‘Fish out of water’: a cross-sectional study on the interaction between social and neighbourhood effects on weight management behaviours

Objective: To analyse whether an individual’s neighbourhood influences the uptake of weight management strategies and whether there is an interaction between individual socio-economic status and neighbourhood deprivation. Methodology: Data were collected from the Yorkshire Health Study (2010–2012) for 27 806 individuals on the use of the following weight management strategies: ‘slimming clubs’, ‘healthy eating’, ‘increasing exercise’ and ‘controlling portion size’. A multi-level logistic regression was fit to analyse the use of these strategies, controlling for age, sex, body mass index, education, neighbourhood deprivation and neighbourhood population turnover (a proxy for neighbourhood social capital). A cross-level interaction term was included for education and neighbourhood deprivation. Lower Super Output Area was used as the geographical scale for the areal unit of analysis. Results: Significant neighbourhood effects were observed for use of ‘slimming clubs’, ‘healthy eating’ and ‘increasing exercise’ as weight management strategies, independent of individual- and area-level covariates. A significant interaction between education and neighbourhood deprivation was observed across all strategies, suggesting that as an area becomes more deprived, individuals of the lowest education are more likely not to use any strategy compared with those of the highest education. Conclusions: Neighbourhoods modify/amplify individual disadvantage and social inequalities, with individuals of low education disproportionally affected by deprivation. It is important to include neighbourhood-based explanations in the development of community-based policy interventions to help tackle obesit

Comparative experimental re-evaluation of the two implanting methods of silicone gel testicular prostheses in beagle dogs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Testicular prosthesis has been applied clinically for decades, and implantation of testis prosthesis under the tunica albuginea has been considered to be the standard method in the most of the reports. However, postoperative scrotal appearance, the mobilization and the palpitation of the prosthesis are not always satisfactory to all the patients. Modifications in surgical techniques might be necessary to bring improvements to the clinical outcomes in testicular prosthesis implantation.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>In a group of 9 beagle dogs in this study, an orchiectomy succeeded with a testicular prosthesis implantation under the tunica vaginalis, and a complete mechanical denudation of the testicular parenchyma succeeded with an implantation under the tunica albuginea were performed, respectively. Histopathological evaluations of the scrotal tissues and the implants, which were made at the end of the follow-up, showed that all the tested animals lived uneventful lives during the follow-up period, and no rejections or infections were found. Prostheses implanted under the tunica vaginalis showed a more satisfying mobilization and palpation than those implanted under the tunica albuginea. Chronic inflammation in the para-prosthesis tissues with vascular proliferation and fibrinogenesis were more common in the "under tunica albuginea" group than that in the "under tunica vaginalis" group, although differences in fibrinogenesis between the two groups were found to be statistically insignificant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this comparative study, we have re-evaluated the two most popular implantation methods of testicular prosthesis, the "under the tunica albuginea" and the "under the tunica vaginalis" pathways, in animal models. We found that the testicular prosthesis were all well tolerated, but the prosthesis implanted under the tunica vaginalis showed a more satisfying result concerning appearance, palpability, and histopathological findings than that of the "under the tunica albuginea" group. The "under the tunica vaginalis" method might become a more practical method for future testicular prosthesis implantation.</p