ABSTRACT
Objective@#To describe the current situation of leisure time physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep duration of children and adolescents aged 6-14 in Beijing, and provide a reference basis for guiding school age children to carry out reasonable physical activities and formulating effective intervention measures.@*Methods@#A multistage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to investigate the nutritional and health status of 3 460 students in the first,third,fifth and seventh grades. Through the questionnaire surveys, the basic information of children and families and the activity information of children physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep were collected and statistically analyzed.@*Results@#The results showed that the median time of children daily leisure time physical activity (LTPA) was 20.0 (8.6, 38.6) min, children in suburb areas (18.6 min) and seventh grade (14.3 min) had shorter LTPA time( Z/H =5.12，119.11， P <0.01). The average daily sleep duration of children was (8.71 ± 0.76) h, the proportion of school age children with insufficient sleep reached 54.7%. With an increase in grades, the incidence of insufficient sleep increased significantly ( χ 2=407.13， P <0.01). The median daily sedentary time of children was 195.7(145.0, 255.7 ) min, and 84.5% of children engaged in more than two hours of sedentary behavior every day. Urban (202.9 min) and obese children (210.4 min) had longer sedentary behavior time, and with the increase in grade, the daily sedentary behavior time of children gradually increased ( Z/H =5.04，14.83，637.98， P <0.01).@*Conclusion@#Children and adolescents aged 6-14 years in Beijing have less LTPA time, too much sedentary time, and insufficient sleep duration. Grade is an important factor affecting physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep duration of children, and body shape may be related to their sedentary behavior and sleep time.It is suggested that targeted policies should be adopted for children of different grades to increase their physical activity and reduce their sedentary behavior to promote their healthy development.
ABSTRACT
Objective@#To analyze the phenomenon of alcohol drinking among school-aged children in Beijing, and to provide a reference for making measures for possible preventive interventions.@*Methods@#Data were from the Beijing Students’ Nutrition and Health Surveillance among 3 776 school-aged children in Beijing in 2015. Prevalence, frequency and pattern of drinking, daily consumption of alcoholic drinks, as well as influencing factors were described.@*Results@#Drinking was found in 11.2% of school-aged children, the drinking differences of students of different genders, grades, areas were of statistical significance(χ2=8.49, 126.91, 18.36, P<0.01), and the average age of the 423 drinking students was (10.5±1.6)years old. 290 children reported alcohol drinking once or twice in the past 1 week, accounting for 68.6% of the drinking children. 93 children reported drinking for three to six times, accounting for 22.0%, 40 students reported drinking for more than 7 times. Blending wine(58.2%) ranked as the most preferred, followed by beer(33.3%).Drinking was more likely reported among school-aged children who were boys, in higher grade, living in suburbs of Beijing, while children whose parents were more likely to drink in the past month, or from family with lower income and lower education level were also more likely to drink(P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#Drinking among school-aged children in Beijing in the past 1 is common, but their drinking amount per day was relatively low. Drinking was influenced by age, gender, living place, family and other factors. It is recommended that non-alcoholic intervention should be carried out as soon as possible for them.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Several lines of evidence have shown an association between Chlamydia infection and atherosclerosis, but clinical trials of preventive antibiotic (erythromycin) treatment in patients with coronary artery disease have shown conflicting results. Hyperhomocysteinaemia is an independent risk factor of coronary artery disease and causes an intense remodelling of the extracellular matrix in arterial walls, particularly an elastolysis involving metalloproteinases. In the present study we investigated the effects of erythromycin on the production of homocysteineinduced extracellular matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). METHODS: Effects of different concentration of homocysteine (Hcy) (0-5000 micromol/l) on MMP-2 production, and the effects of different erythromycin concentrations (0-10 mmol/l) on homocysteine-induced MMP-2 production in cultured rat VSMCs were studied using gelatin zymography and Western blotting. The changes of MMP-2 under various treatments for 1, 3 and 5 days were also compared. RESULTS: Homocysteine (50-1000 mu mol/l) increased the production of MMP-2 significantly in a dose-dependent manner and reduced the production of MMP-2 at a high level (5000 mu mol/l). Increased production of MMP-2 induced by homocysteine was reduced by extracellularly added erythromycin in a dose-dependent manner. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: Homocysteine increased the production of MMP-2 significantly in a dose-dependent manner. Extracellularly added erythromycin decreased homocysteine-induced MMP-2 secretion. The findings of the present study suggested that the beneficial effect of erythromycin on vascular disease processes might be due to its inhibitory effect on the Hcyinduced production of MMP-2 in VSMCs.