Use of oral health care services in Finnish adults - results from the cross-sectional Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys

Background: During the 2000s, two major legislative reforms concerning oral health care have been implemented in Finland. One entitled the whole population to subsidized care and the other regulated the timeframes of access to care. Our aim was, in a cross-sectional setting, to assess changes in and determinants of use of oral health care services before the first reform in 2000 and after both reforms in 2011. Methods: The data were part of the nationally representative Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys of adults aged >= 30 years and were gathered by interviews and questionnaires. The outcome was the use of oral health care services during the previous year. Determinants of use among the dentate were grouped according to Andersen's model: predisposing (sex, age group), enabling (education, recall, dental fear, habitual use of services, household income, barriers of access to care), and need (perceived need, self-rated oral health, denture status). Chi square tests and logistic regression analyses were used for statistical evaluation. Results: No major changes or only a minor increase in overall use of oral health care services was seen between the study years. An exception were those belonging to oldest age group who clearly increased their use of services. Also, a significant increase in visiting a public sector dentist was observed, particularly in the age groups that became entitled to subsidized care in 2000. In the private sector, use of services decreased in younger age groups. Determinants for visiting a dentist, regardless of the service sector, remained relatively stable. Being a regular dental visitor was the most significant determinant for having visited a dentist during the previous year. Enabling factors, both organizational and individual, were emphasized. They seemed to enable service utilization particularly in the private sector. Conclusions: Overall changes in the use of oral health care services were relatively small, but in line with the goals set for the reform. Older persons increased use of services in both sectors, implying growing need. Differences between public and private sectors persisted, and recall, costs of care and socioeconomic factors steered choices between the sectors, sustaining inequity in access to care.Peer reviewe

Methodological problem with comparing increases in different measures of body weight

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of studies have compared proportional increases over time in waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI). However this method is flawed. Here, we explain why comparisons of WC and BMI must take into account the relationship between them. We used data from two cross-sectional US surveys (NHANES 1988-94 and 2005-06), and calculated the percentage change in the average BMI and the average WC between the two surveys, comparing the results with a regression analysis of changes in WC relative to BMI.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The crude percentage change in BMI (5.8%) was marginally greater than for WC (5.1%). But these percentages cannot be directly compared, as the relationship between the measures is described by a regression equation with an intercept term that does not equal zero. The coefficient of time from the regression equation will determine whether or not WC is on average larger for a given BMI at the second compared with the first time point.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Differences in the percentage change in WC and the percentage change in BMI cannot be usefully directly compared. Comparisons of increases in the two measures must account for the relationship between them as described by the regression equation.</p

Chemical composition and biomethane production potential of Euglena gracilis biomass and extraction residue from supercritical CO2 extraction

Peer reviewe

Use of oral health care services in Finnish adults - results from the cross-sectional Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys

Background: During the 2000s, two major legislative reforms concerning oral health care have been implemented in Finland. One entitled the whole population to subsidized care and the other regulated the timeframes of access to care. Our aim was, in a cross-sectional setting, to assess changes in and determinants of use of oral health care services before the first reform in 2000 and after both reforms in 2011.Methods: The data were part of the nationally representative Health 2000 and 2011 Surveys of adults aged >= 30 years and were gathered by interviews and questionnaires. The outcome was the use of oral health care services during the previous year. Determinants of use among the dentate were grouped according to Andersen's model: predisposing (sex, age group), enabling (education, recall, dental fear, habitual use of services, household income, barriers of access to care), and need (perceived need, self-rated oral health, denture status). Chi square tests and logistic regression analyses were used for statistical evaluation.Results: No major changes or only a minor increase in overall use of oral health care services was seen between the study years. An exception were those belonging to oldest age group who clearly increased their use of services. Also, a significant increase in visiting a public sector dentist was observed, particularly in the age groups that became entitled to subsidized care in 2000. In the private sector, use of services decreased in younger age groups. Determinants for visiting a dentist, regardless of the service sector, remained relatively stable. Being a regular dental visitor was the most significant determinant for having visited a dentist during the previous year. Enabling factors, both organizational and individual, were emphasized. They seemed to enable service utilization particularly in the private sector.Conclusions: Overall changes in the use of oral health care services were relatively small, but in line with the goals set for the reform. Older persons increased use of services in both sectors, implying growing need. Differences between public and private sectors persisted, and recall, costs of care and socioeconomic factors steered choices between the sectors, sustaining inequity in access to care

Gut microbiota composition is associated with temperament traits in infants

Background: One of the key behavioral phenotypes in infancy are different temperament traits, and certain early life temperament traits have been shown to precede later mental health problems. Differences in the gut microbiota composition (GMC) have been suggested to link with neurodevelopment. For example, toddler temperament traits have been found to associate with differences in GMC; however, studies in infants are lacking although infancy is a rapid period of neurodevelopment as well as GM development. Thus, we aimed to investigate association between infant GMC and temperament. Methods: The study population (n = 301, 53% boys) was drawn from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Stool samples were collected from the 2.5-month-old infants and sequenced with 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. GMC taxonomic composition (at Genus and OTU level), observed sample clusters, diversity and richness were investigated in relation to the maternal reports of Infant Behavior Questionnaire -Revised (IBQ-R) at the age of 6 months. Results: Three sample clusters (Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides, V. Dispar) based on GMC were identified, of which Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae–cluster presented with higher scores on the IBQ-R main dimension regulation and its subscale duration of orienting compared to Bacteroides-cluster. The clusters associated with temperament in a sex-dependent manner. The IBQ-R main dimension surgency (positive emotionality) was associated positively both with genus Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus. Alpha diversity had a negative association with negative emotionality and fear reactivity. Conclusion This is the first study demonstrating associations, but not causal connections, between GMC and temperament in young infants in a prospective design

Model for long QT syndrome type 2 using human iPS cells demonstrates arrhythmogenic characteristics in cell culture

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ADHD symptoms and diagnosis in adult preterms: systematic review, IPD meta-analysis, and register-linkage study

BACKGROUND: This study examined differences in ADHD symptoms and diagnosis between preterm and term-born adults (≥18 years), and tested if ADHD is related to gestational age, birth weight, multiple births, or neonatal complications in preterm borns. METHODS: (1) A systematic review compared ADHD symptom self-reports and diagnosis between preterm and term-born adults published in PubMed, Web of Science, and PROQUEST until April 2021; (2) a one-stage Individual Participant Data(IPD) meta-analysis (n = 1385 preterm, n = 1633 term; born 1978–1995) examined differences in self-reported ADHD symptoms[age 18–36 years]; and (3) a population-based register-linkage study of all live births in Finland (01/01/1987–31/12/1998; n = 37538 preterm, n = 691,616 term) examined ADHD diagnosis risk in adulthood (≥18 years) until 31/12/2016. RESULTS: Systematic review results were conflicting. In the IPD meta-analysis, ADHD symptoms levels were similar across groups (mean z-score difference 0.00;95% confidence interval [95% CI] −0.07, 0.07). Whereas in the register-linkage study, adults born preterm had a higher relative risk (RR) for ADHD diagnosis compared to term controls (RR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.12, 1.41, p < 0.001). Among preterms, as gestation length (RR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.89, 0.97, p < 0.001) and SD birth weight z-score (RR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.80, 0.97, p < 0.001) increased, ADHD risk decreased. CONCLUSIONS: While preterm adults may not report higher levels of ADHD symptoms, their risk of ADHD diagnosis in adulthood is higher

Gut microbiota composition is associated with temperament traits in infants

BackgroundOne of the key behavioral phenotypes in infancy are different temperament traits, and certain early life temperament traits have been shown to precede later mental health problems. Differences in the gut microbiota composition (GMC) have been suggested to link with neurodevelopment. For example, toddler temperament traits have been found to associate with differences in GMC; however, studies in infants are lacking although infancy is a rapid period of neurodevelopment as well as GM development. Thus, we aimed to investigate association between infant GMC and temperament.MethodsThe study population (n=301, 53% boys) was drawn from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Stool samples were collected from the 2.5-month-old infants and sequenced with 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. GMC taxonomic composition (at Genus and OTU level), observed sample clusters, diversity and richness were investigated in relation to the maternal reports of Infant Behavior Questionnaire -Revised (IBQ-R) at the age of 6 months. ResultsThree sample clusters (Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides, V. Dispar) based on GMC were identified, of which Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae–cluster presented with higher scores on the IBQ-R main dimension regulation and its subscale duration of orienting compared to Bacteroides-cluster. The clusters associated with temperament in a sex-dependent manner. The IBQ-R main dimension surgency (positive emotionality) was associated positively both with genus Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus. Alpha diversity had a negative association with negative emotionality and fear reactivity.ConclusionThis is the first study demonstrating associations, but not causal connections, between GMC and temperament in young infants in a prospective design. </p

Efficient computation of Faith's phylogenetic diversity with applications in characterizing microbiomes

The number of publicly available microbiome samples is continually growing. As data set size increases, bottlenecks arise in standard analytical pipelines. Faith's phylogenetic diversity (Faith's PD) is a highly utilized phylogenetic alpha diversity metric that has thus far failed to effectively scale to trees with millions of vertices. Stacked Faith's phylogenetic diversity (SFPhD) enables calculation of this widely adopted diversity metric at a much larger scale by implementing a computationally efficient algorithm. The algorithm reduces the amount of computational resources required, resulting in more accessible software with a reduced carbon footprint, as compared to previous approaches. The new algorithm produces identical results to the previous method. We further demonstrate that the phylogenetic aspect of Faith's PD provides increased power in detecting diversity differences between younger and older populations in the FINRISK study's metagenomic data.Peer reviewe