ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8543-3152
Current Organisations
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
,
University of Technology Sydney
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Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 05-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-11-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S12966-022-01372-3
Abstract: Poor physical activity and excessive sedentary behaviour are well-established risk factors for morbidity and mortality. In the presence of emerging social problems, including loneliness and social isolation, these risks may be even greater. We aimed to investigate the joint effects of social health and movement behaviours on mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). 497,544 UK Biobank participants were followed for an average of 11 years. Loneliness and social isolation were measured via self-report. Physical activity was categorised around current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines as low ( 600 metabolic equivalent of task [MET]-mins/week), moderate (600 1200) and high (≥ 1200). Sedentary behaviour was classified as low (≤ 3.5 h/day), moderate (3.5 ≤ 5) and high ( 5.5). We derived 24 social health–movement behaviour combinations, accordingly. Mortality and hospitalisations were ascertained to May 2020 for all-cause and CVD mortality, and non-fatal cardiovascular events. Social isolation lified the risk of both all-cause and CVD death across all physical activity and sedentary levels (hazard ratio, 95% confidence interval [HR, 95% CIs] for all-cause mortality 1.58 [1.49 to 1.68] for low active-isolated vs. 1.26 [1.22 to 1.30] for low active-not isolated). Loneliness was only found to lify the risk of death from cardiovascular disease among the high active and low sedentary participants. Loneliness and social isolation did not add to the risk of non-fatal cardiovascular events across most activity levels. The detrimental associations of poor physical activity and sedentary behaviour with mortality were consistently lified by social isolation. Our study supports the need to target the socially isolated as a priority group in preventive public health strategies.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 21-09-2022
Abstract: The evidence on the association between alcohol consumption and adiposity is inconsistent and fragmented. We investigated the longitudinal association between alcohol consumption pattern and four different adiposity markers with repeated measures of adiposity and obesity incidence. We categorized current drinkers based on the sex-specific quartiles of their weekly alcohol consumption and the UK alcohol drinking guidelines. We used multivariable adjusted generalised linear models. With the exception of a direct association between alcohol volume and body fat percentage (BF%) in women (B = 0.42% 95%CI: 0.04, 0.80% for women in the top quartile), we found no associations between alcohol consumption and adiposity markers for either sex. Red wine and ch agne/white wine consumption were inversely associated with waist circumference (WC) for both sexes (B = −0.58 cm, 95%CI: −0.77, −0.38 cm and B= −0.49 cm, 95%CI: −0.68, −0.29 cm, respectively, for women B = −0.28 cm, 95%CI: −0.47, −0.08 cm and B = −0.23 cm, 95%CI: −0.42, −0.04 cm, respectively, for men). Female and male spirit drinkers had higher WC than non-spirit drinkers. Alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of obesity incidence in women (OR:0.60, 95%CI:0.45, 0.80 for the 2nd quartile, OR:0.53, 95%CI: 0.40, 0.70 for the 3rd quartile and OR:0.61, 95%CI:0.46, 0.80 for the 4th quartile). We found limited evidence of longitudinal associations between alcohol intake and adiposity. The few statistically significant associations we observed are unlikely to be of clinical importance.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-09-2020
DOI: 10.1111/DME.14392
Abstract: This study aimed to examine the cross-sectional associations of thigh accelerometry-assessed sedentary behaviour and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with cardio-metabolic health markers and prevalent diabetes in a population s le of middle-aged British adults. Participants (n = 4892) from the age-46-to-48 wave of the 1970 British Cohort Study were fitted with a waterproofed activPAL3 micro device. Total rolonged sedentary time, breaks and MVPA were the main exposures. We dichotomized prolonged sedentary time and MVPA based on the corresponding median, generating four combinations as categorical exposures. Outcomes comprised of diabetes and seven cardio-metabolic health markers. We used logistic regression and generalized linear models to examine independent/joint associations, conducting a minimally adjusted model including demographics and contextual covariates, and further adjusted for total sedentary time and/or MVPA as applicable. Each set of 10 sedentary breaks and 1 h of prolonged sedentary time were associated with HbA Each set of additional 10 sedentary breaks per day was associated with 20% lower odds for diabetes. A low physical activity level combined with long sedentary time might synergistically deteriorate cardio-metabolic health.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 21-10-2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0007114522003464
Abstract: Obesity and alcohol consumption are both important modifiable risk factors for cancer. We examined the joint association of adiposity and alcohol consumption with alcohol- and obesity-related cancer incidence. This prospective cohort study included cancer-free UK Biobank participants aged 40–69 years. Alcohol consumption was categorised based on current UK guidelines into four groups. We defined three markers of adiposity: body fat percentage (BF %), waist circumference and BMI and categorised each into three groups. We derived a joint alcohol consumption and adiposity marker variable with twelve mutually exclusive categories. Among 399 575 participants, 17 617 developed alcohol-related cancer and 20 214 developed obesity-related cancer over an average follow-up of 11·8 (SD 0·9) years. We found relatively weak evidence of independent associations of alcohol consumption with cancer outcomes. However, the joint association analyses showed that across all adiposity markers, above guideline drinkers who were in the top two adiposity groups had elevated cancer incidence risk (e.g. HR for alcohol-related cancer was 1·53 (95 % CI (1·24, 1·90)) for within guideline drinkers and 1·61 (95 % CI (1·30, 2·00)) for above guideline drinkers among participants who were in the top tertile BF %. Regardless of alcohol consumption status, the risk of obesity-related cancer increased with higher adiposity in a dose–response manner within alcohol consumption categories. Our study provides guidance for public health priorities aimed at lowering population cancer risk via two key modifiable risk factors.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-07-2022
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 6-week betaine supplementation during a preparatory period of collegiate athletes on muscular power and strength. Sixteen male collegiate athletes received 5 g/day of betaine (betaine group, n = 9) or carboxymethyl cellulose (placebo group, n = 7) for 6 weeks. All participants engaged in their regular training during the experimental period. The overhead medicine-ball throw (OMBT), countermovement jump, and maximal strength (one repetition maximum, 1-RM) on the bench press, overhead press, half squat, and sumo dead lift by the participants were assessed before and after betaine supplementation. Blood lipids were also analyzed before and after betaine supplementation. After supplementation, there were no significant differences between betaine and placebo groups on any variables. Compared to presupplementation, the performance of OMBT and 1-RM of overhead press and half squat in the betaine group had significantly improved (p 0.05). By contrast, no significant differences were observed in the placebo group before and after supplementation. Blood analysis revealed no negative effect on blood lipid profiles. Betaine seems to be a useful nutritional strategy to improve and maintain performance during 6-week preparatory periods in collegiate athletes.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 22-10-2019
DOI: 10.1101/19009738
Abstract: To examine the independent and joint associations thigh-worn accelerometry assessed sedentary time and moderate to vigorous physical activity with cardiometabolic health markers. Cross-sectional study embedded in the age-46 wave an established birth cohort, the 1970 British Birth Cohort. Population-based s le from Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). Outcome measures included: body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and c-reactive protein. Sedentary behavior and other physical activity exposures, recorded by a thigh-worn activPAL3 accelerometry, included: daily sedentary time, breaks in sedentary time, daily time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Multiple linear regression analyses, multiple logistic regression analyses, and general linear models were conducted as applicable. 4,634 participants were available for the final analysis. After adjusting for potential confounders and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, daily sedentary time was positively associated with triglycerides (β=0.052 [0.015, 0.089]) and inversely associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β=-0.015 [-0.022, -0.010]). Daily prolonged sedentary time (≥ 60 minutes) was positively associated with both glycated hemoglobin and log-transformed c-reactive protein (β=0.240 [0.030, 0.440] and 0.026 [0.007, 0.045], respectively) and inversely associated with systolic blood pressure and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (β=-0.450 [-0.760, -0.150] and -0.013 [-0.022, -0.003], respectively). After adjusting for potential confounders and daily sedentary time, daily breaks in sedentary time were inversely associated with glycated hemoglobin (β=-0.020 [-0.037, -0.003]), and positively associated with both triglycerides and systolic blood pressure (β=0.006 [0.002, 0.010] and 0.030 [0.002, 0.050], respectively). The joint associations of prolonged sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with the prevalence of diabetes were not statistically significant. Prolonged sedentary time (≥ 60 minutes) and daily breaks in sedentary time were deleteriously associated with glycated hemoglobin, although we found no evidence that there were joint moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sitting associations.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 15-03-2022
Abstract: Despite the well‐established capacity of physical activity to reduce blood pressure, the associations between physical activity with cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and mortality in people living with hypertension are not well understood. We examine the dose‐response associations of device‐assessed physical activity with all‐cause and CVD mortality and CVD incidence (total, stroke, and coronary heart disease) in adults with hypertension. This prospective study included data from 39 294 participants with hypertension in the UK Biobank study who had valid accelerometry data and for whom mortality and CVD followed‐up data were available. We categorized moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity and total physical activity volume into 4 categories based on the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles and used Cox regressions to estimate their associations with CVD mortality and incidence outcomes. Splines were used to assess the dose‐response associations. During a median follow‐up of 6.25 years (241 418 person‐years), 1518 deaths (549 attributable to CVD) and 4933 CVD (fatal and nonfatal) incident events were registered. Compared with the lowest category of moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity, the relative risks (hazard ratios and 95% CIs) of all‐cause mortality for increasing categories were 0.53 (0.46–0.61), 0.41 (0.34–0.49), and 0.36 (0.26–0.49). We found associations of similar magnitude for total CVD incidence, stroke, and coronary heart disease and for total physical activity volume across all outcomes. For all outcomes, there were linear or nearly linear inverse dose‐response relationships with no evidence of harms with high levels of physical activity. Results were robust to removing participants who died within the first 2 years. Our findings underscore the importance of physical activity for people living with hypertension and provide novel insights to support the development of physical activity guideline recommendations for this high‐risk group.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-03-2023
DOI: 10.1186/S12916-023-02732-X
Abstract: The complexity of sleep hinders the formulation of sleep guidelines. Recent studies suggest that different unhealthy sleep characteristics jointly increase the risks for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to estimate the differences in CVD-free life expectancy between people with different sleep profiles. We included 308,683 middle-aged adults from the UK Biobank among whom 140,181 had primary care data linkage. We used an established composite sleep score comprising self-reported chronotype, duration, insomnia complaints, snoring, and daytime sleepiness to derive three sleep categories: poor, intermediate, and healthy. We also identified three clinical sleep disorders captured by primary care and inpatient records within 2 years before enrollment in the cohort: insomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, and other sleep disorders. We estimated sex-specific CVD-free life expectancy with three-state Markov models conditioning on survival at age 40 across different sleep profiles and clinical disorders. We observed a gradual loss in CVD-free life expectancy toward poor sleep such as, compared with healthy sleepers, poor sleepers lost 1.80 [95% CI 0.96–2.75] and 2.31 [1.46–3.29] CVD-free years in females and males, respectively, while intermediate sleepers lost 0.48 [0.41–0.55] and 0.55 [0.49–0.61] years. Among men, those with clinical insomnia or sleep-related breathing disorders lost CVD-free life by 3.84 [0.61–8.59] or 6.73 [5.31–8.48] years, respectively. Among women, sleep-related breathing disorders or other sleep disorders were associated with 7.32 [5.33–10.34] or 1.43 [0.20–3.29] years lost, respectively. Both self-reported and doctor-diagnosed poor sleep are negatively associated with CVD-free life, especially pronounced in participants with sleep-related breathing disorders.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-10-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S40279-020-01368-8
Abstract: Recently revised public health guidelines acknowledge the health benefits of regular intermittent bouts of vigorous intensity incidental physical activity done as part of daily living, such as carrying shopping bags, walking uphill, and stair climbing. Despite this recognition and the advantages such lifestyle physical activity has over continuous vigorous intensity structured exercise, a scoping review we conducted revealed that current research in this area is, at best, rudimentary. Key gaps include the absence of an empirically-derived dose specification (e.g., minimum duration of lifestyle physical activity required to achieve absolute or relative vigorous intensity), lack of acceptable measurement standards, limited understanding of acute and chronic (adaptive) effects of intermittent vigorous bouts on health, and paucity of essential information necessary to develop feasible and scalable interventions (e.g., acceptability of this kind of physical activity by the public). To encourage collaboration and research agenda alignment among groups interested in this field, we propose a research framework to further understanding of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA). This framework comprises four pillars aimed at the development of: (a) an empirical definition of VILPA, (b) methods to reliably and accurately measure VILPA, (c) approaches to examine the short and long-term dose–response effects of VILPA, and (d) scalable and acceptable behavioural VILPA-promoting interventions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-05-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41430-021-00923-4
Abstract: The incidence of both non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic fatty liver disease (ALD) are expected to grow as a consequence of the ongoing obesity and alcohol consumption trends. We examined the joint associations of adiposity (body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC)) and alcohol consumption on ALD, NAFLD and liver disease incidence and mortality (n = 465,437). Alcohol consumption was categorised based on current UK guidelines (14 units/week). Data were analysed using Cox proportional hazard models. A total of 1090 liver disease deaths, 230 ALD deaths and 192 NAFLD deaths occurred over an average follow-up length of 10.5 ± 1.7 years. In multivariate models, we observed greater point estimates for risk of ALD, NAFLD and liver disease incidence and mortality among overweight/obese participants who consumed alcohol at the same level as normal weight participants. We found that overweight/obese participants who reported alcohol consumption above the guidelines had a greater HR for liver disease incidence and mortality (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.32, 1.75 and HR 2.20, 95% CI 1.41, 3.44, respectively) than normal weight in iduals (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.83, 1.09 and HR 1.24, 95% CI 0.8, 1.93, respectively). The results for the associations of alcohol consumption and WC with ALD, NAFLD and liver disease mortality were similar. Participants with high WC who reported alcohol consumption above the guidelines had a greater HR for liver disease incidence (HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.35, 1.87) than normal WC in iduals (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.72, 1.01). We found evidence that being overweight/obese lified the harmful effect of alcohol on the liver incidence and mortality.
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 29-06-2021
DOI: 10.1136/BJSPORTS-2021-104046
Abstract: Although both physical inactivity and poor sleep are deleteriously associated with mortality, the joint effects of these two behaviours remain unknown. This study aimed to investigate the joint association of physical activity (PA) and sleep with all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks. 380 055 participants aged 55.9 (8.1) years (55% women) from the UK Biobank were included. Baseline PA levels were categorised as high, medium, low and no moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) based on current public health guidelines. We categorised sleep into healthy, intermediate and poor with an established composited sleep score of chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness. We derived 12 PA–sleep combinations, accordingly. Mortality risks were ascertained to May 2020 for all-cause, total cardiovascular disease (CVD), CVD subtypes (coronary heart disease, haemorrhagic stroke, ischaemic stroke), as well as total cancer and lung cancer. After an average follow-up of 11.1 years, sleep scores showed dose-response associations with all-cause, total CVD and ischaemic stroke mortality. Compared with high PA-healthy sleep group (reference), the no MVPA-poor sleep group had the highest mortality risks for all-cause (HR (95% CIs), (1.57 (1.35 to 1.82)), total CVD (1.67 (1.27 to 2.19)), total cancer (1.45 (1.18 to 1.77)) and lung cancer (1.91 (1.30 to 2.81))). The deleterious associations of poor sleep with all outcomes, except for stroke, was lified with lower PA. The detrimental associations of poor sleep with all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks are exacerbated by low PA, suggesting likely synergistic effects. Our study supports the need to target both behaviours in research and clinical practice.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-09-2022
DOI: 10.1111/JSR.13727
Abstract: The direction of the association between discretionary screen time (DST) and sleep in the adult population is largely unknown. We examined the bidirectional associations of DST and sleep patterns in a longitudinal s le of adults in the general population. A total of 31,361 UK Biobank study participants (52% female, 56.1 ± 7.5 years) had two repeated measurements of discretionary screen time (TV viewing and leisure‐time computer use) and self‐reported sleep patterns (five sleep health characteristics) between 2012 and 2018 (follow‐up period of 6.9 ± 2.2 years). We categorised daily DST into three groups (low, h/day medium, 3–4 h/day and high, h/day), and calculated a sleep pattern composite score comprising morning chronotype, adequate sleep duration (7–8 h/day), never or rare insomnia, never or rare snoring, and infrequent daytime sleepiness. The overall sleep pattern was categorised into three groups (healthy: ≥ 4 intermediate: 2–3 and poor: ≤ 1 healthy sleep characteristic). Multiple logistic regression analyses were applied to assess associations between DST and sleep with adjustments for potential confounders. Participants with either an intermediate (OR: 1.40 95% CI: 1.15, 1.71) or a poor (OR: 1.16 95% CI: 1.10, 1.24) sleep pattern at baseline showed higher odds for high DST at follow‐up, compared with those with a healthy baseline sleep pattern. Participants with medium (OR: 1.40 95% CI: 1.14, 1.71) or high DST (OR: 1.62 95% CI: 1.30, 2.00) at baseline showed higher odds for poor sleep at follow‐up, compared with participants with a low DST. In conclusion, our findings provide consistent evidence that a high DST at baseline is associated with poor sleep over a nearly 7 year follow‐up period, and vice versa.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2022
Publisher: Human Kinetics
Date: 03-2021
Abstract: Background : Thigh-worn accelerometers have established reliability and validity for measurement of free-living physical activity-related behaviors. However, comparisons of methods for measuring sleep and time in bed using the thigh-worn accelerometer are rare. The authors compared the thigh-worn accelerometer algorithm that estimates time in bed with the output of a sleep diary (time in bed and time asleep). Methods : Participants ( N = 5,498), from the 1970 British Cohort Study, wore an activPAL device on their thigh continuously for 7 days and completed a sleep diary. Bland–Altman plots and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine associations between the algorithm derived and diary time in bed and asleep. Results : The algorithm estimated acceptable levels of agreement with time in bed when compared with diary time in bed (mean bias of −11.4 min limits of agreement −264.6 to 241.8). The algorithm-derived time in bed overestimated diary sleep time (mean bias of 55.2 min limits of agreement −204.5 to 314.8 min). Algorithm and sleep diary are reasonably correlated (ρ = .48, 95% confidence interval [.45, .52] for women and ρ = .51, 95% confidence interval [.47, .55] for men) and provide broadly comparable estimates of time in bed but not for sleep time. Conclusions : The algorithm showed acceptable estimates of time in bed compared with diary at the group level. However, about half of the participants were outside of the ±30 min difference of a clinically relevant limit at an in idual level.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 14-12-2022
DOI: 10.1093/AJE/KWAC212
Abstract: We conducted a systematic review to evaluate combinations of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep duration (defined as “movement behaviors”) and their associations with physical, psychological, and educational outcomes in children and adolescents. MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychInfo, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, EMBASE, and ERIC were searched in June 2020. Included studies needed to 1) quantitatively analyze the association of 2 or more movement behaviors with an outcome, 2) analyze a population between 5 and 17 years of age, and 3) include at least an English abstract. We included 141 studies. Most studies included the combination of physical activity and sedentary behavior in their analyses. Sleep was studied less frequently. In combination, a high level of physical activity and a low level of sedentary behavior were associated with the best physical health, psychological health, and education-related outcomes. Sleep was often included in the combination that was associated with the most favorable outcomes. Sedentary behavior had a stronger influence in adolescents than in children and tended to be associated more negatively with outcomes when it was defined as screen time than when defined as overall time spent being sedentary. More initiatives and guidelines combining all 3 movement behaviors will provide benefit with regard to adiposity, cardiometabolic risk factors, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular physical fitness, well-being, health-related quality of life, mental health, academic performance, and cognitive/executive function.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 27-11-2020
Abstract: This study evaluated the effects of 2 weeks of betaine supplementation on apoptosis, oxidative stress, and aerobic capacity after exhaustive endurance exercise (EEE). A double-blind, crossover, and counterbalanced design was adopted, with 10 healthy male participants asked to consume betaine (1.25 g of betaine mixed with 300 mL of sports beverage, twice per day for 2 weeks) or placebo (300 mL of sports beverage). All participants performed a graded exercise test on a treadmill to determine the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) before supplementation and then performed the EEE test at an intensity of 80% VO2max after 2 weeks of supplementation. The time to exhaustion, peak oxygen consumption, maximal heart rate, and average heart rate were recorded during the EEE test. Venous blood s les were drawn before, immediately after, and 3 h after the EEE test to assess apoptosis and the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP) decline of lymphocytes as well as the concentrations of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance and protein carbonyl. The results indicated that lymphocyte apoptosis was significantly higher immediately after and 3 h after EEE than before exercise in participants in the placebo trial. However, lymphocyte apoptosis exhibited no significant differences among the three time points in participants in the betaine trial. Moreover, apoptosis in the betaine trial was significantly lower immediately after and 3 h after exercise compared with the placebo trial. No differences were noted for other variables. Thus, 2 weeks of betaine supplementation can effectively attenuate lymphocyte apoptosis, which is elevated by EEE. However, betaine supplementation exhibited no effects on MTP decline, oxidative stress, or aerobic capacity.
No related grants have been discovered for Bo-Huei Huang.