Incidence of traffic light labelling on noncommunicable diseases: a roadmap for achieving sustainable development.

The production and diversity of the supply of food products has grown exponentially in recent decades, along with the increase in cardiovascular diseases associated with poor diet. Among the factors, one of the most important is the lack of information for the consumer when purchasing. The present work evaluates the impact of implementing the traffic light labelling of foods in reducing deaths due to Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD). Econometric techniques of two-way effects panel data from 21 Ecuadorian provinces taken from official sources for the analysis period 2010-2019. For Ecuador, a favourable impact was found in the reduction of the NCD mortality rate, especially in the last three years; in 2017, it was reduced by 0.129%, in 2018 by 0.305%, and in 2019 by 0.289%. An implication of economic policy is the advertising regulation of products that may affect health, strengthening surveillance and sanctioning companies that fail to comply with the regulation.

The burden of skeletal-related events in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.

AIM: Skeletal-related events (SREs) are major bone complications that frequently occur in patients with solid tumors (ST) and bone metastases, and in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). SREs include pathological fracture, spinal cord compression, radiation to bone, and surgery to bone. Limited data are available regarding the burden of SREs in Latin America. We built an economic model to quantify the current and future economic burden of SREs among adults in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. METHODS: A comprehensive literature review with a systematic search strategy was conducted to parameterize the economic burden of illness (BOI) model. Economic analyses were conducted using a prevalence-based model. Aggregate SRE costs obtained from country-specific sources were used. We also included patient productivity losses. Costs were expressed in 2020 USD for the total annual burden, annual burden per 1,000 at risk, and projected five-year burden. RESULTS: The estimated total number of SREs was 251,503 in 2020, amounting to a total annual cost of USD 1.4 billion. The total projected five-year cost was USD 6.9 billion. Annual costs were highest in Brazil (USD 779.1 million), followed by Mexico (USD 281.8 million), Argentina (USD 174.6 million), and Colombia (USD 120.1 million). The average financial burden per 1,000 at risk was greatest in Brazil (USD 3.6 million), followed by Mexico (USD 3.4 million), Colombia (USD 2.9 million), and Argentina (USD 2.7 million). CONCLUSION: Despite recommendations by medical societies for the use of bone-targeted agents in patients with solid tumors and bone metastasis or with multiple myeloma and bone lesions, a large proportion of patients at risk of experiencing SREs are not treated. Early detection of bone metastases and SREs and the use of the most effective preventative treatments are needed to decrease the clinical and economic burden of SREs in Latin America.

RP11-480I12.5-004 Promotes Growth and Tumorigenesis of Breast Cancer by Relieving miR-29c-3p-Mediated AKT3 and CDK6 Degradation.

Pseudogenes have been reported to exert oncogenic or tumor-suppressive functions in cancer. However, the expression, role, and mechanism of pseudogene-derived RNAs in breast cancer remain unclear. The RNA levels and prognostic values of pseudogenes in breast cancer were determined. The levels of RP11-480I12.5 in cell lines and clinical samples were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. In vitro effects of RP11-480I12.5 on cell growth were measured by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, colony formation assay, cell counting assay, and flow cytometry analysis. Xenograft model was established to detect its in vivo effect. The potential mechanism of RP11-480I12.5 was also studied by a combination of bioinformatic analysis and experimental confirmation. Finally, the possible functional parental genes of RP11-480I12.5 in breast cancer were explored. After a series of bioinformatic analyses, RP11-480I12.5 was selected as the most potential pseudogene in breast cancer. RP11-480I12.5 expression was significantly upregulated in breast cancer cell lines and clinical breast cancer tissues. Knockdown of RP11-480I12.5 markedly suppressed cell proliferation and colony formation, induced cell apoptosis of breast cancer in vitro, and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Four transcripts of RP11-480I12.5 (001/002/003/004) were identified. Only overexpression of RP11-480I12.5-004 significantly enhanced cell growth of breast cancer both in vitro and in vivo. RP11-480I12.5-004 mainly located in cytoplasm and increased AKT3 and CDK6 mRNA expression, at least in part, by competitively binding to miR-29c-3p. Six parental genes of RP11-480I12.5 were found, among which TUBA1B and TUBA1C were statistically linked to RP11-480I12.5 expression, possessed prognostic values, and were upregulated in breast cancer. Our findings suggested that pseudogene-derived long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) RP11-480I12.5-004 promoted growth and tumorigenesis of breast cancer via increasing AKT3 and CDK6 expression by competitively binding to miR-29c-3p.

The impact of different scenarios for intermittent bladder catheterization on health state utilities: results from an internet-based time trade-off survey.

AIMS: Intermittent catheterization (IC) is the gold standard for bladder management in patients with chronic urinary retention. Despite its medical benefits, IC users experience a negative impact on their quality of life (QoL). For health economics based decision making, this impact is normally measured using generic QoL measures (such as EQ-5D) that estimate a single utility score which can be used to calculate quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). But these generic measures may not be sensitive to all relevant aspects of QoL affected by intermittent catheters. This study used alternative methods to estimate the health state utilities associated with different scenarios: using a multiple-use catheter, one-time-use catheter, pre-lubricated one-time-use catheter and pre-lubricated one-time-use catheter with one less urinary tract infection (UTI) per year. METHODS: Health state utilities were elicited through an internet-based time trade-off (TTO) survey in adult volunteers representing the general population in Canada and the UK. Health states were developed to represent the catheters based on the following four attributes: steps and time needed for IC process, pain and the frequency of UTIs. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 956 respondents. One-time-use catheters, pre-lubricated one-time-use catheters and ready-to-use catheters were preferred to multiple-use catheters. The utility gains were associated with the following features: one time use (Canada: +0.013, UK: +0.021), ready to use (all: +0.017) and one less UTI/year (all: +0.011). LIMITATIONS: Internet-based survey responders may have valued health states differently from the rest of the population: this might be a source of bias. CONCLUSION: Steps and time needed for the IC process, pain related to IC and the frequency of UTIs have a significant impact on IC related utilities. These values could be incorporated into a cost utility analysis.

Early-life environment and adult stature in Brazil: an analysis for cohorts born between 1950 and 1980.

We study the relationship between environmental conditions at birth (GDP per capita and infant mortality rate) and adult stature using cohort-state level data in Brazil for the period 1950-1980. We find that GDP per capita, whose annual percentage growth rate was 4.8% during this period, not infant mortality rate, is a robust correlate of population stature in Brazil. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. Using a useful bracketing property of the (state) fixed effects and lagged dependent variables (heights) estimators, we find that an increase in GDP per capita of the magnitude corresponding to that period is associated with 43-68% of the increase in adult height occurring in the same time span. Income, not disease, appears to be the main correlate of Brazilian population heights in the second half of the 20th Century.

Anthropometric measurements by ethnicity in Colombia, 1965-1990.

We analyzed the evolution of height in Colombia of cohorts born in the period 1965-1990 by ethnic groups. We found that Afro-Colombian men and women were the tallest: 6cm taller than indigenous people and 2cm taller than the rest of the population. We also found that the height gap between Afro-Colombians and others decreased during the period under study by 0.7cm for both men and women. While improvements were noticeable among the Afro-Colombians and those who chose not to be classified by ethnicity, in the case of the indigenous population only female cohorts registered an average-height increase of 1.5cm. Moreover, we found that indigenous Colombians were more likely than other ethnic groups to experience an increase in biological well-being as a consequence of an improvement in their socio-economic status, thereby reducing the average-stature gap between them and the rest of the population by 2.1 and 3.6cm for men and women, respectively.