Hynek Pikhart

University College London | UCL · Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Aims Impaired lung function has been strongly associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. We aimed to assess the additive prognostic value of spirometry indices to the risk estimation of CVD events in Eastern European populations in this study. Methods We randomly selected 14,061 individuals with a mean age of 59 ± 7.3 years without a pre...

Background Ecological studies report social inequalities in mortality and morbidity in Ecuador, but self-rated health (SRH) remains uninvestigated. This study aims to provide an overview of SRH inequalities by social determinants in the Ecuadorian population. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of the 2018 National Health and Nutrition Surve...

Background Ageing labour force is a growing challenge in China. Understanding the labour market characteristics and health status of middle-aged and older workers is crucial for the sustainable development of an ageing society. Methods This study aimed to assess the association between employment status and all-cause mortality of Chinese middle-ag...

Purpose Depression is a prevalent disorder with effects beyond mental health. A positive association with mortality has been mostly reported, however, evidence comes from a few high-income countries. This study aims to assess the association between depressive symptoms and all-cause mortality in the Chilean population and assess a potential secular...

Dysglycemia-based chronic disease (DBCD) comprises insulin resistance, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes, and their staged progression, complications, and impact contribute to one of the largest public health burdens worldwide. The clinical and economic effects of DBCD are fueled by external stressors related to modern society and lifestyles, especi...

Objectives: This study compared the relationships of social determinants with cardiometabolic risk in different socioeconomic contexts: sociopolitically unstable Venezuela (VE) and stable Czechia (CZ). Design: cross-sectional analysis involving two population-based studies. Setting: Brno, Czechia and 23 cities of Venezuela. Participants: 25-...

Background The ATHLOS consortium (Aging Trajectories of Health–Longitudinal Opportunities and Synergies) used data from several aging cohorts to develop a novel scale measuring healthy aging comprehensively and globally (ATHLOS Healthy Aging Scale). In the present study, we assessed the predictive performance of the ATHLOS Healthy Aging Scale for a...

Objective Examine changes in SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity before and during the national vaccination campaign in the Czech Republic. Design Prospective national population-based cohort study. Setting Masaryk University, RECETOX, Brno. Participants 22 130 persons provided blood samples at two time points approximately 5–7 months apart, between Octob...

In the face of labour-force ageing, understanding labour-market characteristics and the health status of middle-aged and older workers is important for sustainable social and economic development. Self-rated health (SRH) is a widely-used instrument to detect health problems and predict mortality. This study investigated labour-market characteristic...

Objective: To investigate the individual and country-level characteristics associated with the presence and worsening of psychological distress during the first wave of the pandemic among the elderly in Europe. Methods: In June-August 2020, 52,310 non-institutionalized people aged 50+ in 27 SHARE participating countries reported whether feeling dep...

We evaluated associations between nine epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) scores and 18 cardiometabolic phenotypes using an Eastern European ageing population cohort richly annotated for a diverse set of phenotypes (subsample, n = 306; aged 45–69 years). This was implemented by splitting the data into groups with positive and negative EAAs. We obser...

Work stress has been extensively supported to predict health outcomes like health behaviors. Evidence has linked work stress and personality independently to health, but the interrelationships between work stress and personality and their joint effects on health might deserve more attention in research. This study attempts to integrate recent devel...

Background Numerous studies reported higher levels of mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic but only a minority used repeated measurements. We investigated change in depressive symptoms in the Czech ageing cohort and the impact of pre-existing and COVID-19-related stressors. Methods We used data on 2853 participants (mean age 73.4 year...

Background: Social differences in lung functioning have been reported, but the role of socioeconomic position (SEP) at different stages of life is less well understood, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. This study addressed this question. Methods: The analysis included 10 160 individuals aged 45-70 years from the Czech Republic, Poland...

Background Despite the widespread use of the single item self-rated health (SRH) question, its reliability has never been evaluated in Chinese population. Methods We used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, waves 1–4 (2011–2019). In wave 1, the same SRH question was asked twice, separated by other questions, on a subset o...

Background Social differences in lung functioning have been reported previously but the assessment of the role of socioeconomic position (SEP) at different stages of life, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), is less well understood. This study addressed these two issues by focusing on adults from the HAPIEE study. Methods This analys...

Objective: Many children and adolescents get their first experience with alcohol in a family setting. Evidence suggests that parental supply of alcohol is a risk factor for drinking later in life. However, most of the previous studies have been conducted in Western countries. The Czech Republic has among the highest alcohol consumption per capita,...

Objectives Limited research has focused on the association between work stress and health behaviours in Asian countries. We aimed to explore the effect of work stress on two health behaviours among employees aged 45 years or above in two countries with ageing populations, Korea and Japan. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting This secondary dat...

It is unclear whether the dose–response relationship between lung function and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the Central and Eastern European populations differ from that reported in the Western European and American populations. We used the prospective population-based HAPIEE cohort that includes randomly selected people with a mean ag...

Purpose Monitoring the seroprevalence of COVID-19 antibodies is an important tool to design and adjust preventive strategies. We used prospective data on a large population sample with repeated IgG antibody measurement to examine changes in seropositivity before and during the national vaccination campaign in the Czech Republic. Methods 22,130 per...

We evaluated associations between nine epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) scores and 18 cardio-metabolic phenotypes using an Eastern European ageing population cohort richly annotated for a diverse set of phenotypes (subsample, n = 306; aged 45-69 years). This was implemented by splitting the data into groups with positive and negative EAAs. We obse...

Objectives We investigated whether social gradient in all-cause mortality in the Czech Republic changed during the postcommunist transition by comparing two cohorts, recruited before and after the political changes in 1989. Methods Participants (aged 25–64 years) in two population surveys (n=2530 in 1985, n=2294 in 1992) were followed up for morta...

Purpose Depression is a prevalent disorder with effects beyond mental health. An association with mortality has been reported, however, evidence is mixed and limited to a few high-income countries. This study aims to assess the association between depressive symptoms and all-cause mortality in the Chilean population. Methods This prospective study...

Background The association between impaired lung function and mortality has been well documented in the general population of Western European countries. We assessed the risk of death associated with reduced spirometry indices among people from four Central and Eastern European countries. Methods This prospective population-based cohort includes m...

Background Empirical evidence on the epidemiology of hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia is limited in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. We aimed to estimate the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia in the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland and Lithuania, and to identify...

Background The aim of the nationwide prospective seroconversion (PROSECO) study was to investigate the dynamics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in the Czech population. Here we report on baseline prevalence from that study. Methods The study included the first 30,054 persons who provided a blood sample between October 2020 and March 2021. Seropr...

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether preschool children identified as picky eaters showed differences in anthropometric characteristics (weight and height) from their non-picky peers at 15 years of age. Design: This study was performed among the cohort members of the EL- SPAC-CZ study, a longitudinal study of pregnancy and childhood....

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and a predictor of the complications of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVDs), particularly thromboembolic events and the progression of heart failure. We analyzed the determinants of the 13-year risk of incident AF in a Russian population cohort of middle and elderly age. A random p...

We investigated the relationship between ‘epigenetic age’ (EA) derived from DNA methylation (DNAm) and myocardial infarction (MI)/acute coronary syndrome (ACS). A random population sample was examined in 2003/2005 (n = 9360, 45–69, the HAPIEE project) and followed up for 15 years. From this cohort, incident MI/ACS (cases, n = 129) and age- and sex-...

Background: Although fruits and vegetables are considered a pillar of healthy eating, previous evidence suggests that their consumption in Eastern European countries is low, and their association with health outcomes has rarely been researched in this region. Aim: To examine the effect of fruit and vegetable intake on self-rated health (SRH) in the...

Prenatal exposure to maternal stress may increase the risk of developing sleep problems in childhood. This study examined the association between prenatal stressful life events (PSLE) and children’s sleep problems, taking into consideration their trajectory over time. Data were obtained from the Czech portion of the European Longitudinal Cohort Stu...

This study investigated 12-year blood lipid trajectories and whether these trajectories are modified by smoking and lipid lowering treatment in older Russians. To do so, we analysed data on 9,218 Russian West-Siberian Caucasians aged 45–69 years at baseline participating in the international HAPIEE cohort study. Mixed-effect multilevel models were...

Background Low level of health literacy (HL), defined as an individual's ability to process health information, is strongly associated with higher mortality and morbidity. In earlier analysis of cross-sectional survey in Czechia in 2014, 59% of subjects showed a low level of HL, with particularly worrying results in area of health promotion (64% wi...

Background Older adults are one of the population groups at the highest risk of severe illness from COVID-19. However, little is known about the impact of the pandemic on economic activity and healthcare utilization for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 among older adults. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and predictors of unemployment due to...

Background: Although the Czech Republic weathered the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic with relatively low incidence, the second wave of the global pandemic saw it rank among countries bearing the greatest COVID-19 burden, both in Europe and on a worldwide scale. The aim of the nationwide prospective seroconversion (PROSECO) study was to investi...

In contrast to the decreasing burden related to cardiovascular disease (CVD), the burden related to dysglycemia and adiposity complications is increasing in Czechia, and local drivers must be identified. A comprehensive literature review was performed to evaluate biological, behavioral, and environmental drivers of dysglycemia and abnormal adiposit...

Aims The aim of this study was to develop, validate, and illustrate an updated prediction model (SCORE2) to estimate 10-year fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in individuals without previous CVD or diabetes aged 40–69 years in Europe. Methods and results We derived risk prediction models using individual-participant data from...

Background Older adults are at greater risk for becoming severely ill from COVID-19; however, the impact of the pandemic on their economic activity and non-COVID-19-related healthcare utilisation is not well understood. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and predictors of COVID-19-related unemployment and healthcare utilisation in...

Introduction: Visceral fat is associated with adiposity-based cardiometabolic complications and may complement predictive assessment by body mass index. The standard method to measure visceral fat is computed tomography, but bioimpedance measurement allows estimation of visceral fat area (VFA) in an easy and low-cost manner. However, a validated cu...

Background The numerous health risks of excessive alcohol consumption are well documented. Individuals at risk of harm from alcohol consumption can be identified through alcohol screening tools; however, there is limited research regarding their use in general dental practices. Methods Data were collected as part of a feasibility trial evaluating d...

Background: Visceral fat is associated with adiposity-based complications. Bioimpedance measurement allows estimation of visceral fat area (VFA) in an easy manner. However, a validated cut-off value for VFA by bioimpedance associated with cardiometabolic risk is lacking in European population. Aim: To determine cut-off values of VFA measured via b...

PurposeCardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality rates in Eastern Europe are among the highest in the world. Although diet is an important risk factor, traditional eating habits in this region have not yet been explored. This analysis assessed the relationship between traditional dietary pattern and mortality from all-causes, CVD and cancer...

The aim of this study is to investigate the 14-year risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and develop a risk score for T2DM in the Siberian cohort. A random population sample (males/females, 45–69 years old) was examined at baseline in 2003–2005 (Health, Alcohol, and Psychosocial Factors in Eastern Europe (HAPIEE) project, n = 9360, Novosibirsk)...

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are developing Joint Estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury (WHO/ILO Joint Estimates), with contributions from a large network of experts. Evidence from mechanistic data suggests that exposure to long working hours may cause ischaemi...

Background Whether depression risk starts increasing before cancer diagnosis, and whether cancer is an independent risk factor for depression, remain unclear. We aimed to quantify the risk of depressive symptoms before and after the first hospitalisation for cancer (as a proxy for cancer diagnosis) among patients with cancer. Methods We linked coh...

Objective Dietary pattern analysis constitutes a suitable method for identifying complex food preferences as well as a useful tool for comparing dietary behaviour across individual populations. In addition to a lack of information on Central European dietary patterns, dietary data featuring a longitudinal aspect are likewise largely unavailable for...

Data from the Czech part of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood offer a unique opportunity to examine a period of changing socioeconomic structure of the country. Our aim was to analyse the association between socioeconomic status, family structure and children’s psychosocial problems at the age of 7, 11, 15 and 18 years in 3...

Background: Increasing educational level of the population could be a strategy to prevent depression. We investigated whether education may offer a greater benefit for mental health to women and to individuals living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study using data on 6964 Czech participants of t...

The study objectives were to (1) identify risk factors related to stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and postnatal depression (PD) after birth, and (2) investigate both possible directions of association between SUI and PD in population-based sample of Czech mothers. 3,701 nulliparous and multiparous women completed the self-reported questionnaires...

Background Depression risk may partly originate from socioeconomic hardship in childhood. We investigated the association of childhood socioeconomic position with depressive symptoms in later adulthood in a Central and Eastern European country. Methods We analyzed data from the Czech arm of the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern E...

Healthy ageing has become a popular topic worldwide. So far, a consensus measure of healthy ageing has not been reached; and no studies have compared the magnitude of socio-economic inequality in healthy ageing outside Europe. This study aims to create a universal measure of healthy ageing and compare socio-economic inequalities in healthy ageing i...

Objective Maternal employment has been shown to influence child’s health, cognitive and behavioural outcomes. There is only a limited number of studies in Central Europe investigating the impact of parental employment on the uptake of smoking in children. The aim of this work is to look at the influence of maternal employment over the whole period...

Background: We characterised the phenotypic consequence of genetic variation at the PCSK9 locus and compared findings with recent trials of pharmacological inhibitors of PCSK9. Methods: Published and individual participant level data (300,000+ participants) were combined to construct a weighted PCSK9 gene-centric score (GS). Seventeen randomized...

Diet rich in fruits and vegetables (F&V) is an established protective factor for hypertension, but the available evidence regarding the impact of F&V consumption on age-related blood pressure change is limited. We examined whether systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure trajectories are influenced by F&V intakes in an ageing Russian cohor...

The prevalence of the asthmatic symptoms among children increases globally over the time. Reduced exposure to pathogens in early childhood and increased exposure to anthropogenic irritants result in increased risk of wheezing in children, and all of this may be related to the usage of household chemicals. Objective of this analysis thus was to stud...

Background: Alcohol intake and tobacco smoking have significant negative health consequences and both are influenced by genetic predispositions. Some studies suggest that the FTO gene is associated with alcohol consumption. We investigated whether a tagging variant (rs17817449) within the FTO gene is associated with alcohol intake, problem drinkin...

Aim: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of screening for alcohol misuse and delivering brief advice to eligible patients attending NHS dental practices in London. Methods: A two-arm cluster randomized controlled feasibility trial was conducted. Twelve dental practices were recruited and randomized to intervention and control arms. Parti...

Objectives Large socioeconomic inequalities in health are still present in the Central Europe. The aim was to explore socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in Visegrad countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (V4), by three different socioeconomic indicators (unemployment, risk of poverty/social exclusion, education). The study...

Background Social cohesion has a potential protective effect against depression, but evidence for Central and Eastern Europe is lacking. We investigated the prospective association between social cohesion and elevated depressive symptoms in the Czech Republic, Russia and Poland, and assessed whether alcohol drinking and smoking mediated this associ...

Background Many studies done in England have shown that, with better socioeconomic conditions, individual healthy ageing can be achieved and maintained. Only a few studies, however, have attempted to identify the most sensitive socioeconomic determinants of healthy ageing. We aimed to create a comprehensive measure of healthy ageing for the English...

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are developing a joint methodology for estimating the national and global work-related burden of disease and injury (WHO/ILO joint methodology), with contributions from a large network of experts. In this paper, we present the protocol for two systematic...

Background Little is known about the effects of physical activity and fitness on sleep timing parameters in adolescence. Methods We investigated the development of sleep timing between age 8 and 15 and its association with physical fitness at age 15 in 787 adolescents (408 males, 379 females). Physical fitness was measured using the physical work...

Background Unhealthy diet may increase the risk of impaired physical functioning in older age. Although poor diet and limited physical functioning both seem to be particularly common in Eastern Europe, no previous study has assessed the relationship between these two factors in this region. The current analysis examined the association between over...

PF-10 score trajectories during the 10-year follow-up by country for selected one-year birth cohort by country in men (empty model, birth cohorts defined by age at baseline). (PDF)

Associations of Mediterranean diet score (MDS) with physical functioning trajectories after further adjustment for physical activity and BMI in females. (DOCX)

Associations of Mediterranean diet score (MDS) with physical functioning after further adjustment for physical activity and BMI in males. (DOCX)

Associations of Mediterranean diet score (MDS) with physical functioning trajectories stratified by BMI. (DOCX)

PF-10 score trajectories during the 10-year follow-up for every fifth one-year birth cohort by country in women (empty model, birth cohorts defined by age at baseline). (PDF)

Associations of Mediterranean diet score (MDS) with physical functioning trajectories stratified by baseline PF-10 score. (DOCX)

Purpose of the study: Few studies have recommended the essential domains of healthy aging and their relevant measurement to assess healthy aging comprehensively. This review is to fill the gap, by conducting a literature review of domains and measures of healthy aging in epidemiological studies. Design and methods: A literature search was conduc...