Background/Objectives:Psychosocial stress has been proposed to contribute to obesity, particularly abdominal, or central obesity, through chronic activation of the neuroendocrine systems. However, these putative relationships are complex and dependent on country and cultural context. We investigated the association between psychosocial factors and general and abdominal obesity in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic study.Subjects/Methods:This observational, cross-sectional study enrolled 151 966 individuals aged 35–70 years from 628 urban and rural communities in 17 high-, middle- and low-income countries. Data were collected for 125 290 individuals regarding education, anthropometrics, hypertension/diabetes, tobacco/alcohol use, diet and psychosocial factors (self-perceived stress and depression).Results:After standardization for age, sex, country income and urban/rural location, the proportion with obesity (body mass index ⩾30 kg m−2) increased from 15.7% in 40 831 individuals with no stress to 20.5% in 7720 individuals with permanent stress, with corresponding proportions for ethnicity- and sex-specific central obesity of 48.6% and 53.5%, respectively (P<0.0001 for both). Associations between stress and hypertension/diabetes tended to be inverse. Estimating the total effect of permanent stress with age, sex, physical activity, education and region as confounders, no relationship between stress and obesity persisted (adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) for obesity 1.04 (95% confidence interval: 0.99–1.10)). There was no relationship between ethnicity- and sex-specific central obesity (adjusted PR 1.00 (0.97–1.02)). Stratification by region yielded inconsistent associations. Depression was weakly but independently linked to obesity (PR 1.08 (1.04–1.12)), and very marginally to abdominal obesity (PR 1.01 (1.00–1.03)).Conclusions:Although individuals with permanent stress tended to be slightly more obese, there was no overall independent effect and no evidence that abdominal obesity or its consequences (hypertension, diabetes) increased with higher levels of stress or depression. This study does not support a causal link between psychosocial factors and abdominal obesity.

Background: Inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are a well-known risk factors for health effects. Many questionnaires evaluate physical activity (PA) level; however, the evaluation of sedentary behavior needs more attention. Sedentary behavior questionnaire (SBQ) is a reliable, valid, and easy-to-administer tool. The current study aimed at cross-culturally adapting and assessing the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of SBQ. Methods: SBQ consists of 9 items related to sedentary lifestyle both on weekdays and weekends. SBQ was administrated to 235 participants with the attrition rate of 24%, followed by a repeated administration after 7 days to assess its reliability. Criterion-related validity was analyzed with the international physical activity questionnaire-short form (IPAQ-SF) within the construct validity of the SBQ. Test-retest reliability was assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), while the Spearman rho was used for criterionrelated validity. Results: The ICC scores for each parameter ranged from 0.388 to 0.771. The obtained results showed moderate to good test-retest reliability. The validity results of SBQ somewhat violated the standards, which are generally accepted. Items of SBQ "watching TV (including videos on VCD/DVD)", "sitting and talking on the phone or being busy on the phone", and "doing paperwork or computer work (office work, e-mails, paying bills, etc.)" correlated significantly with body mass index (BMI) (r = -0.138 to 0.247, P < 0.05). Conclusions:The SBQ had good reliability and acceptable validity to assess sedentary behaviors in a Turkish population.

Soğuk ortamda çalışma yıllarının kas iskelet sistemi ve karpal tünel sendromu semptomları üzerine etkisiYasin Devran ALTUNTAŞ, Tamer ÇANKAYA

This study aimed to investigate the effects of exergaming on flexibility, muscle strength, reaction time, and walking speed of adults within sex differences. Fifty-four individuals participated in a 12-week exergaming program. Three 30-min sessions were conducted each week. Baseline and post-intervention assessments were done using the sit-and-reach and bend-over tests for flexibility, hand-held dynamometer for muscle strength, auditory and visual reaction time machine for reaction time, and 5-meter walk test for walking speed. There were no significant changes in the sit-and-reach, bend-over test, and auditory-visual reaction time for either gender ( p > .05) with the intervention. Walking speed and muscle strength improved after exergaming in both sexes ( p < .05). The study showed that the video gaming intervention led to significant and equal improvements in muscle strength and walking speed for both sexes; however, it had no impact on flexibility and auditory-visual reaction time.