This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to examine the mediation of body mass index (BMI) on the association between per capita sugar consumption and diabetes prevalence using country-related data.
Research design and methods
In this ecological study, based on 192 countries, data on per capita sugar consumption were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on BMI from the World Health Organization and on diabetes prevalence from the International Diabetes Federation. Data on demography and economic factors were obtained from the Central Intelligence Agency, the United Nations and the FAO. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between per capita sugar consumption and diabetes prevalence, and mediation analysis to detect the mediated percentage of BMI on this association.
Results
Each increase of 100 kcal/day per capita sugar consumption was associated with a 1.62% higher diabetes prevalence [adjusted β-estimator (95% CI): 1.62 (0.71, 2.53)]. Mediation analysis using BMI as the mediator demonstrated an adjusted direct association of 0.55 (95% CI: − 0.22, 1.32) and an adjusted indirect association of 1.07 (95% CI: 0.54, 1.68). Accordingly, the BMI explained 66% (95% CI: 34%, 100%) of the association between per capita sugar consumption on diabetes prevalence.
Conclusions
These findings indicate that the association between dietary sugar intake and the occurrence of diabetes is mediated by BMI to a large proportion. However, it seems that other mechanisms may explain the association between sugar consumption and development of type 2 diabetes.
Linear structures in winter cereals like tramlines are frequently used but high-risk nesting sites for Eurasian Skylarks when crop vegetation becomes impenetrable during May. However, their influence on nest-site selection before vegetation greatly limits choice is less studied. Between 2017 and 2019, we located 32 nests in winter cereals during the early breeding season and show that Skylarks nested 2 m further away from linear structures than expected if nest location was random. We interpret this avoidance as anti-predation behavior and propose additional tramline fragments for conservation management. Moreover, we confirm earlier findings about a higher nest predation risk on linear structures and a shifting of nesting sites towards them in the later breeding season.
Reduced food availability during chick raising is a major driver of farmland bird declines. For the Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), food availability is determined by various factors (i.e., arthropod abundance/diversity, accessibility of the vegetation, distance to foraging sites). In modern farmland, it is supposed to decrease over the breeding season due to less penetrable vegetation. We explored foraging habitat selection by chick-raising Skylarks with a focus on the seasonal dynamics of habitat use and food availability. We investigated (i) habitat selection concerning prey biomass/
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.