Browsing by Author "Olsen A"

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    Prospective and Mendelian randomization analyses on the association of circulating fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP-4) and risk of colorectal cancer.
    (BioMed Central, 2023-10-13) Nimptsch K; Aleksandrova K; Pham TT; Papadimitriou N; Janke J; Christakoudi S; Heath A; Olsen A; Tjønneland A; Schulze MB; Katzke V; Kaaks R; van Guelpen B; Harbs J; Palli D; Macciotta A; Pasanisi F; Yohar SMC; Guevara M; Amiano P; Grioni S; Jakszyn PG; Figueiredo JC; Samadder NJ; Li CI; Moreno V; Potter JD; Schoen RE; Um CY; Weiderpass E; Jenab M; Gunter MJ; Pischon T
    BACKGROUND: Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP-4) is a lipid-binding adipokine upregulated in obesity, which may facilitate fatty acid supply for tumor growth and promote insulin resistance and inflammation and may thus play a role in colorectal cancer (CRC) development. We aimed to investigate the association between circulating FABP-4 and CRC and to assess potential causality using a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: The association between pre-diagnostic plasma measurements of FABP-4 and CRC risk was investigated in a nested case-control study in 1324 CRC cases and the same number of matched controls within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. A two-sample Mendelian randomization study was conducted based on three genetic variants (1 cis, 2 trans) associated with circulating FABP-4 identified in a published genome-wide association study (discovery n = 20,436) and data from 58,131 CRC cases and 67,347 controls in the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium, Colorectal Cancer Transdisciplinary Study, and Colon Cancer Family Registry. RESULTS: In conditional logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders including body size, the estimated relative risk, RR (95% confidence interval, CI) per one standard deviation, SD (8.9 ng/mL) higher FABP-4 concentration was 1.01 (0.92, 1.12) overall, 0.95 (0.80, 1.13) in men and 1.09 (0.95, 1.25) in women. Genetically determined higher FABP-4 was not associated with colorectal cancer risk (RR per FABP-4 SD was 1.10 (0.95, 1.27) overall, 1.03 (0.84, 1.26) in men and 1.21 (0.98, 1.48) in women). However, in a cis-MR approach, a statistically significant association was observed in women (RR 1.56, 1.09, 2.23) but not overall (RR 1.23, 0.97, 1.57) or in men (0.99, 0.71, 1.37). CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these analyses provide no support for a causal role of circulating FABP-4 in the development of CRC, although the cis-MR provides some evidence for a positive association in women, which may deserve to be investigated further.
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    Why public health practitioners and researchers must stop using the term ‘culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)’
    (CSIRO Publishing, 2025-08-21) Pourmarzi D; Murray L; Zulfiqar T; Kaur G; Olsen A
    The term ‘culturally and linguistically diverse’ (CALD) is used in Australia to describe some groups of migrants. Implicitly, the term defines ‘others’ who are ‘different’ to the dominant normative Australian. The use of the term as standard language in health literature and public discourse has increased dramatically over the past decade. Australians who are labelled as CALD have argued that the term affects their sense of belonging to the Australian community. As public health researchers and practitioners, we must minimise potential risks of harm, maximise health benefits and ensure the rigour of our data collection, analysis and reporting methods. We argue that we must refrain from continuing to use this concept and that there is no need for a new label to categorise some members of our diverse Australian population as ‘others’.