Background: Social disconnection, including loneliness and social isolation, is associated with increased morbidity and death. However, its impact on the incidence and prognosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) remains inconclusive. Methods and Results: The present prospective cohort study enrolled 418 656 participants without AF and cardiovascular disease from the UK Biobank. A loneliness scale was constructed with 2 domains (loneliness feeling, inability to confide) and social isolation scale was constructed with 3 domains (living alone, lack of social support, and lack of social activity). We used a multistate model to analyze the impacts of the 2 scales on the progression from baseline to incident AF and subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events and further to death. Over a median follow‐up of 14.7 years, 25 539 participants developed incident AF, among whom 7283 developed incident major adverse cardiovascular events, and 5165 died. Social isolation and loneliness scales were associated with both a higher incidence and worse prognosis of AF, with hazard ratios per 1‐point increase of 1.06 (95% CI, 1.04–1.09) for the loneliness scale and 1.03 (95% CI, 1.02–1.05) for the social isolation scale for incident AF, and 1.12 to 1.14 for the loneliness scale (all P <0.001) and 1.12 to 1.27 for the social isolation scale (all P <0.001) after AF development. Loneliness feeling and living alone may be important contributors. Conclusions: Loneliness and social isolation were both associated with a higher incidence and a worse prognosis of AF but to different extents. These observations highlight the importance of integrating social connection into the prevention and management of AF.

Objectives Evidence linking dietary potassium and serum potassium is virtually scarce and inconclusive. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between serum potassium level and potassium intake measured by 24-hour urine. We also explored whether the association differed across health conditions. Design A cross-sectional study conducted from September 2017 to March 2018. Setting 48 residential elderly care facilities in northern China. Participants Participants aged 55 years and older and with both serum potassium and 24-hour urinary potassium measured were classified as having a low (apparently healthy), moderate (with ≥1 health condition but normal renal function) and high (with ≥1 health condition and abnormal renal function) risk of hyperkalaemia. Exposure Potassium intake is measured by 24-hour urinary potassium. Outcomes Serum potassium in association with potassium intake after adjustment for age, sex, region and accounting for the cluster effect. Results Of 962 eligible participants (mean age 69.1 years, 86.8% men), 17.3% were at low risk, 48.4% at moderate risk and 34.3% at high risk of hyperkalaemia. Serum potassium was weakly associated with 24-hour urinary potassium among individuals with moderate (adjusted β=0.0040/L; p=0.017) and high (adjusted β=0.0078/L; p=0.003) but not low (adjusted β=0.0018/L; p=0.311) risk of hyperkalaemia. Conclusions A weak association between dietary potassium intake and serum potassium level existed only among individuals with impaired renal function or other health conditions but not among apparently healthy individuals. The results imply that increasing dietary potassium intake may slightly increase the risk of hyperkalaemia but may also decrease the risk of hypokalaemia in unhealthy individuals, both of which have important health concerns. Trial registration number NCT03290716; Post-results.

Preeclampsia is linked to fetal growth restriction and may have long-term implications for the offspring. Despite its significance, the fundamental mechanisms remain inadequately elucidated. The objective of this investigation was to undertake an untargeted lipidomics analysis of umbilical cord plasma, with the intention of investigating lipidomic profile alterations in newborns of mothers with preeclampsia and evaluating the associations between lipidomic patterns and neonatal physical parameters at birth. 25 newborns from mothers with preeclampsia (PE group) and 25 newborns from healthy mothers (control group) were involved in the present investigation. Untargeted lipidomics was performed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to contrast the lipid compositions present in umbilical cord plasma. Co-expression correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationships between lipidomic patterns and neonatal weight and length percentile at birth. Marked discrepancies in lipid metabolism profiles were detected in the comparison of the PE and control groups. In total, 364 separate lipids were noted, with AcylGlcADG (20:3–22:6–22:6) and GM3(d39:1) exhibiting the most significant decreases. Conversely, Cer-NS (d20:1–24:0) and DGTS (2:0–19:0) displayed the most significant increases. The primary lipid metabolic pathways altered in newborns from mothers with preeclampsia were enriched in choline and glycerophospholipid metabolic processes. Additionally, 20 distinct lipids exhibited significant associations with neonatal birth weight percentile between the two groups, while 21 distinct lipids showed significant associations with neonatal birth length percentile. Lipid profile disorders were identified in the umbilical cord plasma of infants born to mothers with preeclampsia, and the metabolic disturbances identified in this group correlated with neonatal physical parameters at birth. These findings suggest that lipidomic disorders in newborns from preeclamptic mothers may correlate with intrauterine growth outcomes.

Meta-analysis has been performed on the blood pressure-lowering effect of salt substitutes; however, whether the effects vary by application setting remains unclear. This study aims to compare the blood pressure-lowering effect of salt substitution between home-cooking and collective-cooking settings. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, and WanFang databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing salt substitutes with usual salt on blood pressure, with the last search on June 3-4, 2025. Meta-analysis stratified by application setting was performed. Participants (N = 29,570) in 21 RCTs (n = 27,813 participants in 18 RCTs with home-cooking and n = 1,757 participants in 3 RCTs with collective-cooking) were included for analysis. Salt substitutes significantly reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 4.7 mm Hg (95% CI: -5.7 to -3.6; I² = 65.3%) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 1.4 mm Hg (95% CI: -1.7 to -1.0; I² = 17.3%) compared to usual salt. The effect varied by application setting: in home-cooking, SBP and DBP were reduced by 4.2 mm Hg (95% CI: -5.3 to -3.2; I² = 61.5%) and 1.2 mm Hg (95% CI: -1.6 to -0.9; I² = 14.4%), respectively; in collective-cooking, reductions were substantially larger - 7.7 mm Hg (95% CI: -10.0 to -5.3; I² = 0%) and 2.4 mm Hg (95% CI: -3.8 to -1.1; I² = 0%), respectively. The between-setting difference was significant for SBP (P = 0.008) and borderline significant for DBP (P = 0.099). Sensitivity analyses restricted to high-quality studies or other study subsets, as well as meta-regression adjusting for multiple variables, generally supported these findings. Replacing usual salt with salt substitutes lowered blood pressure more in the collective-cooking than the home-cooking setting, suggesting that public health policies and strategies should be developed to prioritize full adoption of salt substitutes to maximize its health benefits.