Association of Egg Consumption Frequency and Quantity with Dyslipidemia in Chinese Rural Adults.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to estimate the association of egg consumption with dyslipidemia and its subtypes in Chinese adults. METHODS: The cross-sectional health survey was conducted in Hanzhong city of Shaanxi province in 2010.Consumption of eggs (alone and mixed in foods) and nutrients were assessed using a semi-quantitative 81-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Serum lipids and other physical measurements were measured by trained medical staff. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated from multivariable logistic regressions. Restricted cubic spline was used to visualize the possible non-linear association. RESULTS: A total of 2241 participants (mean age, 48.0 years; 34.5% men) were included. The age- and gender- standardization dyslipidemia prevalence was 21.1% in men and 18.4% in women, respectively. Approximately 42.1% of individuals never or rarely consumed egg, while 9.4% consumed ≥2 times/week. The mean egg intake was 21.5 g/d in men and 17.4 in women. In women, after adjustment for demographics and lifestyle factors, the ORs (95%CI) for dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia were 0.57(0.32-1.05) and 0.38 (0.17-0.85) for individuals consuming egg ≥2 times/week, compared with never or rarely consumers. When further adjustment of BMI and dietary factors, the inverse relation persisted for hypertriglyceridemia but attenuated to margin of significance for dyslipidemia (P-trend = 0.050). Increment of 25 g/d was associated with 15% (OR: 0.85, (0.71-1.00)) lower risk of dyslipidemia. Results from restricted cubic splines showed a substantial reduction of the risk within lower range of consumption, which reached the minimum risk around 20-50 g/d (P-nonlinearity = 0.069). No associations were observed in men. CONCLUSION: Egg consumption was associated with decreased risk of dyslipidemia among Chinese women but not men. Additionally, the beneficial effect tended to be stronger at 20-50 g egg per day. Further study is warranted to validate these findings and clarify the causality.

Comparison of the Three Sets of Diagnostic Criteria for Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease in Southeast China - A Retrospective Case-Control Study.

PURPOSE: To compare the utility of the Chinese diagnostic criteria for Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease (CDCV), the revised diagnostic criteria (RDC) and the classification criteria by SUN (SUN-C). METHODS: Two groups of patients (VKH group and non-VKH group) were assessed in this retrospective case-control study. Sensitivity, specificity and area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were evaluated among these criteria. RESULTS: 258 patients were included after propensity score matching. The sensitivities were 92.2% in CDCV, 66.7% in RDC, and 54.3% in SUN-C. In different disease stages (early and late), similar sensitivity results were observed. The specificities were 96.1% in CDCV, 97.7% in RDC, and 99.2% in SUN-C. The AUCs were 0.942 in CDCV, 0.822 in RDC and 0.767 in SUN-C. CONCLUSION: A higher sensitivity value and larger AUC in CDCV were found. CDCV are highly useful in the diagnosis and classification of VKH disease in Chinese patients.

Long-term waist circumference trajectories and body mass index with all-cause mortality in older Chinese adults: a prospective nationwide cohort study.

BACKGROUNDS: Abdominal obesity has been linked to risk of mortality, but whether and how trajectory of waist circumstance (WC) underpins this association remains unclear. The study aimed to identify long-term WC change trajectories and examine their association and joint effect with body mass index (BMI) on mortality among Chinese older adults. METHODS: This present study included participants 60 years of age or older from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2015. The duration of follow-up was defined as period from the first to latest visit date attended with information on mortality, end of follow-up, or loss to follow-up (censoring). Latent class trajectory analysis (LCTA) was used to assess the changes of WC trajectories overtime. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence internal (CIs) for mortality. RESULTS: A total of 2601 participants with 8700 visits were included, and 562 mortality (21.6%) occurred during a median follow-up of 8.7 years. Using a group-based modeling approach, four distinct trajectories of WC change among Chinese older adults were identified as loss (13.5%), stable (46.8%), moderate gain (31.2%) and substantial gain (8.5%). With WC stable group as reference, the multivariable adjusted HRs for mortality were 1.34(95%CI:1.01-1.78) in loss group, 1.13(0.91-1.41) in moderate gain and 1.54(1.12-2.12) in substantial gain group. Compared with participants with normal BMI at baseline and maintained WC stable, the risk of mortality generally increased for all WC change group in initial overweight/obesity individuals, and the highest risk were observed for WC loss and stable pattern (HR:2.43, 95%CI: 1.41-4.19; HR:1.67 (1.07-2.60)). CONCLUSIONS: In older Chinese, both long-term WC loss and substantial gain conferred excess risk for mortality. The baseline BMI might modify the effect as overweight individuals had a greater risk imposed by WC loss than those in normal weight. Maintaining stable WC and normal weight might be necessary to reduce the risk of mortality.

Association between Long-Term Changes in Dietary Percentage of Energy from Fat and Obesity: Evidence from over 20 Years of Longitudinal Data.

Objectives: This study assessed the associations between long-term trajectories of percentage of energy from fat (PEF) and obesity among Chinese adults. Methods: Longitudinal data collected by the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1991 to 2015 were analyzed. A body mass index ≥28.0 was defined as general obesity. Participants' baseline PEF levels were categorized as lower than the recommendation of the Chinese Dietary Guideline (<20%), meeting the recommendation (20−30%), and higher than the recommendation (>30%). Patterns of PEF trajectories were identified by latent class trajectory analysis for overall participants and participants in different baseline PEF groups, respectively. Cox proportional hazards regression models with shared frailty were used to estimate associations between PEF and obesity. Results: Data on 13,025 participants with 72,191 visits were analyzed. Four patterns of PEF trajectory were identified for overall participants and participants in three different baseline PEF groups, respectively. Among overall participants, compared with "Baseline Low then Increase Pattern" (from 12% to 20%), participants with "Baseline Normal-Low then Increase-to-High Pattern" (from 20% to 32%) had a higher hazard of obesity (hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confident interval (CI) at 1.18 (1.01−1.37)). Compared with the "Stable Pattern" group (stable at around 18% and 22%, respectively), participants with "Sudden-Increase Pattern" (from 18% to 30%) in the baseline group whose PEF levels were lower than the recommendation and those with "Sudden-Increase then Decrease Pattern" (rapidly increased from 25% to 40%, and then decreased) in the baseline group who met the recommendation had higher hazards of obesity (HRs and 95% CIs being 1.65 (1.13−2.41) and 1.59 (1.03−2.46), respectively). Conclusions: Adults with a trajectory that involved a sudden increase to a high-level PEF had a higher risk of general obesity. People should avoid increasing PEF suddenly.

In vitro digestion of binary mixture of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol in oil-in-water emulsion: Changes in stability and antioxidant potential.

Minor constituents ought to be digested before they enter the body to exert functional effect, the stability and antioxidant potential play an important role to evaluate the function of minor constituents. In this study, in order to know the stability and antioxidant potential of single and binary addition of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol at different concentrations during in vitro digestion, the physical characteristics of digestion system and concentration as well as oxygen radical absorption capacity of minor constituents were determined. Besides, cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) of micelles was detected to evaluated antioxidant potential of these two minor constituents after in vitro digestion from a biological aspect. The increase of particle size (from 184.5 nm to 274.6 nm) and the decrease of the absolute potential value (from -48.9 mV to -33.5 mV) in the initial emulsion caused by the addition of minor constituents, leading to the decrease of the lipolysis extent (from 92% to 62%). However, binary mixture attributed to the bioaccessibility of γ-oryzanol and impeded that of α-tocopherol. Oxygen radical absorption capacity performed well in small intestine and micelles, the maximum reached 477.94 ± 45.3 µmol TE/mL digests. Importantly, the antioxidant activity of the binary mixture group was higher than that of the single addition group. However, after in vitro digestion, the CAA results showed that these two minor constituents were hardly significantly different from control group (p > 0.05), indicating unsatisfactory antioxidant activity in cells. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of minor constituents depends greatly on the reaction system. This study provides a theoretical reference and research basis for the better usage of natural antioxidants.

Contrast Sensitivity Deficits and Its Structural Correlates in Fuchs Uveitis Syndrome.

Purpose: To investigate the deficits in contrast sensitivity in patients with Fuchs uveitis syndrome (FUS) and to explore the potential relationship between contrast sensitivity and ocular structure. Methods: In this prospective study, 25 patients with FUS and 30 healthy volunteers were recruited. Eyes were divided into three groups: FUS-affected eyes (AE), fellow eyes (FE), and healthy eyes. The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) of all participants was evaluated using the quick CSF (qCSF) method. Fundus photographs were collected for the analysis of refractive media, and vascular density (VD) was assessed using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Data were analyzed and compared using the generalized estimating equation (GEE). Results: The CSF of AE was significantly lower than that of FE and controls, while no significant difference was observed between FE and controls. Contrast sensitivity was negatively correlated with the grade of haze. No significant correlation was found between visual function and VDs in FUS eyes. Conclusions: We found that the CSF of FUS-affected eyes was significantly reduced, and the visual impairment was predominantly caused by the refractive media turbidity.

Synergistic Effect of Combined Sub-Tenon Triamcinolone and Intravitreal Anti-VEGF Therapy for Uveitic Macular Edema.

Purpose: To investigate effects of intravitreal anti-VEGF in combination therapy with sub-Tenon triamcinolone acetonide (STA) injection for uveitic macular edema (UME). Design: A single-center, retrospective cohort study. Methods: The medical records were obtained for 65 eyes of 65 patients with UME. Of which, 32 eyes received combined anti-VEGF with STA injection, and 33 eyes received 40 mg of STA injection alone. The primary outcome was the reduction of central macular thickness (CMT) measured with optical coherence tomography (OCT). Resolution rate of clinical UME and changes of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) over 24 weeks were secondary outcomes. Results: There was a significantly greater reduction of CMT with the combination treatment than with STA alone at 1-week (ß = -157.9, P < 0.001) and 1-month (ß = -53.1, P = 0.019) after injection. The cumulative incidence of macular edema resolution of all eyes was 87.7%, with 90.6% (29/32) in the combined group and 84.8% (28/33) in the STA group, respectively. More incidence of UME resolution was observed in the combined group than the STA group after 1 week (71.9% vs 15.2%, P < 0.001) and 4 weeks (84.4% vs 54.5%, P = 0.009), respectively. BCVA was better for the combination treatment than STA alone at 1-week (ß = -0.085, P = 0.070) and 1-month (ß = -0.108, P = 0.019) after injection, respectively. Increased intraocular pressure (>25 mmHg) was observed in 4 eyes (12.5%) in the combined group and 5 eyes (15.2%) in the STA group, respectively. Conclusion: Combined intravitreal anti-VEGF and STA is superior to STA alone for reduction of UME and visual restoration. Addition of anti-VEGF did not increase risk for steroid-induced elevation of intraocular pressure over 6 months.

Interactions between liposoluble antioxidants: A critical review.

Liposoluble antioxidants, including natural and synthetic antioxidants, are substances to prevent lipid oxidation. From previous studies, the interaction of antioxidants may be the main reason for the poor correlation between liposoluble phytochemicals and antioxidant activity in oils. This review brings together information concerning the types and mechanisms of antioxidant interactions in terms of structure and active groups. A critical summary of the interactions between liposoluble antioxidants (synergistic effects, antagonistic effects and additive effects) is given. Factors including the diverse structure, combinations with different concentrations or proportions, and the reaction system which affect the interactions between liposoluble antioxidants, along with the opportunities and challenges in future study are also discussed. However, the influencing factors and mechanism still require further investigation. It is proposed that the studies in whole foods system and in vivo along with the related interaction mechanism should be considered in future.

Gender-specific association between carbohydrate consumption and blood pressure in Chinese adults.

BACKGROUND: The association between dietary carbohydrate consumption and blood pressure (BP) is controversial. The present study aimed to evaluate the possible gender-specific association of carbohydrate across the whole BP distribution. METHOD: Cross-sectional survey including 2241 rural adults was conducted in northwestern China in 2010. BP was measured by trained medical personnel. Dietary information was collected by semiquantitative Food-Frequency Questionnaire. Multivariate quantile regression model was used to estimate the association between total carbohydrates consumption and systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) at different quantiles. Gender-specific ß coefficient and its 95% CI was calculated. RESULTS: The average carbohydrate intake was 267.4 (SD 112.0) g/day in males and 204.9 (SD 90.7) g/day in females, with only 10.6% of males and 6.5% females consumed at least 65% of total energy from carbohydrates. And more than 80% carbohydrates were derived from refined grains. In females, increased total carbohydrates intake was associated with adverse SBP and DBP. An additional 50 g carbohydrates per day was positively associated with SBP at low and high quantiles (10th-20th and 60th-80th) and with DBP almost across whole distribution (30th-90th), after adjusting for age, fortune index, family history of hypertension, body mass index, physical activity level, alcohol intake and smoke, energy, two nutrient principal components, protein and sodium intake. Both relatively low and high carbohydrate intake were associated with increased SBP, with minimum level observed at 130-150 g carbohydrate intake per day from restricted cubic splines. However, no significant associations were observed in males. CONCLUSIONS: Higher total carbohydrates consumption might have an adverse impact on both SBP and DBP in Chinese females but not males. Additionally, the positive association varies across distribution of BP quantiles. Further research is warranted to validate these findings and clarify the causality.

Long-term body mass trajectories and hypertension by sex among Chinese adults: a 24-year open cohort study.

Evidence was limited on trajectory of body mass index (BMI) through adulthood and its association with hypertension. We aimed to evaluate their association by sex in large-scale study. Data were obtained from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2015. Latent class trajectory analysis (LCTA) was used to capture BMI change trajectories. Hazard risks (HRs) were estimated from Cox proportion hazard regression. Among 14,262 participants (mean age, 38.8; 47.8% men), 5138 hypertension occurred (2687 men and 2451 women) occurred during a mean follow-up 9.6 years. Four body mass trajectory groups were identified as BMI loss, stable, moderate and substantial gain. Appropriately half of participants (48.0%) followed 1 of the 2 BMI gain trajectories, where BMI increased at least 3 kg/m2 overtime. Compared with participants with stable BMI, those gaining BMI substantially had higher risk of hypertension by 65% (HR 1.65, 95% CI 1.45-1.86) in male and 83% (HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.58-2.12) in female. The HRs in BMI loss patterns were 0.74 (0.62-0.89) in men and 0.87 (0.75-1.00) in women. Our findings imply that majority of Chinese adults transited up to a higher BMI level during follow-up. Avoiding excessive weight gain and maintaining stable weight might be important for hypertension prevention.

Interactions between α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol in oil-in-water emulsions.

The interaction between antioxidants is affected by many factors, such as concentration, ratio and system. In this study, different concentrations of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol showed antagonistic effect in the oil-in-water emulsion, and the distribution of α-tocopherol increased in aqueous phase after combined with γ-oryzanol. The concentration could affect the degree of antagonism. According to fluorescence quenching, cyclic voltammetry measurements and the oxidative decomposition of antioxidants during storage, the inhibitory effect of γ-oryzanol on the regeneration of α-tocopherol was proposed to be responsible for the antagonism. This work can provide suggestions for studying the mechanism of antioxidant interaction in emulsion system.

Evaluation of microvasculature alterations in convalescent Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease using optical coherence tomography angiography.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the microvasculature alterations in convalescent Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and to explore the association between microvasculature and the presence of sunset glow fundus (SGF). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 28 VKH patients at convalescent stage and 25 healthy individuals. Both eyes of each participant were enrolled. The VKH patients were classified into two subgroups based on the existence of SGF. OCTA images (3 × 3 mm) were assessed for the data of superficial capillaris plexus (SCP), deep capillaris plexus (DCP), choriocapillaris, and foveal avascular zone (FAZ). RESULTS: Compared with healthy control eyes and eyes without SGF, the vessel densities of the SCP and DCP decreased significantly in most regions of eyes with SGF (p < 0.0167). No significant difference of vascular perfusion was found between eyes without SGF and control eyes (p > 0.05). VKH patients with SGF had slightly increased FAZ area (p = 0.067) and decreased choroid flow area (p = 0.427) than those in the control group. CONCLUSION: Convalescent VKH patients with SGF showed decreased macular capillary perfusion. OCTA could serve as a sensitive tool to assess the microvasculature alterations of VKH disease.

Economic Hardship, Ocular Complications, and Poor Self-reported Visual Function are Predictors of Mental Problems in Patients with Uveitis.

Purpose: To characterize the quality of life and mental health status of patients with uveitis and investigate predictors of psychological problems.Methods: A total of 245 patients and 105 controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Quality of life, psychological status, socio-demographic and clinical data were obtained from questionnaires and medical records. Multivariate regression analyses and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) were applied to obtain the model predicting psychological problems of patients.Results: Of 245 patients, 16.7% and 26.5% (P< .0001) screened positive for anxiety and depression, respectively. The model predicting anxiety was comprised of low annual household income and poor self-reported visual function (P= .029,P< .0001, respectively), with an AUC of ROC of 0.744. The model predicting depression was comprised of poor self-reported visual function and ocular complications (P< .0001, P= .012, respectively), with an AUC of 0.78.Conclusions: Economic hardship, ocular complications, and poor self-reported visual function are predictors of mental problems in patients with uveitis.

Antioxidant interaction of α-tocopherol, γ-oryzanol and phytosterol in rice bran oil.

In this study, purified rice bran oil (RBO) was used as a lipid matrix model to study the individual and binary antioxidant capacity of the minor constituents (α-tocopherol, γ-oryzanol and phytosterol) added at different concentrations and ratios. The results revealed that concentration influenced on the oxidation stability and scavenging capacity, while ratio mainly affected the type of interaction or the degree of synergism or antagonism. It was important to notice that the antioxidant capacity of α-tocopherol would decrease under high concentration. Besides, the inhibition of phytosterol on α-tocopherol and the formation of hydrogen bond between γ-oryzanol and phytosterol were speculated by the interactions of these minor constituents. This work helps to select efficient combinations for stabilizing the anti-oxidation of nutrient enriched RBO or provide suggestions for moderate retain of minor constituents in RBO.

PGNet: Pipeline Guidance for Human Key-Point Detection.

Human key-point detection is a challenging research field in computer vision. Convolutional neural models limit the number of parameters and mine the local structure, and have made great progress in significant target detection and key-point detection. However, the features extracted by shallow layers mainly contain a lack of semantic information, while the features extracted by deep layers contain rich semantic information but a lack of spatial information that results in information imbalance and feature extraction imbalance. With the complexity of the network structure and the increasing amount of computation, the balance between the time of communication and the time of calculation highlights the importance. Based on the improvement of hardware equipment, network operation time is greatly improved by optimizing the network structure and data operation methods. However, as the network structure becomes deeper and deeper, the communication consumption between networks also increases, and network computing capacity is optimized. In addition, communication overhead is also the focus of recent attention. We propose a novel network structure PGNet, which contains three parts: pipeline guidance strategy (PGS); Cross-Distance-IoU Loss (CIoU); and Cascaded Fusion Feature Model (CFFM).

Body Fat Mass, Fat Distribution and Egg Consumption: a Population-Based Study in Chinese Adults.

Objective: Egg is the vital source for many nutrients. The present study aimed to evaluate how egg consumption contributes to body fat mass and fat distribution in general Chinese adults.Methods: In a representative study of Chinese adults, 2241 rural adults aged 18-80 years completed physical measurements and semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Body fat percentage (BF%) was estimated through validated Chinese-specific equations including age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), gender and their interaction.Results: The prevalence of excessive body fat and central obesity in males were 44.2% and 31.3%, lower than that in females (60.7% and 36.1%, p < 0.05). 37.3% of lean or normal-weight individuals by BMI experienced excessive body fat given their BF% and 43.5% were central obesity according to WC. In females, egg consumption was associated with better body fat mass and its distribution. Compared with non-consumers, individuals consumed egg >50 g/d had a 34% lower risk of central obesity (OR:0.66, 0.39-0.99) and 38% lower risk of excessive body fat (OR:0.62, 0.37-1.00). There were significant dose-response relationships between egg consumption and overweight with excessive body fat/central obesity (p for linear trend <0.05). However, these associations were not significant in males.Conclusion: Our findings underscore the necessity for future public health guidelines to assess body fat mass and distribution simultaneously in Chinese adults. Egg consumption might be beneficial for weight regulation, especially for overweight with excessive body fat/central obesity in females. Further research is warrant to establish the causal inference.

Vegetable dietary pattern associated with low risk of preeclampsia possibly through reducing proteinuria.

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the potential roles that dietary patterns play in the risk of preeclampsia remains limited. OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between dietary patterns during pregnancy and the risk of preeclampsia. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed data from a cluster randomized controlled trial among 987 healthy pregnant women in three rural counties in northwestern China. Maternal diet during the whole pregnancy was assessed using a 107-item food frequency questionnaire with proportion size administered before delivery. Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify common dietary patterns. Preeclampsia was diagnosed by trained clinicians and recorded in delivery records. RESULTS: Nineteen participants (1.9%) were diagnosed with preeclampsia. Gestational hypertension and proteinuria were only weakly correlated with each other (Kappa = 0.06): 10.7% participants with gestational hypertension only, 8.8% with proteinuria only, 1.9% with both, and 78.6% with neither. Five common dietary patterns were identified: vegetable, meat, fruit, snack, and wheat staple patterns. After adjusting for calories, other dietary pattern scores and baseline blood pressure, a higher vegetable pattern scores was associated with lower risk of preeclampsia (P for trend = 0.041; the highest vs lowest quartile, adjusted relative risk = 0.20 [95% confidence interval, 0.04-0.98]). A similar association was also observed for the risk of proteinuria (P for trend = 0.015): the highest vs lowest quartiles of the vegetable pattern score, adjusted relative risk = 0.44 (95% confidence interval, 0.24-0.80). The other four pattern scores were not associated with preeclampsia. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to vegetable dietary pattern may be associated with the lower risk of preeclampsia, possibly through reducing development of proteinuria. The original full study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02537392.

Effect of B Vitamins from Diet on Hypertension.

BACKGROUND: In western populations, a higher level of dietary B vitamins intake has been associated with a lower risk of hypertension. However, data in Chinese is limited, whose B vitamins consumption is low and rates of hypertension are high. AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate whether the three B vitamins are associated with hypertension in rural Chinese. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey among 2241 rural Chinese aged 18-80 years was conducted in northwestern China in 2010. Blood pressure was measured by trained medical staff and dietary nutrients were assessed with a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: 592 cases of hypertension were newly diagnosed. The deficiency proportions were 20.5% for vitamin B-6, 43.9% for folate and 98.5% for B-12. For females, participants in the highest quartile of B-6 intake had a significantly lower risk of hypertension (OR = 0.69; 95% CI: 0.50-0.93; p for trend <0.05). For males, the multivariable OR for the same comparison was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.56-0.99, p for trend >0.05). No significant associations were observed between B-12, folate intake and hypertension. For females, the highest quartile of both folate and B-6 intake was associated with a reduced risk of hypertension (OR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.29-0.89), compared with in the middle quartile of both vitamins. CONCLUSIONS: Higher intake of vitamin B-6 is independently associated with lower risk of hypertension in Chinese rural adults. Among females with high folate intake, the association between B-6 and hypertension was strongest. Additional studies are warrant to establish the causal inference.

The Growth Pattern of Tibetan Infants at High Altitudes: a Cohort Study in Rural Tibet region.

Studies on growth pattern of Tibetan infants and the difference from other child groups were limited due to its special living environment and unique customs. In this study, 253 Tibetan infants were followed-up from their birth to 12th month in rural Tibet. Five visits were conducted and weight and length were measured at each visit. Mixed model was employed to analyze the growth pattern of Tibetan infants and its comparison to the Han infants. Propensity Scores (PS) technique was adopted to control for the potential confounding factors. The mixed model found that the birth weight/length had a negative impact on the increment of Tibetan infants after birth (weight: ß = -0.6819, P < 0.0001, length: ß = -0.9571, P < 0.0001). The weight increment of Tibetan infants was greater than Han infant with age (ßage*ethnic = 0.0345, P < 0.001), after using PS as a covariant. And another mixed model in which PS was used as a matching factor found similar trend. Compared with Chinese Han infants, Tibetan infants were lower weight and shorter length within one year after birth but they had greater increment of weight, suggesting that Tibetan infants might have a significant catch-up growth within the first year of life.

Status of cardiovascular health among adults in a rural area of Northwest China: Results from a cross-sectional study.

The aim of this study was to assess the status of cardiovascular health among a rural population in Northwest China and to determine the associated factors for cardiovascular health.A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural areas of Hanzhong in Northwest China. Interview, physical examination, and fasting blood glucose and lipid measurements were completed for 2693 adults. The construct of cardiovascular health and the definitions of cardiovascular health metrics proposed by the American Heart Association were used to assess cardiovascular health. The proportions of subjects with cardiovascular health metrics were calculated, adjusting for age and sex. The multiple logistic regression model was used to evaluate the association between ideal cardiovascular health and its associated factors.Only 0.5% (0.0% in men vs 0.9% in women, P = 0.002) of the participants had ideal cardiovascular health, whereas 33.8% (18.0% in men vs 50.0% in women, P < 0.001) and 65.7% (82.0% in men vs 49.1% in women, P < 0.001) of the participants had intermediate and poor cardiovascular health, respectively. The prevalence of poor cardiovascular health increased with increasing age (P < 0.001 for trend). Participants fulfilled, on average, 4.4 (95% confidence interval: 4.2-4.7) of the ideal cardiovascular health metrics. Also, 22.2% of the participants presented with 3 or fewer ideal metrics. Only 19.4% of the participants presented with 6 or more ideal metrics. 24.1% of the participants had all 4 ideal health factors, but only 1.1% of the participants had all 4 ideal health behaviors. Women were more likely to have ideal cardiovascular health, whereas adults aged 35 years or over and those who had a family history of hypertension were less likely to have ideal cardiovascular health.The prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health was extremely low among the rural population in Northwest China. Most adults, especially men and the elderly, had a poor cardiovascular health status. To improve cardiovascular health among the rural population, efforts, especially lifestyle improvements, education and interventions to make healthier food choices, reduce salt intake, increase physical activities, and cease smoking, will be required at the individual, population, and social levels.