Influence of behavioral determinants on deviation of body mass index among 12-15 years old school children of Panchkula

Heavy menstrual bleeding among women aged 18-50 years living in Beijing, China: prevalence, risk factors, and impact on daily life

Background

Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) has been shown to have a profound negative impact on women’s quality of life and lead to increases in health care costs; however, data on HMB among Chinese population is still rather limited. The present study therefore aimed to determine the current prevalence and risk factors of subjectively experienced HMB in a community sample of Chinese reproductive-age women, and to evaluate its effect on daily life.

Methods

We conducted a questionnaire survey in 2356 women aged 18–50 years living in Beijing, China, from October 2014–July 2015. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify risk factors for HMB.

Results

Overall, 429 women experienced HMB, giving a prevalence of 18.2%. Risk factors associated with HMB included uterine fibroids (adjusted odds ratio [OR] =2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.42–3.16, P < 0.001) and multiple abortions (≥3) (adjusted OR = 3.44, 95% CI = 1.82–6.49, P < 0.001). Moreover, women in the younger age groups (≤24 and 25–29 years) showed higher risks for HMB, and those who drink regularly were more likely to report heavy periods compared with never drinkers (adjusted OR = 2.78, 95% CI = 1.20–6.46, P = 0.017). In general, women experiencing HMB felt more practical discomforts and limited life activities while only 81 (18.9%) of them had sought health care for their heavy bleeding.

Conclusions

HMB was highly prevalent among Chinese women and those reporting heavy periods suffered from greater menstrual interference with daily lives. More information and health education programs are urgently needed to raise awareness of the consequences of HMB, encourage women to seek medical assistance and thus improve their quality of life.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12905-019-0726-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Association between underweight and tooth loss among Korean adults

There is growing interest in the relationship between body mass index and oral health. Previous study showed that being underweight was significantly associated with having lower masticatory performance. This study was performed to assess the relationship between an underweight body mass index lower than 18.5 and the number of natural teeth using nationally representative data. Initially, a total of 25,534 individuals were candidates in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The analysis in this study was confined to 17,870 subjects who were 19 years or older and without missing values for outcome variables. Body mass index and number of natural teeth were evaluated. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk of tooth loss in relation to body mass index. Adjusted odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals for chewing discomfort in individuals who were underweight, normal, overweight, obese, and extremely obese were 1.712(1.156–2.535), 1.111(0.939–1.315), 1(reference), 0.949(0.798–1.128), and 1.172(0.807–1.700), respectively, after adjustment. The association between underweight and tooth loss was proven by multiple logistic regression analyses after adjusting for confounding factors. Underweight may be considered a potential risk indicator for tooth loss in Korean adults.