H. Binga Dismond, MD--pioneer Harlem physician and much more.

All physicians hopefully have some interests beyond their specialty. Dismond exemplified a broad range of activities, including athletics, military service, poetry, multiple marriages, and socializing, as well as two specialties in medicine.     

Aβ40 is associated with cognitive function,body fat and physical fitness in healthy older adults

Primary objectives: Body composition and obesity-related lifestyle factors are associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amyloid beta (Aβ) is a peptide integral in the pathogenesis of AD. Aβ has been shown to be related to body fat and exercise in younger adults; however, no study to date has examined the possible relationship among Aβ, body composition and fitness indices in older adults.

Methods and procedures: Thirty-five older adults without significant neurological or psychiatric history, underwent fasting blood draw and completed cognitive testing and body composition and physical fitness assessments.

Results: Partial correlations showed Aβ levels were inversely related to cognitive function, body fat and physical fitness measures.

Conclusions: Findings indicate Aβ is associated with cognitive function, body fat and physical fitness in neurologically healthy older adults. Further work is needed to clarify possible mechanisms, particularly longitudinal studies.     

The Prevalence and Correlates of Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescent Mothers: Results from a 17-Year Longitudinal Study

The objective of the authors in this study was to examine the prevalence and correlates of elevated depressive symptoms in a 17-year cohort study of 173 women who were unmarried, pregnant adolescents between June 1988 and January 1990. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the associations between correlates and elevated depressive symptoms during five distinct developmental periods of the life course. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory depression subscale. The prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms in adolescent mothers significantly increased over the 17 years of the study from 19.8% to 35.2%. In adjusted analyses, antenatal depressive symptoms were positively and significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms at every developmental period. Intimate partner violence was positively and significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms during all but one developmental period. Other significant correlates of elevated depressive symptoms included welfare receipt, smoking, and parity, all of which were significant at some, but not other, developmental periods. Antenatal depressive symptoms and intimate partner violence were positively and significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms. Given the public health consequences associated with maternal depression, clinical and community-based interventions should be developed to identify and to treat adolescent mothers at-risk for antenatal depression and intimate partner violence.     

Community recommendations on outreach activities for QUEST-expanded: Medicaid managed care for the aged, blind, and disabled population

The Hawai'i Medicaid Program intends to transition its Aged, Blind, and Disabled population from a fee-for-service to a managed care model. To determine the best outreach strategies for this transition, focus groups of beneficiaries were held throughout Hawai'i. Beneficiaries want information in simple language, to be told about the change by someone knowledgeable whom they trust, and to have services that address their individual needs. A model for the transition, including these strategies, is described.     

Using a Virtual-Representational-Abstract Integrated Framework to Teach Multiplicative Problem Solving to Middle School Students with Developmental Disabilities

Effective instructional strategies to improve mathematical problem solving skills are critically important to student success in both school-based and real-world mathematics tasks. This study reports effects of a Virtual-Representational-Abstract Integrated framework on the mathematical problem solving skills of three middle school students with developmental disabilities (autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability). All participants improved in their problem solving accuracy when solving multiplicative comparison word problems using realistic double and triple multipliers. Additionally, all participants maintained their mathematical problem solving accuracy after visual supports (graphic organizer) were removed. Detailed findings and implications for future research and practitioners are discussed.

     

Schooling in adolescence raises IQ scores

Although some scholars maintain that education has little effect on intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, others claim that IQ scores are indeed malleable, primarily through intervention in early childhood. The causal effect of education on IQ at later ages is often difficult to uncover because analyses based on observational data are plagued by problems of reverse causation and self-selection into further education. We exploit a reform that increased compulsory schooling from 7 to 9 y in Norway in the 1960s to estimate the effect of education on IQ. We find that this schooling reform, which primarily affected education in the middle teenage years, had a substantial effect on IQ scores measured at the age of 19 y.     

The Africa Center for Biostatistical Excellence: a proposal for enhancing biostatistics capacity for sub‐Saharan Africa

Sub‐Saharan Africa has a shortage of well‐trained biomedical research methodologists, in particular, biostatisticians. In July 2014, a group of biostatisticians and researchers from the region attended a brainstorming workshop to identify ways in which to reduce the deficit in this critical skill. The workshop recognized that recommendations from previous workshops on building biostatistics capacity in sub‐Saharan Africa had not been implemented. The discussions culminated with a proposal to setup an Africa Center for Biostatistical Excellence, a collaborative effort across academic and researcher institutions within the region, as a vehicle for promoting biostatistics capacity building through specialized academic masters programs as well as regular workshops targeting researchers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.