants’ physical activity was self-reported at 8 phases from 1980 to 2011, and their parents’ physical activity at 1980. Analyses were adjusted for a set of health-related covariates assessed from 1980 to 2007.Results:High levels of mothers’ …
Employment and earnings trajectories before and after sickness absence due to major depressive disorder: a nationwide case-control study.
ObjectivesTo examine employment and earnings trajectories before and after the first sickness absence period due to major depressive disorder (MDD).MethodsAll individuals (n=158 813) in Finland who had a first sickness absence period (lasting longer than 9 days) due to MDD between 2005 and 2015 were matched with one randomly selected individual of the same age and gender with no history of MDD. Employment status and earnings were measured using register-based data annually from 2005 to 2015. Generalised estimating equations were used to examine the trajectories of employment and earnings before and after MDD diagnosis in men and women separately.ResultsSickness absence due to MDD was associ…
Physical Activity, Sleep, and Symptoms of Depression in Adults - Testing for Mediation
Abstract Purpose: Physical activity, sleep problems, and symptoms of depression contribute to overall well-being. The factors are reciprocally associated, but the nature of these associations remains unclear. The present study examined whether sleep problems mediated the association between physical activity and depressive symptoms. Methods: The eligible population (n = 3596) consisted of adults from the ongoing, population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study started in 1980. Participants’ leisure-time physical activity was assessed with physical activity index (2007) and sleep problems with Jenkins’ Sleep Questionnaire in 2007 and 2011. Depressive symptoms were measured using mo…
Personality, occupational sorting and routine work
PurposeA prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict workers' selection into non-routine abstract, non-routine service and routine jobs.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the work by Barrick et al. (2013), this article first presents how the theory of purposeful work behaviour can be used to explain how individuals with different levels of Type A components sort into abstract, service and routine jobs. Then, using longitudinal data, it examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict occupational sor…
The benefits of sustained leisure-time physical activity on job strain
Background The long-term effects of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) on job strain have not been assessed in a large prospective population-based cohort study. Aims To examine the relationship between the LTPA and the prevalence of job strain. Methods The participants were 861 full-time employees (406 men and 455 women), aged 24―39 years in 2001, from the ongoing Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. LTPA was assessed using a self-report questionnaire in 1992 and in 2001. The participants were grouped into four categories according to tertiles of LTPA index at two time points: persistently active, increasingly active, decreasingly active and persistently inactive. Job strain was me…
Does education protect against depression? Evidence from the Young Finns Study using Mendelian randomization
Using participants (N = 1733) drawn from the nationally representative longitudinal Young Finns Study (YFS) we estimate the effect of education on depressive symptoms. In 2007, when the participants were between 30 and 45 years old, they reported their depressive symptoms using a revised version of Beck's Depression Inventory. Education was measured using register information on the highest completed level of education in 2007, which was converted to years of education. To identify a causal relationship between education and depressive symptoms we use an instrumental variables approach (Mendelian randomization, MR) with a genetic risk score as an instrument for years of education. The genet…
Factors associated with six-year weight change in young and middle-aged adults in the Young Finns Study
Objective. To examine factors associated with weight change and obesity risk in young and middle-aged adults. Subjects/methods. The Young Finns Study with its 923 women and 792 men aged 24–39 years at baseline were followed for six years. Variables associated with the weight change were investigated with regression models. Results. The average weight change was 0.45 kg/year in women and 0.58 kg/year in men. In women, weight change was steady across all ages. In men, weight changes were more pronounced in younger age groups. In women (weight gain > 2 kg, n = 490), medication for anxiety, low occupational status, high baseline BMI (body mass index), high intake of sweet beverages, high chi…
Depressive symptoms and long-term income: The Young Finns Study
Abstract Background Higher depressive symptoms have been associated with lower future income. However, studies examining this issue have had limited follow-up times and have used self-reported measures of income. Also, possible confounders or mediators have not been accounted. Methods 971 women and 738 men were selected from the ongoing prospective Young Finns Study (YFS) that began in 1980. Depressive symptoms were measured in 1992 when participants were from 15 to 30 years old. Information on annual income and earnings from 1993 to 2010 were obtained from the Finnish Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data (FLEED) of Statistics Finland and linked to the YFS. Results Higher depressive symptoms…
Factors associated with six-year weight change in young and middle-aged adults in the Young Finns Study.
To examine factors associated with weight change and obesity risk in young and middle-aged adults.The Young Finns Study with its 923 women and 792 men aged 24-39 years at baseline were followed for six years. Variables associated with the weight change were investigated with regression models.The average weight change was 0.45 kg/year in women and 0.58 kg/year in men. In women, weight change was steady across all ages. In men, weight changes were more pronounced in younger age groups. In women (weight gain2 kg, n = 490), medication for anxiety, low occupational status, high baseline BMI (body mass index), high intake of sweet beverages, high childhood BMI, high salt (NaCl and/or KCl) use, l…
Is It Good To Be Good? Dispositional Compassion and Health Behaviors
Background Despite the documented importance of dispositional compassions for a range of health-related outcomes, its role in predicting health behaviors remains unclear. Purpose This study examined the associations between dispositional compassion and three domains of health behavior, including physical activity, alcohol use, and smoking. Methods The participants (N = 1,279–1,913) were from the Finnish population-based Young Finns study. We collected self-reports of compassion in 1997 and 2011 and health behaviors in 2001, 2007, and 2011. In addition, an objective pedometer measure of physical activity was collected in 2011. Linear and logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the…
Trajectories of Physical Activity Predict the Onset of Depressive Symptoms but Not Their Progression: A Prospective Cohort Study
This prospective, community-based study examined trajectories of physical activity from childhood to adulthood and whether these trajectories contributed to depressive symptoms in adulthood to a greater degree than adulthood physical activity. Participants (n=3596) were from the ongoing Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study which started in 1980. Depressive symptoms were measured with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in 2012, and physical activity was assessed from 1980 to 2011 with self-reports. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, childhood negative emotionality, socioeconomic factors, previous depressive symptoms, social support, body mass index, and smoking status (1980–2007). High…