[Comparison of medical care expenditure between participants and non-participants of exercise class for middle-aged and elderly women].

Objectives　This study aimed to compare and verify the medical care expenditure of participants and non-participants of exercise classes for middle-aged and elderly women.Methods　This study compares and analyzes the medical care expenditure of two groups. The total amount of outpatient treatment, pharmacies, and hospitalization expenditures will be referred to as medical care expenditure. The participating and control groups were 6,576 women aged between 60 and 69 years with a 4-year insurance by the National Health Insurance. The participating group composed 416 women who participated in the exercise class for 2 years and whose hospitalization and outpatient treatment expenditures for 1 year before the exercise class were 0 yen and <500,000 yen, respectively. The control group were matched with the participating group for 1:1 in age and medical care expenditure. Wilcoxon's signed rank test was used to compare the medical costs of the groups. The significance level was set at <5%.Result　In comparing the medical care expenditure between years, both groups had increased medical care expenditure and there was no significant difference in the medical care expenditure between the groups within each year; however, the increased medical care expenditure was lower in the participating group than that in the control group.　The outpatient treatment and pharmacies expenditures for aged <65 years who participated in ≥15 exercise classes in both years was significantly lower for the participating group compared to that of the control group of the same age group.　The hospitalization expenditure was significantly lower in the participating group for all age groups and aged <65 years group after participating in exercise classes.Conclusion　Women who continually participate in exercise classes could further reduce their medical care expenditure, especially for those aged ≤65 years.

The correlation of salivary telomere length and single nucleotide polymorphisms of the ADIPOQ, SIRT1 and FOXO3A genes with lifestyle-related diseases in a Japanese population.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that genetic factors are associated with risk factors and onset of lifestyle-related diseases, but this finding is still the subject of much debate. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation of genetic factors, including salivary telomere length and three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that may influence lifestyle-related diseases, with lifestyle-related diseases themselves. METHODS: In one year at a single facility, relative telomere length and SNPs were determined by using monochrome multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction and TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays, respectively, and were compared with lifestyle-related diseases in 120 Japanese individuals near our university. RESULTS: In men and all participants, age was inversely correlated with relative telomere length with respective p values of 0.049 and 0.034. In men, the frequency of hypertension was significantly higher in the short relative telomere length group than in the long group with unadjusted p value of 0.039, and the difference in the frequency of hypertension between the two groups was of borderline statistical significance after adjustment for age (p = 0.057). Furthermore, in men and all participants, the sum of the number of affected lifestyle-related diseases, including hypertension, was significantly higher in the short relative telomere length group than in the long group, with p values of 0.004 and 0.029, respectively. For ADIPOQ rs1501299, men's ankle brachial index was higher in the T/T genotype than in the G/G and G/T genotypes, with p values of 0.001 and 0.000, respectively. For SIRT1 rs7895833, men's body mass index and waist circumference and all participants' brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity were higher in the A/G genotype than in the G/G genotype, with respective p values of 0.048, 0.032 and 0.035. For FOXO3A rs2802292, women's body temperature and all participants' saturation of peripheral oxygen were lower in the G/T genotype than in the T/T genotype, with respective p values of 0.039 and 0.032. However, relative telomere length was not associated with physiological or anthropometric measurements except for height in men (p = 0.016). ADIPOQ rs1501299 in men, but not the other two SNPs, was significantly associated with the sum of the number of affected lifestyle-related diseases (p = 0.013), by genotype. For each SNPs, there was no significant difference in the frequency of hypertension or relative telomere length by genotype. CONCLUSION: Relative telomere length and the three types of SNPs determined using saliva have been shown to be differentially associated with onset of and measured risk factors for lifestyle-related diseases consisting mainly of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

The relationship between visuospatial ability and cognitive function in patients with right-hemisphere infarction.

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between visuospatial ability and cognitive function is still controversial among the patients with right-hemisphere damage. AIM: To elucidate the relationship between the visuospatial ability and cognitive function in patients with right-hemisphere infarction, we analyzed the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and behavioral inattention test (BIT). METHODS: The present study was based on 54 right-handed patients (35 men, 19 women; 69.3 ± 11.1 years old) who were admitted to our hospital due to the right-hemisphere infarction in acute and subacute stages. Those who showed recent bilateral or infero-tentorial lesions were excluded. A total of 77 sets of MMSE and BIT Japanese edition were carried out. BIT is consisted of conventional and behavioral subtest, and conventional subtest includes 6 subtests: line cancelation, star cancelation and character cancelation subtests were categorized as intentional tasks, whereas copy, line bisection, and drawing subtests as attentional tasks. RESULTS: With Spearman's rank correlation, there was a significant correlation between MMSE score and number of errors in the attentional tasks (p=0.0022, ρ=-0.352), whereas there was no significant correlation between MMSE score and number of errors in the intentional tasks (p=0.1769). CONCLUSION: Since the attentional tasks of BIT were more deeply influenced by cognitive function than the intentional tasks, the visuospatial ability reflecting in the attentional tasks was considered to be more closely associated with the cognitive function among the patients with cerebral infarction on their right cerebral hemisphere.

Radical scavenging activity of dicaffeoyloxycyclohexanes: contribution of an intramolecular interaction of two caffeoyl residues.

Six regio- and stereoisomers of dicaffeoyloxycyclohexanes and 2,4-di-O-caffeoyl-1,6-anhydro-beta-D-glucose were synthesized as model compounds of dicaffeoylquinic acids, and their radical scavenging activity was evaluated by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt) radical scavenging tests. Both DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging reactions of these compounds consisted of two different steps. In the first step, catechol moieties of the caffeoyl residues were rapidly converted to o-quinone structures and no significant difference in the reactivity was observed among the tested compounds. In the second step, however, the rate of the reaction increased as the intramolecular distance of the two caffeoyl residues decreased. A novel intramolecular coupling product, which could scavenge additional radicals, was isolated from the reaction mixture of trans-1,2-dicaffeoyloxycyclohexane and DPPH radical. The result suggests that the second step of the radical scavenging reaction is arising from an intramolecular interaction between the two caffeoquinone residues to regenerate catechol structures, and that the closer their distance is, the more rapidly they react. The radical scavenging activity of natural dicaffeoylquinic acids in a biological aqueous system might also depend on the positions of caffeoyl ester groups.