Emelia Benjamin

Boston University | BU · Professor of Medicine, BUSM and Epidemiology BUSPH

Background Although tobacco product use and transitions have been characterized in the general population, few studies have focused on individuals with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a population‐based sample. Methods and Results We examined tobacco use prevalence and longitudinal patterns of tobacco product transitions in adults (≥18...

Objectives We evaluated whether higher (i.e., pro-inflammatory) Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores were associated with increased concentrations of inflammatory markers in the community-based Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort. Methods We studied 1978 participants (age 61 [SD, 9] years, 53.9% women) from the Offspring cohort who co...

Aims Incident atrial fibrillation (AF) is an adverse prognostic indicator in heart failure (HF); identifying modifiable targets may be relevant to reduce the incidence and morbidity of AF. Therefore, we examined the association between quality of HF care and risk of AF. Methods and results Using the Danish Heart Failure Registry, we conducted a na...

BACKGROUND Daily physical activities are related to the development of diabetes. However, traditional research methods are not optimal to document long-term daily routine patterns. mHealth offers an effective approach to collect users’ long-term daily activities and daily routine patterns. OBJECTIVE To evaluate cross-sectional associations of dail...

Background Although Black adults are more likely to die from coronary heart disease (CHD) compared with White adults, few studies have examined the relationship between cigarette smoking and CHD risk among Black adults. We evaluated the relationship between cigarette smoking, incident CHD, and coronary artery calcification in the JHS (Jackson Heart...

Aims Evidence suggests that peripheral vascular function is related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We evaluated the associations of non-invasive measures of flow-mediated dilatation and peripheral arterial tonometry with incident CVD and mortality. Methods and results In a post-hoc analysis of the community-based Gutenberg Health...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia leading to many adverse outcomes and increased mortality. Yet the molecular mechanisms underlying AF remain largely unknown. Recent advances in high-throughput technologies make large-scale molecular profiling possible. In the past decade, multiomics studies of AF have identified a number of p...

The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme seeks to elucidate the genetic architecture and biology of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders, with the ultimate goal of improving diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these diseases. The initial phases of the programme focused on whole-genome sequencing of individuals with rich phenot...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-01185-6.

We characterized monitor utilization in stroke survivors and assessed associations with underlying clinical atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke 10/2018-6/2019 without prevalent AF and assessed the six-month incidence of monitor utilization (Holter/ECG, event/patch, implantable l...

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties with a heritability estimate of up to 61%. The circulating levels of IL-6 in blood have been associated with an increased risk of complex disease pathogenesis. We conducted a two-staged, discovery, and replication meta genome-wide association study (G...

Because single genetic variants may have pleiotropic effects, one trait can be a confounder in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that aims to identify loci associated with another trait. A typical approach to address this issue is to perform an additional analysis adjusting for the confounder. However, obtaining conditional results can be time...

BACKGROUND The American Heart Association, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, annually reports the most up-to-date statistics related to heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular risk factors, including core health behaviors (smoking, physical activity, diet, and weight) and health factors (cholesterol, blood pressure, and gluco...

Clinically recognized atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with higher risk of complications, including ischemic stroke, cognitive decline, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and death. It is increasingly recognized that AF frequently is undetected until complications such as stroke or heart failure occur. Hence, the public and clinicians have...

Background Few studies assess whether electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) device characteristics or flavours impact longitudinal patterns of cigarette and e-cigarette use. Design We examined data from waves 2–4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (2014–2018). Among adult (≥18 years) current e-cigarette users at wave 2 who were...

Background eCohort studies offer an efficient approach for data collection. However, eCohort studies are challenged by volunteer bias and low adherence. We designed an eCohort embedded in the Framingham Heart Study (eFHS) to address these challenges and to compare the digital data to traditional data collection. Objective The aim of this study was...

In this nationally representative population study of adults, we observed no difference in inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers between exclusive e-cigarette users and nonusers (no cigarettes or vaping), and levels were lower in exclusive e-cigarette users relative to exclusive smokers. These findings are consistent with recent population s...

Intrinsic frequencies (IFs) derived from arterial waveforms are associated with cardiovascular performance, aging, and prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, prognostic value of these novel measures is unknown. We hypothesized that IFs are associated with incident CVD risk. Our sample was drawn from the Framingham Heart Study Original, Of...

Worldwide population aging leads to increased incidence and prevalence of many chronic diseases including atrial fibrillation (AF). This multifactorial arrhythmia has complex interrelationships with cardiovascular disease and shares with them classical risk factors. Becoming a global epidemic, AF-targeted prevention programs are necessary but large...

Background Frailty is associated bidirectionally with cardiovascular disease. However, the relations between frailty and atrial fibrillation (AF) have not been fully elucidated. Methods and Results Using the FHS (Framingham Heart Study) Offspring cohort, we sought to examine both the association between frailty (2005–2008) and incident AF through...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) remains a growing problem in the United States and worldwide, imposing a high individual and health system burden, including increased resource consumption due to repeated hospitalizations, stroke, dementia, heart failure, and death. This comprehensive review summarizes the most recent data on sex‐related differences in ris...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) remains a growing problem in the United States and worldwide, imposing a high individual and health system burden, including increased resource consumption due to repeated hospitalizations, stroke, dementia, heart failure, and death. This comprehensive review summarizes the most recent data on sex-related differences in ris...

The disparities amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic present disturbing evidence that we are far from cardiovascular health-care equity. Individuals, leaders and institutions must prioritize research, policies and structures to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging — Diversity 4.0, a justice imperative, essential to advancing workforce e...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Introduction: Excess alcohol intake and inherited predisposition may increase risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to characterize the association between alcohol intake and incident AF and determine whether the effect of alcohol is modified by inherited predisposition to AF. Methods: We analyzed UK Biobank participants without prevalent AF...

Introduction: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has increased rapidly in recent years; however, the cardiovascular risks of e-cigarettes remain unclear. Using data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Survey, this study assesses the cross-sectional association of cigarette and e-cigarette use behaviors with markers of inflammat...

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is associated with peripheral artery disease (PAD) in African Americans (AA), but the association between cigarette constituents and PAD remain inadequately studied. We evaluated the effect of volatile organic compounds (VOC) acrolein and crotonaldehyde on ankle-brachial index (ABI) as well as related biomarkers in A...

Importance Generating robust and timely evidence about the respiratory health risks of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is critical for informing state and federal regulatory standards for product safety. Objective To examine the association of e-cigarette use with incident respiratory conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary diseas...

Background - Excess alcohol intake and inherited predisposition may increase risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). We assessed the association between alcohol intake, polygenic predisposition to AF, and incident AF in the UK Biobank, a prospective cohort study. Methods - In 376,776 UK Biobank participants enrolled between 2006-2010, we tested alcohol c...

Background It is estimated that over 46 million individuals have atrial fibrillation (AF) worldwide, and the incidence and prevalence of AF are increasing globally. There is an urgent need to accelerate the academic development of scientists possessing the skills to conduct innovative, collaborative AF research. Methods We designed and implemented...

Background and aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing in prevalence and will soon be the most common chronic liver disease. Liver stiffness, as assessed by vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), correlates with hepatic fibrosis, an important predictor of liver-related and all-cause mortality. Though liver fat is...

Importance Coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other identities besides heterosexual (LGB+) may represent a susceptible period for cigarette smoking initiation in youth and young adults. Objective To assess whether young people who change their sexual identity have higher risk of cigarette smoking initiation and current smoking compared with...

Rationale: The association between aging and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is established. The associations between aging-related biomarkers and interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) have not been comprehensively evaluated. Objective: Evaluate associations between aging biomarkers, ILA, and all-cause mortality. Methods: In the Framingham Heart...

Background Adherence to regular outpatient visits is vital to managing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), a growing burden in low and middle-income countries. We characterized visit adherence among patients with NCDs in rural Haiti, hypothesizing higher poverty and distance from the clinic were associated with lower adherence. Methods We analyzed el...

BACKGROUND eCohort studies offer an efficient approach for data collection. However, eCohort studies are challenged by volunteer bias and low adherence. We designed an eCohort embedded in the Framingham Heart Study (eFHS) to address these challenges and to compare the digital data to traditional data collection. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was...

The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced Life's Simple 7 as a metric to define ideal cardiovascular health. We examined the association between cardiovascular health score (CHS) and prevalent nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among Framingham Heart Study participants with varying genetic risk of NAFLD. Framingham Heart Study participa...

Introduction: Understanding which noncigarette tobacco products precede smoking in youth across different racial/ethnic groups can inform policies that consider tobacco related health disparities. Methods: We used nationally representative, longitudinal data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study waves 1-4. The sample was a d...

Background: Whether cardiovascular (CV) disease risk factors and biomarkers associate differentially with heart failure (HF) risk in men and women is unclear. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate sex-specific associations of CV risk factors and biomarkers with incident HF. Methods: The analysis was performed using data from 4...

Background Measures of vascular dysfunction are related to adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in non‐Hispanic, White populations; however, data from Black individuals are limited. We aimed to investigate the associations between novel hemodynamic measures and prevalent CVD in a sample of Black individuals. Methods and Results Among olde...

Large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies have enabled the analysis of rare variants (RVs) associated with complex phenotypes. Commonly used RV association tests have limited scope to leverage variant functions. We propose STAAR (variant-set test for association using annotation information), a scalable and powerful RV association test method tha...

Rationale: A sedentary lifestyle is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Smartwatches enable accurate daily activity monitoring for physical activity measurement and intervention. Few studies, however, have examined physical activity measures from smartwatches in relation to traditional risk factors associated with futur...

Background - The P-wave duration (PWD) is an electrocardiographic (ECG) measurement that represents cardiac conduction in the atria. Shortened or prolonged PWD is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). We used exome chip data to examine the associations between common and rare variants with PWD. Methods - Fifteen studies comprising 64,440 indivi...

Background Circulating microRNAs may reflect or influence pathological cardiac remodeling and contribute to atrial fibrillation (AF). Objective The purpose of this study was to identify candidate plasma microRNAs that are associated with echocardiographic phenotypes of atrial remodeling, and incident and prevalent AF in a community-based cohort....

Objective To assess temporal trends in the association between newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation and death. Design Community based cohort study. Setting Framingham Heart Study cohort, in 1972-85, 1986-2000, and 2001-15 (periods 1-3, respectively), in Framingham, MA, USA. Participants Participants with no atrial fibrillation, aged 45-95 in each...

Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a public health problem and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. Electronic cohorts, with large electrocardiogram (ECG) databases linked to mortality data, can be useful in determining prognostic value of ECG abnormalities. Our aim is to evaluate the risk of mortality in patients with AF from Brazil. Methods:...