Establishing the minimal clinically important difference of the EQ-5D-3L in older adults with a history of falls

Quality of Life Research - Establish the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of a health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure—the EuroQol EQ-5 Dimensions-3 Level...     

Catastrophic household expenditure associated with out-of-pocket payments for dental healthcare in Spain

The European Journal of Health Economics - To estimate the prevalence of catastrophic health expenditure due to dental healthcare (CHED) in Spain, quantify its intensity and examine the related...     

Effects of dietary fiber on vitamin E status in rats: dose-response to wheat bran

The possible deleterious effects of wheat fiber on vitamin E status were investigated in rats fed semipurified diets supplemented with graded doses (4, 8, 12, 16 or 20%) of Hard Red Spring Wheat Bran, providing 2–10% fiber. After 42 days of experimental feeding, the levels of α-and λ-tocopherol were determined in plasma, liver, pancreas and white adipose tissue (WAT). Total lipids in plasma and total fat excreted in feces were measured. Levels of λ-tocopherol were 5–50 times lower than those of α-tocopherol. Increasing wheat fiber from 2 to 10% in the diet did not significantly decrease levels of vitamers in the four tissues examined. There was a trend towards lower plasma lipid levels with increased percentage fiber in diet. Total fat excretion in feces increased linearly (r²=0.61, P<0.01) between 4 and 10% fiber in diet. When compared to a fiber-free diet, some fiber diets induced lower levels (P<0.05) of α-tocopherol in plasma (4%) and liver (2–6, 10%), but normal diets are not devoid of fiber. It is concluded that addition of wheat fiber to a low or moderate fiber diet has no detrimental effect on vitamin E status in the rat, in spite of increased (+68%, P<0.01) fecal fat excretion     

The teratogenic effect of zinc deficiency and accompanying feeding patterns in mice

The effect of zinc deficiency on fetal development in rats is well established, as also is the importance of the accompanying feeding/fasting cycle on the severity of the zinc-related dysmorphology. Little is known concerning the teratogenesis of zinc deficiency in mice and nothing has been reported with respect to the feeding pattern in this species when fed a zinc-deficient diet. The present studies with pregnant mice (C57BL/6J) revealed them to be acutely sensitive to dietary zinc restriction, with the result that total loss of offspring occurred when the diet contained less than 5 ppm of zinc. Severe teratogenesis accompanied intakes of between 5 and 10 ppm of zinc, but in contrast to rats, no cyclical feeding pattern was evident in mice receiving a zinc-deficient diet, nor was food intake depressed when expressed on a body weight basis. Tissue zinc levels in mice responded to dietary zinc restriction in a manner similar to that reported for rats, with plasma and bone zinc levels being especially sensitive to the zinc intake.     

Spontaneous pregnancy after successful ICSI treatment: evaluation of risk factors in 899 families in Germany

There are only scarce data on the incidence of spontaneous pregnancy in infertility patients. Contraception after infertility treatment is another topic that has been neglected so far. Therefore, a questionnaire was sent to 1614 couples with a child conceived by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) aged 4-6 years. A total of 899 couples responded (response rate 55.7%). A total of 10.9% of couples had used contraception. Of the couples that had actively tried to conceive, 20.0% had conceived spontaneously, resulting in a live-birth rate of 16.4%. 74.5% of these pregnancies were conceived within 2 years after delivery. A further 26.6% of couples conceived again by ICSI, with a live-birth rate of 20.9%. Maternal age was the only prognostic factor for spontaneous conception. Parents of multiples after ICSI did not have a higher chance of spontaneous conception than parents of singletons. Couples can be counselled that one out of five couples conceive spontaneously after successful ICSI. Even when assuming that none of the families that were lost to follow-up had conceived spontaneously, one out of eight couples would have conceived spontaneously. Therefore, it is important to counsel patients about the possibility of natural conception and necessity to use contraception despite their history of subfertility.