De Femmes Research Articles

Macronutrient composition of plant-based diets and breast cancer risk: the E3N prospective cohort study.

Recent evidence suggests that plant-based diets may reduce the risk of breast cancer (BC). However, the macronutrient composition of plant-based diets and its potential impact on BC risk has not been well explored. This analysis investigated the association of macronutrient composition with BC risk across a spectrum of plant-based diet indexes using a multidimensional approach. This study followed 64,655 participants from the Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale (E3N) cohort from 1993 to 2014. Diets were evaluated using validated 208-item diet history questionnaires at baseline (1993) and follow-up (2005), to calculate adherence to the overall plant-based diet (PDI), healthful plant-based diet (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet (uPDI). The association of macronutrient composition with BC risk was assessed via generalized additive time-dependent Cox models across different levels of these indexes. Response surfaces were generated to visualize compositional associations at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of each index (low, moderate, and high). A total of 3,932 incident BC cases were identified during the 21-year follow-up. There was a significant association between macronutrient composition and BC risk for hPDI, uPDI, and PDI (all P < 0.001). Akaike information criterion favored the hPDI model for characterizing the association between macronutrients and BC. BC risk was highest for individuals with a lower hPDI score who also consumed a diet containing lower protein (10%), lower carbohydrate (35%), and higher fat (55%). The lowest risk of BC was observed in those with higher hPDI scores with the lowest intake of protein (10%). At higher PDI and uPDI, diets containing higher protein (30%) and fat (45%) had the highest BC risk. These results demonstrate a complex relationship between macronutrient composition, plant-based diet quality, and BC risk. Further research is needed to examine specific foods that may be driving these associations. The protocol is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03285230.

The transformation of the figure of a maid in three adaptations of The Diary of a Chambermaid by Octave Mirbeau

This article discusses three adaptations of the novel Le Journal d’une femme de chambre (The Diary of a Chambermaid) by Octave Mirbeau, published in 1900, by Jean Renoir in 1946, by Luis Buñuel in 1964 and by Benoît Jacquot in 2015. It examines the effect of the time and, to some degree, the places where these films were made, on the representation of the characters and stories adapted by the respective directors. It is particularly interested in the transformation of the main character, Célestine, her labour and her sexuality, and the gender dynamics in the respective films, as reflection of the dominant discourses about gender roles pertaining to the times these films were made. It devotes most attention to the most recent film, due to the heaviest intertextual baggage which it carries and also given this adaptation has the most relevance to contemporary issues about women’s work and social position.

Association between dietary intake of acrylamide and increased risk of mortality in women: Evidence from the E3N prospective cohort

Acrylamide is an organic compound classified as probably carcinogenic to humans because of sufficient evidence in animals but not in humans. Other health risks associated with acrylamide intake are still not fully elucidated. We aimed to study the relationship between acrylamide dietary intake and mortality in the E3N (Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de l'Education Nationale) French cohort.We studied 72,585 women of the E3N prospective cohort, which completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1993. The E3N food consumption database and the food contamination database obtained from the second French total diet study were used to estimate participants' average daily acrylamide dietary intake. We estimated the associations between acrylamide dietary intake and all-cause or cause-specific mortality using Cox proportional hazard models.During follow-up (1993–2014), we identified 6441 deaths. The mean acrylamide dietary intake was 32.6 μg/day, with coffee consumption as principal contributor (48.6 %). In the fully adjusted model, we found a non-linear association between acrylamide dietary intake and all-cause mortality and a linear positive association with cardiovascular disease (HR per one STD increment [95%CI]: 1.11 [1.02; 1.21]), all-cancer (HR [95%CI]: 1.05 [1.01; 1.10]) and lung cancer (HR [95%CI]: 1.22 [1.09; 1.38]) mortality, while we observed no association with breast (HR [95%CI]: 0.94 [0.86; 1.03]) and colorectal (HR [95%CI]: 1.12 [0.97; 1.29]) cancer mortality. We highlighted an interaction between acrylamide dietary intake and smoking status in the models for all-cause and all-cancer mortality: when stratifying on smoking status, statistically significant positive associations were observed only in current smokers.This study on a large prospective cohort following more than 70,000 women for over 20 years suggests that higher acrylamide dietary intakes are associated with an increased risk of mortality. Therefore, it is essential to keep reducing acrylamide contamination and prevent dietary intake of acrylamide, especially among smokers.

Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon : destin d’un faussaire par vocation

Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon (1786-1864) was the author of numerous novels belonging to different genres. However, if he wasn’t completely forgotten by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th c., it was thanks to a long list of apocryphal memoirs attributed to famous people which in fact he wrote himself. At first, this paper shows reactions from the press in 1829 after the publication of Mémoires d’une femme de qualité sur Louis XVIII and Mémoires de la comtesse Du Barri. Although some journalists chose to perpetuate the fiction that the memoirs were authentic, others denounced them as false and heavily criticized this kind of literary enterprise. Thereafter, the article focuses on Lamothe-Langon’s response to his critics and on his vision of apocryphal memoirs in his preface to Les Après-diners de S. A. S. Cambacérès (1837).

L’identité qui s’écrit avec un F. À propos d’Écritures de femmes en Belgique francophone après 1945 (éd. M. Quaghebeur)

The identity that is written with an F. About Écritures de femmes en Belgique francophone après 1945 (ed. by M. Quaghebeur) The article discusses the book Écritures de femmes en Belgique francophone après 1945 edited by M. Quaghebeur. The publication is a collection of articles showcasing the diversity of women’s writing over several decades, crucial to the empowerment of women in Belgian social life and particularly in the cultural field. The chronological presentation of the individual articles highlights the central theme of the books discussed here, which is identity: gender, ethnicity, professional identity.

Association of Physical Activity and Parkinson Disease in Women: Long-term Follow-up of the E3N Cohort Study.

Previous cohort studies reported that a single measure of physical activity (PA) assessed at baseline was associated with lower Parkinson's disease (PD) incidence, but a meta-analysis suggested that this association was restricted to men. Due to the long prodromal phase of the disease, reverse causation could not be excluded as a potential explanation. Our objective was to study the association between time-varying PA and PD using lagged analyses to address the potential for reverse causation, and to compare PA trajectories in patients prior to diagnosis and matched controls. We used data from E3N (1990-2018), a cohort study of women affiliated with a national health insurance plan for persons working in education. PA was self-reported in six questionnaires over the follow-up. As questions changed across questionnaires, we created a time-varying latent PA (LPA) variable using latent-process mixed models. PD was ascertained using a multistep validation process based on medical records, or a validated algorithm based on drug claims. We set-up a nested case-control study to examine differences in LPA trajectories using multivariable linear mixed models with a retrospective time scale. Cox proportional hazards models with age as the timescale and adjusted for confounders were used to estimate the association between time-varying LPA and PD incidence. Our main analysis used a 10y-lag to account for reverse causation; sensitivity analyses used 5y, 15y, and 20y-lags. Analyses of trajectories (1,196 cases, 23,879 controls) showed that LPA was significantly lower in cases than in controls throughout the follow-up, including 29y before diagnosis; the difference between cases and controls started to increase ∼10y before diagnosis (P-interaction=0.003). In our main survival analysis, of 95,354 women free of PD in 2000, 1,074 women developed PD over a mean follow-up of 17.2y. PD incidence decreased with increasing LPA (P-trend=0.001), with 25% lower incidence in those in the highest quartile compared to the lowest (adjusted hazard ratio=0.75, 95% confidence interval=0.63-0.89). Using longer lags yielded similar conclusions. Higher PA level is associated with lower PD incidence in women, not explained by reverse causation. These results are important for planning interventions for PD prevention.

Long-term adherence to healthful and unhealthful plant-based diets and breast cancer risk overall and by hormone receptor and histologic subtypes among postmenopausal females

BackgroundEpidemiological studies assessing the influence of vegetarian diets on breast cancer (BC) risk have produced inconsistent results. Few studies have assessed how the incremental decrease in animal foods and the quality of plant foods are linked with BC. ObjectivesDisentangle the influence of plant-based diet quality on BC risk between postmenopausal females. MethodsTotal of 65,574 participants from the E3N (Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale) cohort were followed from 1993–2014. Incident BC cases were confirmed through pathological reports and classified into subtypes. Cumulative average scores for healthful (hPDI) and unhealthful (uPDI) plant-based diet indices were developed using self-reported dietary intakes at baseline (1993) and follow-up (2005) and divided into quintiles. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted HR and 95% CI. ResultsDuring a mean follow-up of 21 y, 3968 incident postmenopausal BC cases were identified. There was a nonlinear association between adherence to hPDI and BC risk (Pnonlinear < 0.01). Compared to participants with low adherence to hPDI, those with high adherence had a lower BC risk [HRQ3 compared withQ1 (95% CI): 0.79 (0.71, 0.87) and HRQ4 compared with Q1 (95% CI): 0.78 (0.70, 0.86)]. In contrast, higher adherence to unhealthful was associated with a linear increase in BC risk [Pnonlinear = 0.18; HRQ5 compared with Q1 (95% CI): 1.20 (1.08, 1.33); Ptrend < 0.01]. Associations were similar according to BC subtypes (Pheterogeneity > 0.05 for all). ConclusionsLong-term adherence to healthful plant foods with some intake of unhealthy plant and animal foods may reduce BC risk with an optimal risk reduction in the moderate intake range. Adherence to an unhealthful plant-based diet may increase BC risk. These results emphasize the importance of the quality of plant foods for cancer prevention.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03285230).

Palaeolithic diet score and risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women overall and by hormone receptor and histologic subtypes.

The Palaeolithic diet (PD) has gained popularity globally. There is emerging evidence of its putative health benefits as short-term effects on chronic diseases have been reported. We evaluated the association between long-term adherence to the PD and breast cancer (BC) risk among postmenopausal women. 65,574 women from the Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale (E3N) cohort were followed from 1993 to 2014. Incident BC cases were identified and validated. The PD score was calculated using dietary intake self-reported at baseline (1993) and follow-up (2005) or baseline only if censored before follow-up. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate BC hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Over a mean follow-up of 20 years, 3968 incident BC cases occurred. An increase of 1 standard deviation in the PD score was associated with an 8% lower BC risk, fully-adjusted model: HR1-SD 0.92, 95% CI; 0.89, 0.95. Compared to women with low adherence to the PD, women with high adherence had a 17% lower BC risk, HRQ5 vs Q1 0.83, 95% CI; 0.75, 0.92, Ptrend < 0.01. When considering BC subtypes, we observed the same pattern of association (Pheterogeneity > 0.10 for all). High adherence to a PD characterised by fruit, vegetables, nuts, fish, and lean meat and limited in dairy, grains, legumes, refined sugar, and alcohol was associated with a lower BC risk. The lack of heterogeneity according to BC subtypes could indicate the involvement of non-hormonal mechanisms. The protocol is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03285230. The protocol is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03285230.

Des revues et des femmes: la place des femmes dans les revues littéraires de la Belle Époque jusqu’à la fin des années 1950 by Amélie Auzoux, Camille Koskas et Elisabeth Russo

Reviewed by: Des revues et des femmes: la place des femmes dans les revues littéraires de la Belle Époque jusqu’à la fin des années 1950 by Amélie Auzoux, Camille Koskas et Elisabeth Russo Hope Christiansen Auzoux, Amélie, Camille Koskas, et Elisabeth Russo, éd. Des revues et des femmes: la place des femmes dans les revues littéraires de la Belle Époque jusqu’à la fin des années 1950. Champion, 2022. ISBN 978-2-7453-5676-5. Pp. 305. This fine collection analyzes the presence (and absence) of women in a wide range of literary journals published during the first half of the twentieth century. An overview by Jean-Yves Mollier lays the foundation for a chronological treatment of the subject, with sections on the Belle Époque, the period of La Nouvelle Revue française (“citadelle masculine s’il en est” [11]), l’entre-deuxguerres, and the post-World War II era. The material devoted to the Belle Époque is particularly cohesive, thanks to the solid work of Diana Holmes, Martine Reid, and Rachel Mesch on Femina and La vie heureuse, topped off by Wendy Prin-Conti’s intriguing piece on the representation of women poets in Les annales politiques et littéraires. If the journal was at first uniformly condescending toward women’s poetry (juxtaposing lines from women’s and men’s poems in order to highlight the former’s technical inferiority, for instance), it would eventually not only publish poetry by women but publicize and pre-publish excerpts of their forthcoming collections. In the section devoted to the NRF, François Bompaire offers insights on Anna de Noailles, Jean-Kely Paulhan on Élisabeth Porquerol, and Hélène Baty-Delalande on how women fared under Jean Paulhan. Of particular note is Camille Koskas’s discussion of Dominique Aury who, in addition to being the only female member of Gallimard’s comité de lecture for twenty-five years, was instrumental in drawing attention to writers such as Colette, Violette Leduc, and Simone de Beauvoir. The book’s third section looks at women’s involvement in journals specifically through the prisms of politics and cosmopolitanism. Under scrutiny are figures such as Dick May (Mélanie Fabre), Ludmila Savitzky (Amélie Auzoux), Aline Mayrisch (Paola Codazzi), Georgette Camille (Marie Cléren) as well as less well-known publications (La Revue du monde noir [Andy Stafford] and Mesures [Clarisse Barthelémy]). Auzoux paints a vivid picture of a France that felt threatened after World War I by the importation of foreign literature, making Savitsky’s opposition to the francisation of other languages in her translations and her desire to “laisser l’étranger dans toute son étrangeté” (157) all the harder to accept. The four essays in the final section explore the increased visibility of women in literary journals after the second World War. Éric Dussert discusses Marguerite Grepon, champion of the journal intime, while Élisabeth Russo investigates the first fifteen years of Les Temps [End Page 253] modernes, warning readers against simply assuming that Simone de Beauvoir “par une quelconque solidarité ou soif de justice éditoriale, favorise les femmes plus que leurs homologues masculins” (236), when in fact she showed little interest in the idea of une littérature de femme or in promoting women writers. Laurent Gayard showcases Nathalie Henneberg, who gradually gained autonomy as a science fiction writer after participating in l’écriture à quatre mains with her husband, paving the way for other women to make a name for themselves in the genre. Michel Murat’s analysis of Tel Quel (with particular emphasis on Julia Kristeva) brings this important contribution to scholarship on women’s writing and feminism to a close. [End Page 254] Hope Christiansen University of Arkansas Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

From Clappique to Sganarelle: Fluttering with Malraux and Gary

Romain Gary is not close to André Malraux only by his political and war time commitments. They also share a form of creative fantasy that shakes up literary genres, embodied by the character of Clappique, in La Condition Humaine. He serves as a model for the recurring figure of the Baron in Romain Gary’s novels, through different incarnations from Le Grand Vestaire to Les Couleurs du jour and Clair de femme. Fanciful and comical portraits, these caricatural characters appear as a buffoonish recourse in the face of history. Gary will push this salutary counterpoint very far, gradually releasing the comic force of his fantasy, while Malraux will not resist giving this endearing double a last lap in his Antimémoires. Seeing the writer as Clappique makes it possible to show the fruitfulness and the constancy of this “wacky” (« farfelue ») dimension, which is part of the companionship between the two writers.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Association between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) dietary exposure and mortality risk in the E3N cohort

Most studies have explored the adverse health effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) occupational exposure. However, the general population is also exposed to PAH, mainly through the diet. The goal of the present study is thus to investigate the association between PAH dietary exposure and mortality risk in middle-aged women of the E3N (Étude Épidémiologique auprès de femmes de la mutuelle générale de l'Éducation Nationale) French prospective cohort.The study included 72,513 women, whom completed a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire on 208 food items in 1993. Food contamination levels were assessed using data provided by the Anses (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) in the framework of the French second total diet study. PAH dietary exposure was studied as the sum of four PAH (PAH4), namely benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), chrysene (CHR), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA) and benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the risk of all-cause mortality as well as all-cancer, specific cancer (separately from breast, lung/tracheal, and colorectal cancer), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and specific CVD (including only stroke and coronary heart disease) mortality.During follow-up (1993–2011), 4620 validated deaths were reported, of which 2726 due to cancer and 584 to CVD. The median PAH4 dietary intake was 66.1 ng/day. There was no significant association between PAH4 dietary intake and the risk of all-cause, all-cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, all-CVD and stroke and coronary heart disease mortality. On the contrary, we observed a positive and statistically significant association between PAH4 dietary intake and lung/tracheal cancer mortality risk, with a stronger association among current smokers than among former smokers and never smokers.In this study, we observed an association between PAH dietary exposure and lung/tracheal cancer mortality risk, especially among current smokers.

Profil clinique et parcours de soins des résidents bénéficiant de l’intervention de l’hospitalisation à domicile en Établissement d’hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes et comparaison des interventions selon leur provenance

Nursing homes’ (NH) residents present a mix of medical, psychological and social needs associated with a high risk of hospitalization. The intervention of the hospitalization at home (HAH) in NH has been implemented in France to better fit the residents’ needs and decrease the risk of hospitalization. No study has described the population of residents receiving this intervention. This study aimed to define the profile and the care pathway of residents and compare their characteristics according to the referrals (NH or hospitals). A retrospective study on 1,436 residents’ stays in the intervention of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris’HAH in Ile de France between 2014 and 2019 was implemented. The Programme de Médicalisation des Systèmes d’Information (PMSI) data was used for the analysis. Residents were 88 years old with 69% of women with functional disability and the care was mainly represented by the complex dressing (68%). For the care pathway, 65% of the referrers were from the NH and 35% from the hospital settings, 33% of the residents died at the end of the stay in the NH and 25% were transferred to hospitals. When the referrer was the hospital, the residents were mainly men (p < 0.001), younger (p < 0.001), receiving more often intravenous treatment and palliative care (p < 0.01) with a higher level of indice of Karnofsky (p < 0.01). When the NH was the referrer, deaths were more frequent, whereas the transfers to hospitals were less common (p < 0.001). Discussion: Residents had complex clinical situation and their care pathway were different according to the referrer. From the NH, the HAH was used to provide more often end of life care, and from hospital setting, the residents received more acute care with a higher risk of readmission. Readmission causes should be analyzed.

Adherence to Healthy and Unhealthy Plant-Based Diets and Risk of Breast Cancer Overall and by Hormone Receptor and Histologic Subtypes Among Postmenopausal Women

ObjectivesPrevious studies on vegan and vegetarian diets have reported beneficial effects on health outcomes by reducing low-grade systemic inflammation. However, few studies have assessed the incremental decrease of animal foods and how the quality of plant foods (healthy and less healthy) is linked with favorable health outcomes. There is still limited data on breast cancer (BC) in this regard. We aimed to assess the association between long-term adherence to a plant-based diet and BC risk among postmenopausal women. MethodsWomen from the E3N (Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale) cohort (n = 65,574, mean age = 52.8 years) were followed from 1993 to 2014. Incident BC cases were identified, validated, and classified into receptor and histological subtypes. Scores for healthful (hPDI) and unhealthful (uPDI) plant-based diets were developed using self-reported dietary intake at baseline (1993) and during follow-up (2005), and studied as a continuous variable and in quintiles. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate BC hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). ResultsOver a mean follow-up of 21 years, there were 3,968 incident BC cases. Adherence to hPDI was associated with lower BC risk (HRQ5 vs. Q1, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77–0.95, Ptrend < 0.001), whereas adherence to uPDI was associated with increased BC risk (HRQ5 vs. Q1, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.08–1.33, Ptrend < 0.001). Adherence to hPDI was inversely associated with ER-positive, PR-positive, PR-negative, and ER/PR positive BC, and both ductal and lobular carcinomas (HR1-SD increase, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89–0.96, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.89–0.97, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.89–0.99, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.89–0.97, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89–0.96, and 0.92; 95% CI, 0.85–1.00, respectively). Adherence to uPDI was associated with increased ER-positive BC and lobular carcinoma (HR1-SD increase, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01–1.08 and 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04–1.22, respectively). ConclusionsOur findings support that adherence to a healthy plant-based diet may reduce the risk of BC. In contrast, an unhealthy plant-based diet may increase BC risk, further emphasizing the importance of diet quality regarding cancer prevention. Funding SourcesMinistère de l’enseignement supérieur de la recherche et de l’innovation.

Hamartome astrocytaire chez une femme de 74 ans

Hamartome astrocytaire chez une femme de 74 ans

Associations between plasma levels of brominated flame retardants and methylation of DNA from peripheral blood: A cross-sectional study in a cohort of French women

BackgroundBrominated flame retardants (BFRs) are organic compounds that are widespread in the environment. Because of their persistence, they are able to bioaccumulate with major impacts on human health. It has been hypothesized that the effect of BFRs on human health is mediated by alterations of DNA methylation. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the association between methylation of DNA extracted from peripheral blood and circulating levels of BFRs measured in plasma. MethodsWe conducted a methylation wide association study on 336 blood samples from a study within the E3N (Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de l'Education Nationale) cohort, a long-term longitudinal cohort of French women. DNA methylation at more than 850 000 cytosine-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites was measured with the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation - EPIC BeadChip. Circulating levels of seven BFRs (BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154 and PBB-153) were measured by gas chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry in plasma samples. The association between DNA methylation and BFRs plasma levels was assessed through linear mixed-effects models followed by gene-set enrichment analyses (GSEA). ResultsWe identified 253 CpG sites whose methylation levels were significantly associated with exposure to BFRs after Bonferroni correction. For 50 of these CpGs the p-values were less than 2.2x10−9 with the strongest association being between BDE-154 and cg23619365 (4.32x10−13). GSEA of CpG sites associated with exposure to BFRs identified significant enrichment of genes involved in hypoxia, glycolysis and adipogenesis. ConclusionsExposure to BFRs appears to be related to numerous alterations in DNA methylation. These findings, if replicated in independent studies, provide insights into the biological and health effects of BFRs.

Postface

Postface

Fraying Parachutes: Costume agency and convivencia in contemporary circus performance making

Fraying Parachutes explores from a choreographer/facilitator’s perspective the agency found in the costume making processes during Femme de Feu’s Circus Sessions 2019, in which three abandoned parachutes were upcycled and transformed into circus costumes. It traces the journey from conceptualization to ad hoc design, involving de-construction and much physical entanglement, to the eventual wear and non-wearability of the costumes in performance. Bringing together fourteen artists from South America, North America and Europe, the embodied research that informed this work took as its foci: positive receptivity, hospitality and fascination as qualities and modes of creating collectively. The experimental circus costume making processes provided an opportunity to physically expand upon theories of agential realism and entanglement, in relation to the material and the social. The re-purposed parachutes served as constant reminders of flight, suspension, risk and rescue, qualities that are innately present in circus technique and performance. In ‘rescuing’ the parachutes from landfill, the work also gave visibility to an ecological ethic in performance making, or what Tanja Beer refers to as a practice of ecoscenography, where issues of waste and sustainability may be addressed. Underscoring this essay will be the notion of convivencia or a literal ‘living with’ other and the non-human as essential to process and performance. Distinct to a co-labouring of ideas, in Circus Sessions, convivencia encompassed our creative entanglements, the friction and flow in artistic decision making, our discussions, reflections and laughter. It would also attune our listening to epistemologies of the South, to the diverse cultural perspectives and sensibilities that the different performers from three continents brought to the project. In this visual essay, costume agency is understood as a tensile potentiality that generates creative energy informed by the serendipitous opportunities found in the sensory binding of costume making processes.

Statin Use and Skin Cancer Risk: A Prospective Cohort Study

Epidemiological studies on statin use in relation to skin cancer risk are scarce and yielded conflicting results. We explored this association in Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de l'Education Nationale, a prospective cohort of French women born in 1925-1950. Health and lifestyle data were self-reported biennially and matched with drug reimbursement data, allowing the identification of participants' statin use since 2004. Multivariable cause-specific hazards regression models adjusted for skin cancer risk factors estimated hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Over 2004-2014, 455 cutaneous melanoma, 1,741 basal cell carcinoma, and 268 squamous cell carcinoma cases were ascertained among 62,473 women. Compared with never use, there were no associations between ever use of statins and melanoma (hazard ratio= 1.16, 95% confidence interval= 0.94-1.44) or squamous cell carcinoma (hazard ratio= 0.89, 95% confidence interval= 0.66-1.19) risks and a decrease in basal cell carcinoma risk with ever use of statins (hazard ratio= 0.89, 95% confidence interval= 0.79-0.996). We found no trend of increasing or decreasing risks with dose, duration of use, time since first use, or age at first use and no statistically significant effect modification by pigmentary traits or residential UVR exposure. Because of the limited number of studies evaluating the associations between the use of statins and the risks of melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma, these findings would deserve further investigation in other settings.

Menopausal hormone therapy and risk of incident hypertension: role of the route of estrogen administration and progestogens in the E3N cohort.

Although menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) remains the most effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms of menopause, its association with the development of arterial hypertension remains unclear. We sought to explore associations between different formulations of MHT and incident hypertension among menopausal women in a prospective cohort study. We used the Etude Epidémiologique de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education (E3N) cohort, a French prospective population-based study initiated in 1990 on 98,995 women. Out of these, 49,905 menopausal women with complete information on the use of MHT, and without prevalent hypertension at inclusion were included. The mean age of the population at baseline was 54.2 ± 4.3 years, and 32,183 (64.5%) reported ever using MHT. Among these women, 10,173 cases of incident hypertension were identified over an average follow-up time of 10.6 years. Compared with women who never used MHT, those who ever used it had an increased risk of incident hypertension (adjusted HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.12) after adjustment for body mass index and other potential confounders. Oral but not transdermal estrogen use was associated with an increased risk of hypertension (adjusted HR = 1.09; 95% CI: 1.04-1.14 and HR = 1.03; 95% CI: 0.99-1.07, respectively). However, the HRs associated with oral and transdermal estrogens did not differ significantly (P-homogeneity = 0.09). Regarding the role of concomitant progestogens, pregnane and norpregnane derivatives were significantly associated with hypertension risk (HR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.06-1.19 and HR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01-1.13, respectively). MHT was associated with a modest but significant increased risk of incident hypertension, especially when using oral estrogen in combination with a progestogen such as pregnane and norpregnane derivatives. Surveillance of blood pressure should be added to the medical surveillance of MHT users.