Home Environment-Focused Intervention Improves Dietary Quality: A Secondary Analysis From the Healthy Homes/Healthy Families Randomized Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Estimate Healthy Homes/Healthy Families (HHHF) intervention efficacy for improving dietary quality. METHODS: Low-income overweight and obese women (n = 349) recruited from rural community health centers were randomized to receive HHHF, a 16-week home environment-focused coaching intervention or health education materials by mail. Healthy Eating Index-2010 scores were calculated from 2 24-hour dietary recalls collected at baseline and 6- and 12-month follow-up. RESULTS: HHHF participants reported greater improvements in Healthy Eating Index-2010 total scores at 6-month follow-up (+3.41 ± 13.43 intervention vs +2.02 ± 12.26 control; P =.009). Subcomponent analysis indicated greater consumption of total vegetables (P = .02) and greens and beans (P = .001), whole grains (P = .02) and reduced consumption of empty calories (P = .03). Standardized intervention effect sizes were 0.16 at 6 months and 0.13 at 12 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The HHHF resulted in short-term improvements in dietary quality, although more research is needed to interpret the clinical significance of effect sizes of this magnitude.

The surface of Mars: the view from the viking 2 lander.

Viking 2 lander began imaging the surface of Mars at Utopia Planitia on 3 September 1976. The surface is a boulder-strewn reddish desert cut by troughs that probably form a polygonal network. A plateau can be seen to the east of the spacecraft, which for the most probable lander location is approximately the direction of a tongue of ejecta from the crater Mie. Boulders at the lander 2 site are generally more vesicular than those near lander i. Fines at both lander sites appear to be very fine-grained and to be bound in a duricrust. The pinkish color of the sky, similar to that observed at the lander I site, indicates suspension of surface material. However, the atmospheric optical depth is less than that at the lander I site. After dissipation of a cloud of dust stirred during landing, no changes other than those stemming from sampling activities have been detected in the landscape. No signs of large organisms are apparent at either landing site.

Auscultatory features of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. A study of 90 patients.

The auscultatory signs in 90 subjects with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy are described. The late-onset ejection systolic murmur and its responses to vaso-active manoeuvres reflect a volume-dependent outflow tract obstruction. Late vibrations of the systolic murmur, not uncommonly recorded at the apex, are due to associated mitral incompetence. Non-ejection systolic clicks may occur, and the likely explanation is inequality of the functional length of the mitral chordae tendineae secondary to asymmetrical myocardial hypertrophy. The second heart sound is often abnormal, usually with delay in the aortic component. Some correlation was demonstrated between the relative degrees of left and right ventricular outflow obstruction and the pattern of splitting of the second heart sound. Reversed or partially reversed splitting is usually associated with a more severe left ventricular outflow obstruction. Ejection systolic clicks and early diastolic murmurs occur infrequently, but are not incompatible with the diagnosis of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Hereditary prolongation of QT interval . Study of two families.

A syndrome has previously been recognized, which is characterized by recurrent episodes of loss of consciousness, some of which end fatally. The electrocardiogram in affected subjects shows prolongation of the QT interval. In the present study, 2 unrelated families with a total membership of 82 were investigated; 30 living subjects were examined and 20 were found to be affected. A further 14 members, 11 of whom died suddenly, were presumed from their histories to have been affected. The condition seems to be much more common, at least in South Africa, than the small number of previously reported cases would suggest. In contrast to the similar syndrome in which congenital deafness is also a feature and in which the disorder is transmitted in an autosomal recessive manner, analysis of the present data reveals an autosomal dominant inheritance with variable penetrance. The fundamental nature of the disorder remains unknown. Though treatment is generally unsatisfactory, beta-adrenergic blocking agents may be of value.