Markus Juonala
Professor
mataju@utu.fi +358 29 450 2754 +358 50 478 3572 ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9498-364X |
Internal medicine; endocrinology; cardiovascular risk
Cardiovascular epidemiology, Young Finns Study, i3c consortium
Professor Markus Juonala (MD,
PhD, University of Turku) is a specialist in internal medicine and
endocrinology at the Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. Since 2001, he
has been conducting research on longitudinal studies examining the importance
of childhood risk factors on later cardiovascular health. His PhD work was
based primarily on the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (University of
Turku, April 2005). Since 2008, he has had a major involvement in the
development of the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C)
Consortium that combines the efforts of the main longitudinal studies
worldwide. In June 2014, he was appointed as Professor of Internal Medicine at
the University of Turku. In 2014-2015 and 2018-2019 he has been working as the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Fellow in Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
(MCRI).
His career
publications total is 270 (h-index 44) with published highlights including a
first-author paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first-ranked
general medicine journal, one paper in JAMA, the third-ranked general medicine
journal and 30 papers (11 as first/last author) published in either the number
one, two, or three ranked cardiovascular disease journals (17 in Circulation,
five in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, eight in the
European Heart Journal).
Professor Juonala’s
principal research focus has been to provide novel information on the effects
of childhood risk factors on cardiovascular health in adulthood. Beginning from
the summer of 2008 he has led a research group within the Young Finns Study and
i3c consortium with special interest on cardiometabolic risk factors. The most
important findings of his research have provided information on childhood and
early adulthood risk factors for atherosclerosis, suggesting that childhood
risk factors, such as dyslipidaemia, elevated blood pressure and smoking,
predict early atherosclerosis and its progression independent of adult risk
factors levels. Concerning cardiometabolic risk factors, his group has been
able to show that overweight and metabolic syndrome diagnosed either in childhood or adulthood
is predictive of carotid atherosclerosis and its progression in adulthood.
However, at the time of obesity epidemic, the most important findings concern
the reversibility of cardiovascular risk. His work has demonstrated that although overweight and metabolic syndrome are predictive of early atherosclerosis, favourable changes
in lifestyle associated with weight maintenance or reduction improve
cardiovascular health.
Teaching responsibilities: 1) Internal medicine for medical students, 2) Internal medicine specialisation programme for MDs
Special interest areas: Acute internal medicine, endocrinology, lipidology
- Childhood/Adolescent Smoking and Adult Smoking and Cessation: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium (2020)
- Journal of the American Heart Association
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Childhood BMI and Fasting Glucose and Insulin Predict Adult Type 2 Diabetes: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium (2020)
- Diabetes Care
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Childhood Exposure to Parental Smoking and Midlife Cognitive Function: The Young Finns Study (2020)
- American Journal of Epidemiology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Childhood Oral Infections Associate with Adulthood Metabolic Syndrome: A Longitudinal Cohort Study (2020)
- Journal of Dental Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Childhood risk factors and carotid atherosclerotic plaque in adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- Atherosclerosis
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Risk of Fatty Liver in Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- Hepatology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Chronic limb threatening ischemia and diabetes mellitus: the severity of tibial atherosclerosis and outcome after infrapopliteal revascularization (2020)
- Scandinavian Journal of Surgery
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Cross-sectional metabolic profiles of mental health in population-based cohorts of 11-to 12-year-olds and mid-life adults: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (2020)
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Dietary Fats and Atherosclerosis From Childhood to Adulthood (2020)
- Pediatrics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Do body mass index and waist-to-height ratio over the preceding decade predict retinal microvasculature in 11-12 year olds and midlife adults? (2020)
- International Journal of Obesity
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Do childhood infections affect labour market outcomes in adulthood and, if so, how? (2020)
- Economics and Human Biology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Early clinical markers of overweight/obesity onset and resolution by adolescence (2020)
- International Journal of Obesity
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Effects of 20-year infancy-onset dietary counselling on cardiometabolic risk factors in the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP): 6-year post-intervention follow-up (2020)
- The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Evidence for Protein Leverage in Children and Adolescents with Obesity (2020)
- Obesity
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Genetic analysis of obstructive sleep apnoea discovers a strong association with cardiometabolic health (2020)
- European Respiratory Journal
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Genomic prediction of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality (2020)
- Translational Psychiatry
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - HDL cholesterol efflux capacity is inversely associated with subclinical cardiovascular risk markers in young adults: The cardiovascular risk in Young Finns study (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - HIF3A cord blood methylation and systolic blood pressure at 4 years - a population-based cohort study (2020)
- Epigenetics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Ideal cardiovascular health in adolescents and young adults is associated with alexithymia over two decades later: Findings from the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- Psychiatry Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Inflammation mediates the relationship between obesity and retinal vascular calibre in 11-12 year-olds children and mid-life adults (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)