Venetia Notara

Venetia Notara
University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

PhD

About

100
Publications
15,172
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1,026
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 2008 - present
University of West Attica
Position
  • Lecturer
July 2013 - July 2016
Harokopio University of Athens
Position
  • PhD Student

Publications

Publications (100)
Article
Background: Informal childcare supply may have a double-edged effect on grandparents’ health and quality of life, as different aspects of it may exceed or subceed the capacity of the older persons, in various ways. This study aimed to assess the effect of grandparenting on physical activity, nutrition, and quality of life of older people. Methods:...
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Excessive smartphone use and dependence on social media give rise to multiple issues that negatively affect the overall well-being of individuals. Nomophobia is characterized as a “digital disease” due to the unlimited use of smartphone devices. The aim of this study is to examine smartphone use and social media involvement in association with nomo...
Article
Introduction: Virtual reality devices have been widely used for the rehabilitation among older people with cognitive impairments. They enable the user to navigate in three-dimensional environments, which are constructed by a computer. Recent studies have been focused on the cognitive benefits of virtual reality for people with cognitive deficits....
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Obesity is an emerging threat and a current challenge for children and adolescents worldwide. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the relationship between the Dietary Antioxidant Index (DAI) and the weight status of students in early adolescence. A sample of 1580 students aged 10–12 years from 47 primary schools in Greece were enrolled. Ant...
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain one of the most crucial burdens for public health. Specifically, for women, CVDs have a devastating effect on prognosis and mortality, which tends to become more severe, due to lack of knowledge and low awareness by healthcare professionals and general populations. Position statements by organizations and regul...
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Nomophobia refers to the contemporary fear of being unable to communicate sufficiently via a smartphone. As reported in the literature, nomophobia leads to excessive smartphone use, and one of the crucial issues of this overuse is its effect on physical and mental health. The current study aimed to investigate the association between perceived heal...
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Smartphones with their numerous applications have become essential daily equipment, prompting scientific research to deal with the impact of their use on psychosocial health. Under this spectrum, the aim of the present cross-sectional study was to examine the association between nomophobia and the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, a...
Preprint
The use of logistic regression models in data analysis and machine learning has expanded in recent years and has become the primary preference of researchers in risk assessment studies across a wide range of scientific fields. From the assessment of credit risk in financial institutions to the estimation of risk factors for traffic accidents or the...
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The development of overweight and obesity during late childhood and early adolescence is one of the most critical issues in public health. Additionally, over the past few years, the consumption of protein has tended to increase in both children and adults. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the protein type, either plant- or animal-sourced...
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Background The mental health od school-age children is of growing concern in many countries. School professionals require the competences and methods to intervene effectively to promote mental health in schools. Objective The objective of this study was to describe school professionals’ perceptions of the competences needed and effective methods t...
Article
Purpose During the pandemic, people have changed their diet and lifestyle, which are highly important to maintain health and well-being. This study aims to investigate the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic, dietary and lifestyle characteristics and adolescents' adherence to the Mediterranean diet (AMD). Design/methodology/approach In...
Article
Background: The effect of the urban vs. rural environment on cardiovascular health is an extremely significant issue, nowadays. Up to date, there is a number of studies revealing that there is environmental impact on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objectives: The aim of the current systematic review was to investigate the relations...
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The aim of the present work was two-fold. Firstly, to evaluate the association between the consumption of ultra-processed beverages (UPB) on preadolescents’ likelihood of being obese. Secondly, to investigate the potential impact of family and school environmental stressors on this unhealthy lifestyle habit. A cross-sectional study was conducted am...
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Citation: Gketsios, I.; Tsiampalis, T.; Kanellopoulou, A.; Vassilakou, T.; Notara, V.; Antonogeorgos, G.; Rojas-Gil, A.P.; Kornilaki, E.N.; Lagiou, A.; Panagiotakos, D.B.; et al. The Synergetic Effect of Soft Drinks and Sweet/Salty Snacks Consumption and the Moderating Role of Obesity on Preadolescents' Emotions and Behavior: A School-Based Epidemi...
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An epidemiological study was conducted among 1728 10–12-year-old students (55.1% girls) and their parents during 2014–2016 in Greece. This study aimed to identify the dominant clusters of physical activity/sedentariness among preadolescents and investigate their association with self-reported sources of stress. Children’s physical activity levels a...
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Nomophobia is a relatively new term describing someone’s fear, discomfort, or anxiety when his/her smartphone is not available. It is reported that low self-esteem may contribute to an individual’s tendency for nomophobia. The aim of this particular study was to investigate the association between nomophobia and self-esteem among Greek university s...
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Over the last few decades, childhood overweight and obesity tend to reach epidemic proportions. The present study aimed to examine whether the composition of breakfast, through the prism of its macronutrient content, could play a part in the development of excess body weight in children. A sample of 1728 Greek students from 47 primary schools was e...
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The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of environmental influences on Greek preadolescents’ junk food consumption. A cross-sectional study, was conducted among 1718 preadolescents (mean (standard deviation(SD)) age: 11.2(0.8) years old; 54% girls) and their parents, during the school years 2014–2016. Parental and child characterist...
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The extensive use of logistic regression models in analytical epidemiology as well as in randomized clinical trials, often creates inflated estimates of the relative risk (RR). Particularly, in cases where a binary outcome has a high or moderate incidence in the studied population (>10%), the bias in assessing the relative risk may be very high. Me...
Article
There are accumulative evidences that the prevalence of cigarette smoking has gradually declined in most high-income countries since the 1990s, in part due to public health campaigns emphasizing on the relationship between tobacco use and detrimental health effects. In late 2000s electronic (e)-cigarettes were introduced in the world, as less harmf...
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Adding extra sugars in milk and the moderating effect of sleep has yet to be investigated, setting the aim of this study. A total of 1361 school-aged children were included, aged 10–12 years old, by randomly sampling schools. Data were interview-obtained by trained personnel using a validated 17-item food frequency questionnaire, with specifics on...
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Milk consumption contributes greatly to children’s diet, playing a pivotal role in the development and structure of bones and the functioning of the musculoskeletal system and the heart. This study investigated the association between the type of milk and childhood overweight/obesity. In the school period 2014–2016, 1728 students aged 10–12 years a...
Article
Background: Although the literature suggests that skipping breakfast, insufficient sleep, and reduced physical activity are associated with childhood obesity their co-influence and their in-between interactions on weight status have rarely been studied. Aim: To examine the co-influence of breakfast eating habits, sleep duration, and physical activi...
Article
Childhood and adolescence are the periods in which children shape their character and behavior. This is also the period for children to adopt good health behaviors and to gain health knowledge- to gain health literacy (HL). Several factors play an important role in this. Among them are the person’s characteristics, family and social environment, li...
Article
Nomophobia is defined as the fears caused to individuals by the lack of access or use their smartphone. The aim was to make a cultural adaptation and validation of the Greek version of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) as well as to explore nomophobia’s association with several sociodemographic determinants among university students. The origina...
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Background/objectives To quantify the changes in 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) onset, recurrence, and mortality, in relation to transitioning from low to a higher level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Subjects/methods An individual-level microsimulation was created based on ATTICA (2002–2012, n = 3042 subjects free-of-CVD) and GREEC...
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Background Sexual and reproductive health services aim at the promotion of sexual health and elimination of the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STI’s). Therefore, they constitute an important framework for the improvement of young people's quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the main reasons that young people visit th...
Article
This study examined the association between breastfeeding, type of childbirth, and family structure with childhood obesity. During 2014–2016, 1728 Greek students attending primary schools and their parents were enrolled. Children’s weight status was measured and classified according to the International Obesity Task Force criteria. A self-administe...
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A B S T R AC T Aim: To examine the association of nutrition knowledge and dietary behavior among preadolescents in the greater urban area of Athens. Methods: 615 school-aged children 10-12 years from the metropolitan area of Athens were enrolled in the study, in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. Anthropometric data (height, weight, BMI z-score, waist circum...
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Adherence to certain dietary patterns influences obesity status in both children and adults. Weight perception influences dietary habits. The aim of this study was to examine children’s dietary habits and obesity status, in relation to weight perception. One thousand seven hundred Greek students enrolled in this study during 2014−2016. Children’s c...
Article
Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Other. Main funding source(s): The ATTICA study is supported by research grants from the Hellenic Cardiology Society [HCS2002] and the Hellenic Atherosclerosis Society [HAS2003]. Background/Introduction: Among all behaviors, nutrition makes the largest contribution to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mo...
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Background Over the past decade, the financial crisis has affected harshly the household income of Greek people. This study aimed to investigate whether the effect of the financial crisis on food spending has affected the dietary habits in the family environment. Methods Under a cross-sectional study conducted during 2014–2016, 1145 children and t...
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Mental health disorders among primary school children remain a crucial issue. Early health promotion interventions can positively affect and prevent the onset of mental disorders. Promising digital mental health methods have been implemented for adolescents and youths with scarce evidence among younger ages. Therefore, the aim of the current system...
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Background: Nomophobia (No MObile PHone PhoBIA) refers to the worry or fear that individuals experience when they are without their mobile phone or they are unable to use it. The term was first coined in 2008 and it is considered a modern type of phobia. The aim of the present study was to retrieve and review the most relevant literature on the pr...
Article
Background Tattooing is becoming an increasingly common trend mainly but not merely among the youth. However, the choice of ink body art is associated with an increase of dermatological complications. Aim To assess young persons’ health knowledge and motives toward tattooing. Methods The main instrument used was an online structured questionnaire...
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Purpose of Review Childhood obesity is considered a major problem in the modern world, associated with many health issues in youth. This review aimed the association between extracurricular sports participation, sedentary time/screen time, and “obesogenic” and “non-obesogenic” dietary habits among youth and to explore the role of family structure o...
Article
Study objectives: Sleep is an essential normal function for children's growth and development, but over the years lifestyle changes have resulted in insufficient sleep, a factor that may be associated with the increased childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between sleep duration and, sleep patterns, separately o...
Article
BACKGROUND: Children’s dietary behaviors seem tract into adulthood and as a result preventing strategies to establish healthy behaviors from early stages of life are needed. Nutrition knowledge is essential for behavioral change. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the status of parental health related to their children’s nutrition literacy level through...
Article
Children’s health literacy is a crucial pillar of health. This study is aimed to examine the association between health literacy and weight status among Greek schoolchildren aged 10 to 12 years old. A population-based, cross-sectional observational study enrolling 1,728 students (795 boys), aged 10 to 12 years old, was conducted during school years...
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Purpose: To explore young people’s experiences of public or private services received for their sexual and reproductive healthcare. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 358 students from vocational post-secondary education during the academic year 2018-2019, using a questionnaire based on the directions of the Y...
Article
Childhood obesity rates have shown a rising trend in the past years, becoming a public health challenge and threat. The aim of this study was to examine the association between extracurricular activities and weight status, among children. A survey was performed in 1728 primary school Greek students, during school years 2014–2016. Dietary and lifest...
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Background Overweight and obesity during childhood consist two of the most important public health issues in the 21st century. Consumption of high-fat processed food has been increased alarmingly. Objective To examine the association between parental ultra-processed, high-fat products’ consumption and childhood overweight/obesity. Methods A cross...
Article
Background/Introduction Triglycerides-glucose index (TyG) has been used in apparently healthy individuals to define insulin resistance and liver steatosis. Additionally, findings from very recent studies challenge the use of this index as a predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) onset as well as a marker of atherosclerosis in patients with estab...
Article
Background Childhood obesity is among the leading public health challenges, worldwide. Aim To examine the association between children’s adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and weight status taking into account family structure and related behaviors. Methods 1728 primary-school Greek students (46% males), from Athens metropolitan area, islan...
Article
Background: Childhood overweight/obesity constitutes a serious issue, as may cause several health problems. The main characteristics of the Mediterranean Diet have been acknowledged as the most appropriate shield mainly for obesity. Methods: The study was performed on 1728 primary students, during school years 2014-2016, in Greece. Children and th...
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Although the parental influence on children’s dietary habits has been widely studied, little is known about the effect of parental health status on children’s dietary behavior. Thus, the association between the parental burden of cardiometabolic disease and its impact on children’s eating habits and behaviors was examined. Material and Methods: 1,7...
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Background: Person-centered approach is a model which healthcare providers work with patients and their families to identify and meet patients' needs and preferences. Objective: This study was to evaluate the experience of the person-centered care in the outpatient radiology department in two Health Care Centers in Attica region Methodology: The pr...
Article
Although the problem of childhood obesity has been broadly documented over the last decades and characterized as one of the most significant problems of public health, the percentage of overweight and obese children remains extremely high. It is undeniable that parents contribute significantly in shaping children’s dietary behavior and can be a val...
Article
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether dietary fibres intake is associated with childhood obesity. From 2014 to 2016, a sample of 1728 Greek boys and girls students, 10–12 years and their parents were enrolled in the study. Dietary fibres intake was assessed through food questionnaires and child’s body mass status was defined according to th...
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Background: This study aimed to examine the association between breakfast consumption and childhood weight status, in relation to various socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted including 1728 children aged 10-12 years and their parents, during school years 2014-2016. Primary schools from five Greek c...
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Background: The sex-specific effect of depressive symptomatology on 10-year first and recurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) events was evaluated. Methods: The Greek samples from ATTICA (2002-2012, n=845 free-of-CVD subjects) and GREECS (2004-2014, n=2,172 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) subjects) prospective epidemiological studies with baseline...
Article
Objectives: To evaluate the association of predicted lean and fat mass on 10-year first and recurrent CVD incidence separately for men and women. Methods: Two prospective studies, ATTICA (2002-2012, n=3042 subjects free-of-CVD, n=1514 men (46±13 years) and n=1528 women (45±14 years)) and GREECS (2004-2014, n=2172 subjects with acute coronary syn...
Article
Background/Introduction Brain and heart interplay is highly discussed in healthy yet even more in cardiac population with inconclusive evidence regarding the sex-related interactions. Purpose The sex-specific effect of depressive symptomatology (DS) on 10-year first and recurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) events was evaluated. Methods The samp...
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BACKGROUND Childhood obesity remains a major health issue. The understanding of the multifactorial nature of childhood obesity remains the cornerstone to eliminate the rising trends. This study aimed to examine the association between parental and childhood weight status, in relation to various socioeconomic (SE) factors. METHODS A cross-sectional...
Article
Childhood obesity is considered to be one of the most serious health problems with an increasing prevalence all over the world, especially in Western countries. Several evidence suggests that breakfast consumption is very important for a healthy and balanced diet; however, the influence of breakfast consumption and composition in the development of...
Article
Background Cardiovascular disease has the highest mortality rates than any other disease globally. Some major risk factors seem to be established in early stages of life suggesting preventive strategies as a major mean to reduce cardiovascular mortality. The aim of the present work was to investigate the role of socioeconomic status and family char...
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Background: It is widely accepted, that the increased prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity poses an important public health problem since it increases the risk for early onset of non-communicable diseases with potentially increased health complications during adulthood. Childhood obesity prevention is therefore of primary importance; hen...
Article
BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are adopted during childhood and adolescence. Health literacy at these ages remains the cornerstone of a healthy adult life. The aim of the study was to examine the role of gender regarding CVD risk factors’ awareness and to develop an evaluation tool for the assessment of CVD risk factors’ knowl...
Article
Background: Lifestyle remains a huge driving force of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) onset/progression. Lifestyle-patterns are highly dependent on gender-related attitudes. Objective: To evaluate the gender-specific association of lifestyle-related factors (adherence to Mediterranean diet (MedDiet), physical activity (PA), smoking) on 10-year fir...
Article
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with increased hospital discharge rates, causing a serious public health issue and an economic burden. Recent demographic transitions, including ageing of the population, low fertility, urbanization and shift towards unhealthy behaviours have resulted in an in...
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Objectives: The association between educational status and 10-year risk for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and all-cause mortality was evaluated. Methods: From October 2003 to September 2004, 2172 consecutive ACS patients from six Greek hospitals were enrolled. In 2013 to 2014, a 10-year follow-up (2004-2014) assessment was performed for 1918 parti...
Article
According to American Diabetes Association “as many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes by 2050” imposing a serious burden on healthcare services and highlighting a substantial need to reduce “new-cases” incidence. Diabetes is inextricably linked to diet, in the prevention-spectrum. Red-meat-intake has been positively associated with reduc...
Article
Although hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes mellitus (DM) are recognized as major cardio-metabolic risk factors in primary Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) prevention, studies focusing on secondary ACS incidence are scarce. In the present study, the association between the aforementioned factors and 10-year ACS prognosis was evaluated. Fr...
Article
The association between physical activity, diabetes mellitus (DM) and long-term Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) prognosis was evaluated. The GREECS study included 2,172 consecutive ACS patients, from six Greek hospitals (2003-2004). In 2013-2014, 10-year follow up was performed in 1,918 patients. Physical activity was categorized in never, rarely (mo...
Article
Background: The association between depression status and 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence among Acute Coronary Syndrome(ACS) patients, in relation to nutritional and financial status, was evaluated. Methods: From October 2003-September 2004, a sample of 2,172 consecutive ACS patients from 6 Greek hospitals was enrolled. In 2013-14...
Article
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between physical activity (PA) status, diabetes mellitus (DM) and long-term (10-years) cardiovascular disease (CVD) prognosis, in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHOD During the initial stage of the Greek study of acute coronary syndromes (GREECS), October 2003–September 2004, 2,172 consecutive p...
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Full-text available
Introduction: In Greece, population ageing consists one of the most important public health issue with dementia being listed among the top five commonest illnesses. The total direct and indirect health care costs are estimated to exceed 6 billion€, annually. Aim: This study aimed to examine the prevalence and the risk factors of dementia among the...
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Background: Smoking has long been positively associated with the development and progression of coronary heart disease. However, longitudinal cohort studies evaluating smoking habits among cardiac patients as well as the role of socio-demographic factors determining such behaviours are scarce and have been focused on primary care practice. Thus th...
Article
Although hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes mellitus (DM) are recognized as major cardio-metabolic risk factors in primary Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) prevention, studies focusing on secondary ACS incidence are scarce. In the present study, the association between the aforementioned factors and 10-year ACS prognosis was evaluated. Fr...
Article
The association between long-term coffee consumption and 10-year cardiovascular disease incidence among Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients was evaluated. From 2003 to 2004, 2172 ACS consecutive patients from six major Greek hospitals were enrolled. During 2013-2014, the 10-year follow-up was performed (88% participation rate) and recurrent fata...
Article
The present study evaluated the association between long-term, exclusive olive oil consumption, in cooking preparation or as a dressing, and the 10-year (2004-2014) incidence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) among cardiac patients. From October 2003 to September 2004, a sample of 2172 ACS consecutive patients from six major Greek hospitals were enr...