Association of the COVID-19 pandemic with changes in objectively measured sedentary behaviour and adiposity.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have reported that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has increased sedentary behaviour and obesity; however, these analyses used self-reported data, and the association between sedentary behaviour and visceral fat and adipocytokines during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with objectively measured sedentary behaviour and these obesity-related factors. METHODS: Longitudinal analysis was conducted on 257 Japanese participants who underwent health check-ups in 2018 before and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. For both time points, sedentary behaviour was measured using an accelerometer for at least 7 days, visceral fat area (VFA) was measured using abdominal bioelectrical impedance analysis, and blood adiponectin level was measured using latex agglutination turbidimetric immunoassay. Multiple linear regression was performed to determine the association between sedentary behaviour and these outcomes. RESULTS: Compared with data in 2018, sedentary behaviour and VFA were significantly increased (P < 0.001, P = 0.006) whereas adiponectin level was significantly decreased (P < 0.001) in 2020. Increased sedentary behaviour was significantly associated with an increase in VFA (ß = 3.85, 95% CI 1.22-6.49, P = 0.004) and a decrease in adiponectin level (ß = -0.04, 95% CI -0.06 to -0.01, P = 0.005). However, the association of sedentary behaviour with adiponectin level was not significant after considering the effects of VFA. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with objectively measured sedentary behaviour and obesity-related factors in Japanese adults. Additionally, an increase in sedentary behaviour was associated with an increase in VFA, whereas the association of sedentary behaviour with adiponectin was partly mediated by VFA. These results suggest that avoiding increasing sedentary time is important to prevent visceral adiposity thereby ameliorating adiponectin, especially during behavioural limitations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Intra-abdominal hemorrhage due to segmental arterial mediolysis of an ovarian artery pseudoaneurysm and concomitant aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: illustrative case.

BACKGROUND: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is one of the most severe neurosurgical diseases in which systemic management is important from the acute phase to the chronic phase. The authors reported a case of aneurysmal SAH associated with intra-abdominal hemorrhage possibly caused by segmental arterial mediolysis (SAM). OBSERVATIONS: A 60-year-old woman collapsed suddenly at home. On arrival at our hospital, she was comatose and her head computed tomography (CT) showed SAH, probably from an anterior cerebral artery aneurysm. Simultaneous body CT to screen for pneumonia associated with COVID-19 incidentally detected an intra-abdominal hematoma and the bleeding point. Emergent ventriculostomy was conducted first. Because abdominal angiography detected a ruptured pseudoaneurysm of an ovarian artery, emergency embolization was subsequently performed for hemostasis. However, she deteriorated again, and her pupils became fully dilated. The patient died on day 3 of hospitalization. LESSONS: Patients with aneurysmal SAH rarely have intra-abdominal hemorrhage in the acute stage and may have a fatal outcome. Intra-abdominal hemorrhage should be suspected in the setting of unstable vital signs, and prompt treatment is necessary.

Association between visceral fat and influenza infection in Japanese adults: A population-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have reported that obesity is associated with influenza infection; however, the role of visceral fat remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between visceral fat and influenza infection in community-dwelling Japanese adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed using data from an annual community-based health check-up conducted from May to June in 2019. In total, 1,040 Japanese adults aged 20-89 years were enrolled in this study. Influenza infection status was determined by participants' responses to a self-administered questionnaire. The visceral fat area (VFA) was measured using a bioimpedance-type visceral fat meter. Participants were classified into four groups using the following cut-off points: VFA < 100 cm2 was set as the reference category according to the Japanese criteria, 100 ≤ VFA < 150 cm2, 150 ≤ VFA < 200 cm2, and 200 cm2 ≤ VFA. Logistic regression models were used to assess the association between VFA and influenza infection. RESULTS: In total, 119 participants had influenza infections in the past year. In the multivariate adjusted model, a higher VFA was significantly associated with increased influenza infection; the adjusted odds ratio for 200 cm2 ≤ VFA was 5.03 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-23.6], that for 150 ≤ VFA < 200 cm2 was 1.97 (95% CI: 0.71-5.45), and that for 100 ≤ VFA < 150 cm2 was 1.62 (95% CI: 0.84-3.12), compared with that for VFA < 100 cm2 (p for trend = 0.049). These findings were confirmed in the same cohort the following year. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that visceral fat accumulation is associated with influenza infection. Large-scale prospective studies using diagnostic information for influenza infection are required to confirm this association.

Influence of COVID-19 Crisis on Motivation and Hiking Intention of Gen Z in China: Perceived Risk and Coping Appraisal as Moderators.

People's lives have drastically changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. One concern during the pandemic has been the level of inactivity among people. Compared to various generations (e.g., baby boomers, generation alpha), Generation Z (Gen Z) traditionally spends much less time in outdoor spaces. Due to the pandemic, their inactiveness is assumed to be even more severe. Hiking, an outdoor activity, has become a possible remedy for young people to exercise in a safer sport environment compared to traditional facility-based activities. Although various studies have supported the link between motivations and hiking intention, the relationship may be altered based on psychological influences unique to the pandemic situations-perceived risk and coping appraisals. The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between Gen Z's motivations and hiking intention and moderating roles of perceived risk and coping appraisals in a pandemic environment. Data were collected from Gen Z between 18 and 24 in China (N = 407). The validity and reliability of all the constructs were assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability. For testing hypotheses, PROCESS Macro 4.0 was used. The findings proposed that the appraisals of the pandemic situation (i.e., perceived risk and coping ability) moderated the relationship between two of the motivations-intellectual and destination motivations-and hiking intention. As a result, organizers of outdoor sports programs can implement viable strategies and take valid measurements to minimize the fear and worries among people in the time of the crisis.