Suicide among hospitality workers in Australia, 2006-2017

PURPOSE

Suicide among hospitality workers has recently attracted attention in the media. To date, little is known about suicide among hospitality workers in Australia.

METHODS

Suicide data were obtained from the National Coronial Information System (NCIS). Occupational suicide rates were calculated using the Australian Bureau of Statistics population-level data from the 2011 census. Negative binomial regression, univariate logistic regression, and multivariate logistic regression were used to estimate the association between suicide and employment as a hospitality worker over the period 2006-2017, compared to all other occupations.

RESULTS

Suicide rates for chefs was significantly higher than for persons in non-hospitality occupations [incidence rate ratio (IRR), 3.93; 95% CI 2.53-5.79; P < 0.001]. The interaction between occupation and sex was examined with follow-up testing. Suicide rates for female chefs were significantly higher than for females in non-hospitality occupations (IRR, 3.93; 95% CI 2.60-5.94). Suicide rates for male chefs were also significantly higher than males in non-hospitality occupations (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI 1.14-1.67). Compared with non-hospitality occupations, hospitality workers who died by suicide had significantly greater odds of being female (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.50-0.79), residing in residential Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) classified as most disadvantaged (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.19-2.20), and being born outside of Australia (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.34-2.25).

CONCLUSION

Results indicate the need for targeted prevention of suicide by Australian hospitality workers. Overall, results suggest that specific hospitality occupations present a higher risk of suicidal behaviour than other non-hospitality occupations.

Large trans-ethnic meta-analysis identifies AKR1C4 as a novel gene associated with age at menarche

STUDY QUESTION

Does the expansion of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to a broader range of ancestries improve the ability to identify and generalise variants associated with age at menarche (AAM) in European populations to a wider range of world populations?

SUMMARY ANSWER

By including women with diverse and predominantly non-European ancestry in a large-scale meta-analysis of AAM with half of the women being of African ancestry, we identified a new locus associated with AAM in African-ancestry participants, and generalised loci from GWAS of European ancestry individuals.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY

AAM is a highly polygenic puberty trait associated with various diseases later in life. Both AAM and diseases associated with puberty timing vary by race or ethnicity. The majority of GWAS of AAM have been performed in European ancestry women.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION

We analysed a total of 38 546 women who did not have predominantly European ancestry backgrounds: 25 149 women from seven studies from the ReproGen Consortium and 13 397 women from the UK Biobank. In addition, we used an independent sample of 5148 African-ancestry women from the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS) for replication.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS

Each AAM GWAS was performed by study and ancestry or ethnic group using linear regression models adjusted for birth year and study-specific covariates. ReproGen and UK Biobank results were meta-analysed using an inverse variance-weighted average method. A trans-ethnic meta-analysis was also carried out to assess heterogeneity due to different ancestry.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE

We observed consistent direction and effect sizes between our meta-analysis and the largest GWAS conducted in European or Asian ancestry women. We validated four AAM loci (1p31, 6q16, 6q22 and 9q31) with common genetic variants at P < 5 × 10-7. We detected one new association (10p15) at P < 5 × 10-8 with a low-frequency genetic variant lying in AKR1C4, which was replicated in an independent sample. This gene belongs to a family of enzymes that regulate the metabolism of steroid hormones and have been implicated in the pathophysiology of uterine diseases. The genetic variant in the new locus is more frequent in African-ancestry participants, and has a very low frequency in Asian or European-ancestry individuals.

LARGE SCALE DATA

N/A.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION

Extreme AAM (<9 years or >18 years) were excluded from analysis. Women may not fully recall their AAM as most of the studies were conducted many years later. Further studies in women with diverse and predominantly non-European ancestry are needed to confirm and extend these findings, but the availability of such replication samples is limited.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS

Expanding association studies to a broader range of ancestries or ethnicities may improve the identification of new genetic variants associated with complex diseases or traits and the generalisation of variants from European-ancestry studies to a wider range of world populations.

STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)

Funding was provided by CHARGE Consortium grant R01HL105756-07: Gene Discovery For CVD and Aging Phenotypes and by the NIH grant U24AG051129 awarded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Chronic Periodontitis Genome-wide Association Study in the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos

Chronic periodontitis (CP) has a genetic component, particularly its severe forms. Evidence from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) has highlighted several potential novel loci. Here, the authors report the first GWAS of CP among a large community-based sample of Hispanics/Latinos. The authors interrogated a quantitative trait of CP (mean interproximal clinical attachment level determined by full-mouth periodontal examinations) among 10,935 adult participants (mean age: 45 y, range: 18 to 76 y) from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos. Genotyping was done with a custom Illumina Omni2.5M array, and imputation to approximately 20 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms was based on the 1000 Genomes Project phase 1 reference panel. Analyses were based on linear mixed models adjusting for sex, age, study design features, ancestry, and kinship and employed a conventional P < 5 × 10^-8 statistical significance threshold. The authors identified a genome-wide significant association signal in the 1q42.2 locus ( TSNAX-DISC1 noncoding RNA, lead single-nucleotide polymorphism: rs149133391, minor allele [C] frequency = 0.01, P = 7.9 × 10^-9) and 4 more loci with suggestive evidence of association ( P < 5 × 10^-6): 1q22 (rs13373934), 5p15.33 (rs186066047), 6p22.3 (rs10456847), and 11p15.1 (rs75715012). We tested these loci for replication in independent samples of European-American ( n = 4,402) and African-American ( n = 908) participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. There was no replication among the European Americans; however, the TSNAX-DISC1 locus replicated in the African-American sample (rs149133391, minor allele frequency = 0.02, P = 9.1 × 10^-3), while the 1q22 locus was directionally concordant and nominally significant (rs13373934, P = 4.0 × 10^-2). This discovery GWAS of interproximal clinical attachment level-a measure of lifetime periodontal tissue destruction-was conducted in a large, community-based sample of Hispanic/Latinos. It identified a genome-wide significant locus that was independently replicated in an African-American population. Identifying this genetic marker offers direction for interrogation in subsequent genomic and experimental studies of CP.

Abstract 4591: Estrogen receptor beta controls a wide variety of functions in breast cancer cells

The role of ER alpha as the mediator of estrogen action in breast cancer (BC) cells is well known, however, the role of ER beta is controversial. The majority of BC expressing ER alpha also express ER beta. Some clinical studies suggest that ER beta expression is a good prognosticator; however, in others, especially where expression levels of ER beta &gt; ER alpha, ER beta may be associated with more advanced BC. Previously, we showed that ER beta may regulate a number of signaling pathways (AACR, 2008). Our recent work demonstrates that ER beta has even wider actions in MCF7 and T47D cells stably overexpressing ER beta. Thus, ER beta decreased phospho (p)/ total Stat1, p Stat3, p Stat5/total Stat5. Expression of the oncogenic miR cluster 17-92 was highly reduced (p&lt;0.01) when ER beta overexpressing vs. control cells were compared. ER beta also decreased PPAR gamma, superoxide dismutase, as well as the concentration of the mRNA processing factor, RBM5, and the activated form of AMPK. All these changes were significant (p&lt;0.05) in triplicate measurements. While ER beta overexpression increased migration through Matrigel, it significantly decreased CXCR4 expression (p&lt;0.05, n=4). All of these effects of ER beta were estrogen-independent. On the other hand, estrogen increased CXCR4 expression in MCF7 cells significantly. In our study, we analyzed the expression of ER beta and BAD using tissue microarrays with normal and neoplastic breast tissue. Our immunohistochemical (IHC) data revealed a significant increase of ER beta cytoplasmic staining in neoplastic cells compared to normal cells (p&lt;0.001). In addition, the nuclear expression of ER beta was significantly decreased in neoplastic cells compared to normal cells (p&lt;0.01). From our correlation analysis of IHC data obtained from tissue microarray, we identified that cytoplasmic expression of BAD was negatively correlated with cytoplasmic expression of ER beta. In addition, the nuclear expression of BAD was significantly positively correlated with nuclear ER beta.

These results suggest that ER beta has a wide variety of actions in BC cells, as predicted by the regulation of 62 miRs (p&lt;0.01) as determined by Exiqon Inc. Taken together our results suggest that ER beta may have a multitude of actions in breast cancer and that the ratio of ER alpha/beta may determine the prognostic outcome.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4591.

Comparison of a nested polymerase chain reaction--restriction fragment length polymorphism method, the PATH antigen detection method, and microscopy for the detection and identification of malaria parasites

A nested polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method, the PATH antigen detection method, and light microscopy were compared for their capacity to detect and identify Plasmodium species. One hundred and thirty-six blood specimens obtained from patients suspected of having malaria were examined by each of the three methods. Forty-four specimens were positive for malaria using microscopy as the "gold standard". The sensitivity for nested PCR was 100%, and the specificity was 98%. For the detection of Plasmodium falciparum, the antigen detection method had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 97%. Species identification obtained using PCR-RFLP was identical or superior to light microscopy in 42 cases (96%). Although the nested PCR-RFLP method was more sensitive and specific, the rapid turnaround time and high sensitivity of the antigen detection method makes it a useful adjunct to standard microscopy.

Cloning and characterization of ribosomal RNA genes from Opisthorchis viverrini

The ribosomal DNA (rDNA) unit of the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini has been cloned and characterized. The results demonstrated that the total length of this unit is approximately 13 kb, containing 4.2 kb of large subunit (LSU) rDNA, 2.0 kb of small subunit (SSU) rDNA, 1.0 kb of transcribed spacer DNA and 5.8 kb of non-transcribed + external transcribed spacer DNA. Examination of the non-transcribed spacer region between different rDNA units showed variation in the restriction sites rather than in the length. Judging from hybridization of the rDNA plasmid to the restriction endonuclease digest of genomic DNA, rDNA units represent 6.1% of the total genomic DNA. At the RNA level, the LSU rRNA of O. viverrini and Fasciola gigantica contained a hidden break. The molecule consisted of two fragments co-migrating with a SSU rRNA, when electrophoresis was carried out under denaturing conditions. Ribosomal RNA sequence comparison has been previously used to determine phylogenetic classification of parasitic organisms. The sequence of 381 nucleotides at the 5' terminus of the LSU rRNA gene was determined and compared with those from species previously reported by other investigators. Phylogenetic classification of O. viverrini, as determined by rRNA gene sequence comparison, is comparable with the conventional taxonomic classification.

Isoenzyme analysis of human and animal isolates of Giardia duodenalis from British Columbia, Canada

Isoenzyme patterns of 32 isolates of Giardia duodenalis, obtained from 6 beavers and 11 humans from British Columbia, plus 15 other isolates were evaluated using thin-layer starch-gel electrophoresis. We attempted to use 12 enzymes; 9 gave reproducible and interpretable results. The isoenzyme patterns of the isolates were classified into 12 groups with 17 (53%) of the 32 isolates confined to 1 group. The other 11 groups each comprised only 1 or 2 isolates. There was no obvious correlation between clinical symptoms and isoenzyme patterns. Our findings suggest that beavers, like humans and gerbils are receptive to organisms with many different isoenzyme patterns.

Isoenzyme patterns of isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis from Vancouver

Isoenzyme patterns of 63 isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis obtained in Vancouver were evaluated by use of thin-layer starch-gel electrophoresis. We attempted to use eight enzymes, but only four gave reproducible and interpretable results. There were four patterns with malic enzyme, two with malate dehydrogenase, one with hexokinase, and four with lactate dehydrogenase. The isoenzyme patterns of the 63 isolates were classified into 15 groups, but 49 (78%) fell into five groups and 14 (22%) fell into ten groups. There was no obvious correlation between groups and magnitude of symptoms and signs, past history of trichomoniasis, or likelihood of treatment failure. Results were consistent for isolates obtained from the same patient on different days. This system will allow differentiation of isolates into groups, a procedure that could be useful. However, groups do not appear to correlate with clinical or historical features or with outcome of treatment.

The electrophoretic isoenzyme patterns of strains of Entamoeba histolytica isolated in two major cities in Canada

The isoenzyme patterns of 92 isolates of Entamoeba histolytica from British Columbia and 28 from Ontario were determined. Seropositivity for E. histolytica was assessed by indirect hemagglutination and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the one center and by ELISA and amebic gel diffusion in the other. In both British Columbia and Ontario nonpathogenic zymodemes I and III were most common. A newly described isoenzyme pattern was identified in Ontario. Only 9 of 120 zymodeme patterns identified were found to be pathogenic strains of E. histolytica. Pathogenic isolates were strongly correlated with clinical symptoms and seropositivity.