Pathways linking abdominal obesity to poor memory function: Explore the mediating role of hypertension and depressive symptoms

Food Intake, Source, and Planning and Shopping Behavior Differences Among Hispanic, White, Black, and Asian Females

BACKGROUND

Abdominal obesity remains a high public health concern. Within the United States, there are noted disparities among different ethnic/racial groups in relation to obesity, especially for females.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this secondary analysis project was to examine the differences in nutritional intake, food sources, and meal planning and food shopping between Hispanic, White, Black, and Asian females by abdominal obesity level in the United States.

METHODS

The 2017-2018 National Health Nutrition Examination data was used. Major variables included race/ethnicity, waist circumference (WC), nutritional intake, food source, and food shopping and meal planning behaviors. Descriptive statistics, correlational analyses, a series of two-way factorial analysis of variance, and odds ratio analyses were conducted to address research questions.

FINDINGS

When comparing nutritional intake and food source by different racial/ethnic groups and abdominal obesity level, there were no interaction effects for all categories across groups. However, for the racial/ethnic main effects and obesity main effects, significant differences among groups were noted for nutritional intake and food source categories. There were no differences in food shopping and meal preparation between abdominal obesity and non-obese participants in each racial/ethnic group.

CONCLUSIONS

Similarities and differences were noted between racial/ethnic groups for nutritional intake and sources of food. However, no significant differences were noted between racial/ethnic groups for food shopping and meal preparation behaviors. More research should be done to confirm these findings and further understand food shopping and meal preparation behaviors.

Can we 'Nudge' people to better waste separation behaviours? Policy interventions mediated by habit, sense of separation efficiency and external environmental perceptions

This article studies the impact of intervention measures with nudge characteristics on residents' waste separation behaviours under the background of new 'Beijing Municipal Regulation on Domestic Waste Management'. We analyse whether and how nudge interventions affect residents' waste separation behaviours through the Ordered Logit model and mediation analysis. Our research results show that three nudge tools, namely, the timing and fixed-point separation system, the cleaning staff guidance system and the uniform clothing and styling, can effectively promote residents from low classification levels to high classification levels. In the process of nudging interventions, factors such as residents' waste separation habit, external environmental perception and the sense of separation efficiency play a mediating role. Our study's findings suggest that effective nudge tools are helpful in cultivating residents' separation habits and hence we recommend that policy makers promote and popularise them in their attempt to improve domestic waste management behaviours.

The association of pulse pressure change with memory decline in middle-aged and older adults

BACKGROUND

Less is known regarding the association of pulse pressure (PP) with memory function. This study aimed to characterize long-term patterns of PP in middle-aged and older adults and explore their impact on subsequent change in memory function.

METHODS

Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, 2004-2018), were analyzed. Totally, 3587 dementia-free participants with three measurements of BP were included. All three visits of PP (2004-2012) were used to characterize longitudinal patterns of PP by group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM). Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fitted to explore the impact of PP trajectories on change in memory over a subsequent 6-year period (2012-2018).

RESULTS

Using GBTM, three distinct trajectories of PP were identified: low-stable (38.1%), moderate-stable (48.6%), and elevated-increasing group (13.3%). GEE model suggested that memory declined over a 6-year period in all PP trajectories (all P_time  <0.001). The overall interactions between patterns of PP changes and time with memory were statistically significant (χ² _interaction  = 20.69, p = 0.002). Compared to participants in the low-stable group, those in the moderate-stable and elevated-increasing group exhibited a faster decline in memory.

CONCLUSIONS

Longitudinal patterns of moderate-stable and elevated-increasing PP were associated with an accelerated decrease in memory. Controlling BP instability may be a promising interventional strategy for preventing cognitive decline among older adults.

Associations between novel anthropometric measures and the prevalence of hypertension among 45,853 adults: A cross-sectional study

AIMS

Traditional anthropometric measures, including body mass index (BMI), are insufficient for evaluating the risk of hypertension. We aimed to investigate the association between novel anthropometric indices and hypertension risk in a large population in the United States.

METHODS

Forty-five thousand eight hundred fifty-three participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (1999-2018) were enrolled. Social demographic information, lifestyle factors, blood biochemical measurements and anthropometric indices, including body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), conicity index (CI), a body shape index (ABSI), body roundness index (BRI) and lipid accumulation product (LAP) were collected. Multivariable logistic regression and restricted cubic spline were adopted to investigate the associations between hypertension risk and anthropometric indices. We also performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to further evaluate the discriminatory powers of anthropometric measurements for screening hypertension risk. Moreover, participants were randomly assigned to the training group and the validation group in a ratio of 3 to 1. A nomogram model based on anthropometric measures was established and validated in the training group and validation group, respectively.

RESULTS

All of the anthropometric measurements investigated were positively and independently associated with the hypertension risk. Among all anthropometric indices, per-SD increment in ABSI had the highest OR (OR: 3.4; 95% CI: 2.73-4.24) after adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, drinking, diabetes, and eGFR. Moreover, results from restricted cubic splines revealed the non-linear association between anthropometric measurements and hypertension risk. In ROC analyses, CI had superior discriminatory power for hypertension (area under the curve: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.706-0.715; optimal cutoff value: 1.3) compared with other indices. Nomogram model based on age, sex, diabetes, CI and LAP showed favorable predicting ability of hypertension risk with an AUC (95% CI) in training group of 80.2% (79.7-80.6%), and the AUC (95% CI) in validation group was 79.5% (78.3-80.1%). Meanwhile, calibration plot showed good consistency.

CONCLUSIONS

Anthropometric measurements including BMI, WtHR, CI, ABSI, BRI and LAP are closely associated with hypertension risk in the present study. For better prevention and treatment of hypertension, more attention should be paid to anthropometric indices, especially novel anthropometric indices.