The Adolescent Problem Gambling Prevalence Associated with Leisure-Time Activities and Risky Behaviors in Southern Spain.

Gambling addiction is increasing and is becoming a public health concern due to the rise of gambling-related harms affecting the youth. Previous studies suggest a strong link between problem gambling (PG) and substance use and psychosocial and familial factors. Our main objective was to analyze the association between PG and factors like sport, leisure-time activities, and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents. A survey on substance use and addictive behaviors was performed in 2019 on a representative sample of 2240 subjects (14-18 years) from the Southern Spain Region. Data variables like socio-demographic characteristics, sport, leisure and free time activities, family environment, PG (Lie-Bet Scale), compulsive internet use (CIUS Scale), and consumption of alcohol and cannabis were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Weighted PG prevalence was estimated in either sex, as well as the differences between various levels of PG using chi-square tests. Crude and adjusted weighted logistic regression models were used to identify predictors associated with PG. The prevalence of PG was associated with shopping frequency, compulsive internet use, cannabis use in the previous month, higher family economic status, and having a homemaker father which increased the likelihood of PG. On the contrary, cultural hobbies such as playing an instrument, painting, singing, and writing, and having a working mother were inversely associated with PG. Our results suggest that encouraging participation in creative activities along with supervised shopping and monitoring compulsive internet use and cannabis consumption may contribute some protection against adolescent PG. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11469-022-00950-7.

Design and cohort description of the InterAct Project: an examination of the interaction of genetic and lifestyle factors on the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the EPIC Study.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Studying gene-lifestyle interaction may help to identify lifestyle factors that modify genetic susceptibility and uncover genetic loci exerting important subgroup effects. Adequately powered studies with prospective, unbiased, standardised assessment of key behavioural factors for gene-lifestyle studies are lacking. This case-cohort study aims to investigate how genetic and potentially modifiable lifestyle and behavioural factors, particularly diet and physical activity, interact in their influence on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Incident cases of type 2 diabetes occurring in European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohorts between 1991 and 2007 from eight of the ten EPIC countries were ascertained and verified. Prentice-weighted Cox regression and random-effects meta-analyses were used to investigate differences in diabetes incidence by age and sex. RESULTS: A total of 12,403 verified incident cases of type 2 diabetes occurred during 3.99 million person-years of follow-up of 340,234 EPIC participants eligible for InterAct. We defined a centre-stratified subcohort of 16,154 individuals for comparative analyses. Individuals with incident diabetes who were randomly selected into the subcohort (n = 778) were included as cases in the analyses. All prevalent diabetes cases were excluded from the study. InterAct cases were followed-up for an average of 6.9 years; 49.7% were men. Mean baseline age and age at diagnosis were 55.6 and 62.5 years, mean BMI and waist circumference values were 29.4 kg/m(2) and 102.7 cm in men, and 30.1 kg/m(2) and 92.8 cm in women, respectively. Risk of type 2 diabetes increased linearly with age, with an overall HR of 1.56 (95% CI 1.48-1.64) for a 10 year age difference, adjusted for sex. A male excess in the risk of incident diabetes was consistently observed across all countries, with a pooled HR of 1.51 (95% CI 1.39-1.64), adjusted for age. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: InterAct is a large, well-powered, prospective study that will inform our understanding of the interplay between genes and lifestyle factors on the risk of type 2 diabetes development.

[Cardiovascular risk factors in the region of Murcia, Spain]. / Factores de riesgo cardiovascular en la región de Murcia, España.

BACKGROUND: The Region of Murcia is an area, within the Spanish context, of high coronary and stroke mortality. Moreover, the trend in ischaemic heart disease mortality, decreasing for almost all geographical Spanish areas, has suffered in Murcia a slight increase during the period 1985-1991. In this study the population prevalences to different cardiovascular risk factors are evaluated. METHODS: Survey of a random sample of adult population (aged 18-65) with a response rate of 61%. Standardised measurement of arterial blood pressure, obesity and serum lipids besides a questionnaire of tobacco consume, physical activity and diabetes. Presentation of standardised results for overall age groups and for the truncated 35-64 age group. The field work were from november 1991 to march 1993. RESULTS: Tobacco smoking prevalence rises up to 54.4% in men and 31.3% in women. Figures for hypertension are less favourable in men (32.3% prevalence, 16.4% treatment, 2.6% hypertension control among all hypertensives, and 15.6% control among only treated hypertensives) that among women (23.7%, 34.3%, 9.5% y 27.8%, respectively). The average serum concentrations of cholesterol are low in both sexes, as high are the HDL-cholesterol concentrations. Mean Body Mass Index is 26.7 for both sexes, although women present wider variability in the measurements. The prevalence of self informed diabetes is around 3-4%. CONCLUSIONS: Comparing these figures, for the corresponding age groups, with those offered by the MONICA study and with other studies on Spanish adult population it is possible to observe that, exception made for the high tobacco consumption and Body Mass Index seen in the Region of Murcia, the overall figures of cardiovascular risk factors are located in the lowest end of the distribution of MONICA centres ranked according their prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. It might exist, therefore, differences in the management of the coronary patient that could explain at least part of the unfavourable coronary heart mortality trends observed in the Region of Murcia.

[Validity of a questionnaire on recent physical activity]. / Validez de un cuestionario de actividad física reciente.

This study aims to validate a frequency questionnaire for categorically ranking people according to recent physical activity (PA) (previous two weeks), applicable to both sexes. Seven one-day PA records were collected for 30 males and 32 females during two weeks. After, the frequency questionnaire was administered covering the same period. The differences (paired-test) between the means obtained by both methods were globally significant for females and for some subgroups of activities in both sexes. The Pearson's correlation coefficient between both methods was 0.78 for males and 0.65 for females. The degree of agreement among methods classifying the subjects on terciles of total PA was lower in males (weighted kappa kw = 0.35, p < 0.06) than in females (KW = 0.52, p < 0.004). Although the study size prevents to infer definitive conclusions, the questionnaire performs better when measuring basic, occupational and total PA than leisure time PA. Its use as a way of ranking individuals in three categories (terciles) of total PA will produce an approximated degree of misclassification of 30% in the lowest tercile of males meanwhile this degree will not go far beyond than 10% for other categories in both sexes.