Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4 (62.3 (55.1�70.8) million) to 6.4 (58.3 (47.6�70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization�s Global Nutrition Target of <5 in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2 (30 (22.8�38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0 (55.5 (44.8�67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic. © 2020, The Author(s)

Author Correction: Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 (Nature Medicine, (2020), 26, 5, (750-759), 10.1038/s41591-020-0807-6)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. © 2020, The Author(s)

Author Correction: Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 (Nature Medicine, (2020), 26, 5, (750-759), 10.1038/s41591-020-0807-6)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. © 2020, The Author(s)

Do patients trust their physician? The role of attachment style in the patient-physician relationship within one year after a cancer diagnosis

Background. The degree of trust in and satisfaction with the physician has been shown to have important implications for treatment outcomes. This study aims to examine individual differences in patients' trust, satisfaction and general distress from an attachment theoretical perspective. Material and methods. One hundred and thirty recently diagnosed cancer patients of three medical hospitals were extensively interviewed by trained psychologists to assess attachment style. Patients completed standardized questionnaires three and nine months after diagnosis to assess trust, satisfaction and distress. t-tests and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine differences between securely and insecurely attached patients and changes over time. A mediation model based on a bootstrapping method was used to examine whether trust mediated between attachment and satisfaction, and attachment and distress. Results. Insecurely attached patients (N = 45, 35%) reported less trust in and satisfaction with their physician, and reported more general distress than securely attached patients three and nine months after diagnosis (p <0.05). Trust and distress levels did not change over time. Trust mediated between attachment and satisfaction, but not between attachment and distress. Conclusion. Insecurely attached patients trusted their physician less than securely attached patients, and in turn were less satisfied with their physician. Their higher levels of general distress were not related to their lower levels of trust. Attachment theory provides a framework to interpret differences in patients' trust, satisfaction and distress, and may help physicians respond in such a way that their patients feel secure, which in turn is expected to result in better health outcomes

The a-phosphoglucomutase of lactococcus lactis is unrelated to the a-D-phosphohexomutase superfamily and encoded by the essential gene pgmH

a-Phosphoglucomutase (a-PGM1) plays an important role in carbohydrate metabolism, by catalyzing the reversible conversion of a-glucose 1-phosphate to glucose 6-phosphate. Isolation of a-PGM activity from cell extracts of Lactococcus lactis strain MG1363 led to the conclusion that this activity is encoded by yfgH, herein renamed to pgmH. Its gene product has no sequence homology to proteins in the a-D-phosphohexomutase superfamily and instead is related to the eukaryotic phosphomannomutases within the haloacid dehalogenase superfamily. In contrast to known bacterial a-PGMs, this 28 kDa enzyme is highly specific for a-glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate and showed no activity with mannose-phosphate. To elucidate the function of pgmH, the metabolism of glucose and galactose was characterized in mutants overproducing or with deficiency of a-PGM activity. Overproduction of a-PGM led to increased glycolytic flux and growth rate on galactose. Despite several attempts, we failed to obtain a deletion mutant of pgmH. The essentiality of this gene was proven by using a conditional knock-out strain, in which a native copy of the gene was provided in trans under the control of the nisin promoter. Growth of this strain was severely impaired when a-PGM activity was below the control level. We show that the novel L. lactis a-PGM is the only enzyme mediating the interconversion of a-glucose 1-phosphate to glucose 6-phosphate and is essential for growth ER