Sandhya Ramrakha
Biographic Data
| ID | 190245 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sandhya Ramrakha |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sandhya |
| FAMILY NAME | Ramrakha |
| SIGNATURE | RAMRAKHA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Otago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0383-9886 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Caries Trajectories From Childhood to Adulthood Associated With Mental Disorders in Midlife
People who experience poor oral health across the life course are also those who suffer from poorer mental health in mid-adulthood. A lifelong trajectory of poorer dental health indicates poorer mental health and well-being in adult life
Which Types of Stress Are Associated With Accelerated Biological Aging? Comparing Perceived Stress, Stressful Life Events, Childhood Adversity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
OBJECTIVE: Stress and stressful events are associated with poorer health; however, there are multiple ways to conceptualize and measure stress and stress responses. One physiological mechanism through which stress could result in poorer health is accelerated biological aging. This study tested which types of stress were associated with accelerated biological aging in adulthood. METHODS: Studying 955 participants from the Dunedin Longitudinal Stud…
Cross-National and Cross-Generational Evidence That Educational Attainment May Slow the Pace of Aging in European-Descent Individuals
OBJECTIVES: Individuals with more education are at lower risk of developing multiple, different age-related diseases than their less-educated peers. A reason for this might be that individuals with more education age slower. There are 2 complications in testing this hypothesis. First, there exists no definitive measure of biological aging. Second, shared genetic factors contribute toward both lower educational attainment and the development of ag…
Childhood caries is associated with poor health and a faster pace of aging by midlife
Oral health is essential for wellbeing. Poor oral health can be an early signal of a trajectory towards poor health in adulthood. Management for both conditions should be better-integrated; and integrated population-level prevention strategies should be foundational to any health system
Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behavior and Accelerated Biological Aging in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort
Prior research shows that individuals who have exhibited antisocial behavior are in poorer health than their same-aged peers. A major driver of poor health is aging itself, yet research has not investigated relationships between offending trajectories and biological aging. We tested the hypothesis that individuals following a life-course persistent (LCP) antisocial trajectory show accelerated aging in midlife. Trajectories of antisocial behavior …
Longitudinal Assessment of Mental Health Disorders and Comorbidities Across 4 Decades Among Participants in the Dunedin Birth Cohort Study
Importance: Mental health professionals typically encounter patients at 1 point in patients' lives. This cross-sectional window understandably fosters focus on the current presenting diagnosis. Research programs, treatment protocols, specialist clinics, and specialist journals are oriented to presenting diagnoses, on the assumption that diagnosis informs about causes and prognosis. This study tests an alternative hypothesis: people with mental di…
A polygenic score for age‐at‐first‐birth predicts disinhibition
BACKGROUND: A recent genome-wide association study identified molecular-genetic associations with age-at-first-birth. However, the meaning of these genetic discoveries is unclear. Drawing on evidence linking early pregnancy with disinhibitory behavior, we tested the hypothesis that genetic discoveries for age-at-first-birth predict disinhibition. METHODS: We included participants with genotype data from the two-decade-long Environmental Risk (E-R…
Clustering of health, crime and social-welfare inequality in 4 million citizens from two nations
Genetics of nurture
Twin studies have documented that parenting behavior is partly heritable, but it is unclear how parents' genetics shape their caregiving. Using tools of molecular genetics, the present study investigated this process by testing hypotheses about associations between a genome-wide polygenic score for educational attainment and parental caregiving in 702 members of the Dunedin Study, a population-representative birth cohort. Data have been prospecti…
Pacific university graduates in New Zealand
Increasing the numbers of Pacific Island students who graduate from New Zealand universities is important for the students' futures, their families, communities and society in general. In this study, Pacific graduates ( N = 365) who are participants in the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand were asked to describe what factors helped or hindered their qualification completion. Graduates from all eight New Zealand universities were surveyed be…
The Genetics of Success
A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 100,000 individuals identified molecular-genetic predictors of educational attainment. We undertook in-depth life-course investigation of the polygenic score derived from this GWAS using the four-decade Dunedin Study ( N = 918). There were five main findings. First, polygenic scores predicted adult economic outcomes even after accounting for educational attainments. Second, genes and en…
Lest we forget
BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g. abuse, neglect, and parental loss) have been associated with increased risk for later-life disease and dysfunction using adults' retrospective self-reports of ACEs. Research should test whether associations between ACEs and health outcomes are the same for prospective and retrospective ACE measures. METHODS: We estimated agreement between ACEs prospectively recorded throughout childhood (by St…
Adult-onset offenders
Childhood forecasting of a small segment of the population with large economic burden
Community Water Fluoridation and Intelligence
Objectives. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between community water fluoridation (CWF) and IQ. Methods. We conducted a prospective study of a general population sample of those born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1, 1972, and March 30, 1973 (95.4% retention of cohort after 38 years of prospective follow-up). Residence in a CWF area, use of fluoride dentifrice and intake of 0.5-milligram fluoride tablets were assessed in early…
The p Factor
Mental disorders traditionally have been viewed as distinct, episodic, and categorical conditions. This view has been challenged by evidence that many disorders are sequentially comorbid, recurrent/chronic, and exist on a continuum. Using the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, we examined the structure of psychopathology, taking into account dimensionality, persistence, co-occurrence, and sequential comorbidity of mental diso…
The Relationship Between Multiple Sex Partners and Anxiety, Depression, and Substance Dependence Disorders
Psychiatric disorders and risky sexual behaviour in young adulthood
OBJECTIVE: To determine if risky sexual intercourse, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual intercourse at an early age are associated with psychiatric disorder. DESIGN: Cross sectional study of a birth cohort at age 21 years with assessments presented by computer (for sexual behaviour) and by trained interviewers (for psychiatric disorder). SETTING: New Zealand in 1993-4. PARTICIPANTS: 992 study members (487 women) from the Dunedin multidisci…
Childhood forecasting of a small segment of the population with large economic burden
Community Water Fluoridation and Intelligence
Objectives. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between community water fluoridation (CWF) and IQ. Methods. We conducted a prospective study of a general population sample of those born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1, 1972, and March 30, 1973 (95.4% retention of cohort after 38 years of prospective follow-up). Residence in a CWF area, use of fluoride dentifrice and intake of 0.5-milligram fluoride tablets were assessed in early…
Genetics of nurture
Twin studies have documented that parenting behavior is partly heritable, but it is unclear how parents' genetics shape their caregiving. Using tools of molecular genetics, the present study investigated this process by testing hypotheses about associations between a genome-wide polygenic score for educational attainment and parental caregiving in 702 members of the Dunedin Study, a population-representative birth cohort. Data have been prospecti…
Adult-onset offenders
The Relationship Between Multiple Sex Partners and Anxiety, Depression, and Substance Dependence Disorders
Clustering of health, crime and social-welfare inequality in 4 million citizens from two nations
Psychiatric disorders and risky sexual behaviour in young adulthood
OBJECTIVE: To determine if risky sexual intercourse, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual intercourse at an early age are associated with psychiatric disorder. DESIGN: Cross sectional study of a birth cohort at age 21 years with assessments presented by computer (for sexual behaviour) and by trained interviewers (for psychiatric disorder). SETTING: New Zealand in 1993-4. PARTICIPANTS: 992 study members (487 women) from the Dunedin multidisci…
The Relationship Between Multiple Sex Partners and Anxiety, Depression, and Substance Dependence Disorders
The p Factor
Mental disorders traditionally have been viewed as distinct, episodic, and categorical conditions. This view has been challenged by evidence that many disorders are sequentially comorbid, recurrent/chronic, and exist on a continuum. Using the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, we examined the structure of psychopathology, taking into account dimensionality, persistence, co-occurrence, and sequential comorbidity of mental diso…
Community Water Fluoridation and Intelligence
Objectives. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between community water fluoridation (CWF) and IQ. Methods. We conducted a prospective study of a general population sample of those born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1, 1972, and March 30, 1973 (95.4% retention of cohort after 38 years of prospective follow-up). Residence in a CWF area, use of fluoride dentifrice and intake of 0.5-milligram fluoride tablets were assessed in early…
The Genetics of Success
A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 100,000 individuals identified molecular-genetic predictors of educational attainment. We undertook in-depth life-course investigation of the polygenic score derived from this GWAS using the four-decade Dunedin Study ( N = 918). There were five main findings. First, polygenic scores predicted adult economic outcomes even after accounting for educational attainments. Second, genes and en…
Lest we forget
BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g. abuse, neglect, and parental loss) have been associated with increased risk for later-life disease and dysfunction using adults' retrospective self-reports of ACEs. Research should test whether associations between ACEs and health outcomes are the same for prospective and retrospective ACE measures. METHODS: We estimated agreement between ACEs prospectively recorded throughout childhood (by St…
Adult-onset offenders
Childhood forecasting of a small segment of the population with large economic burden
Pacific university graduates in New Zealand
Increasing the numbers of Pacific Island students who graduate from New Zealand universities is important for the students' futures, their families, communities and society in general. In this study, Pacific graduates ( N = 365) who are participants in the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand were asked to describe what factors helped or hindered their qualification completion. Graduates from all eight New Zealand universities were surveyed be…
Genetics of nurture
Twin studies have documented that parenting behavior is partly heritable, but it is unclear how parents' genetics shape their caregiving. Using tools of molecular genetics, the present study investigated this process by testing hypotheses about associations between a genome-wide polygenic score for educational attainment and parental caregiving in 702 members of the Dunedin Study, a population-representative birth cohort. Data have been prospecti…
Longitudinal Assessment of Mental Health Disorders and Comorbidities Across 4 Decades Among Participants in the Dunedin Birth Cohort Study
Importance: Mental health professionals typically encounter patients at 1 point in patients' lives. This cross-sectional window understandably fosters focus on the current presenting diagnosis. Research programs, treatment protocols, specialist clinics, and specialist journals are oriented to presenting diagnoses, on the assumption that diagnosis informs about causes and prognosis. This study tests an alternative hypothesis: people with mental di…
A polygenic score for age‐at‐first‐birth predicts disinhibition
BACKGROUND: A recent genome-wide association study identified molecular-genetic associations with age-at-first-birth. However, the meaning of these genetic discoveries is unclear. Drawing on evidence linking early pregnancy with disinhibitory behavior, we tested the hypothesis that genetic discoveries for age-at-first-birth predict disinhibition. METHODS: We included participants with genotype data from the two-decade-long Environmental Risk (E-R…
Clustering of health, crime and social-welfare inequality in 4 million citizens from two nations
Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behavior and Accelerated Biological Aging in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort
Prior research shows that individuals who have exhibited antisocial behavior are in poorer health than their same-aged peers. A major driver of poor health is aging itself, yet research has not investigated relationships between offending trajectories and biological aging. We tested the hypothesis that individuals following a life-course persistent (LCP) antisocial trajectory show accelerated aging in midlife. Trajectories of antisocial behavior …
Which Types of Stress Are Associated With Accelerated Biological Aging? Comparing Perceived Stress, Stressful Life Events, Childhood Adversity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
OBJECTIVE: Stress and stressful events are associated with poorer health; however, there are multiple ways to conceptualize and measure stress and stress responses. One physiological mechanism through which stress could result in poorer health is accelerated biological aging. This study tested which types of stress were associated with accelerated biological aging in adulthood. METHODS: Studying 955 participants from the Dunedin Longitudinal Stud…
Cross-National and Cross-Generational Evidence That Educational Attainment May Slow the Pace of Aging in European-Descent Individuals
OBJECTIVES: Individuals with more education are at lower risk of developing multiple, different age-related diseases than their less-educated peers. A reason for this might be that individuals with more education age slower. There are 2 complications in testing this hypothesis. First, there exists no definitive measure of biological aging. Second, shared genetic factors contribute toward both lower educational attainment and the development of ag…
Childhood caries is associated with poor health and a faster pace of aging by midlife
Oral health is essential for wellbeing. Poor oral health can be an early signal of a trajectory towards poor health in adulthood. Management for both conditions should be better-integrated; and integrated population-level prevention strategies should be foundational to any health system
Caries Trajectories From Childhood to Adulthood Associated With Mental Disorders in Midlife
People who experience poor oral health across the life course are also those who suffer from poorer mental health in mid-adulthood. A lifelong trajectory of poorer dental health indicates poorer mental health and well-being in adult life
Psychology (13 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Psychiatry (10 works) · Population (9 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Cohort (6 works) · Demography (6 works) · Cohort study (5 works) · Environmental health (5 works)