Socioeconomic Determinants of Physical Activity among Adult Arab Immigrants in Edmonton, Alberta

Little is known about leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) habits of Arab immigrants in Canada. Leisure-time physical activity has been linked to decreased risks for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all causes mortality and increased life expectancy. Socioeconomic status has been recognized as a significant factor affecting health and wellbeing due to its impact on individuals’ attitudes, experiences, and exposure to several risk factors. The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to explore the levels of participation in LTPA among adult Arab immigrants in central Alberta, Canada, to examine the socioeconomic determinants of LTPA, and to investigate which individual, social, and environmental factors contribute to LTPA participation. Electronic surveys were used to collect data from a sample of 376 adults. The socioecological model and systems theory were used as the theoretical foundations to guide this research. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were performed using SPSS. Around 40% of participants were physically active. As participants attained higher degrees, earned more money, and had occupations requiring less physical effort, their levels of LTPA increased. The social conditions in which the participants live also affected their levels of LTPA. Being more familiar with the health benefits and having fewer barriers to exercise predicted an increase in LTPA, whereas higher self-efficacy seemed to predict a decrease in LTPA. Family and friends’ support for exercise increased the levels of LTPA of participants. And finally, more environmental support for exercise predicted a decrease in LTPA levels among participants. Findings from this research have the potential to design and implement targeted LTPA recommendations and interventions for Arab immigrants

Niveles de Plomo en Sangre en México y su Implicación para la Carga Pediátrica de la Enfermedad

Antecedentes: Aunque con la gasolina libre de plomo ha habido éxito en la reducción de la exposición, en México la exposición al plomo continúa amenazando la salud de millones, la mayoría debido a la greta (óxido de plomo) que se utiliza en la alfarería donde el plomo se mezcla con la comida. Objetivos: Se condujo una revisión histórica extensiva y un análisis de datos de niveles de plomo en sangre en poblaciones mexicanas. Se usó una media geométricamente calculada para evaluar el efecto del plomo en la carga de la enfermedad de la población infantil. Métodos: Una búsqueda bibliográfica extensiva identificó 83 artículos publicados de 1978 al 2010 con datos de NPS en poblaciones mexicanas representando 150 puntos de datos de más de 50,000 participantes de los estudios. Se categorizaron los valores de estas publicaciones en varias agrupaciones. Enseguida se calcularon las incidencias de enfermedad y los AVAD resultantes de estos NPS, usando las hojas de cálculo de carga de enfermedad de la OMS para el retraso mental ligero. Resultados: Al revisar los estudios relevantes, las medias geométricas de niveles de plomo en sangre en México para áreas urbanas y rurales fueron de 8.85 μg/dL y 22.24 μg/dL respectivamente. A partir de la introducción de la gasolina libre de plomo, la media en áreas urbanas fue de 5.36 μg/dL y se espera que el promedio en áreas rurales sea mayor. El límite máximo de niveles de plomo en sangre para los CDCDC de EUA en niños menores de 6 años es de 5 μg/dL y el promedio actual en EUA es 1.2 μg/dL. Nuestros resultados indican que más del 15% de la población experimentará un decremento de más de 5 puntos en el coeficiente intelectual (CI)) a raíz de la exposición al plomo. El análisis también nos lleva a creer que el plomo es responsable de 820,000 AVAD por retraso mental ligero provocado por el plomo en niños de 0 a 4 años. Conclusión: En México el plomo continúa amenazando la salud de millones y sigue siendo una causa significativa de discapacidad. Se necesitan intervenciones adicionales en la reducción o manejo de óxido de plomo para proteger la salud pública

Reaction time in adolescence, cumulative allostatic load, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood:The west of Scotland twenty-07 study

Objective: to examine the relation between reaction time in adolescence and subsequent symptoms of anxiety and depression and investigate the mediating role of sociodemographic measures, health behaviors, and allostatic load.Methods: participants were 705 members of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study. Choice reaction time was measured at age 16. At age 36 years, anxiety and depression were assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and measurements were made of blood pressure, pulse rate, waist-to-hip ratio, and total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, C-reactive protein, albumin, and glycosolated hemoglobin from which allostatic load was calculated.Results: in unadjusted models, longer choice reaction time at age 16 years was positively associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression at age 36 years: for a standard deviation increment in choice reaction time, regression coefficients (95% confidence intervals) for logged GHQ score, and square-root–transformed HADS anxiety and depression scores were 0.048 (0.016–0.080), 0.064 (0.009–0.118), and 0.097 (0.032–0.163) respectively. Adjustment for sex, parental social class, GHQ score at age 16 years, health behaviors at age 36 years and allostatic load had little attenuating effect on the association between reaction time and GHQ score, but weakened those between reaction time and the HADS subscales. Part of the effect of reaction time on depression was mediated through allostatic load; this mediating role was of borderline significance after adjustment.Conclusions: adolescents with slower processing speed may be at increased risk for anxiety and depression. Cumulative allostatic load may partially mediate the relation between processing speed and depressio

Apolipoprotein E genotype does not moderate the associations of depressive symptoms, neuroticism and allostatic load with cognitive ability and cognitive aging in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

<div><p>Objectives</p><p>In this replication-and-extension study, we tested whether depressive symptoms, neuroticism, and allostatic load (multisystem physiological dysregulation) were related to lower baseline cognitive ability and greater subsequent cognitive decline in older adults, and whether these relationships were moderated by the E4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (<i>APOE</i>) gene. We also tested whether allostatic load mediated the relationships between neuroticism and cognitive outcomes.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We used data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (<i>n</i> at Waves 1–3: 1,028 [<i>M</i> age = 69.5 y]; 820 [<i>M</i> duration since Wave 1 = 2.98 y]; 659 [<i>M</i> duration since Wave 1 = 6.74 y]). We fitted latent growth curve models of general cognitive ability (modeled using five cognitive tests) with groups of <i>APOE</i> E4 non-carriers and carriers. In separate models, depressive symptoms, neuroticism, and allostatic load predicted baseline cognitive ability and subsequent cognitive decline. In addition, models tested whether allostatic load mediated relationships between neuroticism and cognitive outcomes.</p><p>Results</p><p>Baseline cognitive ability had small-to-moderate negative associations with depressive symptoms (<i>β</i> range = -0.20 to -0.17), neuroticism (<i>β</i> range = -0.27 to -0.23), and allostatic load (<i>β</i> range = -0.11 to 0.09). Greater cognitive decline was linked to baseline allostatic load (<i>β</i> range = -0.98 to -0.83) and depressive symptoms (<i>β</i> range = -1.00 to -0.88). However, <i>APOE</i> E4 allele possession did not moderate the relationships of depressive symptoms, neuroticism and allostatic load with cognitive ability and cognitive decline. Additionally, the associations of neuroticism with cognitive ability and cognitive decline were not mediated through allostatic load.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Our results suggest that <i>APOE</i> E4 status does not moderate the relationships of depressive symptoms, neuroticism, and allostatic load with cognitive ability and cognitive decline in healthy older adults. The most notable positive finding in the current research was the strong association between allostatic load and cognitive decline.</p></div

An Epidemiologic Investigation into the Relationship between Stress, Allostatic Load, and Depressive Disorder Among Older Adults

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester. School of Medicine & Dentistry. Dept. of Community and Preventive Medicine, 2012.Background: Allostatic load is a developing epidemiologic model that has been used to quantify the physiological costs of the body’s response to either repeated stressful demands or inadequate responses to these demands. The allostatic load model has been used to link psychosocial phenomena to dysfunction of the body’s cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, renal, and metabolic systems, and may provide a useful perspective on the etiology of late-life depression. However, few studies have examined the association between dysfunction of multiple biological systems and late-life depressive symptoms. The purpose of this project was to examine the association of an allostatic load summary score with affective, somatic, and overall depressive symptoms among older adults. Methods: We conducted two separate cross-sectional analyses consisting of 2,405 subjects age 60 years and older from the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 125 Rochester-area adults of age 65 years and older that participated in a clinical trial. We employed multiple linear regression models to estimate associations of allostatic load scores with affective, somatic, and overall depressive symptoms, while adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and other potentially confounding factors. In addition, we conducted a path analysis to examine the complex relationships among personality, life stress, socioeconomic position, an allostatic load summary score, and depressive symptoms. Results: In both samples we observed associations between physiological dysfunction in more biological systems and greater severity of affective, somatic, and overall depressive symptoms among older adults. We noted weak to moderate evidence of an allostatic load score mediating the association between life stress and overall depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Our results lend support to the allostatic load model of late-life depressive symptoms. This finding suggests that additional longitudinal studies of links between allostatic load, psychosocial stress throughout the life course, and late-life depressive symptoms are warranted

Establishing the Relevancy of the Bookkeeping Libraries to the Functional Testing of Computer Implementations

In this paper we address issues related to the definition of &quot;faults&quot;, &quot;errors&quot; and &quot;failures&quot; and their separability and attribution to the different development processes of computing systems. In particular we deal with historical databases which presumably containing certain data, i.e. test failure data, and describe the methodology that can be used to analyze the database and obtain the pertinent information. The validation method may be of particular importance especially when information from the database need to be extrapolated for a purpose other than the one for which the database was developed. Our methodology was used to evaluate the historical data collected during the development of the IBM 4381 and 9370 family of computers and to extrapolate the faults found during the function testing. Index terms - Functional Testing, Errors, Bugs, Faults, Software Reliability, Error Data, Data Accuracy, Error Prediction Models. 1 Introduction Functional testing, defined here as the ..