Although simple renal cysts are thought to be related to hypertension, no reports have examined the relationship between simple renal cysts and prehypertension. Here, we evaluated the effects of simple renal cysts on prehypertension and hypertension and the role of serum renin levels in the cyst-related prehypertension/hypertension in adults. A total of 14,995 patients were enrolled and divided into normotension, prehypertension, and hypertension groups. Simple renal cysts were classified into different categories based on number (1 vs. ≥ 2 cm) and size (<2 vs. ≥ 2 cm). In multivariate analysis, simple renal cysts were independently related to prehypertension/hypertension. Two or more simple renal cysts or cyst of ≥ 2 cm were independently associated with prehypertension/hypertension. However, the association between cyst of ≥ 2 cm and prehypertension/hypertension disappeared after further adjusting for serum renin level in an exposure-matched subgroup analysis. Thus, the presence of two or more simple renal cysts and cyst of ≥ 2 cm were the important determinants of prehypertension and hypertension in adults. One possible mechanism of cyst-related prehypertension/hypertension may be related to an increased serum renin level. We recommend close monitoring of blood pressure routinely among patients with two or more simple renal cysts.

AimTo investigate the longitudinal impacts of pubertal timing and weight status on Internet use in adolescents.MethodsThree waves of data on a longitudinal cohort of 7th grade students (N = 2430) were retrieved from the Taiwan Youth Project. Univariate and multivariate regression models were applied using crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) to examine the concomitant impacts of pubertal timing and weight status on adolescent Internet use.ResultsThe dataset identified 210 (8.7%) students using the Internet for more than 20 hours/week, and 81 (3.3%) were viewing pornographic material online. Early maturing and thin-weight adolescents were at 35% and 46% increased risks of spending long hours on Internet use, respectively. While early puberty was associated with online pornography viewing among males (adjusted OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.04–3.28), early puberty was contrarily a protective factor against online gaming in females (adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.36–0.96).ConclusionEarly puberty was found to be positively related to adolescent Internet use. Appropriate health education and guidance regarding Internet use should be provided to those with different developing needs.

Conceptual and actual pubertal developments may be differentially associated with psychobehavioral outcomes among young Taiwanese girls. Clinical attention should be given to adolescent self-perception of sexual maturation and developmental guidance provided accordingly.

Measurement invariance is an important assumption to meaningfully compare children’s quality of life (QoL) between different raters (eg, children and parents) and across genders. Moreover, QoL instruments may combine using negatively and positively worded items—a common method to reduce response bias. However, the wording effects may have different levels of impact on different raters and genders. Our aim was to investigate the measurement invariance of Kid-KINDL, a commonly used QoL instrument, across genders and raters and to consider the wording effects simultaneously. Third to sixth graders (208 boys and 235 girls) completed the self-rated Kid-KINDL, and 1 parent each of 241 children completed the parent-rated Kid-KINDL. The wording effects were accounted for by correlated traits-uncorrelated methods model. The measurement invariance was examined using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Item loadings and item intercepts were invariant across gender and rater when we simultaneously accounted for the wording effects of Kid-KINDL. Our results suggest that Kid-KINDL could be used to compare QoL across gender and that parent-rated Kid-KINDL could be used to measure children’s QoL. Specifically, the invariant factor loadings across child-rated and parent-rated Kid-KINDL suggest that the score weights in each item were the same for both children and parents (ie, the important items identified by the children are the same items identified by the parents). The invariant item intercepts suggest that both children and parents share the same threshold for each item. Based on the results, we tentatively recommend that each score of a parent-rated Kid-KINDL can stand for each child’s QoL.