Projects

Effect of Reproductive History on Longitudinal Change in Cardiac, Vascular and Lipid Parameters (R01 HL158100)

This study leverages the NHLBI Growth and Health Study (NGHS), a study of Black and White girls initiated in 1987 when the girls were 9 or 10 years old. The current study is following up these women at mean age 46 to evaluate the relationships between lifetime reproductive history on cardiovascular health. We will conduct detailed lipoprotein sizing and functionality assessments from stored and new samples and conduct cardiovascular imaging and repeat echocardiograms on these women to: 1) Determine the specific lipoprotein particle size distribution and function changes which occur from before to short- and long-term post pregnancy; 2) Determine whether pregnancy-related cardiac adaptations result in long-term alterations in cardiac structure and function, thereby increasing CVD risk for women in their forties; and 3) Test whether parity increases CV risk independently of socioeconomic status (SES) in Black and White women.

Collaborators:

Elaine Urbina, Director, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute
Laura Woollett, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

I3C DECADE: Disparities and Equity in Childhood Cardiovascular Exposures and Alzheimer's Dementia (R01 AG077497)

The DECADE study aims to evaluate how childhood cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, obesity or lipids, may impact adult brain health, and how this might differ by race or socioeconomic status. This study will re-enroll participants from three different longitudinal studies (NGHS, Princeton Lipid Research Study and Bogalusa Heart Study) for a single study visit. The visit will include updates on health status, a blood draw for assessment of cardiovascular risk factors and markers of brain health, non-invasive cardiovascular imaging to assess heart and blood vessel health, and a brain MRI to understand brain structure and function.

Collaborators:

Elaine Urbina, Director, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute
Lydia Bazzano, Tulane University

Healthy Aging Study (R21/R33 AG057983)

The Healthy Aging Study is a two-phase project consisting of infrastructure development (R21) and pilot study testing (R33) phases. The goal of the R21 was to develop and enhance the infrastructure for three cohorts included in the i3C Consortium: The Bogalusa Heart Study, the NHLBI Growth and Health Study, and the Princeton Lipid Research Study. Each study was responsible for conducting an inventory of the existing biorepository, study data and documentation, as well as enhancing these data through geocoding and harmonization of existing data. The R33 goals are to evaluate the feasibility of and validate methods for collecting aging-related health and cognitive data using a “Virtual Clinic” consisting of devices or online applications mailed to participants’ homes. These data will be compared with assessments conducted in a research clinic setting to validate the use of such devices for future epidemiologic studies.

Collaborators:

Elaine Urbina, Director, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute
Lydia Bazzano, Tulane University

FH Screening (R01 HL141823)

The goal of this grant is to combine datasets from multiple large adult and pediatric cohorts to develop and model effective screening strategies for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Given the low population prevalence of FH, but the high cardiovascular risk burden imposed by FH, improved screening strategies in childhood are needed. This study will use existing data to model universal screening versus targeted or genetic-based screening methods. This study uses data from the i3C Consortium, along with other major cohorts in the US.

Collaborators:

Elaine Urbina, Director, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute
Sarah DeFerranti, Boston Children’s Hospital
Andrew Moran, Columbia University

International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium (R01 HL121230)

The i3C Consortium’s goal is to identify the relationships between childhood cardiovascular risk factors and adult cardiovascular disease, leveraging long-term follow-up in epidemiologic cohorts. The i3C Consortium consists of seven cohorts (five in the US, one in Australia, one in Finland) that measured cardiovascular risk factor data on over 40,000 participants in childhood and have followed participants into adulthood. The Consortium, established in 2009, recently completed a coordinated follow-up of over 20,000 participants to determine cardiovascular events and deaths in this population. Findings so far have identified that childhood body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides and youth smoking as significant independent predictors of adult cardiovascular events and death, and that risk begins to accumulate at levels below established clinical thresholds in childhood. Additional work has also found that childhood risk factors are directly associated with adult Class II/III obesity, diabetes, hypertension and carotid intima media thickness, a marker of early atherosclerosis. Future work in this Consortium will include in-person examinations, with opportunities for collaborations on ancillary studies.

Collaborators:

Elaine Urbina, Director, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Institute
Trudy Burns, University of Iowa
Lydia Bazzano, Tulane University
Terence Dwyer, Oxford University, UK
David Jacobs, University of Minnesota
Olli Raitakari, Turku University, Finland
Alan Sinaiko, University of Minnesota
Julia Steinberger, University of Minnesota
Alison Venn, Menzies Institute at the University of Tasmania, Australia

The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohorts (i3C) Consortium

Reducing Health Disparities through an Adaptive Healthy Eating Program for Underserved Infants in a Home Visiting Program (R21 NR019126)

This project aims to develop and test a healthy eating intervention to be implemented using a home visiting framework. The intervention was co-designed with community partners and UC researchers to include modules addressing multiple potential topics relating to overcoming barriers to healthy eating. The intervention was pilot-tested with 15 intervention and 15 control families, enrolled from the Every Child Succeeds home visiting program, which serves low-resourced families in the greater Cincinnati area.

Collaborators:

Cathy Stough, University of Cincinnati
Bob Ammerman, Staff Psychologist, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology
Alonzo (Ted) Folger, Director of Evaluation and Epidemiologic Research, Every Child Succeeds