Search Results (7)

Horse operations may produce high amounts of manure per acre/ha and be less aware of recommended manure management practices than livestock farmers, leading to negative environmental impacts. This study compared the manure management practices of two populations of horse owners in the USA state of Missouri, commercial horse operations and an Old-Order Amish community, using data from a 2019 mail survey with a 50% response rate. In commercial operations, manure was more likely to be piled rather than spread directly on fields, which was the Amish practice. The Amish were more likely to use manure for crop production, to indicate that was why they had not explored markets for manure, and to test soil for nutrients. Regression results for factors affecting previous sales/transfers of manure or compost showed that selling was more likely for commercial operations, female operators, and those who had composted manure. Compared to respondents who agreed that manure management had an impact on water quality, those who did not know or were neutral about that statement were more likely to have sold manure. While both groups can improve manure management and are underserved by traditional agricultural information channels, educational efforts should be tailored to their different circumstances. Full article

Exposure to artificial bright light in the late evening and early night, common in modern society, triggers phase delay of circadian rhythms, contributing to delayed sleep phase syndrome and seasonal affective disorder. Studying a unique population like the Old Order Amish (OOA), whose lifestyles resemble pre-industrial societies, may increase understanding of light’s relationship with health. Thirty-three participants (aged 25–74, mean age 53.5; without physical or psychiatric illnesses) from an OOA community in Lancaster, PA, were assessed with wrist-worn actimeters/light loggers for at least 2 consecutive days during winter/spring (15 January–16 April) and spring/summer (14 May–10 September). Daily activity, sleep–wake cycles, and their relationship with light exposure were analyzed. Overall activity levels and light exposure increased with longer photoperiod length. While seasonal variations in the amount and spectral content of light exposure were equivalent to those reported previously for non-Amish groups, the OOA experienced a substantially (~10-fold) higher amplitude of diurnal variation in light exposure (darker nights and brighter days) throughout the year than reported for the general population. This pattern may be contributing to lower rates of SAD, short sleep, delayed sleep phase, eveningness, and metabolic dysregulation, previously reported among the OOA population. Full article

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an intracellular parasite infecting one third of the world’s population. Latent T. gondii infection has been associated with mental illness, including schizophrenia and suicidal behavior. T. gondii IgG antibody titers were measured via ELISA. The heritability of T. gondii IgG was estimated using a mixed model that included fixed effects for age and sex and random kinship effect. Of 2017 Old Order Amish participants, 1098 had positive titers (54.4%). The heritability for T. gondii serointensity was estimated to be 0.22 (p = 1.7 × 10⁻⁸ and for seropositivity, it was estimated to be 0.28 (p = 1.9 × 10⁻⁵). Shared household environmental effects (i.e., household effects) were also determined. Household effects, modeled as a random variable, were assessed as the phenotypic covariance between any two individuals who had the same current address (i.e., contemporaneous household), and nuclear household (i.e., the phenotypic covariance between parents and children only, not other siblings or spouses). Household effects did not account for a significant proportion of variance in either T. gondii serointensity or T. gondii seropositivity. Our results suggest a significant familial aggregation of T. gondii serointensity and seropositivity with significant heritability. The shared household does not contribute significantly to family aggregation with T. gondii, suggesting that there are possible unmeasured non-household shared and non-shared environmental factors that may play a significant role. Furthermore, the small but significant heritability effects justify the exploration of genetic vulnerability to T. gondii exposure, infection, virulence, and neurotropism. Full article

We performed a health needs assessment for five Plain communities in Pennsylvania from a random sample of households, comparing them to the general population of Pennsylvania adults. Plain respondents were more likely to drink well water, as likely to eat fruit and vegetables and much more likely to drink raw milk and be exposed to agricultural chemicals. Plain respondents were less likely to receive screening exams compared to the general population and there was variation from settlement to settlement in whether respondents had a regular doctor, whether they received preventive screenings or had their children vaccinated, with Mifflin County Amish generally lowest in these and Plain Mennonites highest. Plain respondents reported good physical and mental health compared to the general population but Groffdale Mennonite respondents had a high proportion of diagnoses of depression and were more likely to be receiving treatment for a mental health condition. Most Plain respondents would want a spouse tested for genetic disease with Mifflin County Amish least in favor of these tests. Despite their geographic and genetic isolation, the health of Plain communities in Pennsylvania is similar to that of other adults in the state. Full article

When settling healthcare bills, the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania rely on an ethos of mutual aid, independent of the government. Consonant with this philosophy, many Amish do not participate in or receive benefits from Social Security or Medicare. They are also exempted from the Affordable Care Act of 2010. This study expands the limited documentation of Amish Hospital Aid, an Amish health insurance program that covers major medical costs. Interview data from 11 Amish adults in Lancaster County depict how this aid program supplements traditional congregational alms coverage of medical expenses. The interview data delineate the structure of the program, its operation, and how it encourages cost containment and community interdependence. The manner in which the Amish collaborate to pay for medical expenses provides a thought-provoking paradigm for managing health care costs. Full article

Dietary intake and higher serum concentrations of lycopene have been associated with lower incidence of prostate cancer and other chronic diseases. Identifying determinants of serum lycopene concentrations may thus have important public health implications. Prior studies have suggested that serum lycopene concentrations are under partial genetic control. The goal of this research was to identify genetic predictors of serum lycopene concentrations using the genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach among a sample of 441 Old Order Amish adults that consumed a controlled diet. Linear regression models were utilized to evaluate associations between genetic variants and serum concentrations of lycopene. Variant rs7680948 on chromosome 4, located in the intron region of the SETD7 gene, was significantly associated with serum lycopene concentrations (p = 3.41 × 10⁻⁹). Our findings also provided nominal support for the association previously noted between SCARB1 and serum lycopene concentrations, although with a different SNP (rs11057841) in the region. This study identified a novel locus associated with serum lycopene concentrations and our results raise a number of intriguing possibilities regarding the nature of the relationship between SETD7 and lycopene, both of which have been independently associated with prostate cancer. Further investigation into this relationship might help provide greater mechanistic understanding of these associations. Full article

Purpose: To investigate the association of optical coherence tomography (OCT)-derived drusen measures in Amish age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients with known loci for macular degeneration. Methods: Members of the Old Order Amish community in Pennsylvania ages 50 and older were assessed for drusen area, volume and regions of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophy using a Cirrus High-Definition OCT. Measurements were obtained in the macula region within a central circle (CC) of 3 mm in diameter and a surrounding perifoveal ring (PR) of 3 to 5 mm in diameter using the Cirrus OCT RPE analysis software. Other demographic information, including age, gender and smoking status, were collected. Study subjects were further genotyped to determine their risk for the AMD-associated SNPs in the SYN3, LIPC, ARMS2, C3, CFB, CETP, CFI and CFH genes using TaqMan genotyping assays. The association of genotypes with OCT measures were assessed using linear trend p-values calculated from univariate and multivariate generalized linear models. Results: 432 eyes were included in the analysis. Multivariate analysis (adjusted by age, gender and smoking status) confirmed the known significant association between AMD and macular drusen with the number of CFH risk alleles for the drusen area (the area increased 0.12 mm² for a risk allele increase, p < 0.01), drusen volume (the volume increased 0.01 mm³ for a risk allele increase, p ≤ 0.05) and the area of RPE atrophy (the area increased 0.43 mm² for a risk allele increase, p = 0.003). SYN3 risk allele G is significantly associated with larger area PR (the area increased 0.09 mm² for a risk allele increase, p = 0.03) and larger drusen volume in the central circle (the volume increased 0.01 mm³ for a risk allele increase, p = 0.04). Conclusion: Among the genotyped SNPs tested, the CFH risk genotype appears to play a major role in determining the drusen phenotype in the Amish AMD population. Full article