Biological fitness at middle-age is reduced in both very lean and obese males

It is well-documented fact that the relationship between body weight and premature mortality is not linear. Very often it is described as J- or U-shaped. There is solid evidence for strong relationships in adults between obesity (as defined by high values of the body mass index, BMI), mortality, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and non-insulin dependent diabetes. However, the opposite end of the BMI distribution (leanness) remains an area of controversy among European populations. Many authors have indicated that leanness elevates the risk of premature mortality, although to a lesse degree than obesity. The aim of this sudy is to examine whether abnormalities in blood pressure and lung function occur more frequently at both extremes of the BMI distribution than in its middle range

Institutional Drivers of Voluntary Carbon Reduction Target Setting—Evidence from Poland and Hungary

Governments worldwide have launched climate policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). These policies aim to enhance businesses to be active actors in the process of decarbonisation. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to identify the drivers of voluntary corporate decarbonisation illustrated by climate target-setting practices. In particular, this paper aims at diagnosing whether European Union (EU)-wide and country-level policies foster material corporate commitment to mitigating the carbon footprint in two countries that are exceptionally heavily dependent on fossil fuels: Poland and Hungary, which are characterised by a specific political-economic situation. This analysis focuses on policies related to the EU sustainable finance initiative that enhances companies to voluntarily reduce their GHG emissions: (1) sustainable financial sector, (2) corporate disclosure, and (3) corporate governance policy. At the country level, the national policies for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are analysed. The empirical research is conducted based on the financial and economic data for a group of Polish and Hungarian publicly listed companies exposed to these regulations. The exposure to certain policies is approximated through selected corporate characteristics. Logistic regression analysis is applied to firm-level data gathered from Refinitive and corporate reports. The dataset covers the period 2014 to 2021, with 214 data-points. The response variable is a binary indicator of whether a company sets emission targets. The empirical research proved that state ownership, belonging to the financial sector, and performance-oriented corporate governance factors have a significantly negative impact on the probability of a company setting target emissions. On the other hand, the company’s size and leverage have a strong positive impact on the probability of setting emission targets. Also, it was confirmed that after 2020 the frequency of corporate target-setting in Poland and Hungary increased. Additionally, it was observed that Polish firms are more willing to set climate targets than Hungarian ones. Therefore, from the analysed policies, only the corporate sustainability disclosure policy proved to have a positive impact on the practices of setting climate targets in Polish and Hungarian firms. The policies related to the sustainable financial sector and to state-owned enterprises proved to have a negative impact on the probability of setting climate targets, while for the corporate governance policy, the results are mixed. In this vein, it was shown that, by a majority, policies to stimulate voluntary corporate commitment to decarbonisation are counter-effective in countries characterised by exceptional fossil fuel dependence and particular institutional features. The original value of this study stems from the applied methodology focusing on a mix of policies addressing the deep decarbonisation process in the specific country settings. The presented research contributes to an on-going debate on the drivers of voluntary corporate decarbonisation, in particular the impact that policy mixes framed under the sustainable finance agenda may have on material commitments to GHG emission reduction targets. In this context, the main findings are important for policymakers who are responsible for creating and implementing policy measures devoted to the deep decarbonisation process. It is recommended that policymakers should consider national specificities while designing policies for a Europe-wide net-zero transition and account for potential tensions arising from different goals as they may have impact on the effectiveness of the decarbonisation process. Future research may focus on the verification of the observed relationships between variables on a larger sample of the European firms to identify the key drivers of deep corporate decarbonisation

Assessment of the obesity based on voice perception

Human voice is an extremely important biological signal which contains information about sex, age, emotional state, health and physical features of a speaker. Estimating a physical appearance from a vocal cue can be an important asset for sciences including forensics and dietetics. Although there have been several studies focused on the relationships between vocal parameters and ratings of height, weight, age and musculature of a speaker, to our knowledge, there has not been a study examining the assessment of one’s BMI based on voice alone.The purpose of the current study was to determine the ability of female “Judges” to evaluate speakers’ (men and women) obesity and body fat distribution from their vocal cues. It has also been checked which voice parameters are key vocal cues in this assessment.The study material consisted of 12 adult speakers’ (6 women) voice recordings assessed by 87 “Judges” based on a 5-point graphic scale presenting body fat level and distribution (separately for men and women). For each speaker body height, weight, BMI, Visceral Fat Level (VFL, InBody 270) and acoustic parameters were measured. In addition, the accuracy of BMI category was verified. This study also aimed to determine which vocal parameters were cues for the assessment for men and women. To achieve it, two independent experiments were conducted: I: “Judges” had to choose one (obese) speaker from 3 voices (in 4 series); II: they were asked to rate body fat level of the same 12 speakers based on 5-point graphic scale.Obese speakers (i.e., BMI above 30) were selected correctly with the accuracy greater than predicted by chance (experiment I). By using a graphic scale, our study found that speakers exhibiting higher BMI were rated as fatter (experiment II). For male speakers the most important vocal predictors of the BMI were harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR) and formant dispersion (Df); for women: formant spacing (Pf) and intensity (loudness).Human voice contains information about one’s increased BMI level which are hidden in some vocal cues

Childhood and Adolescent Body Fat and Its Relationship with Health Outcome in 50 Year Old Males and Females: The Wroclaw Growth Study

The aim of the study was to estimate the association between relative weight in childhood and adolescence and its relationship with adult health outcome. Longitudinal data of the body mass index (BMI) from the Wroc³aw Growth Study (WGS) covering ages 8 to 18 and then a follow-up at 50 were used. At the age of 50, 124 males and 139 females in the longitudinal study underwent medical examination. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), total cholesterol (TCH), high density lipoprotein cholesterol level (HDL), low density lipoprotein cholesterol level (LDL), triglyceride level (TGL) and fasting glucose level (GLUC) were assessed by using standard techniques. The values of BMI were standardised with the LMS method. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the relationship between health parameters and BMI at ages 8–18, adjusted for BMI at the age of 50, separately for different age categories and parameters, except for blood pressure where the usage of anti-hypertension medication was additionally used as a control variable. In males total cholesterol concentration showed a significant negative correlation with standardised BMI at ages 9–12 and 16 and 17. In females, only blood pressure showed a significant negative relationship with standardised BMI in all age categories reaching the highest values at age 15. The BMI in childhood and adolescence have only a weak effect on health outcome at age 50

Relationship between body sway and body build in healthy adult men and women

Studies investigating the relationship between balance ability and body size, build and proportions tend to concentrate on body mass and height rather than breadth parameters or size of individual body segments. The purpose of this study was to determine a relationship between the ability to keep balance and the size, build and proportions, based on breadth and length dimensions of the body in healthy adult men and women during a position of free standing. This study also aimed to investigate how the lack of visual control affects the analyzed relationship. The study group consisted of 102 adults of both sexes. The investigations encompassed anthropometric measurements of the body and the ability to keep balance. The analysis covered a of series anthropometric parameters, 9 indices of body proportions, mean velocity of the COP movement (MV) and ellipse area (EA). A statistical analysis of the results was carried out taking into consideration the division into groups due to sexes. The results of the Pearson correlation have revealed that there is a statistically significant correlation (weak or moderate degree) between anthropometric parameters of the body and stabilographic values. Results differ between sexes and depend on whether Romberg’s test was performed with open or closed eyes. The obtained results showed that the surface area of ellipse significantly depends on the dimensions of these body elements which relate to the position of the centre of mass. The obtained results, which differ depending on sex, show that the values of the body sways in a position of free standing depend on breadth and length dimensions of the body, visual control and the analyzed parameter of balance

Fatness of children and adolescents from various socio-economic groups between 1978 and 1988

The study material contains the data on boys and girls aged from 6 to 18 years located in the course of the Third and Fourth Anthropological Surveys carried out in Poland in 1977/78 and 1987/88. The questionnaire data (father's and mother's education and number of children in the family) were supplemented with the results of measurements of the triceps skinfold. It is assumed that the triceps skinfold is a good indicator of the nutritional status. In both studies fatness of children decreased along with a decreasing level of parents' education and with increasing family size. Triceps skinfold size was related mainly to the number of children in the family. In the decade from 1978 to 1988 a decline in social differences with regard to fatness of children coming from various socio-economic strata was observed

Marital status and biological conition of Polish males

Strong evidence for marital differences in mortality has been demonstrated in a large number of countries. Married men and women have lower death rates than unmarried individuals within each adult age group. Additionally, married persons tend to be healthier as compared to unmarried. In the literature two explanations for this patterning have been proposed. "The health selection hypothesis" seggested that disabled or less healthy people are not as likely to get married as the healthy ones. In "the social causation hypothesis", marriage yields health benefits through emotional and social suport which may act as a buffer against the effects of life stress. In this study, "the social causation hypothesis" is supported