Aim: this study evaluated the effectiveness of different speech techniques (i.e. modification of speech rate and/or mouth opening) for the rehabilitation of hypemasality in children with a cleft palate with or without a cleft lip (CP +/- L). The impact of speech rate and/or mouth opening was investigated on both hypemasality and speech intelligibil...
Objectives: We investigated the potential impact of reduced tobacco use scenarios on total life expectancy and health expectancies, i.e., healthy life years and unhealthy life years. Methods: Data from the Belgian Health Interview Survey 2013 were used to estimate smoking and disability prevalence. Disability was based on the Global Activity Limita...
Mobility in older adults is associated with better quality of life. However, evidence suggests that older people spend less time out-of-home than younger adults. Traditional methods for assessing mobility have serious limitations. Wearable technologies provide the possibility of objectively assessing mobility over extended periods enabling better e...
Contemporary ageing discourses and policies perceive being active as the key to a good later life and thereby focus on individual responsibility and self-care. Drawing on website articles and press releases of Belgian sickness fund agencies, this study analyses the ageing discourses and positioning of ageing persons of these organisations. A discou...
Cell-free DNA profiling using patient blood is emerging as a non-invasive complementary technique for cancer genomic characterization. Since these liquid biopsies will soon be integrated into clinical trial protocols for pediatric cancer treatment, clinicians should be informed about potential applications and advantages but also weaknesses and pot...
Published in Clinical Epigenetics
BackgroundIt is well established that estrogens and other hormonal factors influence breast cancer susceptibility. We hypothesized that a woman’s total lifetime estrogen exposure accumulates changes in DNA methylation, detectable in the blood, which could be used in risk assessment for breast cancer.MethodsAn estimated lifetime estrogen exposure (E...
Published in The Journal of rheumatology
We investigated the association of age and anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) in subjects without rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Serum was tested for anti-CCP3.1 (IgG/IgA) in 678 first-degree relatives (FDR) of patients with RA and 330 patients with osteoarthritis (OA). Individual isotypes (anti-CCP-IgA and anti-CCP-IgG) were also t...
Childhood malnutrition is associated with high morbidity and mortality globally1. Undernourished children are more likely to experience cognitive, physical, and metabolic developmental impairments that can lead to later cardiovascular disease, reduced intellectual ability and school attainment, and reduced economic productivity in adulthood2. Child...
Importance Identifying brain regions associated with risk factors for dementia could guide mechanistic understanding of risk factors associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). Objectives To characterize volume changes in brain regions associated with aging and modifiable risk factors for dementia (MRFD) and to test whether volume differences in these ...
Sex differences are known in several facets of cardiac electrophysiology, mostly concerning myocardial repolarisation. In this study, heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) responses to postural provocations were compared in 175 and 176 healthy females and males, respectively (aged 33.1 ± 9.1 years). Two different postural provocative tests wi...
