Body Mass Index, Sleep Quality, Stress Conditions Determine Menstrual Cycles Among Female Adolescents

Menstrual cycles are an important indicator of women's health. Menstrual cycles can be affected by body mass index (BMI), sleep quality, and stress. This study aimed to analyse the relationship between BMI, sleep quality, stress and the menstrual cycle. The subjects of this research were the female adolescents at the age of at least 15 years old that had experienced menstruation for at least 2 years. The dependent variable is the menstrual cycle while the independent variables are BMI, sleep quality, and stress conditions. Observational analytic research method with Cross sectional design was used in this research. The subjects were 148 female students. The BMI data were obtained through the anthropometric measurement. The sleep quality data were taken with PSQI questionnaire, and the stress condition data obtained from PSS-10 questionnaire which were then analysed using Chi-Square test and Logistic Regression. Results of study showed that there is a significant relationship between BMI, sleep quality, stress conditions and the adolescent menstrual cycle. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that the female adolescents with abnormal BMI are at risk of having menstrual cycle disorders 1.91 times. The adolescents with poor sleep quality are at risk experiencing menstrual cycle disorders 2.05 times, and the adolescents with stress conditions at risk of the menstrual cycle disorders 2.26 times. There is a relationship between BMI, sleep quality, stress conditions and the menstrual cycle. Stress conditions most influence the regularity of the menstrual cycle

Impact of Body Mass Index on Prognosis for Breast Cancer Patients

This study investigates the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the prognosis for patients with breast cancer within the context of race (African-American versus Caucasian) and ethnicity (Hispanic versus Non-Hispanic). Overall, this study included 1,368 female breast cancer patients diagnosed between 2007 and 2010 with electronic medical record data accrued from a large Florida hospital network. Non-Hispanic black patients comprised 8.77% of the cohort and Hispanic patients made up 7.56%. Multivariate analysis revealed that breast cancer death rate was increased over 2.6-fold for underweight patients ubiquitously, regardless of race or ethnicity. Patients overweight or obese did not have an increased hazard rate compared to those of normal weight. Importantly, the mechanism for the poorer prognosis for underweight patients needs to be defined. We suggest the use of a low BMI as a high-risk factor for breast-cancer mortality in all racial and ethnic populations

Estimating egg mass-body mass relationships in birds

Abstract The mass of a bird’s egg is a critical attribute of the species’ life history and represents a fundamental component of reproductive effort. Indeed, the tradeoff between the number of eggs in a clutch and clutch mass lies at the heart of understanding how environmental attributes such as nest predation or adult mortality influence reproductive investment. However, egg masses have not been reported for the majority of avian species. We capitalized on the strong allometric relationship between avian body mass and egg mass to produce egg mass estimates for over 5,500 species previously lacking such information. These estimates are accompanied by measures of the robustness of the regressions used to produce them (e.g., sample size, root mean square error [RMSE] of estimation, coefficient of determination, and degree of extrapolation), thus allowing independent evaluation of the suitability of any estimate to address a particular research question relating to avian life history. Most estimates (~5,000) were based on family-level egg mass–body mass regressions, with the remainder derived from other relationships such as ordinal regressions. We compared estimating regressions based on adult vs. female body masses and, after finding little difference between the 2, based our final estimates on adult masses as those were more numerous in the literature. What small differences between adult- and female-based regressions that did occur were not related to sexual size dimorphism across families. These new estimates, coupled with ~5,000 egg masses reported in the literature, provide a foundation of over 10,000 species for wider investigations assessing variation in reproductive effort in birds over a broad array of ecological and evolutionary contexts

Rethinking the Body Mass Index Initiative

In February 2005, the Office for Education Policy published a fact sheet detailing Arkansans’ attitudes toward the Body Mass Index initiative (BMI) and found that the state was roughly divided on the issue. Since 2005, the results of BMI screening have been chronicled in a pair of government reports, and the General Assembly has acted to modify how BMI testing is undertaken. In this policy brief we outline what the research indicates after three years of BMI testing, and how the laws surrounding BMI have changed

The Association between Body Mass Index, Religion Index, Media, and Body Image in Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Adolescents experience bio-psychosocial change in their developmental stages. These changes influence their perception about their body look. Some start to dislike their appearance. Someone‟s religiosity may protect them from the negative impact of the environment. Meanwhile, the mass media campaign about “slim ideal” for women and “shape and muscle” for men, is massive. This study aimed to examine the association between body mass index (BMI), religiosity, mass media, and body image in adolescents. SUBJECT AND METHODS: This was a cross sectional study. A sample of 116 students was selected at random for this study from one public and one private senior high school in Surakarta, Indonesia. The dependent variable was negative body image. The independent variables included body mass index (BMI), religiosity, and exposure to “slim ideal” mass media. Body image was measured using Body Shape Questionnaire. Religi-osity was measured using Duke University Religion Index Questionnaire. The data was analyzed using linear regression model. RESULTS: BMI (b=3.22; 95%CI 2.08 to 4.36; p<0.001) and exposure to “slim ideal” mass media (b=16.35; 95%CI 1.92 to 30.78; p=0.027) had positive association with negative body image, and it was statistically signi-ficant. Religiosity (b=-3.10; 95%CI -11.86 to 5.64; p=0.483) had negative association but statistically not significant with negative body image. CONCLUSION: BMI and exposure to “slim ideal” mass media have positive association with negative body image in adolescents. Keywords: body image, adolescents, Body Mass Index, religion index, media

Multiple Equilibria in Body-Mass

This paper develops a simple model in which individuals rationally determine their body-mass by choosing food ingestion and time spent exercising. We show that multiple equilibria in body-mass might exist due to two forces with opposite effects. Firstly, an increase in body-mass has a negative impact on current utility and therefore, slows down body-mass accumulation. Secondly, an increase in body-mass has negative impact on the mortality rate, and thus on the individual’s discount factor. This effect is associated with an individual’s “myopic” behavior as more weight is given to current utility flow compared with future utility flows. As a result, the impact on the mortality rate accelerates the accumulation of body-mass throughout an increase in food ingestion and less time allocated to exercise. Thus, some individuals might be willing to ingest less food and spent more time exercising if they place more value on the negative impact of body-mass on their current utility, while others individuals might decide to accelerate body-mass if they face lower discounted future utility flows. A second conclusion relies on the stability of the different equilibria, which assures persistence in body-mass and explains why radical treatments might be required to modify an individual’s weight.Body-mass, multiple equilibria, oscillations