Shaun Scholes

University of London · University College London (UCL)

Air pollution and light at night (LAN) are environmental stressors that may lead to depression, but the epidemiological evidence is inconsistent and scarce, especially for LAN. We used data from 8,583 participants (25,151 observations), aged ≥ 50 years, of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing from waves 6-9 (2012-2019). Annual levels of fine pa...

The aim of this work is to explore the changes from 2018 to 2022 in happiness, life satisfaction and life worthwhile among 3,999 people aged 50 and over in England participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. They were followed over a critical period of time covering the pre-pandemic, early pandemic, later pandemic, and post-pandemic y...

Background Autonomic dysfunction is common in dementia, yet its contribution to neurocognitive changes remains unknown. We investigated whether midlife cardiac vagal modulation, indexed by heart rate variability, associates with subsequent cognitive decline in adults without prior coronary heart disease or stroke. Methods The sample comprised 2702...

Objective The objective of this study was to quantify changes over time in waist circumference (WC) relative to BMI by sex in the Americas (United States, Mexico, Chile, and Peru) and England. Methods Data from adults aged 25 to 64 years between 1997 and 2020 were analyzed, and US data were stratified by race and ethnicity groups. Sex‐specific BMI...

Background Obesity is influenced by a complex, multifaceted system of determinants, including the food environment. Governments need evidence to act on improving the food environment. The aim of this study was to review the evidence from spatial environmental analyses and to conduct the first series of meta-analyses to assess the impact of the reta...

Population-based proteomics offer a groundbreaking avenue to predict dementia onset. This study employed a proteome-wide, data-driven approach to investigate protein-dementia associations in 229 incident all-cause dementia (ACD) among 3,249 participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) over a median 9.8-year follow-up, then vali...

Objective: To quantify changes over time in waist circumference (WC) relative to body mass index (BMI) by sex in the Americas (United States of America, Mexico, Chile, Peru) and England. Methods: Data from adults aged 25-64 years between 1997 and 2020 was analysed; US data was stratified by racial-ethnic groups. Sex-specific BMI and WC means, and o...

Background Social-economic factors and health behaviours may be driving variation in ethnic health inequalities in multimorbidity including among distinct ethnic groups. Methods Using the cross-sectional nationally representative Health Surveys for England 2011–18 (N = 54 438, aged 16+), we performed multivariable logistic regression on the odds o...

Background Global evidence suggests that levels of waist circumference (WC) have increased independent of increases in body mass index (BMI) during the same time period, especially in women. Disease risk, especially those associated with the amount of visceral fat, is therefore underestimated by surveillance efforts that quantify secular change onl...

Objective Adults typically overestimate height and underestimate weight compared with directly measured values, and such misreporting varies by sociodemographic and health-related factors. Using self-reported and interviewer-measured height and weight, collected from the same participants, we aimed to develop a set of prediction equations to correc...

Background Social-economic factors and health behaviours may be driving variation in ethnic health inequalities in multimorbidity including among distinct ethnic groups. Methods Using the cross-sectional nationally-representative Health Surveys for England 2011-2018 (N=54,438, aged 16+), we carried out multivariable logistic regression on the odds...

Cross-study research initiatives to understand change across time are an increasingly prominent component of social and health sciences, yet they present considerable practical, analytical and conceptual challenges. First, we discuss the key challenges to comparative research as a basis for detecting societal change, as well as possible solutions....

This paper estimates the negative effects of motorised road traffic on the travel and walking behaviour of local residents in Great Britain and the cost of the wider negative impacts on local economic activity, external effects of motorised transport, social exclusion, neighbourhood social capital, self-rated health, and subjective wellbeing. We us...

Background There is a growing burden of multimorbidity with an ageing population. Ethnic inequalities in multimorbidity exist however it is unknown whether social-economic factors and health behaviours may be driving the variation. Research is also lacking on multimorbidity among separate instead of broad ethnic groups. Methods Using the cross-sec...

Background Health-related behaviours (HRBs) cluster within individuals. Evidence for the association between HRB clustering and cognitive functioning is limited. We aimed to examine and compare the associations between three HRB clusters: “multi-HRB cluster”, “inactive cluster” and “(ex-)smoking cluster” (identified in previous work based on HRBs i...

Objectives: Previous investigations of cognitive aging have mainly focused on structural aspects of social relations (e.g. network size and composition), thereby neglecting the role of qualitative aspects of social relations. The current longitudinal study examined sex-specific differences in verbal memory decline by measures of perceived relation...

Background Aspects of community severance (the separation of people from goods, services, and each other by busy roads or other transport infrastructure) have been linked to poor health and wellbeing, but few studies have examined this relationship. We created a novel index for community severance and estimated its association with the self-rated h...

Objective Adults typically overestimate height and underestimate weight compared with directly measured values, and such misreporting varies by socio-demographic and health-related factors. Using self-reported and interviewer-measured height and weight, collected from the same participants, we aimed to develop a set of prediction equations to corre...

Background Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a leading public health problem, with substantial burden and economic implications for healthcare systems, mainly due to renal replacement treatment (RRT) for end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The aim of this study is to develop a multistate predictive model to estimate the future burden of CKD in Chile, gi...

Background Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), a leading public health problem, poses substantial burdens for both healthcare systems and patients. The aim of this study was to estimate the health and economic burden of CKD for adults aged 40+ years from the perspective of the Chilean public healthcare system, by adapting the Schlackow and colleagues’ CK...

Background Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a leading public health problem, with substantial burden for individuals, healthcare systems and society. Predictive tools to simulate the disease in the future could help inform decision makers of potential impacts of new treatments, for effective policy making. The aim of this study was to compare the im...

Background Aspects of community severance (the separation of people from goods, services, and each other by busy roads or other transport infrastructure) have been linked to poor health and wellbeing, but few studies have examined the overall relationship between community severance and health. We created a novel index for community severance and e...

Although body mass index (BMI) is considered a key determinant of high blood pressure, its importance may differ over time and by age group. We utilised separate data sources to investigate temporal changes in this association: 23 independent (newly sampled), repeated cross-sectional studies (Health Survey for England (HSE)) at ≥25 years (1994–2018...

Across the health and social sciences, addressing many key scientific or policy questions requires an understanding of whether a given quantity has changed over time—e.g., by year of data collection or by birth year. For example, has the occurrence of—or socioeconomic inequity in—a given health outcome changed across time? Or has social mobility im...

Background : Few studies have assessed psychological pathways that connect the association between non-psychotropic chronic disease and cognition. We assessed the extent to which the association between the two was mediated by depressive symptoms in older adults. Methods : Data came from waves 10-13 (2010-2016) of the Health and Retirement Study i...

Objective This study aimed to estimate trends in cardiovascular disease risk factors by BMI category among adults in England (n = 115,860). Methods Risk factors included cigarette smoking, hypertension, total diabetes, and raised total cholesterol. Risk factor prevalence was computed in the following four 4-year time periods: 2003-2006; 2007-2010;...

Objective: Estimate differences in the rate of decline in verbal memory by levels of perceived relationship quality among community-dwelling adults. Participants: In the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), n = 10,109 participants aged 50-89 years were assessed at wave 1 (baseline: 2002-03) and followed-up over 16 years to wave 9 (2017-18)....

Background: While inequalities in oral health are documented, little is known about the extent to which they are attributable to potentially modifiable factors. We examined the role of behavioural and dental attendance pathways in explaining oral health inequalities among adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Methods: Using nationally r...

Objective Quantify income-based inequalities in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in England and the USA by sex. Design Population-based cross-sectional study. Participants 4019 adolescents aged 11–15 years in England (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2015) and 4312 aged 12–17 years in the US (National Health and Nu...

Background High blood pressure (BP) is a key modifiable determinant of cardiovascular disease and a likely determinant of other adverse health outcomes. While socioeconomic inequalities in BP are well documented, it remains unclear (1) how these inequalities have changed across time, given improvements over time in the detection and treatment of hi...

Background High body mass index (BMI) is an important contributor to higher blood pressure (BP) levels and its deleterious consequences. However, the strength of this association may be context-specific and differ across time due to increases in medication use or secular changes in body composition. Thus, we utilised two independent data sources to...

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. Co-occurrence of risk factors predisposes an individual to NCDs; the burden increases cumulatively with the number of risk factors. Our study aimed to examine the co-occurrence of NCD risk factors among adults in The Gambia. This study is based on a random...

Background Trend data on hypertension prevalence and attainment indicators at each step of the care cascade (awareness, treatment, control) are required in Chile. This study aims to quantify trends (2003–2017) in prevalence and in the proportion of individuals with hypertension attaining each step of the care cascade among adults aged 17 years or o...

Objectives: This study estimates the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among Chilean adults and examines its associations with sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviours and comorbidities. Design: Analysis of cross-sectional data from the two most recent large nationally representative Chilean Health Surveys (Encuesta Nacional...

Objective. Favourable trends in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors at the population level potentially mask differences within high- and low-risk groups. Data from annual, repeated cross-sectional surveys (Health Survey for England 2003-18) was used to examine trends in the prevalence of key CVD risk factors by body mass index (BMI) category...

Objective. Favourable trends in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors at the population level potentially mask differences within high- and low-risk groups. Data from annual, repeated cross-sectional surveys (Health Survey for England 2003-18) was used to examine trends in the prevalence of key CVD risk factors by body mass index (BMI) category...

Background Prior to their inclusion in the Health Survey for England (HSE), there was a dearth of information about children's health in England. Official data recorded use of health services and uptake of national programmes such as school vaccinations. Birth cohorts provided longitudinal data, including risk factors and non-clinical measures, but...

Background Place-based characteristics have been implicated as determinants of socioeconomic inequalities in cardiovascular-related health risk factors (such as hypertension) and in use of healthcare services. In Chile, one-third of adults are hypertensive. Chilean evidence has documented inequalities in hypertension by various measures of individu...

Background Evidence is unclear on whether inequalities in average levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reflect differences in participation, differences in the amount of time spent active, or both. Using self-reported data from n=4874 adolescents aged 11–15 in England (Health Survey for England: 2008, 2012, 2015) and n=3065 adolesce...

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a leading global public health problem, with a substantial burden on healthcare systems; decreased quality of life, and poor prognosis for patients. In Chile, there is limited data on CKD prevalence and its distribution across population subgroups that impedes effective decision-making in the healthcare se...

Background Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a leading public health problem, with substantial burden on and economic implications for healthcare systems, mainly from renal replacement treatment (RRT) for End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD). In Chile, the prevalence of CKD Stages 1 to 5 in people aged 40 years or older is at least 15.4%, with an increasi...

Background: There is uncertainty about the impact of internet use on mental health in older adults. Moreover, there is very little known specifically about the impact of particular purposes of internet use. Objective: This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between two distinct concepts of mental health with the frequency of in...

Objective: Examine the longitudinal associations between social support and verbal memory among community-dwelling adults. Participants: In the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, 10,837 participants aged 50-89 years were assessed at wave 1 (baseline: 2002-03) and followed-up over 14-years to wave 8 (2016-17). Methods: Verbal memory was assessed...

Objectives Non-communicable diseases account for 70% of global deaths; 80% occur in low-income and middle-income countries. The rapid increase of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa is a concern. We assessed generalised and abdominal obesity and their associated risk factors among adults in The Gambia. Design Nationwide cross-sectional health examinatio...

Objective: Quantify inequalities in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in England and the United States (US). Design: Population-based cross-sectional study. Participants: 4019 adolescents aged 11-15 years in England (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2015) and 4312 aged 12-17 years in the US (National Health and Nutrit...

Background: Inequalities in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) may reflect differences in the propensity to do any, the amount of time spent active, or both. Using self-reported data from 4019 adolescents aged 11-15 years in England (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2015) and 4312 aged 12-17 years in the US (National Healt...

Background: Evidence is unclear on whether inequalities in average levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reflect differences in participation, differences in the amount of time spent active, or both. Using self-reported data from 24,882 adults (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2016), we examined gender-specific inequalities...

To quantify and compare 9-year all-cause mortality risk attributable to modifiable risk factors among older English and Brazilian adults. We used data for participants aged 60 years and older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Bagé Cohort Study of Ageing (SIGa-Bagé). The five modifiable risk factors assessed at baseline we...

Background: Data on trends in hypertension prevalence and indicators of attainment at each step of the care cascade are required in Chile. Aim : To quantify trends (2003-2017) in prevalence and in the proportion of individuals with hypertension attaining each step of the care cascade (awareness, treatment and control) among adults aged ≥17 years, a...

Background Evidence is unclear on whether inequalities in average levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reflect differences in participation, differences in the amount of time spent active, or both. Using self-reported data from 24,882 adults (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2016), we examined gender-specific inequalities in...

Background Evidence is unclear on whether inequalities in average levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reflect differences in participation, differences in the amount of time spent active, or both. Using self-reported data from 24 882 adults (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2016), we examined gender-specific inequalities in...

Background: Active travel such as walking or cycling has been associated with more favorable health outcomes. However, evidence on patterns of transportation in Latin America is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to quantify and characterise socio-demographic patterns of public, private and active travel in Latin American countries. Metho...

Worldwide studies of physical activity and sedentary time have historically under-represented low- and middle-income countries due to the lack of surveillance data. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods and procedures used for the assessment of physical activity and sedentary time in the Latin American Study of Nutrition and Health (...

Background: Although there is high prevalence of obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors among Latin American adolescents, there is limited evidence on dietary intake and physical activity (PA) patterns in this population. Therefore, we characterized anthropometry, dietary intake, PA and sitting time (ST) in adolescents aged 15–17years from e...

Objective: To quantify income-based inequalities in hypertension and in undiagnosed hypertension. Methods: We used nationally representative data from 28 002 adults (aged 16 years and older) living in private households who participated in the cross-sectional Health Survey for England 2011-2016. Using bivariate probit regression modelling, we jo...

Background: Despite global concerns regarding physical inactivity, limited cross-national evidence exists to compare adolescents' physical activity participation. We analysed data from 52 high- and low-middle income countries, with activity undertaken inside and outside of school in 2015. We investigated gender and socioeconomic disparities, and a...

Objective: To evaluate whether socioeconomic inequalities in blood pressure (BP) have changed from 1989 to 2016 - a period in which average BP levels declined and the detection and treatment of high BP increased. Design Repeated observational studies. Setting: 3 nationally representative British birth cohort studies - born in 1946, 1958, and 1970 -...

Family belonging may influence relationships between the amount of time spent on social networking sites (SNS) and well-being. We examined the SNS and well-being association among young adults and investigated whether different markers of family belonging moderated this association. SNS, well-being, and family data (n = 2,229) were collected from a...

Background: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, with a higher burden in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence and predictors of smoking among Gambian men using nationally representative data. Methods: Data was collected in 2010 from a random, nationally representati...

Physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours (SB) are two independent risk factors for non-communicable diseases. However, there is a lack of objectively measured information on PA and SB in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to use objective data to characterise socio-demographic patterns of PA and SB in eight Latin Ame...

Physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours (SB) are two independent risk factors for non-communicable diseases. However, there is a lack of objectively measured information on PA and SB in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to use objective data to characterise socio-demographic patterns of PA and SB in eight Latin Ame...

Background Increased vagal modulation is a mechanism that may partially explain the protective effect of healthy lifestyles. However, it is unclear how healthy lifestyles relate to vagal regulation longitudinally. We prospectively examined associations between a comprehensive measure of 4 important lifestyle factors and vagal modulation, indexed by...

Hypertension is the highest attributable risk of death worldwide, causing 7.1million deaths annually, and it is the primary cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In Chile, around one-in-three adults are living with this chronic health condition. Chilean evidence has shown inequalities in hypertension prevalence by various measures of soc...

Hypertension is the highest attributable risk of death worldwide, causing 7.1million deaths annually, and it is the primary cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In Chile, around one-in-three adults are living with this chronic health condition. Chilean evidence has shown inequalities in hypertension prevalence by various measures of soc...

Purpose The objective of this study was to estimate the cross-sectional association of frailty status with overall and domain-specific quality of life (QoL) in rural community-dwelling older adults in Kegalle district of Sri Lanka. Methods A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 746 community-dwelling older adults aged ≥ 60 yea...

Background: There is uncertainty about the impact of internet use on mental health in older adults. Moreover, there is very little known specifically about the impact of particular purposes of internet use. Objective: This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between two distinct concepts of mental health with the frequency of...

BACKGROUND There is uncertainty about the impact of internet use on mental health in older adults. Moreover, there is very little known specifically about the impact of particular purposes of internet use. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between two distinct concepts of mental health with the frequency of int...

Aim: To quantify variations in health-related behaviors (HRB) clustering of older adults in Western and Eastern countries. Methods: Using six aging cohorts from the USA, England, Europe, Japan, Korea and China, latent class analysis was applied to access the clustering of smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and social activity. Resu...

We examined the associations between road traffic conditions, walking, and positive mental wellbeing among survey participants in four urban neighbourhoods in England bisected by busy roads (N = 708). Sequential models were fitted, examining the associations between objective and perceived traffic conditions (volume and speed); between perceived tr...

Objective: Our main objective was to describe the prevalence and associated sociodemographic factors of frailty and pre-frailty in rural community-dwelling older adults in Kegalle district of Sri Lanka. Design: Community-based cross-sectional study. Setting: The study was conducted in rural areas of Kegalle district in Sri Lanka. Participants: A...

Introduction: Despite global concerns regarding physical inactivity, limited cross-national evidence exists to compare physical activity participation in adolescence. We analysed 52 high- and low-middle income countries, with activity undertaken inside and outside of school in 2015. We investigated gender- and socioeconomic-disparities, and additio...

Introduction: Despite global concerns regarding physical inactivity, limited cross-national evidence exists to compare adolescents’ physical activity participation. We analysed 52 high- and low-middle income countries, with activity undertaken inside and outside of school in 2015. We investigated gender- and socioeconomic-disparities, and additiona...

PurposeTo model the dynamic age-related rate of change in depressive symptomatology in later life and to test the hypothesis that low perceived neighbourhood social cohesion is associated with steeper trajectories of depressive symptoms in older adults. Methods We analysed data on 11,037 participants aged 50+ from the English Longitudinal Study of...

Background: Frailty is an important health problem of older age. There is limited evidence on the burden of frailty in low-and middle-income countries particularly Asia, including rapidly ageing countries such as Sri Lanka. The objectives of this study were to 1) estimate the prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty and describe the associated socio-d...

Background The prevalence of obesity has more than doubled in West Africa over the past 15 years. Obesity is increasing at a faster rate in developing countries compared with developed countries. Possible explanations include epidemiological and nutritional transition, increased consumption of processed foods, and urbanisation. A 1996 study reveale...

Background Prescribing is the most common clinical intervention in the NHS, with annual costs exceeding £9 billion. Understanding differences in patterns of prescribed medicine use over time informs clinical practice and epidemiological research. We compare trends in prescribed medicine use by body mass index (BMI) and age to better understand the...