We investigated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) (Aim-1) and LTBI therapy (Aim-2) in British Columbia, a low-tuberculosis-incidence setting. 49,197 participants had valid LTBI test results. Cox proportional hazards model was fitted, adjusting for potential confounders. Compared with the participants who tested LTBI negative, LTBI positive was associated with an 8% higher CVD risk in complete case data (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.08, 95% CI: 0.99-1.18), a statistically significant 11% higher risk when missing confounder values were imputed using multiple imputation (HR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.02-1.20), and 10% higher risk when additional proxy variables supplementing known unmeasured confounders were incorporated in the highdimensional disease risk score technique to reduce residual confounding (HR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.01-1.20). Also, compared with participants who tested negative, CVD risk was 27% higher among people who were LTBI positive but incomplete LTBI therapy (HR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.04-1.55), whereas the risk was similar in people who completed LTBI therapy (HR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.87-1.24). Findings were consistent in different sensitivity analyses. We concluded that LTBI is associated with an increased CVD risk in low-tuberculosis-incidence settings, with a higher risk associated with incomplete LTBI therapy and attenuated risk when therapy is completed.

This study aimed to determine whether higher intakes of Na, added sugars and saturated fat are prospectively associated with all-cause mortality and CVD incidence and mortality in a diverse population. The nationally representative Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition 2004 was linked with the Canadian Vital Statistics – Death Database and the Discharge Abstract Database (2004–2011). Outcomes were all-cause mortality and CVD incidence and mortality. There were 1722 mortality cases within 115 566 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range) of 7·48 (7·22–7·70) years). There was no statistically significant association between Na density or energy from saturated fat and all-cause mortality or CVD events for all models investigated. The association of usual percentage of energy from added sugars and all-cause mortality was significant in the base model with participants consuming 11·47 % of energy from added sugars having 1·34 (95 % CI 1·01, 1·77) times higher risk of all-cause mortality compared with those consuming 4·17 % of energy from added sugars. Overall, our results did not find statistically significant associations between the three nutrients and risk of all-cause mortality or CVD events at the population level in Canada. Large-scale linked national nutrition datasets may not have the discrimination to identify prospective impacts of nutrients on health measures.

Introduction: Frail older adults experience an increased risk of a number of adverse health outcomes such as comorbidity, disability, dependency, institutionalization, falls, fractures, hospitalization, and mortality. Identification of frail adults is important. The objective of this study is to examine the association between frailty and use of health services (emergency, general practitioner, hospitalization) prior to and following a visit for a fracture in non-institutionalized seniors. Methods: This study is a population-based cohort build from the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System, an innovative chronic disease surveillance system linking five health care administrative databases. Algorithms using data from this system are accurate and reliable for identifying fractures. The sample includes 179,734 seniors ≥ 65 years old, non-institutionalized in the year before the fracture. Their frailty status was measured using the elderly risk assessment index. Poisson regression models were used to compare use of health services (emergency, general practitioner, hospitalization) 1 year before and 1 year after a visit for a fracture (adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, social deprivation, material deprivation and site of fracture). Results: Overall, preliminary results show that the use of health services increased significantly in the year following the fracture in frail non-institutionalized elderly vs the non-frail one (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study suggests that frail seniors with a fracture require more health services after their incident fracture. Furthermore, using a frailty assessment index in health administrative databases can help identify seniors that are at high risk of needing more health services and, therefore, improve their care.