Association Between Passive Smoking and Menstrual Discomfort: A Cross-Sectional Study of 2,571 Non-smoking Chinese Nurses.

Introduction: Menstrual discomfort affects women's quality of life, which is an important public health issue. Evidence confirming the link between passive smoking and menstrual discomfort is limited. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the aforementioned topic on the basis of a cross-sectional study of 2,571 non-smoking Chinese nurses. Methods: Demographic information and passive smoking were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Menstrual discomfort was characterized as dysmenorrhea, illness or weakness, bed rest, and restlessness during menstruation, which was assessed using a modified version of the Cornell Medical Index-Health Questionnaire. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using the logistic regression model. Results: A total of 1:195 nurses (46.48%) were exposed to passive smoking. Compared with non-passive smoking nurses, passive smoking nurses were more likely to have menstrual discomfort symptoms (72.38 vs. 64.39%), especially symptoms of dysmenorrhea (49.54 vs. 42.08%), illnesses or weakness (48.28 vs. 42.08%), and restlessness during menstruation (53.05 vs. 46.22%). Exposure to passive smoking was significantly associated with menstrual discomfort (OR = 1.41, 95%CI: 1.19-1.67), especially symptoms of dysmenorrhea (OR = 1.32, 95%CI: 1.13-1.56), illness or weakness (OR = 1.24, 95%CI: 1.06-1.46), and restlessness (OR = 1.26, 95%CI: 1.08-1.48) during menstruation. The subgroup analyses, stratified by age, children, and marital status, agreed with the main findings. Conclusions: Exposure to passive smoking was related to symptoms of dysmenorrhea and menstrual discomfort.

Association Between Passive Smoking and Health Among Chinese Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study.

This study aimed to investigate the association between passive smoking and physical and psychological health in Chinese nurses. Participants of this cross-sectional study comprised 2,484 non-smoking nurses. Passive smoking and demographic information were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Physical, psychological, and overall health status of nurses were measured using the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) health questionnaire. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for nurses' health were estimated by exposure to passive smoking using unconditional logistic regression models. A total of 1,219 nurses (49.07%) were exposed to passive smoking. Of these, 609 (24.52%), 160 (6.44%), and 587 (23.63%) nurses had poorer physical, mental, and overall health, respectively. After adjusting for other confounding factors, compared with the non-passive smoking group, passive smoking was associated with poor physical (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.25-1.83), mental (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.07-2.07), and overall (OR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.30-1.93) health of nurses, respectively. We also carried out subgroup analyses stratified by age, department, and professional title, which showed that most findings supported the main results. This study demonstrated that exposure to passive smoking was a risk factor for overall decreased physical and mental health status among Chinese nurses.

[Genotyping of 210 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR among pediatric tuberculosis patients in Chongqing].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the application of spacer oligonucleotide typing (Spoligotyping) and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) analysis in the molecular-epidemiological study of tuberculosis and to discuss the characteristics of pediatric Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis strains in Chongqing. METHODS: M. tuberculosis strains isolated and typed by Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR respectively, from the children patients in Chongqing and to compare the results from both methods, epidemiologically. RESULTS: By means of Spoligotyping, 210 clinical isolates were divided into 2 gene groups, displaying 44 genotypes. Among them, the biggest group was M. tuberculosis Beijing family, including 130 strains (61.90%), using the Spoligotyping. From the results of MIRU-VNTR, 24 loci showed different polymorphism and the HGI of different loci set (12 old loci, 15 basic loci and 24-loci set) increased accordingly. The subtle difference in HGI was originated from one locus ETR-B, which was included in the 24-locus system. The diversity of each loci and MIRU-VNTR set for non-Beijing genotype strains was higher than that of the Beijing genotype strains. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was preliminarily confirmed the existence of high polymorphism of M. tuberculosis while the Beijing Family was the main genotype and main prevalent strain in children of Chongqing area. Spoligotyping prior to 15-locus with ETR-B combination seemed more suitable for the massive epidemiological investigation of pediatric tuberculosis patients.

[Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 gene polymorphism and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 expression in Chongqing Han children with tuberculosis].

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to evaluate whether the presence of -2518A/G polymorphism in the distal regulatory region of the monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) was associated with tuberculosis (TB) in Chongqing Han population and to find whether it has a significant impact on the pediatric patient. METHOD: One hundred children [ < or = 15 years old, mean age (7.3+/-4.6) years, 53 male, 47 female] and one hundred adults [51 male, 49 female, age (44.6+/-13.5) years with TB] and 200 healthy controls of comparable age were screened for genotype by PCR-sequence-specific primer (SSP) method. MCP-1 levels in the sera were detected by ELISA. RESULT: (1) TB patients and controls showed different single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) distribution patterns (58%, 36%). MCP-1 alleles -2518G was associated with increased TB susceptibility (P<0.01). (2) The -2518 GG genotypes was associated with increased TB susceptibility (32% in TB patients and 13% in non-TB controls respectively, P<0.01). (3) The odds of developing TB in genotypes GG were higher than those in homozygous AA, and the risk was higher in children than in adult (7.0-fold in children and 5.1-fold in adults, respectively). (4) Cases of homozygous GG had the highest plasma levels of MCP-1, which increased the likelihood of developing TB. Furthermore, higher levels were observed in children than in adults. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that persons bearing the MCP-1 genotype GG produce high concentrations of MCP-1, which increases the risk of active TB infection in Chongqing Han people. These findings are more significant in child patients than in adult patients with TB.

Combined MBR with photocatalysis/ozonation for bromoamine acid removal.

A combined biological (augmented membrane bioreactor (MBR)) and photochemical (photocatalysis and ozonation) treatment has been proposed for bromoamine acid (BAA) removal in dyeing wastewater. It was demonstrated that the color and chemical oxygen demand removal in the sequential augmented MBR was about 90% and 50%, respectively. By ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, it was found that the introduced strain QYY was maintained as the predominant species and the diversity of the system was relatively low throughout the operation. Photocatalysis and ozonation processes were efficient to treat the effluents from MBR with high color and total organic carbon removal more than 90% within 120 min. Therefore, the hybrid treatment system is a possible way to achieve the complete mineralization of BAA.

Population dynamics in bioaugmented membrane bioreactor for treatment of bromoamine acid wastewater.

The performances and microbial population changes in laboratory-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) augmented with Sphingomonas xenophaga QYY were investigated in the present study. It was demonstrated that after 30 days acclimation, the non-augmented MBR system were able to degrade bromoamine acid (BAA) well. However, the efficiency of the system decreased with BAA concentration increasing. While the augmented MBR showed higher capability, in which the color and COD removal were more than 90% and 50%, respectively. By ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA), it was found that BAA-utilizing populations gradually increased to become the dominant species in the non-augmented MBR. However, the augmented MBR possessed relatively stable treatment abilities, in which the introduced strain QYY could be persistent and co-exist well with the indigenous populations.