Pal Weihe

The Faroese Hospital System · Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity may be one determinant of adaptability to exercise training, but well-controlled studies in humans without confounding conditions are lacking. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether ACE inhibition affects cardiovascular adaptations to exercise training in healthy humans. Health...

Here we present results from FarGen Phase I exomes. This dataset is based on the FarGen cohort, which consists of 1,541 individuals from the isolated population of the Faroe Islands. The purpose of this cohort is to serve as a reference catalog of coding variants, and to conduct population genetic studies to better understand the genetic contributi...

Symptoms of long COVID were found in 38% of 170 patients followed median 22.6 months. Most prevalent symptoms were fatigue, affected taste and smell, and difficulties remembering and concentrating. Predictors for long COVID were older age and number of symptoms in the acute phase. Long COVID may take many months, maybe years to resolve.

Objectives: -206 Persistence of COVID-19 symptoms in non-hospitalised patients beyond a few months has not been well characterised. In this longitudinal study from the Faroe Islands, we present prevalence of long COVID in mainly non-hospitalised patients who were followed for up to 8 months. Methods: All Faroese individuals with confirmed COVID-...

Objective: A recent report from the Faroe Islands suggested mild iodine deficiency among women aged 40 years and older. New preliminary results showed an average urinary iodine concentration of 457 µg/L. This spurious finding encouraged the present report. Methods: A subset of 17 consecutive pregnant women from an ongoing study provided an addit...

Purpose: Faroese fishers have four times more accidents than workers on land. The aim was to understand fishers' fatigue better and how their work and sleep patterns influenced their sleepiness levels and cognitive performance. Materials and methods: A total of 157 Faroese fishers wore wrist-worn actigraphs at sea and one week on land and filled...

The 2021 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Mercury (Hg) Assessment is motivated by Arctic populations, and most notably Indigenous Peoples in the region, who are particularly vulnerable to Hg pollution. The objective of this review paper is to answer the following AMAP policy-relevant question: what is the human health impact of Hg...

Background/Aims Early life exposures to marine contaminants can adversely impact child health but modes of action are unclear. Human milk contains extracellular vesicles (EVs) that can transport biologically relevant cargo from mother to infant, including microRNAs (miRNAs), and may partly mediate the effects of pollutants on child health. However,...

Background: Pregnancy, infancy, and childhood are sensitive windows for environmental exposures. Yet the health effects of exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) remain largely uninvestigated or unknown. Although plastic chemicals are a well-established research topic, the impacts of plastic particles are unexplored, especially with regard to...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are highly persistent in the environment and may cause depressed immune function. Previous studies have linked PFAS exposure to lower vaccine responses in children, but research in adults is limited. Therefore, the present study evaluated the associations between exposure to PFASs and serum antibody conce...

We conducted a second nationwide severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 seroprevalence study in the Faroe Islands during November 2020. We found crude seroprevalence was 0.3% and prevalence was 0.4% after adjusting for test sensitivity and specificity. This low seroprevalence supports the prevention strategies used in the Faroe Islands.

Aims: Despite success in avoiding morbidity and mortality in the oldest members of the population during the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis may have affected the well-being of older adults, for example due to social distancing measures. The aim of this study was to examine the well-being of older Faroese by conducting a direct comparison of well-be...

Background: The demographic history of the Faroe Islands makes this isolated population – founded in the 9th century – interesting for genetic research. The goal of the FarGen project was to recruit individuals to the FarGen infrastructure to promote research into the genetic features of the Faroese people, and to develop a reference panel of popul...

Close contacts of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are at high risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We assessed the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies among quarantined close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the Faroe Islands. We invited quarantined close contacts of COVID-19 index patients ident...

Background Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure has been linked to metabolic health outcomes such as obesity, and changes in adipokine hormones may be one of the underlying biological mechanisms. We prospectively evaluated the associations between prenatal and early childhood exposures to PFASs and adipokines in children. Material a...

Previous studies have shown immunotoxic effects of environmental chemicals, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently identified a need for more studies on PFAS immunotoxicity in different populations. In the Arctic, populations are exposed to several environmental chemicals through marine diet, and the objective of this study was ther...

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) has been collecting comparable data on risk behaviours and substance use among adolescent students for almost 25 years, in order to monitor trends in and between countries. The study is conducted in each participating country as a school survey for students reaching the age of 16...

The Faroe Genome Project (FarGen) explores the genetic variation within the isolated population of the Faroe Islands. FarGen is an open bioresource comprising 3% of the entire Faroese population, available for further investigation of both rare and common diseases. The 1,541 volunteers include representatives from all sub-regions of the islands, an...

The World Health Organization recommends monitoring iodine status in all populations with median urinary iodine concentration below 100 µg/L suggesting iodine deficiency. There are no data on the iodine intake among the population of the Faroe Islands. This study aimed to provide data on iodine nutrition in a representative sample of the general ad...

Exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) has in some studies been associated with reduced anogenital distance (AGD) in newborns as a sensitive indicator of prenatal anti-androgenic exposure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between maternal PFAS exposure and offspring AGD in a population with wide ranges of PFAS exposur...

Aims: The Faroe Islands is considered a homogeneous society and has a low Gini coefficient, but the knowledge about the social distribution of health and disease is sparse. In a large population-based sample we investigated: (a) the association between socioeconomic position defined by level of education and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellit...

Background Exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) may affect metabolic outcomes, including lipid concentrations in the blood. However, few studies have evaluated potential associations between PFASs and lipids longitudinally. Objectives We estimated associations between PFAS and lipid concentrations at birth and at several points...

Objective: To investigate the prospective associations of life-course perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) exposure with glucose homeostasis at adulthood. Methods: We calculated insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function indices based on 2-h oral glucose tolerance tests at age 28 in 699 Faroese born in 1986-1987. Five major PFASs were measured in c...

Only a few studies have assessed the long-term duration of the humoral immune response against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this nationwide longitudinal study from the Faroe Islands with close to full participation of all individuals on the Islands with PCR confirmed COVID-19 during the two waves of infections in...

Human milk plays a critical role in infant development and health, particularly in cognitive, immune, and cardiometabolic functions. Milk contains extracellular vesicles (EVs) that can transport biologically relevant cargo from mother to infant, including microRNAs (miRNAs). We aimed to characterize milk EV-miRNA profiles in a human population coho...

Background Using the Faroese Septuagenarian cohort, we aimed to describe the incidence of dementia and assess the validity of neurocognitive tests to predict subsequent dementia diagnosis.Methods In this population-based cohort, 713 Faroese septuagenarians aged 70–74 years without dementia, underwent clinical and neuropsychological examinations. Af...

Background: Pollution – unwanted waste released to air, water, and land by human activity – is the largest environmental cause of disease in the world today. It is responsible for an estimated nine million premature deaths per year, enormous economic losses, erosion of human capital, and degradation of ecosystems. Ocean pollution is an important, b...

Pollution – unwanted waste released to air, water, and land by human activity – is the largest environmental cause of disease in the world today. It is responsible for an estimated nine million premature deaths per year, enormous economic losses, erosion of human capital, and degradation of ecosystems.Ocean pollution is an important, but insufficie...

Background Little is known about long-term recovery from COVID-19 disease, especially in non-hospitalized individuals. In this longitudinal study we present symptoms registered during the acute phase as well as long COVID, i.e. long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms, in patients from the Faroe Islands. Methods All consecutive patients with confirmed RT-PC...

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use and other forms of risk behaviour among 15- to 16-year-old students in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. Between 1995 and 2019, seven waves of data collection were conducted across 49...

We conducted a nationwide study of the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in the Faroe Islands. Of 1,075 randomly selected participants, 6 (0.6%) tested seropositive for antibodies to the virus. Adjustment for test sensitivity and specificity yielded a 0.7% prevalence. Our findings will help us evaluate our publ...

Introduction: To assess whether the incidence of dementia among immigrants in Denmark from the Faroe Islands is similar to that of the inhabitants of their new country. Methods: Data on Faroese-born immigrants in Denmark were retrieved from the Danish Central Population Register. Incident dementia cases were identified from the Danish National P...

The objective of this study was to identify geographic, dietary, and other predictors for childhood exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and methylmercury in Greenlandic children. The study includes cross-sectional data from 367 Greenlandic children aged 7 to 12 years examined during 2012–2015. A parent o...

Background Adequate thyroid function during pregnancy is essential for optimal fetal growth. Gestational exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) can negatively affect birth size and disrupt maternal and neonatal thyroid function, although the interrelationship is unclear. Objective We aimed to quantify the associations between maternal serum...

Supplementary material for article entitled "Associations of exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances with thyroid hormone concentrations and birth size" doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9855833.v1

Abstract Background Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a growing public health concern. Some longer chain PFASs bioaccumulate and many compounds persist in the environment for long time periods. Recent studies have established their ability to pass through placenta, yet data on the transplacental transfer efficiency and partitioning of...

Background: Exposure to mercury (Hg) is associated with adverse developmental effects. However, Hg occurs with a multitude of chemicals. We assessed the associations of developmental exposure to multiple pollutants with children's neurodevelopment using a novel approach. Methods: Hg, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and perfluoroalkyl substance...

Background: Birth cohort studies have linked exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) with child anthropometry. Metabolic hormone dysregulation needs to be considered as a potential adverse outcome pathway. We examined the associations between PFAS exposures and concentrations of adipokine hormones from birth to adolescence. Methods: We stu...

The trillions of cells in the human body are formed by cell division and differentiation during lengthy and complex development, where gene expression is synchronized to allow different tissues and organs to form. Clearly, during this extended process, perhaps in particular during the early embryological stages, the human body is extremely vulnerab...

Aims The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide but little known about the status in the Faroe Islands. The aim was therefore to determine the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and prediabetes in two non-random populations aged 44–77 years. Methods This cross-sectional survey was conducted between 2011 and 2012 and included two...

Much progress has happened in understanding developmental vulnerability to preventable environmental hazards. Along with the improved insight, the perspective has widened, and developmental toxicity now involves latent effects that can result in delayed adverse effects in adults or at old age and additional effects transgenerationally transferred t...

Semen quality may be adversely affected by exposure to environmental chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and perfluorinated alkylate substances (PFASs) that are persistent and may act as endocrine disrupting compounds. The aim of this study was to explore whether PCBs or PFASs exposure were associated with abnormalities in semen qual...

Background: Exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) may disrupt maternal and neonatal endocrine function. Adequate thyroid hormone (TH) levels during pregnancy are essential for fetal and early childhood development. Objective: To assess the relationship between gestational PFAS exposures and maternal and cord TH levels.Methods: Data was coll...

The effects of football training on bone health were examined in 55‐ to 70‐year‐old sedentary women and men with prediabetes. Patients (n = 50) with prediabetes (age; 61 ± 9 years, BMI 29.7 ± 0.6 kg/m2, body fat content; 37 ± 1%, VO2max; 22.7 ± 0.8 mL/min/kg and mean arterial pressure; 104 ± 3 mm Hg) were randomized into a football training group (...

The aim was to determine cognitive performance and health status in the Faroese Septuagenarians cohort in relation to gender differences. In this cross-sectional study of 713 Faroese septuagenarians who underwent a clinical, neurophysiological and neuropsychological examinations and questionnaire, women performed better on tests covering the memory...

For the last two and a half decades, a network of human health experts under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) has produced several human health assessment reports. These reports have provided a base of scientific knowledge regarding environmental contaminants and their impact on human health in the Arctic. These reports provide s...

We examined the effects of 16 weeks of football training and dietary advice on blood glucose control and health status in 55‐ to 70‐year‐old women and men with prediabetes. Fifty participants with prediabetes (age; 61 ± 6 years, BMI; 29.6 ± 4.7; VO2max 22.3 ± 5.7 mL·min⁻¹·kg⁻¹) were randomized into a football and dietary advice group (F+D; n = 27)...

Faroe islanders consume marine foods contaminated with methylmercury (MeHg), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other toxicants associated with chronic disease risks. Differential DNA methylation at specific CpG sites in cord blood may serve as a surrogate biomarker of health impacts from chemical exposures. We aimed to identify key environmenta...

Rapid declines in legacy poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been reported in human populations globally following changes in production since 2000. However, changes in exposure sources are not well understood. Here, we report serum concentrations of 19 PFASs ( ∑19PFAS) measured in children between 1993 and 2012 from a North Atlantic f...

Aims: To determine the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and prediabetes among the population aged 40-74 years in the Faroe Islands. Methods: This population-based cross-sectional survey, conducted between 2011 and 2012, invited 2186 randomly selected individuals (corresponding to 11.1% of the entire population aged 40-74 years). Subjects w...

Background: Humans are exposed to poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from diverse sources and this has been associated with negative health impacts. Advances in analytical methods have enabled routine detection of more than 15 PFASs in human sera, allowing better profiling of PFAS exposures. The composition of PFASs in human sera reflects...

Perfluorinated alkylate substances (PFASs) are highly persistent and may cause immunotoxic effects. PFAS-associated attenuated antibody responses to childhood vaccines may be affected by PFAS exposures during infancy, where breastfeeding adds to PFAS exposures. Of 490 members of a Faroese birth cohort, 275 and 349 participated in clinical examinati...

This study was undertaken to assess the potential impact of maternal exposures to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (DDE) and methylmercury on the secondary sex ratios (the ratio of male to female live births) over a span of 23 years. The study includes prospective data from three Faroese birth cohorts, with a total...