BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests that higher levels of residential greenness may contribute to better mental health. Despite this, few studies have considered its impact on depression, and most are cross-sectional. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine surrounding residential greenness and depression risk prospectively in the Nurses Health Study. METHODS: A total of 38,947 women (mean age throughout follow-up 70 y [range 54–91 y]) without depression in 2000 were followed to 2010. Residential greenness was measured using the satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and defined as the mean greenness value within [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] radii of the womens residences in July of each year. Incidence of depression was defined according to the first self-report of either physician-diagnosed depression or regular antidepressant use. We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine the relationship between greenness and depression incidence and assessed physical activity as a potential effect modifier and mediator. RESULTS: Over 315,548 person-years, 3,612 incident depression cases occurred. In multivariable-adjusted models, living in the highest quintile of residential greenness within [Formula: see text] was associated with a 13% reduction in depression risk ([Formula: see text] [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78, 0.98]) compared with the lowest quintile. The association between greenness and depression did not appear to be mediated by physical activity, nor was there evidence of effect modification by physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: In this population of mostly white women, we estimated an inverse association between the highest level of surrounding summer greenness and the risk of self-reported depression. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1229.

Objectives: Only one community-based study has assessed religious group involvement and health outcomes among South Asians in the U.S., with mixed results. Here, using a large, South Asian community-based sample, the effects of six religious group involvement predictors - religious tradition, attendance, group prayer, giving/receiving congregational emotional support, congregational neglect, and congregational criticism - were examined in relation to four health outcomes: self-rated health, positive mental health functioning, trait anxiety, and trait anger.Design: The study used a new religion/spirituality questionnaire in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis Among South Asians Living in America (MASALA), the largest study of mental and physical well-being among U.S. South Asians. Associations were assessed cross-sectionally using OLS regression in both the full sample (N = 928) and a subsample of congregation members (N = 312).Results: Jains reported better self-rated health compared to Hindus and Muslims. Group prayer involvement, when measured ordinally, was positively associated with self-rated health and mental health functioning. In reference group comparisons, individuals who participated in group prayer once/day or more had lower levels of anxiety and anger compared to several comparison groups in which individuals prayed less than once a day. Religious service attendance was associated with higher levels of anxiety. Giving/receiving congregational emotional support was positively associated with self-rated health and mental health functioning, and inversely associated with anxiety. Congregational criticism was associated with higher levels of anger and anxiety.Conclusions: This study provided a new assessment of religious group involvement and health in the U.S. South Asian population. Religious group participation was associated with mental and self-rated health in well-controlled models, indicating this is a fruitful area for further research. Group religious involvement may be a health-promoting resource for U.S. South Asians who are religiously active, but it is not an unalloyed boon.

Background

Although the smoking rate in the United States is declining because of an increase of smoke-free laws, among blue-collar workers it remains higher than that among many other occupational groups.

Objectives

We evaluated the factors influencing workplace secondhand smoke (SHS) exposures in the U.S. unionized trucking industry.

Methods

From 2003 through 2005, we measured workplace SHS exposure among 203 nonsmoking and 61 smoking workers in 25 trucking terminals. Workers in several job groups wore personal vapor-phase nicotine samplers on their lapels for two consecutive work shifts and completed a workplace SHS exposure questionnaire at the end of the personal sampling.

Results

Median nicotine level was 0.87 microg/m3 for nonsmokers and 5.96 microg/m3 for smokers. As expected, smokers experienced higher SHS exposure duration and intensity than did nonsmokers. For nonsmokers, multiple regression analyses indicated that self-reported exposure duration combined with intensity, lack of a smoking policy as reported by workers, having a nondriver job, and lower educational level were independently associated with elevated personal nicotine levels (model R2 = 0.52). Nondriver job and amount of active smoking were associated with elevated personal nicotine level in smokers, but self-reported exposure, lack of a smoking policy, and lower educational level were not.

Conclusions

Despite movements toward smoke-free laws, this population of blue-collar workers was still exposed to workplace SHS as recently as 2005. The perceived (reported by the workers), rather than the official (reported by the terminal managers), smoking policy was associated with measured SHS exposure levels among the nonsmokers. Job duties and educational level might also be important predictors of workplace SHS exposure.

Background

Few studies have directly assessed the association of secondhand smoke (SHS) with cardiovascular disease-related inflammatory markers, and the findings are inconsistent.

Objectives

We assessed the association between SHS exposure and the inflammatory markers high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) in 199 nonsmoking U.S. trucking industry workers.

Methods

Participants provided blood samples either by mail (blood drawn at local health care provider near home) or at the work site (blood drawn by research staff on-site) and completed a health and work history questionnaire at the time of blood draw. Exposure to SHS was measured by plasma cotinine concentrations. We used multivariate regression analyses to assess the associations between levels of cotinine and inflammatory markers.

Results

The median cotinine level was 0.10 ng/mL (interquartile range, 0.04-0.23 ng/mL). The odds ratios of elevated hs-CRP (above highest CRP tertile, 1.5 mg/L) were 2.85 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.03-7.89] for the high-cotinine group (> 0.215 ng/mL) and 2.80 (95% CI, 1.11-7.10) for the moderate-cotinine group (0.05-0.215 ng/mL), compared with the low-cotinine group (< 0.05 ng/mL), adjusting for age, sex, race, educational level, obesity, previous smoking history, job title, and medical history. Plasma cotinine levels were not associated with IL-6 or sICAM-1.

Conclusions

SHS exposure, as assessed by plasma cotinine, was positively associated with hs-CRP in this group of blue-collar workers. The strength of the association with hs-CRP depended on the cut points selected for analysis.

Prospective studies on the association between depression and telomere length have produced mixed results and have been largely limited to European ancestry populations. We examined the associations between depression and telomere length, and the modifying influence of religion and spirituality, in four cohorts, each representing a different race/ethnic population. Relative leukocyte telomere length (RTL) was measured by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Our result showed that depression was not associated with RTL (percent difference: 3.0 95% CI: -3.9, 10.5; p = 0.41; p-heterogeneity across studies = 0.67) overall or in cohort-specific analyses. However, in cohort-specific analyses, there was some evidence of effect modification by the extent of religiosity or spirituality, religious congregation membership, and group prayer. Further research is needed to investigate prospective associations between depression and telomere length, and the resources of resilience including dimensions of religion and spirituality that may impact such dynamics in diverse racial/ethnic populations.

PURPOSE: Current tools in predicting survival outcomes for patients with colon cancer predominantly rely on clinical and pathologic characteristics, but increasing evidence suggests that diet and lifestyle habits are associated with patient outcomes and should be considered to enhance model accuracy. METHODS: Using an adjuvant chemotherapy trial for stage III colon cancer (CALGB 89803), we developed prediction models of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival by additionally incorporating self-reported nine diet and lifestyle factors. Both models were assessed by multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression and externally validated using another trial for stage III colon cancer (CALGB/SWOG 80702), and visual nomograms of prediction models were constructed accordingly. We also proposed three hypothetical scenarios for patients with (1) good-risk, (2) average-risk, and (3) poor-risk clinical and pathologic features, and estimated their predictive survival by considering clinical and pathologic features with or without adding self-reported diet and lifestyle factors. RESULTS: Among 1,024 patients (median age 60.0 years, 43.8% female), we observed 394 DFS events and 311 deaths after median follow-up of 7.3 years. Adding self-reported diet and lifestyle factors to clinical and pathologic characteristics meaningfully improved performance of prediction models (c-index from 0.64 [95% CI, 0.62 to 0.67] to 0.69 [95% CI, 0.67 to 0.72] for DFS, and from 0.67 [95% CI, 0.64 to 0.70] to 0.71 [95% CI, 0.69 to 0.75] for overall survival). External validation also indicated good performance of discrimination and calibration. Adding most self-reported favorable diet and lifestyle exposures to multivariate modeling improved 5-year DFS of all patients and by 6.3% for good-risk, 21.4% for average-risk, and 42.6% for poor-risk clinical and pathologic features. CONCLUSION: Diet and lifestyle factors further inform current recurrence and survival prediction models for patients with stage III colon cancer.