No abstract

Aims: To examine the association of weight status with the prevalence of blood pressure (BP), vital capacity, dental decay, and visual acuity among school-age children in Chengdu, China and to find the potential role of weight status to predict the common and frequently occurring diseases among school-age children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 12,297 children aged 6-18 years from 10 schools in the Jinniu District of Chengdu, China. Body height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and BP were measured. Vital capacity, dental decay, and visual acuity were detected. Results: The overall prevalence of underweight, overweight, obesity, abdominal obesity, high BP, bad vital capacity weight index, dental decay, and low vision were 7.18, 13.47, 7.57, 18.90, 2.78, 21.93, 38.81, and 45.79%, respectively. After controlling for age, gender, and WC, it was found that overweight and obese children had a higher risk of developing high BP than normal weight children ([OR 4.20, p < 0.001] and [OR 8.76, p < 0.001], respectively), And adjusting for age, gender, and chest circumference, the risk of having bad vital capacity weight index among children with overweight and obesity was higher ([OR 2.15, p < 0.001] and [OR 5.40, p < 0.001], respectively), and the risk with underweight was lower (OR 0.35, p < 0.001). After eliminating the influential factors of gender and age, children who were underweight were 1.16 times (OR 1.16, p = 0.048) more likely to have caries than children with normal weight, but obese children were found to have a lower prevalence for dental cavities than children with normal weight (OR 0.79, p = 0.002). Underweight and obese children had a higher prevalence of low vision; the OR of the appearance of low vision was 1.21 (p = 0.016) for underweight children and 1.23 (p = 0.009) for obese children after adjusting the age and gender. Conclusions: Abnormal weight status among Chengdu urban school-age children was found to be a severe health problem, and it was strongly associated with BP, vital capacity, dental decay, and visual acuity.

Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) might predict the all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the correlation between GNRI and all-cause mortality in patients with HF. METHODS: We searched the PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases for clinical trials investigating the association between GNRI and all-cause mortality in patients with HF, having the primary endpoint as all-cause mortality. RESULTS: In total, nine studies involving 7,659 subjects were included in the systematic review and metaanalysis. The results indicated that major risk and moderate risk GNRI (GNRIo92) was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in elderly patients with HF (hazard ratios [HR] 1.59, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.37-1.85). Low risk GNRI (GNRIo98) group predicted all-cause mortality in elderly HF patients (HR 1.56, 95%CI 1.12-2.18) when compared with the high GNRI value group. A subgroup analysis indicated that the relationship between GNRI and HF might differ based on the subtype of heart failure. CONCLUSIONS: GNRI is a simple and well-established nutritional assessment tool to predict all-cause mortality in patients with HF.

This meta-analysis showed that ApaI, TaqI polymorphisms in VDR gene correlate with psoriasis in Caucasians.

Objective Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is of concern in employed adults, while the crucial indicators in predicting MAFLD are understudied in this population. We aimed to investigate and compare the prediction performance of a set of indicators for MAFLD in employed adults. Methods A cross-sectional study recruiting 7968 employed adults was conducted in southwest China. MAFLD was assessed by abdominal ultrasonography and physical examination. Comprehensive indicators of demographics, anthropometric, lifestyle, psychological, and biochemical indicators were collected by questionnaire or physical examination. All indicators were evaluated for importance in predicting MAFLD by random forest. A prognostic model based on multivariate regression model was constructed to obtain a prognostic index. All indicators and prognostic index were compared to evaluate their prediction performance in predicting MAFLD by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, calibration plot, and Decision curve analysis (DCA). Results Triglyceride Glucose-Body Mass Index (TyG-BMI), BMI, TyG, triglyceride (TG)/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and TG ranked the top five important indicators, and TyG-BMI performed the most accurate prediction of MAFLD according to the ROC curve, calibration plot and DCA. The area under the ROC curves (AUCs) of the five indicators were all over 0.7, with TyG-BMI (cut-off value: 218.284, sensitivity: 81.7%, specificity: 78.3%) suggesting the most sensitive and specific indicator. All five indicators showed higher prediction performance and net benefit than the prognostic model. Conclusion This epidemiological study firstly compared a set of indicators to evaluate their prediction performance in predicting MAFLD risk among employed adults. Intervention targeting powerful predictors can be helpful to reduce the MAFLD risk among employed adults.