Determinants of major cardiovascular risk factors among participants of the South Carolina WISEWOMAN program, 2009-2012

Critical Lessons in Tailoring Interventions: Listening to WISEWOMAN Participants

PURPOSE

To explore perspectives of participants in the WISEWOMAN program in Pennsylvania (PA-WISE) on challenges and facilitators of reducing cardiovascular disease risk as low-income and un-/under-insured middle-aged women.

APPROACH

Researchers conducted this 2 year qualitative data collection as one component of a broader, 5 year PA-WISE process and outcome evaluation.

SETTING

Women from across Pennsylvania, primarily from rural communities.

PARTICIPANTS

Interviewees were low-income, un-/under-insured women aged 40-64 years who had recently participated in PA-WISE-facilitated health coaching and lifestyle programs (HC/LSPs).

METHODS – DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Researchers conducted individual telephone interviews with 38 women from four discrete samples of PA-WISE participants at 4 time points. Three researchers used grounded theory, and an iterative process of line-by-line coding, data display, and reanalysis to identify emerging themes, sub-themes, and their relationships.

RESULTS

Participants shared the important benefits of specific PA-WISE program traits. However, participants described significant financial constraints, difficult schedules, caregiving responsibilities, and insufficient social support as persistent challenges in their lives, making lifestyle changes in general, and program participation specifically, difficult.

CONCLUSION

The challenges that low-income and un-/under-insured women identified amplify the importance of having interventions that offer flexibility, options, and tailoring of supports and resources. The timeless challenges articulated by participants in this study completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic, remain relevant to be addressed through the pandemic and beyond.

Place, Power, and Premature Mortality: A Rapid Scoping Review on the Health of Women in Appalachia

OBJECTIVE

Appalachian women continue to die younger than in other US regions. We performed a rapid scoping review to summarize women's health research in Appalachia from 2000 to 2019, including health topics, study populations, theoretical frameworks, methods, and findings.

DATA SOURCE

We searched bibliographic databases (eg, PubMed, PsycINFO, Google Scholar) for literature focusing on women's health in Appalachia.

STUDY INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA

Included articles were: (1) on women's health in Appalachia; (2) published January 2000 to June 2019; (3) peer-reviewed; and (4) written in English. We excluded studies without reported data findings.

DATA EXTRACTION

Two coders reviewed articles for descriptive information to create summary tables comparing variables of interest.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Two coders co-reviewed a sub-sample to ensure consensus and refine data charting categories. We categorized major findings across the social-ecological framework.

RESULTS

A search of nearly 2 decades of literature revealed 81 articles, which primarily focused on cancer disparities (49.4%) and prenatal/pregnancy outcomes (23.5%). Many of these research studies took place in Central Appalachia (eg, 42.0% in Kentucky) with reproductive or middle-aged women (82.7%). Half of the studies employed quantitative methods, and half used qualitative methods, with few mixed method or community-engaged approaches (3.7%). Nearly half (40.7%) did not specify a theoretical framework. Findings included complex multi-level factors with few articles exploring the co-occurrence of factors across multiple levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Future studies should: 1) systematically include Appalachian women at various life stages from under-represented sub-regions; 2) expand the use of rigorous methods and specified theoretical frameworks to account for complex interactions of social-ecological factors; and 3) build upon existing community assets to improve health in this vulnerable population.

Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Response in Rural Areas in Poland: Retrospective Study

The aim of the study was to identify the characteristics of missions performed by HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) crews and the analysis of health problems, which are the most common cause of intervention in rural areas in Poland. The study was conducted using a retrospective analysis based on the medical records of patients provided by the HEMS crew, who were present for the emergencies in rural areas in the period from January 2011 to December 2018. The final analysis included 37,085 cases of intervention by HEMS crews, which accounted for 54.91% of all the missions carried out in the study period. The majority (67.4%) of patients rescued were male, and just under a quarter of those rescued were aged between 50-64 years. Injuries (51.04%) and cardiovascular diseases (36.49%) were the main diagnoses found in the study group. Whereas injuries were significantly higher in the male group and patients below 64 years of age, cardiovascular diseases were higher in women and elderly patients (p < 0.001). Moreover, in the group of women myocardial infarction was significantly more frequent (30.95%) than men, while in the group of men head injuries (27.10%), multiple and multi-organ injuries (25.93%), sudden cardiac arrest (14.52%), stroke (12.19%), and epilepsy (4.95%) was significantly higher. Factors that are associated with the most common health problems of rural patients are: gender and age, as well as the seasons of the year and the values of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Revised Trauma Score (RTS), and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) used to assess the clinical status of patients.

Consumo de alimentos y ataque cerebrovascular isquémico agudo. Estudio multicéntrico de casos y controles

Introducción. La dieta es uno de los factores asociados al ataque cerebrovascular (ACV) con un impacto particular sobre las diferentes poblaciones.Objetivo. Evaluar la asociación entre el consumo de alimentos y el ACV isquémico en una muestra de pacientes adultos en Colombia.Materiales y métodos. Estudio de casos (n=357) y controles (n=348) con casos incidentes de ACV isquémico agudo. El consumo de alimentos fue evaluado mediante un cuestionario de frecuencia de consumo. Se calculó el odds ratio (OR) con sus respectivos intervalos de confianza (IC) del 95% mediante modelos de regresión logística.Resultados. Se identificaron 10 alimentos asociados con el ACV isquémico agudo. Según la escala propuesta (número de modelos con asociación significativa), un solo alimento se ubicó en la categoría de evidencia fuerte de asociación (gallina), cuatro en categoría débil (chocolate, harina de trigo, manteca, aguacate) y cinco en la categoría sospechosa (pollo con piel, pollo sin piel, arroz, arracacha, yuca).Conclusiones. El consumo de chocolate de mesa (preparado en leche con una composición de 70% azúcar y 30% cacao), aguacate y pollo sin piel podría sugerir un efecto protector, mientras la alta ingesta de harina de trigo, gallina, manteca, atún en agua, arroz, pollo con piel, arracacha y yuca podría aumentar el riesgo de presentar ACV isquémico agudo.

The Association between Socioeconomic Status and Adherence to Health Check-up in Korean Adults, Based on the 2010-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background

We investigated the association between socioeconomic status and adherence to health check-ups in a Korean population aged 40 years or older.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 12,311 participants who participated in the 2010–2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess each participant's socioeconomic status (household income, occupation, and education) and adherence to health check-ups.

Results

Men with a higher income (highest vs. lowest: odds ratio [OR], 1.799; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.296–2.497) and men with a higher education level (≥12 vs. <6 years: OR, 1.488; 95% CI, 1.078–2.054) and office workers compared with manual workers (men: OR, 1.431; 95% CI, 1.077–1.902; women: OR, 1.783; 95% CI, 1.256–2.532) appeared to undergo more health check-ups. In particular, men and women with a higher income and education appeared more likely to undergo opportunistic health check-ups (men: highest vs. lowest income: OR, 2.380; 95% CI, 1.218–4.653; ≥12 vs. <6 years education: OR, 2.121; 95% CI, 1.142–3.936; women: highest vs. lowest income: OR, 4.042; 95% CI, 2.239–7.297; ≥12 vs. <6 years education: OR, 2.475; 95% CI, 1.283–4.775).

Conclusion

A higher socioeconomic status was associated with a higher rate of participation in health check-ups. More efforts are needed to identify the factors associated with disparity in adherence to health check-ups.

Dietary transition and excess weight in adults according to the Encuesta de la Situación Nutricional en Colombia, 2010

INTRODUCTION

Dietary transition is codetermined by demographic and nutritional transitions. 

OBJECTIVES

To establish the prevalence of overweight individuals among Colombians aged 18 to 64, identify their dietary patterns and establish the relationship between this and their excess weight. 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We analyzed the Encuesta de la Situación Nutricional en Colombia, 2010 (National Survey of the Nutritional Situation in Colombia, 2010). Dietary patterns were established with factor analysis in 5,217 subjects, who answered a questionnaire on food consumption frequency. The relationship between excess weight and adherence to quartiles in the patterns was established with binomial regression. 

RESULTS

The prevalence of excess weight was 47.4% in men (95% CI: 44.7; 50.0) and 57.1% in women (95% CI: 54.9; 59.3, p<0.0001). Three patterns were established: protein/fiber, sandwich/snack and traditional/starch. When the models were adjusted for age, sex and level of food security in the home, the protein/fiber and traditional/starch patterns were found to be associated with excess weight (test of linear trend for quartiles of adherence, p=0.007 and p=0.001, respectively). Neither the frequency of consumption of carbonated and sugary drinks, with an adjusted relative risk of 100 (95% CI: 93 - 109; p=0.913), nor that of fast food with 102 (95% CI: 89; 117; p=0.759) were associated with excess weight. 

CONCLUSIONS

Excess weight increases constantly with age, particularly in women, and is associated positively with indicators of socioeconomic status and subjects changing from the traditional/starch pattern to the protein/fiber one.

Cardiovascular Risk in Men Aged Over 40 in Boa Vista, Brazil

Background:

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of disease in the developed world. Early detection and risk prediction are a key component in reducing cardiovascular mortality. The Framingham Risk Score uses age, sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking to calculate the 10-year risk probability of developing cardiovascular disease for a given patient. The aim of this study was to examine cardiovascular disease risk in men aged over 40 years in Boa Vista, Brazil and identify socioeconomic factors contributing to the risk.

Methods:

This was an epidemiological, cross-sectional, descriptive study. Physical examination and questionnaire survey were conducted on the participants.

Results:

Of the 598 participants (average age = 55.38 ± 10.77 years), 346 completed all the examinations and answered the survey, while 252 completed the survey and the physical examinations but did not undertake the laboratory tests. A large proportion of participants were overweight (42.6%) or obese (23.6%), 14.5% were hypertensive, and 71.9% were prehypertensive. Consumption of red meat and junk food was high, while participation in the exercise was low. Framingham scores ranged from −3 to 13 (mean score: 3.86 ± 3.16). A total of 204 participants (34.1%) had a low risk of cardiovascular disease, 98 (16.4%) had a medium risk, and 44 (7.4%) possessed high risk. Increased abdominal circumference (P = 0.013), resting pulse (P = 0.002), and prostate-specific antigen levels (P < 0.001) were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions:

Our study highlights a worrying trend in increasing obesity and hypertension, most likely associated with increasingly poor diet and reduced participation in exercises. As the Brazilian population ages, this will drive increasing rates of cardiovascular mortality unless these trends are reversed. This study suggests that such campaigns should focus on men over the age of 40, who are married or divorced and of lower income.