When a portion becomes a norm : exposure to a smaller vs. larger portion of food affects later food intake

Background: Portion sizes in the food environment may communicate information about what constitutes a ‘normal’ amount of food to eat. Here we examined whether mere visual exposure to a smaller vs. larger portion size of snack food affects perceptions of how much a ‘normal’ sized portion is and how much people choose to eat of that food in future. Methods: Under the guise of a study on taste preference and personality, 104 female participants were randomly allocated to be exposed to either a smaller or larger portion size of snack food. Twenty-four hours later participants freely selected a portion of the snack food to consume and reported on their perception of what constituted a normal sized portion of the snack food. Results: Participants that were exposed to a smaller, as opposed to larger portion size subsequently believed that a normal portion of the snack food was smaller in size. Exposure to the smaller as opposed to the larger portion size also resulted in participants consuming less snack food the next day. Conclusions: Environmental exposure to smaller, as opposed to larger portion sizes of food may change perceptions of what constitutes a normal amount of food to eat and affect the amount of food people choose to eat in future

Progression of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Among Individuals Homozygous for Risk Alleles on Chromosome 1 (CFH-CFHR5) or Chromosome 10 (ARMS2/HTRA1) or Both

Importance: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of irreversible vision loss among individuals older than 50 years. Although considerable advances have been made in our understanding of AMD genetics, the differential effects of major associated loci on disease manifestation and progression may not be well characterized. Objective: To elucidate the specific associations of the 2 most common genetic risk loci for AMD, the CFH-CFHR5 locus on chromosome 1q32 (Chr1) and the ARMS2/HTRA1 locus on chromosome 10q26 (Chr10)-independent of one another and in combination-with time to conversion to late-stage disease and to visual acuity loss. Design, Setting, and Participants: This case series study included 502 individuals who were homozygous for risk variants at both Chr1 and Chr10 (termed Chr1&10-risk) or at either Chr1 (Chr1-risk) or Chr10 (Chr10-risk) and who had enrolled in Genetic and Molecular Studies of Eye Diseases at the Sharon Eccles Steele Center for Translational Medicine between September 2009 and March 2020. Multimodal imaging data were reviewed for AMD staging, including grading of incomplete and complete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy. Main Outcomes and Measures: Hazard ratios and survival times for conversion to any late-stage AMD, atrophic or neovascular, and associated vision loss of 2 or more lines. Results: In total, 317 participants in the Chr1-risk group (median [IQR] age at first visit, 75.6 [69.5-81.7] years; 193 women [60.9%]), 93 participants in the Chr10-risk group (median [IQR] age at first visit, 77.5 [72.2-84.2] years; 62 women [66.7%]), and 92 participants in the Chr1&10-risk group (median [IQR] age at first visit, 71.7 [68.0-76.3] years; 62 women [67.4%]) were included in the analyses. After adjusting for age and AMD grade at first visit, compared with 257 participants in the Chr1-risk group, 56 participants in the Chr1&10-risk group (factor of 3.3 [95% CI, 1.6-6.8]; P < .001) and 58 participants in the Chr10-risk group (factor of 2.6 [95% CI, 1.3-5.2]; P = .007) were more likely to convert to a late-stage phenotype during follow-up. This difference was mostly associated with conversion to macular neovascularization, which occurred earlier in participants with Chr1&10-risk and Chr10-risk. Eyes in the Chr1&10-risk group (median [IQR] survival, 5.7 [2.1-11.1] years) were 2.1 (95% CI, 1.1-3.9; P = .03) times as likely and eyes in the Chr10-risk group (median [IQR] survival, 6.3 [2.7-11.3] years) were 1.8 (95% CI, 1.0-3.1; P = .05) times as likely to experience a visual acuity loss of 2 or more lines compared with eyes of the Chr1-risk group (median [IQR] survival, 9.4 [4.1-* (asterisk indicates event rate did not reach 75%)] years). Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest differential associations of the 2 major AMD-related risk loci with structural and functional disease progression and suggest distinct underlying biological mechanisms associated with these 2 loci. These genotype-phenotype associations may warrant consideration when designing and interpreting AMD research studies and clinical trials

Services just for men? Insights from a national study of the well men services pilots.

Men continue to have a lower life expectancy in most countries compared to women. Explanations of this gendered health inequality tend to focus on male risk taking, unhealthy lifestyle choices and resistance to seeking help from health services. In the period 2005-2008 the Scottish Government funded a nationwide community health promotion programme aimed at improving men's health, called Well Men Service Pilots (henceforth WMS)

Effects of meal variety on expected satiation : evidence for a 'perceived volume' heuristic

Meal variety has been shown to increase energy intake in humans by an average of 29%. Historically, research exploring the mechanism underlying this effect has focused on physiological and psychological processes that terminate a meal (e.g., sensory-specific satiety). We sought to explore whether meal variety stimulates intake by influencing pre-meal planning. We know that individuals use prior experience with a food to estimate the extent to which it will deliver fullness. These ‘expected satiation’ judgments may be straightforward when only one meal component needs to be considered, but it remains unclear how prospective satiation is estimated when a meal comprises multiple items. We hypothesised that people simplify the task by using a heuristic, or ‘cognitive shortcut.’ Specifically, as within-meal variety increases, expected satiation tends to be based on the perceived volume of food(s) rather than on prior experience. In each trial, participants (N = 68) were shown a plate of food with six buffet food items. Across trials the number of different foods varied in the range one to six. In separate tasks, the participants provided an estimate of their combined expected satiation and volume. When meal variety was high, judgments of perceived volume and expected satiation ‘converged.’ This is consistent with a common underlying response strategy. By contrast, the low variety meals produced dissociable responses, suggesting that judgments of expected satiation were not governed solely by perceived volume. This evidence for a ‘volume heuristic’ was especially clear in people who were less familiar with the meal items. Together, these results are important because they expose a novel process by which meal variety might increase food intake in humans

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Determinants of recovery from post-COVID-19 dyspnoea: analysis of UK prospective cohorts of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and community-based controls

Background The risk factors for recovery from COVID-19 dyspnoea are poorly understood. We investigated determinants of recovery from dyspnoea in adults with COVID-19 and compared these to determinants of recovery from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea. Methods We used data from two prospective cohort studies: PHOSP-COVID (patients hospitalised between March 2020 and April 2021 with COVID-19) and COVIDENCE UK (community cohort studied over the same time period). PHOSP-COVID data were collected during hospitalisation and at 5-month and 1-year follow-up visits. COVIDENCE UK data were obtained through baseline and monthly online questionnaires. Dyspnoea was measured in both cohorts with the Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify determinants associated with a reduction in dyspnoea between 5-month and 1-year follow-up. Findings We included 990 PHOSP-COVID and 3309 COVIDENCE UK participants. We observed higher odds of improvement between 5-month and 1-year follow-up among PHOSP-COVID participants who were younger (odds ratio 1.02 per year, 95% CI 1.01–1.03), male (1.54, 1.16–2.04), neither obese nor severely obese (1.82, 1.06–3.13 and 4.19, 2.14–8.19, respectively), had no pre-existing anxiety or depression (1.56, 1.09–2.22) or cardiovascular disease (1.33, 1.00–1.79), and shorter hospital admission (1.01 per day, 1.00–1.02). Similar associations were found in those recovering from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea, excluding age (and length of hospital admission). Interpretation Factors associated with dyspnoea recovery at 1-year post-discharge among patients hospitalised with COVID-19 were similar to those among community controls without COVID-19. Funding PHOSP-COVID is supported by a grant from the MRC-UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service (NHS), the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. COVIDENCE UK is supported by the UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health Research, and Barts Charity. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders