Durmalouk Kesibi’s research while affiliated with York University and other places

Menopause is a key period in women’s lives associated with major physiological changes. Early menopausal age has been linked to a range of adverse outcomes. Estrogen has been found to increase levels of thyroid binding proteins in the blood; however, its effect on hypothyroidism is not well investigated. To date limited studies were conducted to investigate the association between age at natural menopause and incidence of hypothyroidism, thus the objective of this study is to investigate the association between age at natural menopause and incidence of hypothyroidism among postmenopausal Canadian women. The study included women from the Canadian longitudinal study on aging that were followed for a 10-year period. Analysis was restricted to naturally postmenopausal women without hypothyroidism prior to menopause. Age at natural menopause was examined using the following categories 40–44, 45–49,50–54 (reference), and ≥55. Survival analysis was utilized to determine time to onset of hypothyroidism. Unadjusted and adjusted multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess the relationship between age at natural menopause and incidence of hypothyroidism. The multivariable Cox regression analysis showed no significant association between age at natural menopause and risk of hypothyroidism.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the association between age at natural menopause and incidence of asthma among postmenopausal Canadian women. Methods Women between the ages of 45-85 yr were followed for a 10-yr period. Analysis was restricted to naturally postmenopausal women who are nonsmokers and did not have asthma prior to menopause. Age at natural menopause was examined using the following categories: 40-44, 45-49, 50-54 (reference), and ≥55. Survival analysis was utilized to determine time to onset of asthma. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between age at natural menopause and asthma after adjusting for covariates. Results The multivariable Cox regression analysis showed a 30% decreased risk of asthma in women with age at natural menopause of 40-44 yr compared with age at natural menopause of 50-54 yr with a hazard ratio of 0.7 (95% confidence interval: 0.49-0.95). Conclusions Women with later ages at natural menopause may be at increased risk for asthma.

This study aimed to explore the prevalence and associated sociodemographic, migration, and health-related factors of smoking cigarettes and narghile among Syrian refugee parents resettled in Ontario, Canada since 2015. A total of 540 Syrian refugee parents, with at least one child less than 18 years of age, were interviewed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the independent relationship between each of the associated sociodemographic, migration, and health-related factors and smoking cigarettes and narghile. The overall prevalence of smoking was 43% (cigarette = 22%, narghile = 25.6%). The average number of cigarettes smoked per day was 15.4 (SD = 10.1). With regard to smoking narghile, 18.2% of the sample smoked daily, while 35.5% and 52.9% smoked at least once weekly and occasionally, respectively. Results from multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that more fathers were at increased odds of smoking cigarettes than mothers OR (95% CI) = 6.6 (3.7–11.9), while no such difference was found for narghile smokers OR (95% CI) = 1.5 (0.9–2.6). Results showed that smoking cigarettes was associated with lower education levels and being Muslim, whereas smoking narghile was associated with younger age and alcohol use. Poor perceived mental health was significant/approached significance for both types of smoking. Greater understanding of smoking patterns of resettled refugees is needed to direct healthcare providers to offer targeted interventions for those who are most at risk.

The impact of age, sex and body mass index on interstitial glucose levels as measured via continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) during exercise in the healthy population is largely unexplored. We conducted a multivariable generalized estimating equation (GEE) analysis on CGM data (Dexcom G6, 10 days) collected from 119 healthy exercising individuals using CGM with the following specified covariates: age; sex; BMI; exercise type and duration. Females had lower postexercise glycemia as compared with males (92 ± 18 vs. 100 ± 20 mg/dL, p = 0.04) and a greater change in glycemia during exercise from pre- to postexercise (p = 0.001) or from pre-exercise to glucose nadir during exercise (p = 0.009). Younger individuals (i.e., <20 yrs) had higher glucose during exercise as compared with all other age groups (all p < 0.05) and less CGM data in the hypoglycemic range (<70 mg/dL) as compared with those aged 20–39 yrs (p < 0.05). Those who were underweight, based on body mass index (BMI: <18.5 kg/m²), had higher pre-exercise glycemia than the healthy BMI group (104 ± 20 vs. 97 ± 17 mg/dL, p = 0.02) but similar glucose levels after exercise. Resistance exercise was associated with less of a drop in glycemia as compared with aerobic or mixed forms of exercise (p = 0.008) and resulted in a lower percent of time in the hypoglycemic (p = 0.04) or hyperglycemic (glucose > 140 mg/dL) (p = 0.03) ranges. In summary, various factors such as age, sex and exercise type appear to have subtle but potentially important influence on CGM measurements during exercise in healthy individuals.