Are diet and exercise associated with depression in rheumatoid arthritis patients?

Background: Although depression is a common comorbidity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), little is known about a potential treatment strategy. Current studies of dietary improvement for depression have recently emerged in the general population, but have hardly any coverage in RA. Also, less exercise increases the number of people experiencing depression, and current studies showed that most RA patients are physically inactive. Thus, our study aimed to identify the potential factors associated with depression in RA patients.Methods: We included 157 RA patients (84.7% female; mean age 56.43±13.9 years; mean disease duration 19.53±9.54 years). All participants completed the General Health Questionnaire - 28, the Visual Analogue Scale Pain, the 36-item Short Form Health Survey, the Physical Activity Scale, and the Food Frequency Questionnaire. Correlations and multiple linear regressions were used to analyse the data.Results: Bivariate analyses showed a significant association between disease activity (.25; p ≤ 0.01), functional disability (.22; p ≤ 0.01), pain (.35; p ≤ 0.001), fatigue (-.45; p ≤ 0.001), physical inactivity (-.19; p ≤ 0.05), frequent consumption of fried foods (-.22; p ≤ 0.01) and depression. No other foods were associated with depression in RA. The multiple regression analyses showed that disease activity, fatigue, and fried foods consumption were significantly associated with depression in the final model. However, the association between physical activity and depression was no longer significant using multivariate models. Explained variance in the final regression model was 27.6%.Conclusions: It appears that frequent consumption of fried foods is associated with depression in RA when controlled for sociodemographic and clinical variables. Further research on specific dietary habits and underlying mechanisms in the gut-brain axis may help to develop treatment options for the prevention of psychological distress in RA. (Grant: VEGA: 1/0748/22; APVV-15-0719

Posttraumatic growth after earthquake: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Posttraumatic growth (PTG) represents a positive personal change after adverse events, such as natural disasters, including earthquake. However, the association between exposure to earthquake and level of PTG is still unknown. Thus, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analyses (MA) is to assess the level of PTG in people exposed to earthquake. Methods: Studies were identified via Scopus, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, ProQuest, Cochran Library, Ovid, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, congress, and conferences research papers. The level of PTG was presented as mean and standard deviation. Subgroup analyses were conducted to control for the amount of time that had passed since stressor onset and age of the study population. The meta-regression was used to explore the sources of between-study heterogeneity, including sample size and age. Results: The MA of all 21 studies using no restrictions related to age and time of the PTG measurement since traumatic event showed low level of PTG (41.71; 95CI = 34.26; 49.16, I2: 62.44, p:.000). Subgroup analyses controlled for the age demonstrated that level of PTG was higher in adults (49.47; 95 CI = 42.35; 56.58, I2: 0, p =.466) when compared to children and adolescents (35.38; 95 CI = 23.65; 47.11, I2: 69.09, p <.00). Moreover, the pooled weight mean of PTG measured 1 year and less than 1 year since the earthquake varied between medium (46.04; 95CI = 34.45; 57.63, I2:51.2, p:.037) and high (59.03; 95CI = 41.46; 76.41, I2: 0, p:.990) levels, respectively. Conclusion: The results of our MA showed low level of PTG in earthquake survivors. However, the mean value of PTG in adults was higher when compared to children and adolescents. In addition, the mean PTG was found to decrease over time since traumatic events. © The Author(s) 2021