Illness perception in overweight and obese patients with cardiovascular diseases

Influence factors analysis of COVID-19 Prevention behavior of chinese Citizens: a path analysis based on the hypothetical model

BACKGROUND

Under the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a structural equation model was established to determine the causality of important factors that affect Chinese citizens' COVID-19 prevention behavior.

METHODS

The survey in Qingdao covered several communities in 10 districts and used the method of cluster random sampling. The research instrument used in this study is a self-compiled Chinese version of the questionnaire. Of the 1215 questionnaires, 1188 were included in our analysis. We use the rank sum test, which is a non-parametric test, to test the influence of citizens'basic sociodemographic variables on prevention behavior, and the rank correlation test to analyze the influencing factors of prevention behavior. IBM AMOS 24.0 was used for path analysis, including estimating regression coefficients and evaluating the statistical fits of the structural model, to further explore the causal relationships between variables.

RESULTS

The result showed that the score in the prevention behavior of all citizens is a median of 5 and a quartile spacing of 0.31. The final structural equation model showed that the external support for fighting the epidemic, the demand level of health information, the cognition of (COVID-19) and the negative emotions after the outbreak had direct effects on the COVID-19 prevention behavior, and that negative emotions and information needs served as mediating variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The study provided a basis for relevant departments to further adopt epidemic prevention and control strategies.

High-Amylose Corn Starch Regulated Gut Microbiota and Serum Bile Acids in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice

Simple Summary

High-amylose corn starch, as a kind of resistant starch, could profoundly regulate the gut microbiota and exert anti-obesity properties. Since the gut microbiota was found to improve metabolic health by altering circulating bile acids, therefore, here we investigated the association between the gut microbiota and serum bile acids in high fat diet induced obese mice fed with high-amylose corn starch. We found high-amylose corn starch could modulate the gut microbiota composition and partially restore the alternations in circulating bile acid profiles in obese mice. These influences on gut microbiota and circulating bile acids could be the underlying mechanisms of anti-obesity activity of high-amylose corn starch.

Abstract

High-amylose corn starch is well known for its anti-obesity activity, which is mainly based on the regulatory effects on gut microbiota. Recently, the gut microbiota has been reported to improve metabolic health by altering circulating bile acids. Therefore, in this study, the influence of high-amylose corn starch (HACS) on intestinal microbiota composition and serum bile acids was explored in mice fed with a high fat diet (HFD). The results demonstrated HACS treatment reduced HFD-induced body weight gain, hepatic lipid accumulation, and adipocyte hypertrophy as well as improved blood lipid profiles. Moreover, HACS also greatly impacted the gut microbiota with increased Firmicutes and decreased Bacteroidetes relative abundance being observed. Furthermore, compared to ND-fed mice, the mice with HFD feeding exhibited more obvious changes in serum bile acids profiles than the HFD-fed mice with the HACS intervention, showing HACS might restore HFD-induced alterations to bile acid composition in blood. In summary, our results suggested that the underlying mechanisms of anti-obesity activity of HACS may involve its regulatory effects on gut microbiota and circulating bile acids.

Gender and Emotional Representation Matter: Own Illness Beliefs and Their Relationship to Obesity

Background

Current treatments of obesity often fail to consider gender and psychological aspects, which are essential for weight loss and weight maintenance. The aim of our study was to analyze subjective illness representations (SIRs) of adults with obesity according to the Common-Sense Self-Regulation Model (CSM) by assessing their associations with weight-related variables and gender.

Methods

Data was collected via online self-assessment between April 2017 and March 2018. SIRs were operationalized by the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) and illness outcomes according to the CSM were defined as BMI, eating behaviour, physical wellbeing, bodyweight satisfaction, and shape concerns. The sample consisted of 427 adults (M = 42.2 years, SD = 10.9; 82% female) with obesity (BMI: M = 42.3 kg/m², SD = 9.0). Student's t-tests and multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with the control variables (age and BMI) and subjective illness representations and gender as independent variables.

Results

The explanation of outcome variances was moderate to high (21-43%) except for restraint eating behaviour (10%). Subjective illness representations showed several significant associations with weight-related variables, especially timeline and emotional representations. Female gender was significantly associated with more restraint eating behaviour [F_{(1, 400)} = 4.19, p < 0.001] and females had unfavourable values of the weight-related variables as well as a more cyclic [t₍₄₂₅₎ = 3.68, p < 0.001], and more emotional representation [t₍₁₀₀₎ = 5.17, p < 0.001] of their obesity.

Conclusion

The results of this study indicate that gender and subjective illness representations, especially the emotional representation, play an important role for weight-related variables. Therefore, the assessment of SIRs may constitute an economic tool to identify specific individual deficits of self-regulation.