Sexual Dysfunction among Chinese Nurses: Prevalence and Predictors.

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of and identify the factors influencing female sexual dysfunction (FSD) among Chinese nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March 2013 to May 2014 among 6 hospitals in Suzhou, China. In total, 2,030 married female nurses were included in the analysis. Data on the sociodemographic, lifestyle, and self-reported health status of the participants were collected, and the participants were asked to complete the Chinese version of the 19-item Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire. In total, 1,035 (50.99%) participants were found to have FSD. Logistic regression analysis showed that increasing age and higher body mass index, lower salary, and poor/very poor self-reported health status were risk factors for FSD; however, regular social activity and physical exercise were protective factors for FSD. The findings of this study suggest that further interventional studies are warranted to study the sexual health among Chinese nurses in detail.

Clustering of inflammatory biomarkers and risk of hypertension in a Mongolian population in China.

OBJECTIVE: There is little knowledge on whether there is clustering of inflammatory biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), soluble intracellular adhesion molecule1-1 (sICAM-1), and angiotensin II (Ang II), in individuals with hypertension in the Mongolian population. In the present study, we investigated this relationship in a Mongolian population in China. METHODS: A total of 2589 adult Mongolians, aged 20 years and older, were recruited as study participants. Data on demographics, lifestyle, family history of hypertension, blood pressure, and blood chemistry were collected, and inflammatory biomarkers were measured in all participants. RESULTS: The proportion of subjects with increased levels of two or three biomarkers was significantly higher in those with hypertension (21.0% and 6.0%, respectively) than in those with prehypertension (12.7% and 0.5%, respectively) or normotension (8.1% and 0.2%, respectively). The multivariate adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of hypertension associated with increased levels of one, two or three biomarkers were 0.94 (0.72-1.22), 1.42 (0.93-2.16), and 11.08 (1.45-84.80), respectively, compared with subjects with no increase in any biomarker. CONCLUSION: Hypertension was associated with a cluster of inflammatory biomarkers in the Mongolian population.

[Trends of overweight and obesity in aged 7 to 18 Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents from 1985-2010].

OBJECTIVE: To study the overweight and obesity situation among Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents in the last 25 years and to provide a basis on related prevention and control measures. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was used, with 18 366 aged 7 to 18 Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents involved. Surveys on their physical health, in 1985, 2000 and 2010 were carried out. Comparison on the mean of BMI and the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in different years, genders, location of residence (urban or rural) was also made. RESULTS: Over the past 25 years, among the aged 7 to 18 Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents, the overall trend on their means of BMI was increasing. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents were 2.1%, 0.5% in 1985, and 6.3%, 2.4% in 2000, with an increase of 2 to 4 times during the last 15 years. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were substantially increasing in the year 2010, to have reached 9.1% and 6.6%, which were 4 to 12 times of the figures in 1985. The detection rates of overweight and obesity in urban boys were 1.2%, 0 in 1985, 7.9%, 3.4% in 2000 and 11.0%, 11.8% in 2010. However, the rate of obesity in the rural boys were 0.6% and 0.6% in 1985, 2.8%, 2.1% in 2000 and 9.0%, 3.4% in 2010. In 1985 the rates of overweight and obesity in urban girls were 1.8%, 0.3%, 8.1%, 4.3% in 2000 and 9.4%, 8.4% in 2010. However, among the rural girls, the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity prevalence was 8.8%, 2.2% in 1985, 4.5%, 0.9%, in 2000 and 10.2%, 4.5% in 2010. The rates of overweight and obesity among groups in different years showed significant differences (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Over the past 25 years, the prevalence rates on overweight and obesity increased significantly in Mongolian ethnic children and adolescents, and continued to rise, which called for reasonable and effective measures to be taken to prevent and control the occurrence of the problem.

[Partial canonical correlation analysis on the association between quality of sleep and quality of life among residents in Suzhou city].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between quality of sleep and quality of life among residents of Suzhou city. METHODS: A total of 3225 residents at the age of 18 - 55 years old in Suzhou city were selected through a clustered sampling method. All the participants were comprehensively evaluated on their quality of sleep by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and on their quality of life (QOL) by SF-36 quality of life scale. Partial canonical correlation analysis was performed. RESULTS: Negative relationships were noticed between all the dimensions of sleep quality white all the QOL domains remained significant when the confounding effect of age, gender, marital status, occupation and cultural level were adjusted. The first pair of canonical correlation variances showed statistically significant differences, with 0.7978 of canonical correlation coefficient, 1.7505 of eigenvalue, and 92.43% of proportion. Data on daytime dysfunction, sleep disturbances and subjective sleep quality were inversely associated with factors as vitality, general health perceptions and mental health, respectively, after controlling for covariates. The inverse relationship between the quality of sleep and the quality of life mainly manifested the following aspects: the association between the status of daytime dysfunction, sleep disturbances, subjective quality of sleep and vitality, general health perceptions and mental health. CONCLUSION: Quality of sleep had influenced the quality of life, overall health and mental health. Daytime dysfunction, sleep disturbances and subjective sleep quality seemed the main factors in Suzhou city. Intervention programs related to improving the sleep need to be popularized among the residents, so as to make the quality of life better.

[Association between concentrations of serum magnesium and the short-term outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between the concentration of serum magnesium and the short-term outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke, in order to provide evidence for improving the outcomes. METHODS: Patients with acute ischemic stroke under study, were from four hospitals in Shandong province. Data on demographic characteristics, life style related risk factors, history of cardiovascular disease, blood pressure at admission and other clinical characteristics were collected for all the participants. The outcomes were defined as National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) ≥ 10 or death. According to NIHSS, the subjects were divided into two groups: death/NIHSS ≥ 10 and NIHSS < 10. Concentrations of Mg(2+) were categorized into four levels according to the quartiles of serum magnesium. Cox proportion hazard regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between serum magnesium concentrations and the short-term outcome of acute ischemic stroke. RESULTS: In the death/NIHSS ≥ 10 group, concentrations of serum magnesium and the time from onset to admission were lower than that in the NIHSS < 10 group while the systolic blood pressure on admission, the proportion of low density lipoprotein abnormal, impaired fasting glucose and history of auricular fibrillation were all higher than that in the NIHSS < 10 group. Without the adjustment of multiple factors, when comparing to the lowest quartile of serum magnesium level, the fourth quartile (highest) seemed to have had a tendency of reducing the risk of death/NIHSS ≥ 10 (RR = 0.47, P < 0.05). When multiple factors were adjusted (adjust serum calcium, potassium level and other factors), the fourth and the third quartiles could both reduce the risk of death/NIHSS ≥ 10 (RR values were 0.39 and 0.54, P < 0.05, respectively). With or without the adjustment of multiple factors, there appeared a dose-response relationship between serum magnesium concentrations and the risk to death/NIHSS ≥ 10 (trend P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Higher serum magnesium concentrations could reduce the risk to death/NIHSS ≥ 10, suggesting that there was a dose-response relationship between magnesium and the risk to death/NIHSS ≥ 10.

[Association of aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) gene -344T/C polymorphism with essential hypertension in Mongolian nationality].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between the -344T/C polymorphism of aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) gene and essential hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population. METHODS: By cluster-sampling method, a total of 1575 Mongolian people in Tongliao city of Inner Mongolia were included in this study. And 417 subjects were normotension, 596 subjects were prehypertension and 562 subjects were essential hypertension. A survey was conducted to collect data by personal interview using a standard questionnaire, meanwhile fasting blood samples were drawn. Height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood-fat indexes and fasting plasma glucose were measured. The variant genotypes of CYP11B2 were identified by PCR assays. The relationship between the -344T/C polymorphism of CYP11B2 gene and essential hypertension were analyzed by multinomial logistic regression model. RESULTS: Crude prevalence of prehypertension among Mongolian people was 37.84% (596/1575) and hypertension was 35.68% (562/1575). The age-standardized prevalence of prehypertension was 38.57% and hypertension was 31.53%. The frequency of the T and C allele was 0.66 (481/728) and 0.34 (247/728) for normotension group, 0.69 (696/1042) and 0.33 (346/1042) for prehypertension group, 0.71 (706/998) and 0.29 (292/998) for hypertension group. The multiple logistic models showed CYP11B2 variant genotypes were associated with prehypertension (TT/CC, OR = 1.33, 95%CI: 0.87 - 2.01; TC/CC, OR = 1.74, 95%CI: 1.13 - 2.67; TC + TT/CC, OR = 1.49, 95%CI: 1.01 - 2.22); CYP11B2 variant genotypes were associated with hypertension (TT/CC, OR = 1.70, 95%CI: 1.07 - 2.70; TC/CC, OR = 1.59, 95%CI: 0.98 - 2.50; TC + TT/CC, OR = 1.66, 95%CI: 1.06 - 2.58). CONCLUSION: CYP11B2 gene -344T/C polymorphism were associated with essential hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population.

Interaction between the C(-344)T polymorphism of CYP11B2 and alcohol consumption on the risk of essential hypertension in a Chinese Mongolian population.

The present study aimed to explore gene-gene and gene-environment interactions among three candidate genes and several environmental risk factors, and their impacts on hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2003-2004 among 1,575 Mongolian people in Tongliao City of Inner Mongolia, China. Epidemiologic and clinical data and blood samples were obtained from subjects. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) and logistic regression were used to analyze gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. The MDR model indicated a significant interactions among the CYP11B2 gene C(-344)T polymorphism, body mass index, age, and alcohol consumption on the risk of hypertension, with a cross-validation consistency of 10 of 10 and a prediction error of 34% (P < 0.001). Logistic regression suggested alcohol consumption (≥200 g/d) was associated with an OR of 2.4 (95% CI, 1.6-3.5) for hypertension. When stratified by the CYP11B2 genotype, the estimated OR was 1.2 (95% CI, 0.5-3.0) on hypertension for the CC genotype group, but was 3.0 (95% CI, 1.5-5.7) and 2.9 (95% CI, 1.4-5.7) for the TC and TT genotype groups, respectively. A significant interaction between the CYP11B2 genotype and alcohol consumption was also found by the logistic models (P (crude) = 0.035, P (adjusted) = 0.048). This study demonstrates a significant interaction between the CYP11B2 genotype and alcohol consumption on the risk of hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population.

[Impact of gene-environment interaction between the C (-344) T polymorphism of CYP11B2 and drinking index on the risk of hypertension under multifactor dimensionality reduction model in Chinese Mongolian population].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the interaction between C (-344) T polymorphism of CYP11B2 and drinking index (DI) as well as their impact on the risk of hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population. METHODS: A total of 1575 Mongolian people aged 20 and older including 562 hypertensive and 1013 normal-tensive from agricultural and pastoral areas in Tongliao city of Inner Mongolia, were included in this study. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data by personal interview with local residents, using a standard questionnaire. Fasting blood samples were drawn and height, weight and blood pressure were measured. The variant genotypes of CYP11B2, ACE and eNOS were identified by PCR assays. Gene-environment interactions were analyzed, using multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) model. Based on the result of the best MDR model, a multiple logistic regression model was constructed as the final cause-effect interpretative model. RESULTS: The interaction between CYP11B2 variant genotype and drinking index appeared the best MDR model with statistical significance (chi(2) = 66.35, P < 0.01). Testing balance accuracy of the model was 0.604. The cross-validation consistency was 10/10. Data from the final multiple logistic regression based on the MDR model showed that the main effects of both CYP11B2 variant genotype and the DI were not significantly different but the interaction between the genotype (TC) and the DI (90-) was, with regard to hypertension (OR, 10.25; 95%CI, 2.23 - 47.18; P = 0.003). The combined effects between CYP11B2 variant genotype and the DI showed that following indices as: genotype TT or TC combining non-zero drinking index, including genotype (TT) combining the drinking index (> or = 168), the genotype (TT) combining the drinking index (> or = 40), the genotype (TT) combining the drinking index (> or = 1) and the genotype (TC) combining the drinking index (> or = 90), were all risk factors of hypertension when comparing with genotype (CC) combining the drinking index (0), and the ORs (95%CI) appeared to be 2.07 (1.15 - 3.70), 2.35 (1.22 - 4.56), 2.05 (1.07 - 3.94) and 5.56 (2.54 - 12.18) respectively. CONCLUSION: Essential hypertension might positively be affected by the interaction of the C (-344) T polymorphism of CYP11B2 and the drinking index in Chinese Mongolian population.

Comparison of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia between buckwheat seed-consuming and non-consuming Mongolian-Chinese populations in Inner Mongolia, China.

1. In the present study, a total of 3542 Mongolians in two adjacent counties of Inner Mongolia, China, were randomly sampled in a cross-sectional study to assess the association of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia with lifetime consumption of buckwheat seed as a staple food. A sample group of 961 participants was also examined for fasting serum concentrations of lipids and glucose. 2. Frequent alcohol consumption significantly contributed to the high prevalence rate of hypertension in the pastureland Mongolian population. 3. The age-adjusted prevalence rate of hypertension in Kulun participants who consumed buckwheat seed as a staple food was 18.22% (95% confidence interval (CI): 16.95%, 19.49%), whereas that in Kezhuohou participants, who consumed corn as a staple food, was 23.31% (95% CI: 21.92%, 24.70%). A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (P < 0.01). 4. Age-adjusted prevalence rates in Kulun participants compared with Kezhuohou participants for hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia and abnormalities in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were 4.02% (95% CI: 2.24%, 5.80%) versus 7.76% (95% CI: 5.39%, 10.13%; P < 0.01), 26.58% (95% CI: 22.59%, 30.57%) versus 31.04% (95% CI: 26.59%, 35.13%; P < 0.05) and 4.66% (95% CI: 2.75%, 6.57%) versus 8.81% (95% CI: 6.30%, 11.32%; P < 0.01), respectively. 5. The age-adjusted prevalence rate of hyperglycaemia in Kulun participants was 1.56% (95% CI: 0.78%, 2.34%), whereas that in Kezhuohou participants was 7.70% (95% CI: 6.01%, 9.39%). The difference was significant (P < 0.01). 6. These findings suggest that the consumption of buckwheat seed may be a preventative factor for hypertension, dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia in the pastureland Mongolian population.

Multiple risk factor clustering and risk of hypertension in the Mongolian ethnic population of China.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether the clustering of risk factors, both environmental and genetic, increases the risk of essential hypertension (EH) and the accumulation of risk factors influences the blood pressure level in normotensives. METHODS: On the basis of a prevalence survey, 501 subjects of Mongolian ethnicity (243 hypertensives and 258 normotensives) who were not related to each other were selected to conduct a case-control study. All subjects were interviewed with questionnaires and their blood specimens were collected. Renin gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism, a new genetic marker, was genotyped with PCR and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. RESULTS: Overweight, alcohol consumption, and renin gene I/D polymorphism were significant risk factors of EH (P<0.05). The odds ratios (OR) for the number of risk factors were 2.39 (95%CI: 0.98-6.74) for one risk factor, 5.03 (95%CI: 2.06-14.18) for two, and 6.09 (95%CI: 1.85-22.38) for three respectively after adjusting for age and sex. In normotensives, age- and sex-adjusted mean blood pressures increased with more accumulation of risk factors. However, there were no significant differences among the different blood pressure levels according to the number of risk factors (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Overweight, alcohol consumption, and renin gene I/D polymorphism are risk factors of EH in the Mongolian ethnic population of China. The accumulation of the risk factors causes a sharp increase of the risk of EH.

[Sero-epidemiologic study on the relationship between Chlamydia pneumonia infection and hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between Chlamydia pneumonia (CP) infection and hypertension as well as the interaction of traditional risk factors and CP infections on hypertension in Chinese Mongolian population. METHODS: 1430 inhabitants living in Tongliao city, Inner Mongolia were selected as research subjects, including 488 hypertensives and 942 normotensives. Enzyme-linked immunoassay technique was used to test CP IgG antibody in the blood serum and SPSS 13.0 Microsoft was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The prevalence rates of hypertension were significantly different between CP IgG positive and negative groups, However, the trend was attenuated after adjusting age, sex, drinking, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and dyslipidemia. The CP infection rate was significant different in diastolic blood pressure groups, which was significantly higher in 80-84 mm Hg than that in the lowest DBP group. The interaction of chronic CP infection and other traditional risk factors were associated with hypertension in Chinese Mongolian ethnic groups. The ranking with significant sequence from high to low were BMI, dyslipidemia, alcohol intake, sex and age. CONCLUSION: CP infection was not related to hypertension in Chinese Mongolian ethnic groups but the interaction with other traditional risk factors would increase the risk of developing hypertension.

Interaction and relationship between angiotensin converting enzyme gene and environmental factors predisposing to essential hypertension in Mongolian population of China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of specific functional gene ACE (I/D) variants of the renin-angiotensin system with essential hypertension (EH) and interaction between ACE (I/D) gene and risk factors for EH in a genetically homogenous Mongolia rural population of China. METHODS: Individuals (n=1099) were recruited from general population of Kezuohouqi Banner in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. RESULTS: The association was found between ACE genotype DD plus ID and EH, with an interaction between ACE genotype DD plus ID and cigarette smoking in an additive model. Cigarette smoking index and ACE gene showed a low exposure-gene (LEG) effect on EH, with interaction indices from 7.10 to 1.16. Interaction between ACE genotype DD plus ID and alcohol drinking on EH appeared an additive model. Alcohol drinking index and ACE gene showed a low exposure-gene (LEG) effect on EH, with interaction indices from 1.66 to 1.09. BMI and ACE gene showed a low exposure-gene (LEG) effect on EH, with interaction indices from 6.15 to 2.49. Interactions between ACE genotype and WHR on EH showed a multiplicative model. In a short,there was an interaction between ACE gene and cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and BMI on EH, especially in a low dose-exposure effect CONCLUSION: It is important for individuals who carry ACE D allele gene to prevent EH, and furthermore, to prevent and control coronary heart disease, in a view of population-based prevention.