Exposure to body focused and non-body focused others over a week: A preliminary investigation of their unique contributions to college women's eating and body image.

This study investigated how exposure to non-body focused others (i.e., those who are not preoccupied with their body weight/shape or appearance) and exposure to body focused others uniquely affect young women's eating and body image over a week, within a day, and from one day to the next. For seven consecutive days, 92 female college students completed nightly online questionnaires about their daily experiences. Between-persons, multilevel modelling revealed that higher average levels of exposure to non-body focused others over the week uniquely predicted greater intuitive eating, greater body appreciation, and less dietary restraint, whereas higher average exposure to body focused others predicted these outcomes in the opposite direction. Within-persons, exposure to body focused others did not predict eating and body image, but exposure to non-body focused others did. On days when women had more exposure to non-body focused others than their personal average level or than the previous day's level, eating and body image were better. These findings are the first to suggest that independent of exposure to body focused others, level of exposure to non-body focused others - within and across days - contribute positively to eating and body image.

The benefits of being self-compassionate on days when interactions with body-focused others are frequent.

We examined whether a woman's level of self-compassion on a given day (within-persons) and over a week (between-persons) influenced her eating, body image, and affect in the face of frequent daily and/or weekly interactions with body-focused others. For seven nights, 92 female undergraduates reported on their daily social interactions, self-compassion, body image, eating, and affect. On days when women were less self-compassionate than usual, frequent interactions with body-focused others were associated with more body image concerns and negative affect, and less body appreciation and intuitive eating. However, these relationships were absent or inversed on days when women were more self-compassionate than usual. Self-compassion played a similar buffering role at the between-persons level. Results suggest that by treating themselves with a higher degree of self-compassion than what is typical for them, young women may be able to maintain healthier approaches to eating and body image when faced with body image threats.

A daily diary study of self-compassion, body image, and eating behavior in female college students.

Although self-compassion is associated with healthier body image and eating behavior, these findings have generally emerged at the between-persons level only. The present study investigated the unique contributions of within-person variability in self-compassion, and between-persons differences in self-compassion, to body image and eating behavior. Over seven days, 92 female college students completed nightly measures of self-compassion, self-esteem, dietary restraint, intuitive eating, body appreciation, body satisfaction, and state body image. Multilevel modeling revealed that within-persons, day-to-day fluctuations in self-compassion contributed to day-to-day fluctuations in body image and eating. Between-persons, participants' average levels of self-compassion across days contributed to their average levels of body image and eating over the week. Results generally held when controlling for within- and between-persons self-esteem. Evidently, the eating and body image benefits of self-compassion may come not only from being a generally self-compassionate person, but also from treating oneself more self-compassionately than usual on a given day.

Supply of and demand for assisted reproductive technologies in the United States: clinic- and population-based data, 1995-2010.

OBJECTIVE: To study national-level trends in assisted reproduction technology (ART) treatments and outcomes as well as the characteristics of women who have sought this form of infertility treatment. DESIGN: Population-based study. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENT(S): For CDC: All reporting clinics from 1996-2010. For NSFG: for the logistic analysis, sample comprising 2,325 women aged 22-44 years who have ever used medical help to get pregnant, excluding women who used only miscarriage prevention services. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): CDC data (number of cycles, live birth deliveries, live births, patient diagnoses); and NSFG data (individual use of ART procedures). RESULT(S): Between 1995 and 2010, use of ART increased. Parity and age are strong predictors of using ART procedures. The other correlates are higher education, having had tubal surgery, and having a current fertility problem. CONCLUSION(S): The two complementary data sets highlight the trends of ART use. An increase in the use of ART services over this time period is seen in both data sources. Nulliparous women aged 35-39 years are the most likely to have ever used ART services.

Infertility service use in the United States: data from the National Survey of Family Growth, 1982-2010.

OBJECTIVES: This report presents nationally representative estimates and trends for infertility service use among women aged 15-44 and 25-44 in the United States in 1982-2010. While greater detail on types of infertility service is shown for women, basic data on types of infertility service use, as reported by men aged 25-44, are also presented. METHODS: Data for this report come primarily from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), consisting of 22,682 interviews with men and women aged 15-44, conducted from June 2006 through June 2010. The response rate for females in the 2006-2010 NSFG was 78%, and for males was 75%. Selected trends are shown based on prior NSFG cycles. RESULTS: Twelve percent of women aged 15-44 in 2006-2010 (7.3 million women), or their husbands or partners, had ever used infertility services. Among women aged 25-44, 17% (6.9 million) had ever used any infertility service, a significant decrease from 20% in 1995. Thirty-eight percent of nulliparous women with current fertility problems in 2006-2010 had ever used infertility services, significantly less than 56% of such women in 1982. In all survey years, ever-use of medical help to get pregnant was highest among older and nulliparous women, non-Hispanic white women, women with current fertility problems, and women with higher levels of education and household income. The most commonly used infertility services among women aged 25-44 in 2006-2010 were advice, testing, medical help to prevent miscarriage, and ovulation drugs. Ever-use of infertility services was reported by 9.4% of men aged 25-44 in 2006-2010, similar to levels seen in 2002.

The effect of glycation on arterial microstructure and mechanical response.

Like engineered materials, an artery's biomechanical behavior and function depend on its microstructure. Glycation is associated with both normal aging and diabetes and has been shown to increase arterial stiffness. In this study we examined the direct effect of glycation on the mechanical response of intact arteries and on the mechanical response and structure of elastin isolated from the arteries. Samples of intact arteries and isolated elastin were prepared from porcine aortas and glycated. The mechanical response of all samples was completed using a uniaxial material test system. Glycation levels were measured using ELISA. A confocal microscope was used to image differences in the structure of the glycated and untreated elastin fibers. We found that, under the conditions used in this study, glycation led to decreased stiffness of elastin isolated from arteries, which was associated with a thinning of elastin fibers as imaged by confocal microscopy. We observed no effect of glycation on collagen fibers under our treatment conditions. These results suggest that glycation leads to weakening of the elastin component of arteries that could contribute to vascular defects seen in diabetes and aging. Prevention of glycation reactions may be an important consideration for vascular health later in life.

The effect of oxidation on the mechanical response and microstructure of porcine aortas.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), a product of many cellular functions, has been implicated in many age-related pathophysiological processes, including cardiovascular disease. The arterial proteins collagen and elastin may also undergo structural and functional changes due to damage caused by ROS. This study examined the effect of oxidation on the mechanical response of porcine aortas and aorta elastin and the associated changes in structural protein ultrastructure as a step in exploring the role of molecular changes in structural proteins with aging on elastic artery function. We examined the change in mechanical properties of aorta samples after various oxidation times as a first step in understanding how the oxidative environment associated with aging could impact mechanical properties of arterial structural proteins. We used confocal microscopy to visualize how the microstructure of isolated elastin changed with oxidation. We find that short term oxidation of elastin isolated from aortas leads to an increase in material stiffness, but also an increase in the fiber diameter, increase in void space in the matrix, and a decrease in the fiber orientation, possibly due to fiber cross-linking. The short term effects of oxidation on arterial collagen is more complex, with increase in material stiffness seen in the collagen region of the stress stretch curve at low extents of oxidation, but not at high levels of oxidation. These results may provide insight into the relationship between oxidative damage to tissue associated with aging and disease, structure of the arterial proteins elastin and collagen, and arterial mechanical properties and function.

Infertility and impaired fecundity in the United States, 1982-2010: data from the National Survey of Family Growth.

OBJECTIVES: This report presents nationally representative estimates and trends for infertility and impaired fecundity-two measures of fertility problems-among women aged 15-44 in the United States. Data are also presented on a measure of infertility among men aged 15-44. METHODS: Data for this report come primarily from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which consisted of 22,682 interviews with men and women aged 15-44, conducted from June 2006 through June 2010. The response rate for women in the 2006-2010 NSFG was 78%, and for men was 75%. Selected trends are shown based on prior NSFG years. RESULTS: The percentage of married women aged 15-44 who were infertile fell from 8.5% in 1982 (2.4 million women) to 6.0% (1.5 million) in 2006-2010. Impaired fecundity among married women aged 15-44 increased from 11% in 1982 to 15% in 2002, but decreased to 12% in 2006-2010. Among all women, 11% had impaired fecundity in 2006-2010. Both infertility and impaired fecundity remain closely associated with age for nulliparous women. Among married, nulliparous women aged 35-44, the percentage infertile declined from 44% in 1982 to 27% in 2006-2010, reflecting greater delays in childbearing over this period. Among married women in 2006-2010, non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be infertile than non-Hispanic white women. Some form of infertility (either subfertility or nonsurgical sterility) was reported by 9.4% of men aged 15-44 and 12% of men aged 25-44 in 2006-2010, similar to levels seen in 2002.

Infertility service use among U.S. women: 1995 and 2002.

OBJECTIVE: To examine trends in use of medical services for infertility, by individual characteristics of women. DESIGN: Pooled data from two cycles (1995 and 2002) of the National Survey of Family Growth, a periodically conducted, nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of women 15-44 years of age. PARTICIPANT(S): The analysis sample was composed of 2,005 women 22-44 years of age with current fertility problems. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Ever having used infertility services, and highest level of services used. RESULT(S): Between 1995 and 2002, ever-use of infertility services by fertility-impaired women age 22-44 years continued to be closely associated with older age, nulliparity, formal marital status, and higher socioeconomic status (education, household income, and private health insurance). Net of these factors, race and Hispanic origin, showed no significant association with either the use of services overall or the highest level of services used. After controlling for compositional changes in these individual characteristics, a slight decline was seen in ever-use of services overall from 1995 to 2002. No effect of survey year was noted in the highest level of services. CONCLUSION(S): Infertility service use among fertility-impaired women remains closely tied with socioeconomic factors. The "threshold effect" of these factors has shifted upward to the receipt of more costly services such as assisted reproductive technologies. These higher level services remain a relatively small fraction of the services reported in a general population sample of fertility-impaired women.

Declining estimates of infertility in the United States: 1982-2002.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the decline in infertility has been uniform across subgroups. DESIGN: Periodic data from the National Fertility Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth were used to determine which factors contributed to the decline in 12-month infertility in the United States. SETTING: National Survey of Family Growth, a periodic US nationally representative study. PATIENT(S): A nationally representative sample of married women aged 15-44 years, N = 15,303 for pooled data across 4 survey years. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Estimates of infertility prevalence among married women aged 15-44 years. RESULT(S): The decline in 12-month infertility in the United States from 8.5% in 1982 and 7.4% in 2002 was significant. This decline was evident in nearly all subgroups of married women. In the multivariate analysis, 12-month infertility was more likely among women who were older and nulliparous, were non-Hispanic black or Hispanic, and did not have a college degree. The decline in 12-month infertility was observed even after controlling for the compositional differences of the population over time. CONCLUSION(S): Among married women in the United States, there has been a significant decline in 12-month infertility, which cannot be explained by changes in the composition of the population from 1982-2002.