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Background: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is a risk factor for atherosclerosis disease. We aimed to assess whether nitric oxide stable metabolites (NOx) and l-arginine mediate the association between PM 2.5 and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) increase., Methods: We selected 251 participants from the control group of GEA (Genetics of Atheroslerosis Disease Mexican) study (2008-2013) in Mexico City. Mediation models were carried out using pathway analyses, a special case of structural equation models., Results: The median concentration of PM 2.5 area under the curve (auc) was 25.2 µg/m 3 (interquartile range: 24.2-26.4 µg/m 3 ). Employing participants with observed values for both biomarkers (n = 117), the total effect of PM 2.5auc on mean cIMT at bilateral, right, and left was 19.27 µm (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.77, 32.78; P value = 0.005), 12.69 µm (95% CI: 0.67, 24.71; P value = 0.039), and 25.86 µm (95% CI: 3.18, 48.53; P value = 0.025) per each 1 µg/m 3 increase of PM 2.5auc . The direct effect of PM 2.5auc (per 1 µg/m 3 increase) was 18.89 µm (95% CI: 5.37, 32.41; P value = 0.006) for bilateral, 13.65 µm (95% CI: 0.76, 26.55; P value = 0.038) for right, and 24.13 µm (95% CI: 3.22, 45.03; P value = 0.024) for left. The indirect effects of NOx and l-arginine were not statistically significant showing that endothelial function biomarkers did not mediate PM 2.5 and cIMT associations. Although l-arginine was not a mediator in the PM 2.5 and cIMT pathway, a decrease in l-arginine was significantly associated with PM 2.5auc ., Conclusions: In this study of adults from Mexico City, we found that PM 2.5 was associated with an increase in cIMT at bilateral, left, and right, and these associations were not mediated by endothelial function biomarkers (l-arginine and NOx)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with regard to the content of this report., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The Environmental Epidemiology. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although some studies have investigated the relationships between beverage intake and reproductive health these have generated conflicting results., Objectives: To evaluate the associations between men's beverage intake and semen quality parameters and couple outcomes of medically assisted reproduction., Material and Methods: The relationship between preconception beverage intake and semen quality was evaluated in 896 semen samples from 343 men. The relation between beverage intake and medically assisted reproduction outcomes (fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy, total/clinical pregnancy loss, and live birth) was evaluated in 296 men and their female partners who underwent 714 medically assisted reproduction cycles: 306 intrauterine insemination cycles and 408 in vitro fertilization. Intake of caffeinated, alcoholic, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened beverages and sub-groups were considered as exposures., Results: Caffeinated, alcoholic, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened beverage intake was not associated with semen quality parameters or with fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy, or live birth in couples undergoing medically assisted reproduction. When specific types of beverages were explored, there was an inverse association between a greater intake of coffee/tea with caffeine and lower live birth probabilities in couples undergoing in vitro fertilization cycles. The adjusted probabilities (95% confidence interval) of live birth in the lowest and highest tertiles of intake were 0.49 (0.38, 0.61) and 0.33 (0.24, 0.43) for coffee with caffeine, and 0.49 (0.33, 0.51) and 0.31 (0.22, 0.41) for tea with caffeine. A similar trend was detected with liquor intake and live birth probabilities: 0.45 (0.37, 0.53) and 0.32 (0.25, 0.41). We also found an association between a greater beer intake and higher live birth probabilities. The adjusted probabilities (95% confidence interval) in the lowest and highest quartile of intake were 0.32 (0.23, 0.42) and 0.51 (0.39, 0.62)., Conclusion: Male preconception intakes of coffee, tea, and liquor were inversely associated, whereas beer intake was positively associated with the probability of live birth during infertility treatment., (© 2024 American Society of Andrology and European Academy of Andrology.)

Background and Aims: Breakfast consumption could have a synchronizer role in chronobiological functions. Across observational studies, the assessment of breakfast frequency consumption is heterogeneous, therefore consensus on the relation between of weekly frequency of breakfast consumption and the risk of diabetes is unclear. We examined the relation between weekly breakfast frequency consumption and the incidence of diabetes in middle-age women., Methods and Results: Since baseline (2006-2008) we prospectively followed 71,373 women from the Mexican Teachers' Cohort. Participants were classified according to breakfast consumption frequency of 0, 1-3, 4-6, or 7 days/week. Diabetes was identified by self-report and clinical-administrative databases. We used Cox proportional hazards multivariable models to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for breakfast frequency and diabetes adjusting for covariates. Stratified analyses were performed for age, birth weight, ethnicity, and physical activity. We identified 3613 new diabetes cases between baseline and 2014. The prevalence of daily breakfast consumers was 25%. The median follow-up was 2.2 years, interquartile range 1.8-3.8 years. Relative to women who skipped breakfast, those who consumed breakfast every day had a 12% lower risk of diabetes (multivariable HR = 0.88; 95% CI 0.78, 0.99; p-trend = 0.0018). One additional day per week of breakfast was associated with a lower risk of diabetes (HR = 0.98; 95% CI 0.97, 0.99). In stratified analysis, the observed inverse relation appeared to be stronger in women aged ≥40 years and in indigenous women., Conclusions: Breakfast frequency was inversely associated with the incidence of diabetes independently of lifestyle factors. Regular breakfast consumption may be a potential component of diabetes prevention., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To determine associations of maternal salivary aldosterone with blood pressure (BP) in pregnancy and infant birth weight-for-gestational age (BWGA)., Methods: We measured maternal salivary aldosterone, BP and BWGA z-scores in 471 Mexico City pregnancy cohort participants and performed multivariable linear regression of BP and BWGA on log-aldosterone levels., Results: Log-aldosterone was positively associated with diastolic BP (β = 0.12 95% CI: 0.04, 0.21). There were no main effects of log-aldosterone on BWGA. However, we detected an interaction between log-aldosterone and BP in association with BWGA; higher log-aldosterone was associated with lower BWGA in the lowest (β = -0.12, 95% CI: -0.26, 0.02) and highest (β = -0.12, 95% CI: -0.29, 0.06) BP tertiles. In contrast, in the middle BP tertile the association was positive (β = 0.09, 95% CI: -0.02, 0.20), p for interaction = 0.03., Conclusion: Higher maternal salivary aldosterone is positively associated with diastolic BP and may affect fetal growth differently depending on concurrent maternal blood pressure., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.)

Objectives: To analyze the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) trends in the 2000-2020 period and its association with social determinants of health (SDH) in Mexican municipalities., Study Design: This was a retrospective longitudinal study analyzing data from routine information systems on 21,493,076 hospital discharges due to maternal causes and SDH data of 2,439-2,450 municipalities between 2000 and 2020., Main Outcomes Measures: We used joinpoint regression models to analyze HDP trends and hybrid negative binomial regression models to examine the association between SDH and HDP rates at intra- and inter-municipality levels., Results: HDP rate increased from 0.54 in 2000 to 2.42 cases per 100 live births in 2020 (annual average percent change of 7.7 %, 95 % CI 6.6-8.9). Municipalities with higher marginalization index had higher HDP rates (IRR 1.12, 95 % CI 1.01-1.24; 1.36, 95 % CI 1.25-1.47; 1.30, 95 % CI 1.23-1.37, and 1.06, 95 % CI 1.00-1.12, in 2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014, 2015-2020, respectively). Municipal increases in the percentage of population with high schooling were associated with decreases in HDP rates in 2000-2009. Meanwhile, the role of socioeconomic status at the state level was less consistent, yet the HDP rates were lower in most socially advantaged regions., Conclusion: During 21 years, HDP rates increased overall in Mexican municipalities, suggesting an increased maternal morbidity burden due to HDP. The association of municipal marginalization and socioeconomic level with HDP trends indicates a need to ensure equitable interventions to improve maternal health in Mexican municipalities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Plant-based diets have been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in nonpregnant adults, but specific evidence for their effects on risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy is scarce., Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the prospective association between adherence to plant-based diets before pregnancy and the risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. We hypothesized that women with higher adherence to plant-based diets would have a lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy., Study Design: We followed 11,459 parous women (16,780 singleton pregnancies) without chronic diseases, a history of preeclampsia, and cancers who participated in the Nurses' Health Study II (1991-2009), which was a prospective cohort study. Diet was assessed every 4 years using a validated food frequency questionnaire from which we calculated the plant-based diet index (higher score indicates higher adherence) to evaluate the health associations of plant-based diets among participants while accounting for the quality of plant-based foods. Participants self-reported hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. We estimated the relative risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in relation to plant-based diet index adherence in quintiles using generalized estimating equations log-binomial regression while adjusting for potential confounders and accounting for repeated pregnancies for the same woman., Results: The mean (standard deviation) age at first in-study pregnancy was 35 (4) years. A total of 1033 cases of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including 482 cases of preeclampsia (2.9%) and 551 cases of gestational hypertension (3.3%) were reported. Women in the highest quintile of plant-based diet index were significantly associated with a lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy than women in the lowest quintile (relative risk, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.62-0.93). There was an inverse dose-response relationship between plant-based diet index and risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The multivariable-adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval) of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy for women in increasing quintiles of plant-based diet index were 1 (ref), 0.93 (0.78-1.12), 0.86 (0.72-1.03), 0.84 (0.69-1.03), and 0.76 (0.62-0.93) with a significant linear trend across quintiles (P trend=.005). This association was slightly stronger for gestational hypertension (relative risk, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.99) than for preeclampsia (relative risk, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.61-1.04). Mediation analysis suggested that body mass index evaluation for dietary assessment and pregnancy explained 39% (95% confidence interval, 15%-70%]) of the relation between plant-based diet index and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and 48% (95% confidence interval, 12%-86%]) of the relation between plant-based diet index and gestational hypertension., Conclusion: Higher adherence to plant-based diets was associated with a lower risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Much of the benefit seems to be related to improved weight control., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)