1,721,361 research outputs found
Cross-sectional associations between different measures of obesity and muscle strength in men and women in a British Cohort Study
No full textObjectives: the relationship between obesity and grip strength, a key indicator of sarcopenia, has been inconsistently reported. We aimed to examine associations between grip strength and both body mass index (BMI), a clinical indicator of total adiposity, and waist circumference (WC), an indicator of central adiposityDesign: cross-sectional studySetting and participants: data collected from 8,441 men and women, aged 48–92 years old, who attended the third health examination of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk study was usedMeasurements: maximum grip strength (Smedley dynamometer), BMI (weight/height2) and WC (measured at the natural waist) were ascertained at a research clinic. The associations between grip strength and adiposity measures were explored using linear regression with adjustment for age, height, social class, physical activity, prevalent disease, smoking status and alcohol intakeResults: men and women were examined separately and those in the upper quartile of BMI were 2.70kg (95%CI 2.07, 3.33) and 1.46kg (95%CI 1.05, 1.86) stronger respectively than those in the bottom quartile (P trends <0.001). Grip strength also increased weakly with increasing WC. However, including both BMI and WC in the same regression model revealed an inverse association between grip strength and WC, whilst the previously observed association with BMI strengthened. For every 10cm increase in WC, grip strength was 3.56kg (95%CI 3.04, 4.08) lower in men and 1.00kg (95%CI 0.74, 1.24) lower in womenConclusions: larger overall body mass, indicated by higher BMI, is associated with stronger grip strength but high WC, a clinical indicator of central obesity, is associated with lower grip strength. Abdominal fat is the most metabolically active adipose tissue and this provides a clue to potential mechanisms underlying relationships between fat and skeletal muscle. Additionally, it reinforces the recommendation to measure WC in clinical practice, especially when BMI is below obese range
Television viewing, walking speed, and grip strength in a prospective cohort study
No full textPurpose: Television (TV) watching is the most prevalent sedentary leisure time activity in the United Kingdom. We examined associations between TV viewing time, measured over 10 yr, and two objective measures of physical capability, usual walking speed (UWS) and grip strength.Methods: Community-based participants (n = 8623; 48–92 yr old) enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer—Norfolk study attended a third health examination (3HC, 2006–2011) for measurement of maximum grip strength (Smedley dynamometer) and UWS. TV viewing time was estimated using a validated questionnaire (n = 6086) administered during two periods (3HC, 2006–2007; 2HC, 1998–2000). Associations between physical capability and TV viewing time category (<2, 2 < 3, 3 < 4, and ?4 h·d?1) at the 3HC, 2HC, and using an average of the two measures were explored. Sex-stratified analyses were adjusted for age, physical activity, anthropometry, wealth, comorbidity, smoking, and alcohol intake and combined if no sex–TV viewing time interactions were identified.Results: Men and women who watched the least TV at the 2HC or 3HC walked at a faster usual pace than those who watched the most TV. There was no evidence of effect modification by sex (Pinteraction = 0.09), and in combined analyses, participants who watched for <2 h·d?1 on average walked 4.29 cm·s?1 (95% confidence interval, 2.56–6.03) faster than those who watched for ?4 h·d?1, with evidence of a dose–response association (Ptrend < 0.001). However, no strong associations with grip strength were found.Conclusions: TV viewing time predicted UWS in older adults. More research is needed to inform public health policy and prospective associations between other measures of sedentariness, such as total sitting time or objectively measured sedentary time, and physical capability should be explored.<br/
Variants in the APOC3 promoter insulin responsive element modulate insulin secretion and lipids in middle-aged men
No full textVariation in the insulin responsive element (IRE) of the APOC3 promoter has been shown to be associated with insulin and glucose concentrations after an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in young healthy men. We evaluated two variants in the IRE (?455T>C and ?482C>T) in the Ely study, a prospective cohort study of middle-aged men (n=223) and women (n=279), to determine if the effect of these variants on glucose homeostasis could be explained by altered nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels and if these effects are modulated by age and gender. Both variants had significant effects on the 30-min insulin incremental response in men alone (?482C>T, P=0.007; ?455T>C, P=0.0155), with rare allele homozygotes having a 33.3% and 23.3% lower insulin increment as compared to common allele homozygotes, respectively. Thirty-minute NEFA concentrations were also significantly associated with genotype in men and levels were approximately 10% higher in carriers homozygous for the rare alleles as compared to subjects homozygous for the common alleles (?482C>T, P=0.04; ?455T>C, P=0.006). In addition, there was a strong interaction between both variants and cigarette smoking affecting fasting triglyceride levels in both men (interaction: ?455T>C, P=0.02; ?482C>T, P=0.008) and women (interaction: ?455T>C, P=0.007; ?482C>T, P=0.013). Taken together, the data shows that men who carry the rare alleles of the IRE variants have disturbed glucose homeostasis and an unfavourable lipid phenotype. The finding of an elevated 30-min NEFA may be an important mechanistic link between triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL) metabolism and glucose homeostasis
Is there disparity between risk and incidence of cardiovascular disease after liver transplant?
No full textBackground:
Hypertension and hypercholesterolemia are recognized complications of liver transplantation, but whether they contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease is uncertain. We aimed first to determine the prevalence of risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) after liver transplantation and second to study the effect of liver transplantation on the predicted 10-year risk of developing CHD and the incidence of cardiovascular events in comparison with a matched local population.Methods:
Data on blood pressure, serum lipids, weight, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke were obtained retrospectively from the case notes of 181 consecutive adult liver transplant recipients (median follow-up 54 months). The Framingham coronary risk equations were used to calculate the 10-year probability of developing CHD.Results:
The prevalences of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia after transplantation were 77% and 62%, respectively. The predicted 10-year risk of CHD increased from 6.9% before transplantation to 11.5% at 1 year after transplantation, whereas that of a matched local population was 7%. Compared with a matched nontransplant population, the incidence ratios for MI and stroke were 0.55 (95% confidence interval, 0.01-3.06 ) and 1.45 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-5.22), respectively. No patients died from MI or stroke.Conclusions:
Liver transplant recipients have a high prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, exceeding that of the general population, and have a higher predicted risk of developing CHD. Despite this, there were no deaths from CHD or stroke during the study period
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Using cohort studies in lifecourse epidemiology
No full textSummary:
The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Population Health Sciences Research Network is a network of MRC research units and centres that aims to bring together and add value to existing MRC investment in public health, health services and epidemiological research. This symposium held in August 2011 at the World Congress of Epidemiology, Edinburgh, discussed a range of topics including methodology and analytical issues based on a number of examples of cohort studies within the context of lifecourse epidemiology
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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