ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7496-082X
Current Organisation
The University of Edinburgh
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 04-2021
DOI: 10.1017/THG.2021.14
Abstract: Adult socioeconomic status (SES) has been consistently associated with body mass index (BMI), but it is unclear whether it is linked to BMI independently of childhood SES or other potentially confounding factors. Twin studies can address this issue by implicitly controlling for childhood SES and unmeasured confounders. This co-twin control study used cross-sectional data from Twins Research Australia’s Health and Lifestyle Questionnaire ( N = 1918 twin pairs). We investigated whether adult SES, as measured by both the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) and the Australian Socioeconomic Index 2006 (AUSEI06), was associated with BMI after controlling for factors shared by twins within a pair. The primary analysis was a linear mixed-effects model that estimated effects both within and between pairs. Between pairs, a 10-unit increase in AUSEI06 was associated with a 0.29 kg/m 2 decrease in BMI (95% CI [−.42, −.17], p .001), and a 1-decile increase in IRSD was associated with a 0.26 kg/m 2 decrease in BMI (95% CI [−.35, −.17], p .001). No association was observed within pairs. In conclusion, higher adult SES was associated with lower BMI between pairs, but no association was observed within pairs. Thus, the link between adult SES and BMI may be due to confounding factors common to twins within a pair.
Publisher: American Medical Association (AMA)
Date: 06-2021
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 28-09-2020
DOI: 10.2196/21749
Abstract: Exercise is a core recommended treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA), yet adherence declines, particularly following cessation of clinician supervision. This study aims to evaluate whether a 24-week SMS intervention improves adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity compared with no SMS. A two-group superiority randomized controlled trial was performed in a community setting. Participants were people aged 50 years with knee OA and BMI ≥30 kg/m2 who had undertaken a 12-week physiotherapist-supervised exercise program as part of a preceding clinical trial. Both groups were asked to continue their home exercise program unsupervised three times per week for 24 weeks and were randomly allocated to a behavior change theory–informed, automated, semi-interactive SMS intervention addressing exercise barriers and facilitators or to control (no SMS). Primary outcomes were self-reported home exercise adherence at 24 weeks measured by the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS) Section B (0-24, higher number indicating greater adherence) and the number of days exercised in the past week (0-3). Secondary outcomes included self-rated adherence (numeric rating scale), knee pain, physical function, quality of life, global change, physical activity, self-efficacy, pain catastrophizing, and kinesiophobia. A total of 110 participants (56 SMS group and 54 no SMS) were enrolled and 99 (90.0%) completed both primary outcomes (48/56, 86% SMS group and 51/54, 94% no SMS). At 24 weeks, the SMS group reported higher EARS scores (mean 16.5, SD 6.5 vs mean 13.3, SD 7.0 mean difference 3.1, 95% CI 0.8-5.5 P=.01) and more days exercised in the past week (mean 1.8, SD 1.2 vs mean 1.3, SD 1.2 mean difference 0.6, 95% CI 0.2-1.0 P=.01) than the control group. There was no evidence of between-group differences in secondary outcomes. An SMS program increased self-reported adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity, although this did not translate into improved clinical outcomes. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 12617001243303 2ud7on5 RR2-10.1186/s12891-019-2801-z
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.15.540689
Abstract: DNA methylation rates have previously been found to broadly correlate with maximum lifespan in mammals, yet no precise relationship has been observed. We compared methylation rates at conserved age-related sites across mammals in both skin and blood and found that methylation rates scale with maximum lifespan to the power of negative one. The emergence of an explicit scaling law suggests that methylation rate is either a fundamental limiting factor in maximum lifespan across species or is linked to an underlying universal constraint.
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 15-06-2021
DOI: 10.2196/27860
Abstract: The internet is used for information related to health conditions, including low back pain (LBP), but most LBP websites provide inaccurate information. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of internet resources in changing health literacy or treatment choices. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the MyBackPain website compared with unguided internet use on health literacy, choice of treatments, and clinical outcomes in people with LBP. This was a pragmatic, web-based, participant- and assessor-blinded randomized trial of in iduals with LBP stratified by duration. Participants were randomly allocated to have access to the evidence-based MyBackPain website, which was designed with input from consumers and expert consensus or unguided internet use. The coprimary outcomes were two dimensions of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (dimension 2: “having sufficient information to manage my health ” dimension 3: “actively managing my health ” converted to scores 1-100) at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included additional Health Literacy Questionnaire dimensions, quality of treatment choices, and clinical outcomes. A total of 453 participants were recruited, and 321 (70.9%) completed the primary outcomes. Access to MyBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use on primary outcomes (dimension 2: mean difference −0.87 units, 95% CI −3.56 to 1.82 dimension 3: mean difference −0.41 units, 95% CI −2.78 to 1.96). Between-group differences in other secondary outcomes had inconsistent directions and were unlikely to be clinically important, although a small improvement of unclear importance in the quality of stated treatment choices at 1 month was found (mean difference 0.93 units, 95% CI 0.03 to 1.84). MyBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use for health literacy, but data suggest some short-term improvement in treatment choices. Future research should investigate if greater interactivity and engagement with the website may enhance its impact. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12617001292369 www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=372926 RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027516
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 23-06-2020
Abstract: xercise is a core recommended treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA), yet adherence declines, particularly following cessation of clinician supervision. his study aims to evaluate whether a 24-week SMS intervention improves adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity compared with no SMS. two-group superiority randomized controlled trial was performed in a community setting. Participants were people aged 50 years with knee OA and BMI ≥30 kg/m sup /sup who had undertaken a 12-week physiotherapist-supervised exercise program as part of a preceding clinical trial. Both groups were asked to continue their home exercise program unsupervised three times per week for 24 weeks and were randomly allocated to a behavior change theory–informed, automated, semi-interactive SMS intervention addressing exercise barriers and facilitators or to control (no SMS). Primary outcomes were self-reported home exercise adherence at 24 weeks measured by the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS) Section B (0-24, higher number indicating greater adherence) and the number of days exercised in the past week (0-3). Secondary outcomes included self-rated adherence (numeric rating scale), knee pain, physical function, quality of life, global change, physical activity, self-efficacy, pain catastrophizing, and kinesiophobia. total of 110 participants (56 SMS group and 54 no SMS) were enrolled and 99 (90.0%) completed both primary outcomes (48/56, 86% SMS group and 51/54, 94% no SMS). At 24 weeks, the SMS group reported higher EARS scores (mean 16.5, SD 6.5 vs mean 13.3, SD 7.0 mean difference 3.1, 95% CI 0.8-5.5 i P /i =.01) and more days exercised in the past week (mean 1.8, SD 1.2 vs mean 1.3, SD 1.2 mean difference 0.6, 95% CI 0.2-1.0 i P /i =.01) than the control group. There was no evidence of between-group differences in secondary outcomes. n SMS program increased self-reported adherence to unsupervised home exercise in people with knee OA and obesity, although this did not translate into improved clinical outcomes. ustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 12617001243303 2ud7on5 R2-10.1186/s12891-019-2801-z
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 02-03-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.01.530570
Abstract: The emergence of epigenetic predictors was a pivotal moment in geroscience, propelling the measurement and concept of biological ageing into a quantitative era. However, while current epigenetic clocks have shown strong predictive power, they do not reflect the underlying biological mechanisms driving methylation changes with age. Consequently, biological interpretation of their estimates is limited. Furthermore, our findings suggest that clocks trained on chronological age are confounded by non-age-related phenomena. To address these limitations, we developed a probabilistic model that describes methylation transitions at the cellular level. Our approach reveals two measurable components, acceleration and bias, that directly relate to perturbations of the underlying cellular dynamics. Acceleration is the proportional increase in the speed of methylation transitions across CpG sites, whereas bias is the degree of global change in methylation affecting all CpG sites uniformly. Using data from 7,028 participants from the Generation Scotland study, we found the age acceleration parameter to be associated with physiological traits known to impact healthy ageing. Furthermore, a genome-wide association study of age acceleration identified four genomic loci previously linked with ageing.
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 10-02-2021
Abstract: he internet is used for information related to health conditions, including low back pain (LBP), but most LBP websites provide inaccurate information. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of internet resources in changing health literacy or treatment choices. his study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the MyBackPain website compared with unguided internet use on health literacy, choice of treatments, and clinical outcomes in people with LBP. his was a pragmatic, web-based, participant- and assessor-blinded randomized trial of in iduals with LBP stratified by duration. Participants were randomly allocated to have access to the evidence-based MyBackPain website, which was designed with input from consumers and expert consensus or unguided internet use. The coprimary outcomes were two dimensions of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (dimension 2: “having sufficient information to manage my health ” dimension 3: “actively managing my health ” converted to scores 1-100) at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included additional Health Literacy Questionnaire dimensions, quality of treatment choices, and clinical outcomes. total of 453 participants were recruited, and 321 (70.9%) completed the primary outcomes. Access to MyBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use on primary outcomes (dimension 2: mean difference −0.87 units, 95% CI −3.56 to 1.82 dimension 3: mean difference −0.41 units, 95% CI −2.78 to 1.96). Between-group differences in other secondary outcomes had inconsistent directions and were unlikely to be clinically important, although a small improvement of unclear importance in the quality of stated treatment choices at 1 month was found (mean difference 0.93 units, 95% CI 0.03 to 1.84). yBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use for health literacy, but data suggest some short-term improvement in treatment choices. Future research should investigate if greater interactivity and engagement with the website may enhance its impact. ustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12617001292369 www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=372926 R2-10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027516
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Sam Crofts.