Obesity-related knowledge and body mass index : a national survey in Portugal

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature.Purpose: Obesity-related knowledge predicts weight control but previous studies only comprise individuals with excessive weight and assess very specific aspects of knowledge. This study aims to evaluate several domains of obesity-related knowledge according to the body mass index (BMI) in a representative sample of Portuguese-speaking dwellers in mainland Portugal. Methods: A sample of 1624 participants aged 16–79 years was analyzed. Eighteen questions comprising eight obesity domains were asked: prevalence, physical activity, number of calories, adiposity location, causes, diagnosis, treatment and consequences; each one was dichotomized into correct/incorrect knowledge. Results: The majority of Portuguese-speaking dwellers recognized the benefits of physical activity, the risks of abdominal obesity and most consequences of excessive weight, independently of their BMI. However, knowledge gaps were identified regarding prevalence, calories and BMI diagnosis. BMI influenced specific obesity-related knowledge: participants with a normal BMI knew the BMI formula more often, identified 22 as normal BMI more frequently and had the highest proportion of correct knowledge regarding the number of calories an adult should eat; obese individuals identified natural products as not being good treatments for obesity more often. After adjusting for age, sex and educational level, obese individuals identified natural products and supplements as not being good obesity treatments more often. Conclusions: Obesity-related knowledge gaps (prevalence, calories, and diagnosis) were identified among Portuguese adults. Moreover, correct knowledge does not necessarily translate into a healthier BMI. Besides the dissemination of accurate information, public health interventions should focus on the transfer of knowledge to behaviors that will guarantee better weight management. Evidence-based medicine rankings: Level V: Opinions of respected authorities, based on descriptive studies, narrative reviews, clinical experience, or reports of expert committees.This study was supported by FEDER funds through Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and by national funding from The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology—FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science) within the project (HMSP-IISE/SAU-ICT/0004/2009) and within the Epidemiology Research Unit—Institute of Public Health, University of Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862; Ref. UID/ DTP/04750/2013). Additionally, we gratefully acknowledge the FCT Investigator contract IF/01674/2015 (Susana Silva) and also a Scientifc Employment Stimulus contract CEECIND/01793/2017 (Ana Henriques). The funding source had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Efeitos da poluição do ar nas doenças cardiovasculares: estruturas de defasagem

OBJETIVO: Investigar a estrutura de defasagem entre exposição à poluição do ar e internações hospitalares por doenças cardiovasculares em idosos, separada por gênero. MÉTODOS: Os dados de saúde de pessoas com mais de 64 anos de idade foram estratificados por gênero, na cidade de São Paulo, entre 1996 e 2001. Os níveis diários de poluentes do ar (CO, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2) e os dados de temperatura mínima e umidade relativa do ar foram também foram analisados. Foram utilizados modelos restritos de distribuição polinomial em modelos aditivos generalizados de regressão de Poisson para estimar os efeitos dos poluentes no dia da exposição e até 20 dias após, controlando-se para sazonalidades de longa e curta durações, feriados e fatores meteorológicos. RESULTADOS: Variações interquartis de PM10 (26,21 mig/m³) e SO2 (10,73 mig/m³) foram associados com aumentos de 3,17% (IC 95%: 2,09-4,25) nas admissões por insuficiência cardíaca congestiva e de 0,89% (IC 95%: 0,18-1,61) para admissões por todas as doenças cardiovasculares no dia da exposição, respectivamente. Os efeitos foram predominantemente agudos e maiores para o gênero feminino. Além disso, foi observado efeito colheita. CONCLUSÕES: Os achados mostraram que as doenças cardiovasculares em São Paulo são fortemente afetadas pela poluição do ar.OBJECTIVE: To assess the lag structure between air pollution exposure and elderly cardiovascular diseases hospital admissions, by gender. METHODS: Health data of people aged 64 years or older was stratified by gender in São Paulo city, Southeastern Brazil, from 1996 to 2001. Daily levels of air pollutants (CO, PM10, O3, NO2, and SO2) , minimum temperature, and relative humidity were also analyzed. It were fitted generalized additive Poisson regressions and used constrained distributed lag models adjusted for long time trend, weekdays, weather and holidays to assess the lagged effects of air pollutants on hospital admissions up to 20 days after exposure. RESULTS: Interquartile range increases in PM10 (26.21 mug/m³) and SO2 (10.73 mug/m³) were associated with 3.17% (95% CI: 2.09-4.25) increase in congestive heart failure and 0.89% (95% CI: 0.18-1.61) increase in total cardiovascular diseases at lag 0, respectively. Effects were higher among female group for most of the analyzed outcomes. Effects of air pollutants for different outcomes and gender groups were predominately acute and some "harvesting" were found. CONLUSIONS: The results show that cardiovascular diseases in São Paulo are strongly affected by air pollution

Population genetic analysis of brazilian peach breeding germplasm.

ABSTRACT Peach has great economic and social importance in Brazil. Diverse sources of germplasm were used to introduce desirable traits in the Brazilian peach breeding pool, composed mainly by local selections and accessions selected from populations developed by the national breeding programs, adapted to subtropical climate, with low chill requirement, as well as accessions introduced from several countries. In this research, we used SSR markers, selected by their high level of polymorphism, to access genetic diversity and population structure of a set composed by 204 peach selected genotypes, based on contrasting phenotypes for valuable traits in peach breeding. A total of 80 alleles were obtained, giving an average of eight alleles per locus. In general, the average value of observed heterozygosity (0.46) was lower than the expected heterozygosity (0.63). STRUCTURE analysis assigned 162 accessions splitted into two subpopulations based mainly on their flesh type: melting (96) and non-melting (66) flesh cultivars. The remaining accessions (42) could not be assigned under the 80% membership coefficient criteria. Genetic variability was greater in melting subpopulation compared to non-melting. Additionally, 55% of the alleles present in the breeding varieties were also present in the founder varieties, indicating that founding clones are well represented in current peach cultivars and advanced selections developed. Overall, this study gives a first insight of the peach genetic variability available and evidence for population differentiation (structure) in this peach panel to be exploited and provides the basis for genome-wide association studies