Childhood impulsive behavior and problem gambling by adulthood: a 30-year prospective community-based study.

AIMS: Problem gambling can create major financial, emotional and sometimes criminal problems for an individual. This study prospectively investigated the association between impulsive behavior at age 7 and the development of life-time problem gambling by adulthood. We also examined the specificity of any observed association between impulsive behaviors and problem gambling by conducting parallel analyses examining the link between respondents' shy/depressed behavior in childhood and later problem gambling. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Cohort study of 958 offspring of mothers enrolled in the Collaborative Perinatal Project who participated in an adult follow-up study at a mean age of 39.2 years. MEASUREMENTS: Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to determine associations between psychologist-rated impulsive and shy/depressed behaviors at age 7 and life-time self-reported gambling as measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen administered during the adult follow-up study. FINDINGS: Children who exhibited impulsive behaviors at age 7, compared to their non-impulsive counterparts, were 3.09 (95% confidence interval: 1.40-6.82) times as likely to report problem gambling years later. In contrast, we did not find a significant association between childhood shy/depressed behavior and problem gambling by adulthood in adjusted analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Impulsive behaviors at age 7 are a specific and significant risk factor for later problem gambling.

Implications of LINE1 methylation for bladder cancer risk in women.

PURPOSE: Epigenetic alterations including changes to cellular DNA methylation levels contribute to carcinogenesis and may serve as powerful biomarkers of the disease. This investigation sought to determine whether hypomethylation at the long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE1), reflective of the level of global DNA methylation, in peripheral blood-derived DNA is associated with increased risk of bladder cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: LINE1 methylation was measured from blood-derived DNA obtained from participants of a population-based incident case-control study of bladder cancer in New Hampshire. Bisulfite-modified DNA was pyrosequenced to determine LINE1 methylation status; a total of 285 cases and 465 controls were evaluated for methylation. RESULTS: Being in the lowest LINE1 methylation decile was associated with a 1.8-fold increased risk of bladder cancer [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.12-2.90] in models controlling for gender, age, and smoking, and the association was stronger in women than in men (odds ratio, 2.48; 95% CI, 1.19-5.17 in women; and odds ratio, 1.47; 95% CI, 0.79-2.74 in men). Among controls, women were more likely to have lower LINE1 methylation than men (P = 0.04), and levels of arsenic in the 90th percentile were associated with reduced LINE1 methylation (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: LINE1 hypomethylation may be an important biomarker of bladder cancer risk, especially among women.