Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2012 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 8 Articles
The most effective physiologic mean to prevent sarcopenia and related muscle malfunction is a physically active lifestyle, or\r\neven better, physical exercise. However, due to time constraints, lack of motivation, or physical limitations, a large number of\r\nelderly subjects are either unwilling or unable to perform conventional workouts. In this context, two new exercise technologies,\r\nwhole-body vibration (WBV) and whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS), may exhibit a save, autonomous, and efficient\r\nalternative to increase or maintain muscle mass and function. Regarding WB-EMS, the few recent studies indeed demonstrated\r\nhighly relevant effects of this technology on muscle mass, strength, and power parameters at least in the elderly, with equal or\r\neven higher effects compared with conventional resistance exercise. On the contrary, although the majority of studies with elderly\r\nsubjects confirmed the positive effect of WBV on strength and power parameters, a corresponding relevant effect on muscle mass\r\nwas not reported. However, well-designed studies with adequate statistical power should focus more intensely on this issue....
Background. We evaluated the prevalence and clustering pattern of cardiovascular disease (CVD) related lifestyle factors and their\r\nassociation with CVD among patients with type 2 diabetes. We also examined the association of these factors with various sociodemographic\r\ncharacteristics. Methods. A total of 1000 patients with type 2 diabetes were interviewed in a cross-sectional, multicenter\r\nstudy in out-patient clinics in Karachi, Pakistan. Results. In this study 30.3% study participants had CVD. Majority of the\r\npatients were physically inactive and had adverse psychosocial factors. Forty percent of the study participants were exposed to\r\npassive smoking while 12.7% were current smokers. Only 8.8% of study subjects had none of the studied lifestyle factor, 27.5%\r\nhad one, while 63.7% had two or three factors. CVDs were independently associated with physical inactivity, adverse psychosocial\r\nfactors, passive smoking and clustering of two or three lifestyle factors. Physical inactivity was more prevalent among females\r\nand patients with no/less education. Proportion of adverse psychosocial factors were higher among females, elders and patients\r\nwith no/less education. Clustering of these lifestyle factors was significantly higher among females, elderly and no/less educated\r\npatients. Conclusion. These results suggest the need of comprehensive and integrated interventions to reduce the prevalence of\r\nlifestyle factors....
Background: Urban South-Asianââ?¬â?¢s are predisposed to early onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and\r\ncardiovascular disease (CVD). There is an urgent need for country specific primary prevention strategies to address\r\nthe growing burden of cardio-metabolic disease in this population. The aim of this clinical trial is to evaluate\r\nwhether intensive (3-monthly) lifestyle modification advice is superior to a less-intensive (12 monthly; control\r\ngroup) lifestyle modification advice on a primary composite cardio-metabolic end point in ââ?¬Ë?at riskââ?¬â?¢ urban subjects\r\naged between 5-40 years.\r\nMethods/Design: This is an open randomised controlled parallel group clinical trial performed at a single centre in\r\nColombo, Sri-Lanka. A cluster sampling strategy was used to select a large representative sample of subjects aged\r\nbetween 5-40 years at high risk of T2DM and CVD for the intervention study. We have screened 23,298 (males 47%\r\nfemales 53%) healthy subjects for four risk factors: obesity, elevated waist circumference, family history of diabetes\r\nand physical inactivity, using a questionnaire and anthropometry. Those with two or more risk-factors were\r\nrecruited to the intervention trial. We aim to recruit 4600 subjects for the intervention trial. The primary composite\r\ncardio-metabolic end point is; new onset T2DM, impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glycaemia, new onset\r\nhypertension and albuminuria, following 5 years of intervention. The effect of the intervention on pre-specified\r\nsecondary endpoints will also be evaluated. The study will be conducted according to good clinical and ethical\r\npractice, data analysis and reporting guidelines.\r\nDiscussion: DIABRISK-SL is a large population based trial to evaluate the prevalence of diabetes, pre-diabetes and\r\ncardio-metabolic risk factors among young urban Sri-Lankans and the effect of a primary prevention strategy on\r\ncardio-metabolic disease end points. This work will enable country specific and regional cardio-metabolic risk\r\nscores to be derived. Further if the proposed intervention is successful the results of this study can be translated\r\nand implemented as a low-cost primary prevention tool in Sri-Lanka and other low/middle income developing\r\ncountries....
Objective. To evaluate the effect of a family-based intervention on anthropometric and metabolic markers in overweight and\r\nobese children. Methods. Overweight or obese 8ââ?¬â??12 years olds (n = 93) were randomized into intervention or control groups.\r\nThe intervention group participated in a program aiming for lifestyle changes regarding food habits and physical activity.\r\nAnthropometric measures and venous blood samples were collected from all children at baseline and after 1 year. Results. BMI\r\nz-scores decreased in both groups, 0.22 (P = 0.002) and 0.23 (P = 0.003) in intervention and control group, respectively, during\r\nthe 1-year study, but there was no difference in BMI between the groups at 1-year measurement (P = 0.338). After 1 year, there was\r\na significant difference in waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, and apolipoprotein B/A1 ratio between intervention and control\r\ngroup. Conclusions. The intervention had limited effects on anthropometrics and metabolic markers, which emphasizes the need\r\nof preventing childhood overweight and obesity....
Background: Due to considerable health status differences in the elderly population, research limited to narrow\r\nage-spans might be an advantage. In this population-based controlled study we compare short-term (<5 years)\r\n(STS) and long-term (=5 years) (LTS) cancer survivors and cancer-free controls aged 60-69 years from two\r\nNorwegian health registers; the Health Survey of North-Tr�¸ndelag County (HUNT-2 study) and the Cancer Registry\r\nof Norway (CRN). We examined possible factors associated with being cancer survivor.\r\nMethods: Among 9,089 individuals aged 60-69 who participated in HUNT-2, 334 had been diagnosed with\r\ninvasive primary cancer from 1 month to 42 years before HUNT-2 according to CRN and self-report. An overall\r\nrandom sample of controls without cancer five times larger than the sample of cases (N = 1,670) were drawn from\r\nthe parent cohort.\r\nResults: The cancer sample comprised 128 STS and 206 LTS. For most variables no significant differences were\r\nobserved between LTS and STS. LTS were significantly more women, and cases with gynaecological cancer, with\r\nphysical impairment and more thyroid diseases compared to STS. When comparing all the survivors with controls,\r\nthe survivors showed significantly higher rate of pensioning, decreased self-rated health, more physical impairment\r\nand thyroid diseases, daily use of medication and psychotropics and higher level of anxiety and Framingham Risk\r\nscore. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that increasing age, being female, physical impairment and\r\nthyroid diseases all were significantly associated with being survivor versus controls.\r\nConclusion: STS and LTS showed mostly similar situation. Compared to controls, the survivors reported somewhat\r\npoorer physical and mental health, but these differences were of doubtful clinical significance....
Background: Global dissemination of Escherichia coli producing CTX-M extended-spectrum b-lactamases (ESBL) is a public\r\nhealth concern. The aim of the study was to determine factors associated with CTX-M- producing E. coli infections among\r\npatients hospitalised in the Assistance Publique-HoÃ?â? pitaux de Paris, the largest hospital system in France (23 000 beds),\r\nthrough a prospective case-control-control study.\r\nMethods/Principal Findings: From November 2008 to June 2009, 152 inpatients with a clinical sample positive for CTX-Mproducing\r\nE. coli (cases), 152 inpatients with a clinical sample positive for non ESBL-producing E. coli on the day or within\r\nthe three days following case detection (controls C1), and 152 inpatients with culture-negative clinical samples since the\r\nbeginning of hospitalisation and until three days after case detection (controls C2) were included in ten hospitals of the\r\nParis area. Factors studied were related to patientââ?¬â?¢s origin, lifestyle and medical history as well as care during hospitalisation.\r\nThose independently associated with CTX-M-producing E. coli were determined. Three independent factors were common\r\nto the two case-control comparisons: birth outside of Europe (cases vs C1: OR1 = 2.4; 95%CI = [1.3ââ?¬â??4.5] and cases vs C2:\r\nOR2 = 3.1; 95%CI = [1.4ââ?¬â??7.0]), chronic infections (OR1 = 2.9; 95%CI = [1.3ââ?¬â??6.9] and OR2 = 8.7; 95%CI = [2.0ââ?¬â??39.7]), and antibiotic\r\ntreatment between hospital admission and inclusion (OR1 = 2.0; 95%CI = [1.0ââ?¬â??3.8] and OR2 = 3.3; 95%CI = [1.5ââ?¬â??7.2]). Cases\r\nwere also more likely to be (i) functionally dependent before hospitalisation than C2 (OR2 = 7.0; 95%CI = [2.1ââ?¬â??23.5]) and (ii)\r\nliving in collective housing before hospitalisation than C2 (OR2 = 15.2; 95%CI = [1.8ââ?¬â??130.7]) when CTX-M-producing E. coli\r\nwas present at admission.\r\nConclusion: For the first time, patientââ?¬â?¢s origin and lifestyle were demonstrated to be independently associated with\r\nisolation of CTX-M-producing E. coli, in addition to health care-related factors....
Background. Accumulating evidence supports leukocyte telomere length (LTL) as a biological marker of cellular aging. Poor sleep\nis a risk factor for age-related disease; however, the extent to which sleep accounts for variation in LTL is unknown. Methods. The\npresent study examined associations of self-reported sleep duration, onset latency, and subjective quality with LTL in a communitydwelling\nsample of 245 healthy women in midlife (aged 49ââ?¬â??66 years). Results.While sleep duration and onset latency were unrelated\nto LTL, women reporting poorer sleep quality displayed shorter LTL (r = 0.14, P = 0.03), independent of age, BMI, race, and\nincome (b = 55.48, SE = 27.43, P = 0.04). When analyses were restricted to participants for whom sleep patterns were chronic,\npoorer sleep quality predicted shorter LTL independent of covariates and perceived psychological stress. Conclusions. This study\nprovides the first evidence that poor sleep quality explains significant variation in LTL, a marker of cellular aging....
A primary focus of longevity research is to identify prognostic risk factors that can be mediated by early treatment efforts. To\ndate, much of this work has focused on understanding the biological processes that may contribute to aging process and agerelated\ndisease conditions. Although such processes are undoubtedly important, no current biological intervention aimed at\nincreasing health and lifespan exists. Interestingly, a close relationship between mobility performance and the aging process has\nbeen documented in older adults. For example, recent studies have identified functional status, as assessed by walking speed, as\na strong predictor of major health outcomes, including mortality, in older adults. This paper aims to describe the relationship\nbetween the comorbidities related to decreased health and lifespan and mobility function in obese, older adults. Concurrently,\nlifestyle interventions, including diet and exercise, are described as a means to improve mobility function and thereby limit the\nfunctional limitations associated with increased mortality....
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