Acculturative stress level and its contributing factors among international postgraduate students at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang

Introduction: Acculturative stress among international students is a serious issue. Oversea students face several problems because of the linguistic and cultural differences in their host country. It is important to understand their acculturative stress level and its contributing factors, in order to develop plans and policies and attract international students as well as ease their stay at UPM. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among the international post-graduate students using multistage random sampling proportionate to size from six faculties. Data was collected using a pretested, self-administered questionnaire which consists of three sections i.e., socio-demographic factors, adapted acculturative stressors scale and perceived stress scale. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0. Descriptive analysis was used to determine the factors contributed to acculturative stress and predictors were explored using hierarchical regressions analysis. Ρ value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: A total of 404 respondents were assessed in this study, with the response rate of 82.1%. The obtained data showed that the prevalence of moderate acculturative stress was 77.7%, with 5.2% high stress. Mean age of the respondents was 32 years (M=32, SD=6.9), whereas the majority of respondents (75.7%) were male students. Respondents were mainly from Middle East (42.3%) and Africa (37.1%). Hierarchical regression analysis found that the gender (p<0.05), religion (p<0.05), continent of origin (p<0.05), duration of stay (p<0.001), academic pressure (p<0.001), financial concern (p<0.001), and social support (p<0.05) were significant predictors. Conclusion: The findings of the study reveal that over four fifths of international post-graduate students in UPM were in moderate to high acculturative stress level. The top three significant predictors of acculturative stress among international postgraduate students were academic pressure, financial concern and social support

Association of CDKN2BAS Polymorphism rs4977574 with Coronary Heart Disease: A Case-Control Study and a Meta-Analysis

The goal of our study was to explore the significant association between a non-protein coding single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4977574 of CDKN2BAS gene and coronary heart disease (CHD). A total of 590 CHD cases and 482 non-CHD controls were involved in the present association study. A strong association of rs4977574 with CHD was observed in females (genotype: p = 0.002; allele: p = 0.002, odd ratio (OR) = 1.57, 95% confidential interval (CI) = 1.18–2.08). Moreover, rs4977574 was more likely to be a risk variant of CHD under the recessive model in females (χ2 = 10.29, p = 0.003, OR = 2.14, 95% CI = 1.31–2.77). A breakdown analysis by age had shown that there was an 87% increased risk of CHD for females younger than 65 years (genotype: χ2 = 14.64, degrees of freedom (df) = 2, p = 0.0002; allele: χ2 = 11.31, df = 1, p = 0.0008, OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.30–2.70). Similar observation was also found in males younger than 65 years (genotype: χ2 = 8.63, df = 2, p = 0.04; allele: χ2 = 7.55, df = 1, p = 0.006, OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.11–1.90). p values were adjusted by age, sex, smoking, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Meta-analysis of 23 studies among 36,452 cases and 39,781 controls showed a strong association between rs4977574 and the risk of CHD (p &lt; 0.0001, OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.22–1.31)

Genetic associations with diabetes: meta-analyses of 10 candidate polymorphisms.

AIMS: The goal of our study is to investigate the combined contribution of 10 genetic variants to diabetes susceptibility. METHODS: Bibliographic databases were searched from 1970 to Dec 2012 for studies that reported on genetic association study of diabetes. After a comprehensive filtering procedure, 10 candidate gene variants with informative genotype information were collected for the current meta-anlayses. Using the REVMAN software, odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the combined contribution of the selected genetic variants to diabetes. RESULTS: A total of 37 articles among 37,033 cases and 54,716 controls were involved in the present meta-analyses of 10 genetic variants. Three variants were found to be significantly associated with type 1 diabetes (T1D): NLRP1 rs12150220 (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.55-0.92, P = 0.01), IL2RA rs11594656 (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.82-0.91, P<0.00001), and CLEC16A rs725613 (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.55-0.92, P = 0.01). APOA5 -1131T/C polymorphism was shown to be significantly associated with of type 2 diabetes (T2D, OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.03-1.57, P = 0.03). No association with diabetes was showed in the meta-analyses of other six genetic variants, including SLC2A10 rs2335491, ATF6 rs2070150, KLF11 rs35927125, CASQ1 rs2275703, GNB3 C825T, and IL12B 1188A/C. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that IL2RA rs11594656 and CLEC16A rs725613 are protective factors of T1D, while NLRP1 rs12150220 and APOA5 -1131T/C are risky factors of T1D and T2D, respectively

Positive Association between GCKR rs780093 Polymorphism and Coronary Heart Disease in the Aged Han Chinese

Objective. Previous studies have confirmed that GCKR rs780093 polymorphism is associated with triglyceride (TG), a known risk factor of coronary heart disease (CHD). The goal of our study is to explore the association of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism with CHD in Han Chinese population. Methods and Results. A total of 568 CHD cases and 494 non-CHD controls were enrolled in the current case-control study. Genotyping was done using melting temperature shift (Tm-shift) approach. Our results also showed that GCKR rs780093 polymorphism was significantly associated with TG level (P=0.0016). Although there was no significant association between cases and controls (P>0.05), a breakdown analysis by age yielded a significant association of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism with CHD in individuals aged 65 and older (genotype: χ2=6.86; df = 2; P=0.03; allele: χ2=4.11; df = 1; P=0.04). Conclusion. Our findings confirmed the contribution of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism to TG metabolism and demonstrated GCKR rs780093 as a risk factor of CHD in individuals aged 65 and older

Meta-Analyses of 8 Polymorphisms Associated with the Risk of the Alzheimer’s Disease

<div><p>Aims</p><p>The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined contribution of 8 polymorphisms to the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD).</p><p>Methods</p><p>Through a comprehensive literature search for genetic variants involved in the AD association study, we harvested a total of 6 genes (8 polymorphisms) for the current meta-analyses. These genes consisted of <i>A2M</i> (5bp I/D and V1000I), <i>ABCA2</i> (rs908832), <i>CHAT</i> (1882G >A, 2384G >A), <i>COMT</i> (Val158Met), <i>HTR6</i> (267C >T) and <i>LPL</i> (Ser447Ter).</p><p>Results</p><p>A total of 33 studies among 9,453 cases and 10,833 controls were retrieved for the meta-analyses of 8 genetic variants. It was showed that <i>A2M</i> V1000I (odd ratio (OR) = 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07–1.49, P = 0.007), rs908832 allele of <i>ABCA2</i> (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.12–2.16, P = 0.009), 2384G >A of <i>CHAT</i> (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.00–1.49, P = 0.05) and Ser447Ter of <i>LPL</i> in the Northern-American population (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.35–0.91, P = 0.02) were significantly associated with the risk of AD. No association was found between the rest of the 5 polymorphisms and the risk of AD.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Our results showed that <i>A2M</i> V1000I polymorphism in German, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Polish populations, rs90883 of <i>ABCA2</i> gene in French, American, Swiss, Greek and Japanese populations, 2384G >A of <i>CHAT</i> gene in British and Korean populations and <i>LPL</i> Ser447Ter in the Northern-American population were associated with the risk of AD.</p></div

Characteristics of individual T2D studies in the meta-analyses.

<p>Characteristics of individual T2D studies in the meta-analyses.</p

Characteristics of individual T1D studies in the meta-analyses.

<p>Characteristics of individual T1D studies in the meta-analyses.</p