Carrying the Pain of Abuse: Gender-Specific Findings on the Relationship between Childhood Physical Abuse and Obesity in Adulthood

BackgroundChildhood abuse has been associated with negative adult health outcomes, including obesity. This study sought to investigate the association between childhood physical abuse and adult obesity, while controlling for five clusters of potentially confounding factors: childhood stressors, socioeconomic indicators, marital status, health behaviors, and mental health.MethodsRepresentative data from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey were selected. The response rate was approximately 84%. Gender-specific logistic regression analyses determined the association between abuse and obesity, while controlling for age and race and five clusters of potentially confounding factors. Of the 12,590 respondents with complete data, 2,787 were obese and 976 reported physical abuse as a child or adolescent by someone close to them.ResultsAmong women with childhood physical abuse compared to no abuse, the odds of obesity were 35% higher, even when controlling for age, race, and the five clusters of factors (odds ratio (OR) = 1.35; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.09, 1.67). Childhood physical abuse was not associated with adult obesity among men (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 0.82, 1.53).ConclusionsThis study provides one of the first population-based, gender-specific analyses of the association between childhood physical abuse and obesity controlling for a wide range of factors. The gender-specific findings require further exploration.Key Words: Childhood physical abuse, Adverse childhood experiences, Gender, Health behaviors, Socioeconomic status, Mental health     

Effects of different heel heights on lower extremity joint loading in experienced and in-experienced users: a musculoskeletal simulation analysis

Sport Sciences for Health - This study examined the effects of different high-heeled footwear heights on lower extremity compressive joint loading and triceps-surae muscle–tendon kinematics...     

Loss of T cell responses following long-term cryopreservation

Although cryopreservation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) is a commonly used technique, the degree to which it affects subsequent functional studies has not been well defined. Here we demonstrate that long-term cryopreservation has detrimental effects on T cell IFN-gamma responses in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals. Long-term cryopreservation caused marked decreases in CD4(+) T cell responses to whole proteins (HIV p55 and cytomegalovirus (CMV) lysate) and HIV peptides, and more limited decreases in CD8(+) T cell responses to whole proteins. These losses were more apparent in cells stored for greater than one year compared to less than six months. CD8(+) T cell responses to peptides and peptide pools were well preserved. Loss of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses to CMV peptide pools were minimal in HIV-negative individuals. Addition of exogenous antigen presenting cells (APC) did not restore CD4(+) T cell responses to peptide stimulation and partially restored T cell IFN-gamma responses to p55 protein. Overnight resting of thawed cells did not restore T cell IFN-gamma responses to peptide or whole protein stimulation. A selective loss of phenotypically defined effector cells did not explain the decrement of responses, although cryopreservation did increase CD4(+) T cell apoptosis, possibly contributing to the loss of responses. These data suggest that the impact of cryopreservation should be carefully considered in future vaccine and pathogenesis studies. In HIV-infected individuals short-term cryopreservation may be acceptable for measuring CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses. Long-term cryopreservation, however, may lead to the loss of CD4(+) T cell responses and mild skewing of T cell phenotypic marker expression.     

关注作业治疗(简译)

作业的含义“作业”是日常作息活动的一部分,可分为自我-维持性活动(吃饭、洗漱、上下楼梯),生产性活动(家务劳动、购物、工作),或娱乐活动(打牌、看电视、跳舞)。有些作业对每个人都是相同的,譬如自我照顾。然而在不同生命时期,很多日常活动随年龄、文化、生活方式、经济地位、责任义务以及个人能力的变化而变化。治疗性的活动病人如能主动参与并体会到作业治疗的好处,将有利于促进功能的恢复和心理的完好状态。因此,作业治疗师本着启发患者主动性的原则,仔细分析和选择“治疗性的活动”,以达到治疗的目的。制订目标和治疗计划时,病人及其…     

A clinical sickness score for the critically ill in Central Africa

Scoring systems provide a means for comparing results, ensuring consistent standards and evaluating changes in therapy. The APACHE II system depends partly on the results of laboratory tests which are not normally available in Central Africa. The aim of this study was to develop a scoring system based only on clinical observations. Six hundred and twenty-four consecutive admissions to the intensive care unit (ICU) were allocated a clinical sickness score (CSS) according to pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, urine output, Glasgow Coma Scale, temperature and age. CSS was significantly associated with outcome, there being no significant difference between actual and predicted outcomes calculated by logistic regression analysis. There was a significant difference between mean scores for survivors and non-survivors in all diagnostic groups except diabetes. The proportional change in score from admission was also significantly associated with outcome on each subsequent day in ICU. The CSS provides an objective measure of illness severity for critically ill patients in Africa.