The Relation of Serum Vitamin C Concentrations with Alzheimer's Disease Mortality in a National Cohort of Community-Dwelling Elderly Adults.

The relation of vitamin C with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is equivocal. The aim of this study was to assess the relation of serum vitamin C levels with AD-related mortality, and to evaluate the threshold beyond which the potential benefits of higher serum concentrations of vitamin C for AD mortality ceases. The cohort consisted of 4504 adults aged ≥60 years enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who had serum measures of vitamin C and no cognitive impairment at baseline (1988-1994) and were followed-up for mortality until 2019. Vitamin C was assayed from fasting blood samples using isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography. At baseline, the mean age of participants was 70 years, with 42.7% being men. At the end of follow-up (median: 15 years), the AD mortality rate was 2.4 per 1000 person-years. In the Cox regression models, compared to participants in the lowest tertile of serum vitamin C (<0.56 mg/dL), those in the highest tertile (>0.98 mg/dL) had a lower risk of AD mortality (hazard ratio: 0.44, 95% confidence intervals: 0.25-0.77) after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, behavior/lifestyle factors, prevalent health conditions, and dietary vitamin C intake. In dose-response analysis using restricted cubic splines, vitamin C concentrations beyond 2.3 mg/dL were associated with the elevated risk of AD-related mortality. The findings from this national sample of community-dwelling elderly adults suggest that higher levels of serum vitamin C are associated with slower AD disease progression, although levels beyond the normal reference values were associated with a higher risk of AD mortality.

Factors Influencing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Prescription Opioid Misuse Among Young Adolescents in the USA, 2009-2019.

BACKGROUND: Prescription opioid misuse (POM) is an important public health concern. Not many studies have evaluated factors influencing racial and ethnic differences in POM exclusively in young adolescents. We evaluated factors influencing the racial and ethnic differences in POM in a nationally representative sample of 8th- and 10th-grade (12-15 years old) US adolescents. METHODS: Data were from 107,786 adolescents who participated in the 2009-2019 Monitoring the Future survey. Logistic regression and mediation analysis were used to identify risk factors for POM and evaluate mediators of the association of race and ethnicity on the frequency of POM in the past year. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2019, the prevalence of POM in the past year decreased from 3.2% to 1.8% (p = 0.032), with significant differences in POM trends by race and ethnicity. Overall, the prevalence was higher among non-Hispanic White adolescents (3.2%) than Hispanic (2.5%) and non-Hispanic Black adolescents (1.6%), p < 0.001. After adjustment for demographic, substance use, lifestyle, and family-related factors, the odds of POM were lower among Black (odds ratio (OR) = 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66-0.98) and Hispanic adolescents (OR = 0.64, CI: 0.55-0.74) compared to White adolescents. Illicit drug use and misuse of other prescription drugs together explained 77.2% and 47.3% of the racial and ethnic disparities in POM among Black and Hispanic adolescents, respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, significant racial and ethnic differences in the trends of POM were observed. Illicit drug use and misuse of other prescription drugs substantially explained the racial and ethnic disparities in POM among young adolescents.

Association of marital status with takotsubo syndrome (broken heart syndrome) among adults in the United States.

BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is not well understood, however, it is often precipitated by psychological or physical stress. Marital status is related to emotional stress, but its associations with TTS are limited. AIM: To explored the potential association between marital status and TTS. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study using data on patients aged ≥ 40 years with marital status data in the National Hospital Discharge Survey (2006-2010). The International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision codes were used to identify cases with TTS and other comorbid conditions. Each case was matched to 5 controls by age, sex, year of TTS diagnosis and bed size of hospital. Two sets of controls were selected: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) controls and non-cardiovascular disease (CVD) controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of marital status with TTS. RESULTS: The 59 patients with TTS who had information on marital status were matched to 295 controls with AMI and 295 non-CVD controls, resulting in a sample of 649 patients. The average age of cases was 69.7 ± 11 years with 90% being women and 88% reporting White race. In multivariable-adjusted models, compared to singles, patients who were married had lower odds of TTS (OR = 0.86, 95%CI: 0.79-0.93) while those who were widowed (OR = 1.14, 95%CI: 1.05-1.23) or divorced/separated (OR = 1.32, 95%CI: 1.21-1.45) had elevated odds for TTS when compared to non-CVD controls. Similar results were observed when cases were compared to controls with AMI. CONCLUSION: In this study, being married was associated with lower odds for TTS while being divorced/separated or widowed was related to elevated odds for TTS. These novel findings that underscore the potential importance of social factors like marital status in the development of TTS need confirmation in larger studies.

Evaluating the spatial and temporal variations of aquatic weeds (Biomass) on Lower Volta River using multi-sensor Landsat Images and machine learning.

Aquatic invasive weeds affect hydrological, ecological, and socio-economic activities on freshwater ecosystems. On the Lower Volta River (LVR) of Ghana, invasive aquatic weeds have been known to be nuisance to fishing, navigation, aquaculture, hydropower production and other agricultural practices in the area. While information on the spatial and temporal distribution of aquatic weeds would be beneficial in improving weed management and control measures on the river, such information is very scanty. Also, these aquatic weeds are also biomass resources, that can be transformed to bioenergy. Thus, this study evaluated the spatial and temporal variations of aquatic weeds on the Lower Volta River, and assessed their potential biomass for bioenergy production. Random Forest (RF) algorithm and Landsat images were used to map the distribution of the weeds in 1975, 2003, and 2020, respectively. Accuracy assessment results showed mean Overall Accuracy (OA) of 83.44% and mean User Accuracy (UA) of 79.24%. The results indicated that as of 1975, aquatic weeds covered only 1495 ha and appeared in some specific locations such as Kpong and Ada. However, by 2003, the weeds had spread to most parts of the river covering 5600 ha, which was an increase of approximately 4-fold within a period of 28 years. The area covered by the weeds, however declined by 1505 ha between 2003 and 2020. Thus, in 2020, water hyacinth covered about 36% of the aquatic weeds relative to 28% in 2003. The results showed that, the quantity of the water hyacinth biomass per unit area was 21.5 kg/m2. This result can also be used as the basis for resource assessment as well as determination of its viability for bioenergy production and strategies for its modern utilisation. The conversion of water hyacinth into bioenergy remains one of the best aquatic weed management strategies that must be adopted in LVR.

The association of skipping breakfast with cancer-related and all-cause mortality in a national cohort of United States adults.

PURPOSE: Many lifestyle and dietary factors have been recognized as risk factors for cancer morbidity and mortality. However, investigations of the association of the frequency of breakfast consumption and cancer are limited. This study aimed to examine the association of skipping breakfast with all-cause and cancer-related mortality in a national cohort of United States men and women. METHODS: Data were from 7,007 adults aged ≥ 40 years who participated in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) and had follow-up information on mortality up until 31 December 2015. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 55.4 years, with 54.4% and 79% being women and non-Hispanic whites, respectively. Approximately, 16% of participants rarely consumed breakfast, 23.0% consumed breakfast some days, and 61% consumed breakfast every day. During a median follow-up of 22.2 years, 3,573 deaths occurred with 795 being related to cancer. In models adjusting for sociodemographic factors, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol levels, total energy intake and diet quality, persons who rarely consumed breakfast had a higher risk of cancer-related mortality (HR = 1.52; CI:1.06-2.18) and all-cause (HR = 1.69; CI: 1.42-2.02) compared to those who took breakfast every day. CONCLUSION: In this nationally representative sample, skipping breakfast was associated with elevated risks for all-cause and cancer-related mortality. This study provides evidence for the benefits of regular breakfast consumption in reducing the risk of all-cause and cancer mortality.