Assessment of healthy lifestyle behaviors in traveling seasonal agricultural workers.

OBJECTIVES: The deficiencies in working conditions, fees, housing conditions, and nutritional capabilities have negative influences on health of seasonal agricultural workers. It is highly important to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors in this group of individuals. This study aimed to identify healthy lifestyle behaviors in seasonal agricultural workers. STUDY DESIGN: This is a descriptive study performed with seasonal agricultural workers. METHODS: This descriptive study was performed by 508 seasonal agricultural workers, who worked temporarily in Kayseri Province between June 2016 and November 2016. The data were collected by a sociodemographic questionnaire including items on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, and education level. The Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale (HLBS) II was used to assess healthy lifestyle behaviors. The data from 118 seasonal agricultural workers were included to the analysis. Descriptive data are summarized as count and percent, whereas total and subdomain scores from HLBS II are summarized as min-max, standard deviation, and mean values. RESULTS: In the study population, mean age was 29.2 ± 12.1 years. Of the study population, 33.9% were women whereas 59.6% were married, and 65.2% were graduated from primary school or higher. The mean total score was 86.7 ± 7.3 ranging from 70 to 112 in HLBS II. The interpersonal support score showed highest value among subdomains. CONCLUSIONS: It was found that healthy lifestyle behaviors were moderately adopted by seasonal agricultural workers.

Is there any correlation among adiponectin levels in serum, tumor tissue and normal tissue of the same patients wih breast cancer?

PURPOSE: Adiponectin is secreted from adipose tissue and is characterized by hyperinsulinemia which is related with obesity. Although serum adiponectin levels in patients with breast cancer have been studied previously, adiponectin levels in the serum, tumor and normal tissue of the same patients have not been simultaneously investigated. The aim of this study was thus to evaluate the relationship among serum, tumor and normal tissue adiponectin levels in patients with breast cancer. METHODS: Fifty-three patients with breast cancer who were operated at the Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Department of Surgery, between February 2008 and June 2008, were analyzed. Their serum adiponectin levels, tumor tissue and normal breast tissue adiponectin levels were compared. The correlation between postoperative histopathological parameters, insulin resistance parameters and adiponectin levels was also examined. RESULTS: The mean adiponectin levels in tumor tissue, normal breast tissue and serum were 56 ± 9.6 ng/ml, 56 ± 10 ng/ml and 43.5 ± 3.1 ng/ml, respectively. The serum adiponectin levels were inversely correlated with tumor tissue adiponectin levels (p=0.001, r=-0.43). When tumor tissue adiponectin levels were increased, serum adiponectin levels were decreased. O n the other hand, there was a positive correlation between normal breast tissue adiponectin levels and tumor tissue adiponectin levels (p=0.0001, r= 0.850). The tumor tissue adiponectin level was inversely correlated with tumor stage (p=0.037 , r= -0.29). Moreover, in early-stage and low grade tumors, both tumor tissue and normal tissue adiponectin levels were high compared with those of advanced stage or high grade tumors (p=0.027, r= -0.32 and p=0.004, r= -0.408, respectively). In the subgroup analyses, no significant relationship was found between insulin resistance parameters and adiponectin levels (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that serum adiponectin levels were inversely correlated with tumor tissue adiponectin levels, but no relationship between normal breast tissue and tumor tissue adiponectin levels was demonstrated. Adiponectin levels in breast tumor tissue increase while serum adiponectin levels decrease. Adiponectin might play an important role in the prevention of tumor progression by decreasing tissue neovascularization.

Tissue leptin levels in patients with breast cancer.

PURPOSE: High leptin serum levels, overexpression of leptin and its two main receptor isoforms, OBR-L and OBR-S, have been documented in breast cancer patients. In the present study, the relationship between tissue leptin levels and breast cancer was evaluated. METHODS: Thirty-three normal breast tissue samples and 33 breast cancer tissue samples from 33 patients with breast cancer were evaluated. The association of tissue leptin levels and important prognostic factors related to breast cancer was analyzed. RESULTS: Mean tissue leptin levels in breast cancer tissue samples (5.02 + or - 1.06 pg/ml) were significantly higher than those found in normal breast tissue (2.02 + or - 0.83 pg/ml; p=0.01). No correlation was found in tissue leptin levels and menopausal status, hormone receptor and HER-2/neu status, lymph node involvement, and histopathologic features. CONCLUSION: High leptin levels were significantly higher in breast cancer tissue compared with normal tissue. No special correlation was found between tissue leptin levels and different clinicopathological characteristics.

Leptin, soluble interleukin-6 receptor, C-reactive protein and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 levels in human coronary atherosclerotic plaque.

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between tissue levels of leptin, soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R), high-sensitive-C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in atherosclerotic plaques, and traditional risk factors. Coronary artery specimens were obtained from 35 consecutive patients (26 men and nine women) who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting procedure. The mean tissue levels of leptin, hs-CRP and sIL-6R were significantly higher in patients with diabetes mellitus than without diabetes mellitus. When patients were classified according to the smoking status, the mean tissue levels of leptin, hs-CRP and sIL-6R were significantly higher in current smokers than both former smokers and non-smokers. In addition, the mean tissue levels of leptin and sIL-6R were significantly higher in former smokers than non-smokers. There was a positive association between leptin and hs-CRP, sIL-6R and plasma glucose in all patients. Plasma HDL levels were associated negatively with atherosclerotic tissue levels of leptin. Tissue levels of sIL-6R were associated significantly in a positive manner with leptin, hs-CRP and plasma glucose, while tissue levels of hs-CRP were associated with both leptin and sIL-6R. In conclusion, it is attractive to speculate that hs-CRP, sIL-6R and leptin could act synergistically in course of local inflammatory activity and those molecules may not be just markers of inflammation and cardiovascular risk but are also likely to play a pathogenic role in atheromatous plaque. In addition, atherosclerotic tissue levels of CRP, sIL-6R and leptin were significantly higher in current smokers and patients with diabetes.