A cross-sectional survey of cardiovascular health and lifestyle habits of hospital staff in the UK: Do we look after ourselves?

Background: A high prevalence of stress-related disorders is well known among healthcare professionals. We set out to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and compliance with national dietary and physical activity recommendations in NHS staff in the UK with comparison between clinical and non-clinical staff, and national surveys. Design: A multi-centre cross-sectional study. Methods: A web-based questionnaire was developed to include anonymised data on demographics, job role, cardiovascular risk factors and diseases, dietary habits, physical activity and barriers towards healthy lifestyle. This was distributed to staff in four NHS hospitals via emails. Results: A total of 1158 staff completed the survey (response rate 13%) with equal distribution between the clinical and non-clinical groups. Most staff were aged 26–60 years and 79% were women. Half of the staff were either overweight or obese (51%) with no difference between the groups (P = 0.176), but there was a lower prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors compared to the general population. The survey revealed a low compliance (17%) with the recommended intake of five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables, and that of moderate or vigorous physical activity (56%), with no difference between the clinical and non-clinical staff (P = 0.6). However, more clinical staff were exceeding the alcohol recommendations (P = 0.02). Lack of fitness facilities and managerial support, coupled with long working hours, were the main reported barriers to a healthy lifestyle. Conclusions: In this survey of UK NHS staff, half were found to be overweight or obese with a lower prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors compared to the general population. There was a low compliance with the five-a-day fruit and vegetables recommendation and physical activity guidelines, with no difference between the clinical and non-clinical staff

Increasing physical activity in postpartum multiethnic women in Hawaii: results from a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mothers of an infant are much less likely to exercise regularly compared to other women. This study tested the efficacy of a brief tailored intervention to increase physical activity (PA) in women 3–12 months after childbirth. The study used a pretest-posttest design. Sedentary women (n = 20) were recruited from a parenting organization. Half the participants were ethnic minorities, mean age was 33 ± 3.8, infants' mean age was 6.9 ± 2.4 months, 50% were primiparas, and mean body mass index was 23.6 ± 4.2.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The two-month intervention included telephone counseling, pedometers, referral to community PA resources, social support, email advice on PA/pedometer goals, and newsletters.</p> <p>The primary outcome of the study was minutes per week of moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity measured by the Godin physical activity instrument.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All women (100%) returned for post-test measures; thus, paired t-tests were used for pre-post increase in minutes of moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity and comparisons of moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity increases among ethnic groups. At baseline participants' reported a mean of 3 ± 13.4 minutes per week moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity. At post-test this significantly increased to 85.5 ± 76.4 minutes per week of moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity (p < .001, Cohen's d = 2.2; effect size r = 0.7). There were no differences in pre to post increases in minutes of moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activity among races.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A telephone/email intervention tailored to meet the needs of postpartum women was effective in increasing physical activity levels. However, randomized trials comparing tailored telephone and email interventions to standard care and including long-term follow-up to determine maintenance of physical activity are warranted.</p

Inference of hidden structures in complex physical systems by multi-scale clustering

We survey the application of a relatively new branch of statistical physics--"community detection"-- to data mining. In particular, we focus on the diagnosis of materials and automated image segmentation. Community detection describes the quest of partitioning a complex system involving many elements into optimally decoupled subsets or communities of such elements. We review a multiresolution variant which is used to ascertain structures at different spatial and temporal scales. Significant patterns are obtained by examining the correlations between different independent solvers. Similar to other combinatorial optimization problems in the NP complexity class, community detection exhibits several phases. Typically, illuminating orders are revealed by choosing parameters that lead to extremal information theory correlations.Comment: 25 pages, 16 Figures; a review of earlier work

Body mass index is not a predictor of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy in Dutch men diagnosed with prostate cancer

Contains fulltext : 95677.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: To determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) on clinical and pathological characteristics at time of diagnosis and on risk of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy among Dutch men diagnosed with prostate cancer. METHODS: In total, 1,116 prostate cancer patients with known BMI, diagnosed between 2003 and 2006, were identified from the population-based cancer registry held by the Comprehensive Cancer Centre East, The Netherlands. Of these, 504 patients underwent a radical prostatectomy. Patients were categorized as normal weight (BMI /= 30 kg/m(2)). Multivariable proportional hazards regression models, adjusted for age, prediagnostic PSA levels, and pathological characteristics were used to evaluate BMI as a prognostic factor for biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. RESULTS: Overall, clinical and biopsy characteristics did not significantly differ among BMI groups. Pathological characteristics after radical prostatectomy did not significantly differ among BMI groups, except for tumor stage, which was highest in obese patients (P = 0.017). For patients treated with radical prostatectomy, 5-year risk (95% Confidence Intervals) of biochemical recurrence was 30% (23-37%) for normal weight, 32% (25-39%) for overweight, and 25% (9-41%) for obese patients (log rank P = 0.810). BMI was not an independent prognostic factor for biochemical recurrence in multivariable proportional hazards regression analyses (HR 0.99 per kg/m(2), 95% CI: 0.93-1.06). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with non-obese men, pathological tumor stage tended to be higher in obese men. Clinical relevance of this finding is unclear, because BMI was not an independent predictor of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy

The publics' understanding of daily caloric recommendations and their perceptions of calorie posting in chain restaurants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Calorie posting in chain restaurants has received increasing attention as a policy lever to reduce energy intake. Little research has assessed consumer understanding of overall daily energy requirements or perceived effectiveness of calorie posting.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A phone survey was conducted from May 1 through 17, 2009 with 663 randomly selected, nationally-representative adults aged 18 and older, including an oversample of Blacks and Hispanics in the United States. To examine differences in responses by race and ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic) and gender, we compared responses by conducting chi-squared tests for differences in proportions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that most Americans were knowledgeable about energy requirements for moderately active men (78%) and women (69%), but underestimated energy requirements for inactive adults (60%). Whites had significantly higher caloric literacy and confidence about their caloric knowledge than Blacks and Hispanics (p < 0.05). As compared to their counterparts, Blacks, Hispanics and women reported a significantly higher likelihood of eating at a chain restaurant and of selecting lower calorie foods where caloric information was posted. Most Americans favored the government requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus at the point of purchase (68%). Support for government mandated calorie posting in chain restaurants was significantly higher among Blacks, Hispanics and women as compared to their counterparts. The public was divided about the mode of caloric information that would best help them make a lower calorie decision; a third favored number of calories (35%) which is the current standard mode of presenting caloric information in chain restaurants, a third favored a physical activity equivalent (26%), and a third favored percentage of total energy intake (39%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mandating calorie posting in chain restaurants may be a useful policy tool for promoting energy balance, particularly among Blacks, Hispanics and women who have higher obesity risk.</p

Alpha-1-antitrypsin phenotypes in adult liver disease patients

Alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) is an important serine protease inhibitor in humans. Hereditary alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) affects lungs and liver. Liver disease caused by AATD in paediatric patients has been previously well documented. However, the association of liver disease with alpha-1-antitrypsin gene polymorphisms in adults is less clear. Therefore, we aimed to study AAT polymorphisms in adults with liver disease. We performed a case-control study. AAT polymorphisms were investigated by isoelectric focusing in 61 patients with liver cirrhosis and 9 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The control group consisted of 218 healthy blood donors. A significant deviation of observed and expected frequency of AAT phenotypes from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (chi-square = 34.77, df 11, P = 0.000) in the patient group was caused by a higher than expected frequency of Pi ZZ homozygotes (f = 0.0143 and f = 0.0005, respectively, P = 0.000). In addition, Pi M homozygotes were more frequent in patients than in controls (63% and 46%, respectively, P = 0.025). Our study results show that Pi ZZ homozygosity in adults could be associated with severe liver disease. Presence of Pi M homozygosity could be associated with liver disease via some mechanism different from Z allele-induced liver damage through accumulation of AAT polymers

Validity of the international physical activity questionnaire and the Singapore prospective study program physical activity questionnaire in a multiethnic urban Asian population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical activity patterns of a population remain mostly assessed by the questionnaires. However, few physical activity questionnaires have been validated in Asian populations. We previously utilized a combination of different questionnaires to assess leisure time, transportation, occupational and household physical activity in the Singapore Prospective Study Program (SP2). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) has been developed for a similar purpose. In this study, we compared estimates from these two questionnaires with an objective measure of physical activity in a multi-ethnic Asian population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Physical activity was measured in 152 Chinese, Malay and Asian Indian adults using an accelerometer over five consecutive days, including a weekend. Participants completed both the physical activity questionnaire in SP2 (SP2PAQ) and IPAQ long form. 43subjects underwent a second set of measurements on average 6 months later to assess reproducibility of the questionnaires and the accelerometer measurements. Spearman correlations were used to evaluate validity and reproducibility and correlations for validity were corrected for within-person variation of accelerometer measurements. Agreement between the questionnaires and the accelerometer measurements was also evaluated using Bland Altman plots.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The corrected correlation with accelerometer estimates of energy expenditure from physical activity was better for the SP2PAQ (vigorous activity: r = 0.73; moderate activity: r = 0.27) than for the IPAQ (vigorous activity: r = 0.31; moderate activity: r = 0.15). For moderate activity, the corrected correlation between SP2PAQ and the accelerometer was higher for Chinese (r = 0.38) and Malays (r = 0.57) than for Indians (r = -0.09). Both questionnaires overestimated energy expenditure from physical activity to a greater extent at higher levels of physical activity than at lower levels of physical activity. The reproducibility for moderate activity (accelerometer: r = 0.68; IPAQ: r = 0.58; SP2PAQ: r = 0.55) and vigorous activity (accelerometer: 0.52; IPAQ: r = 0.38; SP2PAQ: r = 0.75) was moderate to high for all instruments.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The agreement between IPAQ and accelerometer measurements of energy expenditure from physical activity was poor in our Asian study population. The SP2PAQ showed good validity and reproducibility for vigorous activity, but performed less well for moderate activity particularly in Indians. Further effort is needed to develop questionnaires that better capture moderate activity in Asian populations.</p

Large-Scale Cortical Functional Organization and Speech Perception across the Lifespan

Aging is accompanied by substantial changes in brain function, including functional reorganization of large-scale brain networks. Such differences in network architecture have been reported both at rest and during cognitive task performance, but an open question is whether these age-related differences show task-dependent effects or represent only task-independent changes attributable to a common factor (i.e., underlying physiological decline). To address this question, we used graph theoretic analysis to construct weighted cortical functional networks from hemodynamic (functional MRI) responses in 12 younger and 12 older adults during a speech perception task performed in both quiet and noisy listening conditions. Functional networks were constructed for each subject and listening condition based on inter-regional correlations of the fMRI signal among 66 cortical regions, and network measures of global and local efficiency were computed. Across listening conditions, older adult networks showed significantly decreased global (but not local) efficiency relative to younger adults after normalizing measures to surrogate random networks. Although listening condition produced no main effects on whole-cortex network organization, a significant age group x listening condition interaction was observed. Additionally, an exploratory analysis of regional effects uncovered age-related declines in both global and local efficiency concentrated exclusively in auditory areas (bilateral superior and middle temporal cortex), further suggestive of specificity to the speech perception tasks. Global efficiency also correlated positively with mean cortical thickness across all subjects, establishing gross cortical atrophy as a task-independent contributor to age-related differences in functional organization. Together, our findings provide evidence of age-related disruptions in cortical functional network organization during speech perception tasks, and suggest that although task-independent effects such as cortical atrophy clearly underlie age-related changes in cortical functional organization, age-related differences also demonstrate sensitivity to task domains

In Vivo Chromatin Organization of Mouse Rod Photoreceptors Correlates with Histone Modifications

BACKGROUND: The folding of genetic information into chromatin plays important regulatory roles in many nuclear processes and particularly in gene transcription. Post translational histone modifications are associated with specific chromatin condensation states and with distinct transcriptional activities. The peculiar chromatin organization of rod photoreceptor nuclei, with a large central domain of condensed chromatin surrounded by a thin border of extended chromatin was used as a model to correlate in vivo chromatin structure, histone modifications and transcriptional activity. METHODOLOGY: We investigated the functional relationships between chromatin compaction, distribution of histone modifications and location of RNA polymerase II in intact murine rod photoreceptors using cryo-preparation methods, electron tomography and immunogold labeling. Our results show that the characteristic central heterochromatin of rod nuclei is organized into concentric domains characterized by a progressive loosening of the chromatin architecture from inside towards outside and by specific combinations of silencing histone marks. The peripheral heterochromatin is formed by closely packed 30 nm fibers as revealed by a characteristic optical diffraction signal. Unexpectedly, the still highly condensed most external heterochromatin domain contains acetylated histones, which are usually associated with active transcription and decondensed chromatin. Histone acetylation is thus not sufficient in vivo for complete chromatin decondensation. The euchromatin domain contains several degrees of chromatin compaction and the histone tails are hyperacetylated, enriched in H3K4 monomethylation and hypo trimethylated on H3K9, H3K27 and H4K20. The transcriptionally active RNA polymerases II molecules are confined in the euchromatin domain and are preferentially located at the vicinity of the interface with heterochromatin. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that transcription is located in the most decondensed and highly acetylated chromatin regions, but since acetylation is found associated with compact chromatin it is not sufficient to decondense chromatin in vivo. We also show that a combination of histone marks defines distinct concentric heterochromatin domains

Pathways for scale and discipline reconciliation: current socio-ecological modelling methodologies to explore and reconstitute human prehistoric dynamics

International audienceThis communication elaborates a plea for the necessity of a specific modelling methodology which does not sacrifice two modelling principles: explanation Micro and correlation Macro. Three goals are assigned to modelling strategies: describe, understand and predict. One tendency in historical and spatial modelling is to develop models at a micro level in order to describe and by that way, understand the connection between local ecological contexts, acquired through local ecological data, and local social practices, acquired through archaeology. However, such a method faces difficulties for expanding its validity: It is validated by its adequacy with local data, but the prediction step is unreachable and quite nothing can be said for places out where. On the other hand, building models at a far larger scale, for instance at the continent and even the world level, enhances the connection between ecology and its temporal variability. Such connections are based on well-founded theories but lower the " small causes, big effects " emergence corresponding to agent-based approaches and the related inherent variability of socio-ecological dynamics that one can notice at a lower scale. We then propose a plea for combining both elements for building large-scale modelling tools, which aims are to describe and provide predictions on long-term past evolutions, that include the test of explaining socio-anthropological hypotheses, i.e. the emergence and the spread of local social innovations