Influence of dietary pattern on the development of overweight in a Chinese population

Objective: To examine dietary factors predisposing to overweight and obesity, taking into account age, gender, education level and physical activity. Design: Longitudinal population study. Setting: Community living subjects in Hong Kong. Subjects: One thousand and ten Chinese subjects participating in a territory wide dietary and cardiovascular risk factor prevalence survey in 1995-1996 were followed up for 5-9 years. Measurements: Body mass index (BMI) was measured. Information was collected on factors predisposing to development of overweight and obesity (age, gender, education level, physical activity, macronutrient intake, Mediterranean diet score and food variety), and the predisposing dietary factors examined, adjusted for other confounding factors, using logistic regression. Results: The 5-9-year incidence of overweight is 22.6% (BMI ≥ 23 kg/ m 2, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 15.0-30.1%) or 11.5% (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m 2, 95% CI = 7.3-15.7%), and for obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2) is 0.6% (95% CI = -0.2-1.4%). The corresponding figures for women were 14.1% (95% CI = 8.8-19.5%), 9.7% (95% CI = 6.0-13.4%) and 3% (95% CI = 1.3-4.8%). After adjusting for confounding factors (age, sex, education and physical activity), increased variety of snack consumption was associated with increased risk of developing overweight (BMI ≥ 23 kg/m 2) in the Hong Kong Chinese population over a 5-9-year period. Conclusion: Increased variety of snack consumption may predispose to weight gain over a 5-9-year period.postprin

Higher incidence of falls in winter among older people in Hong Kong

Purpose: This study aims at determining whether there is a seasonal pattern of falls among older people in Hong Kong and exploring the possible mechanisms underlying the seasonal pattern. Methods: The falls data were obtained from a 1-year prospective study conducted in 200-2007 which includes all the older people aged 60 years or more with a fall presenting to Accident and Emergency Department of a regional hospital in Hong Kong. The occurrence of falls among the 12 months was recorded and was used to correlate with weather data, including air temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall, in each month during the study period. Analyses were also carried out to examine if there was any signification association between occurrence of falls in four seasons and various factors, including age, gender and living arrangement of the fallers, location of falls, and predisposing factors for their falls. Results: There was a peak in occurrence of falls among the older people during winter. A significant correlation was found between a higher number of falls and lower air temperature and lower relative humidity. Age, gender, and location of falls for the fallers were not associated with the peak seasons (winter and autumn) and nonpeak seasons (spring and summer). Significantly larger proportion of falls occurred among people living in old age home during the peak season compared with the nonpeak season. Higher proportion of fallers during the peak season had lower limbs weakness as compared with that in nonpeak season. Multivariate logistic regression showed that only living arrangement and risky behavior were significantly associated with fall occurrence in peak season. Conclusion: A higher incidence of falls in winter among older people in Hong Kong was observed and possible mechanisms contributing to this seasonal pattern were explored. Further studies on intervention to minimize its impact on risk of falling among older people are indicated. Copyright © 2011, Asia Pacific League of Clinical Gerontology & Geriatrics. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Quantum-mechanical analysis of effect of alloying elements on ε-martensite start temperature of steels

11Ysciescopu

Mass breast screening is highly inefficient [1]

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Pro-inflammatory adipokines as predictors of incident cancers in a chinese cohort of low obesity prevalence in Hong Kong

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Serum adiponectin in relation to other obesity-related biomarkers in predicting type 2 diabetes: a 5-year prospective study

Oral PresentationAIMS: To identify obesity-related serum biomarkers associated with the development of type 2 diabetes in a Chinese population and to examine if these biomarkers added values to conventional risk factors in diabetes prediction. METHODS: We studied 1315 non-diabetic subjects from the prospective Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study (CRISPS). Serum biomarkers including adiponectin, tumour necrosis …published_or_final_versionThe 17th Medical Research Conference, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 14 January 2012. In Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2012, v. 18 suppl. 1, p. 57, abstract no. 8

Plasma fibrinogen level as a predictor of incident metabolic syndrome in a community-based prospective study in Hong Kong Chinese

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Metabolic syndrome (MS) comprises a constellation of metabolic abnormalities associated with a high risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Central obesity, with related insulin resistance and inflammation are considered the core of the underlying pathogenesis of MS. Fibrinogen, an acute-phase reactant in the coagulation cascade, has been shown to play pivotal role in determining the extent of local or systemic inflammation. In this study, we examined whether plasma fibrinogen was predictive of incident MS in a community-based Chinese cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were recruited from the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factors Prevalence Study (CRISPS) cohort. 2780 subjects were recruited in 1995-6 with baseline assessment performed. 1416 subjects without MS at …postprin

Relationship between dietary intake and the development of type 2 diabetes in a Chinese population: The Hong Kong Dietary Survey

Objective To study the relationship between dietary intake and the development of type 2 diabetes among Chinese adults.Design A prospective cohort study. Dietary assessment was carried out using a validated FFQ. Principal component analysis was used to identify dietary patterns. Dietary glycaemic load and variety of snacks were also calculated.Setting A hospital-based centre at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong SAR, China.Subjects A total of 1010 Chinese adults aged 25-74 years who participated in a territory-wide dietary and cardiovascular risk factor prevalence survey in 1995-1996 were followed up for 9-14 years for the development of diabetes.Results A total of 690 (68·3 %) individuals completed follow-up during 2005-2008 and seventy-four cases of diabetes were identified over the follow-up period. Four dietary patterns were identified ('more snacks and drinks-, 'more vegetables, fruits and fish-, 'more meat and milk products- and 'more refined grains-). After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, alcohol intake, participation in exercise/sports and family history of diabetes, the more vegetables, fruits and fish pattern was associated with a 14 % lower risk (OR per 1 sd increase in score = 0·76; 95 % CI 0·58, 0·99), whereas the more meat and milk products pattern was associated with a 39 % greater risk of diabetes (OR per 1 sd increase in score = 1·39; 95 % CI 1·04, 1·84). Dietary glycaemic load, rice intake, snack intake and variety of snacks were not independently associated with diabetes.Conclusions The more vegetables, fruits and fish pattern was associated with reduced risk and the more meat and milk products pattern was associated with an increased risk of diabetes. © 2011 The Authors.published_or_final_versio

Predictors common to cardiovascular and cancer outcomes in a population-based 13-year prospective study in Hong Kong

Oral PresentationINTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer are the two leading causes of death in Hong Kong. Obesity is becoming increasingly prevalent in the local population and has been reported to be associated with CVD and some forms of cancer in the western world. In this study, we attempted to identify the aetiological factors linking obesity to both CVD and cancer among Hong Kong Chinese. METHODS: Subjects were recruited from the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study (CRISPS) …published_or_final_versionThe 16th Medical Research Conference, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 22 January 2011. In Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2011, v. 17 suppl. 1, p. 56, abstract no. 9

An evolutionary missing link? A modest-mass early-type galaxy hosting an oversized nuclear black hole

SAGE1C J053634.78-722658.5 is a galaxy at redshift z = 0.14, discovered behind the Large Magellanic Cloud in the Spitzer Space Telescope`Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution' Spectroscopy survey. It has very strong silicate emission at 10 μm but negligible far-IR and UV emission. This makes it a candidate for a bare active galactic nuclei (AGN) source in the IR, perhaps seen pole-on, without significant IR emission from the host galaxy. In this paper we present optical spectra taken with the Southern African Large Telescope to investigate the nature of the underlying host galaxy and its AGN. We find broad H α emission characteristic of an AGN, plus absorption lines associated with a mature stellar population (>9 Gyr), and refine its redshift determination to z = 0.1428 ± 0.0001. There is no evidence for any emission lines associated with star formation. This remarkable object exemplifies the need for separating the emission from any AGN from that of the host galaxy when employing IR diagnostic diagrams. We estimate the black hole mass, MBH = 3.5 ± 0.8 × 108 M⊙, host galaxy mass, M_stars=2.5^{2.5}_{1.2}× 10^{10} M⊙, and accretion luminosity, Lbol(AGN) = 5.3 ± 0.4 × 1045 erg s-1 (≈12 per cent of the Eddington luminosity), and find the AGN to be more prominent than expected for a host galaxy of this modest size. The old age is in tension with the downsizing paradigm in which this galaxy would recently have transformed from a star-forming disc galaxy into an early-type, passively evolving galaxy