Background

No abstract

Objective: To identify major dietary patterns and their association with socioeconomic status (SES) and food insecurity in two major ethnic groups living in Urmia, north-west Iran. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: All four geographical zones of Urmia city. Subjects: Participants (n 723; 427 women and 296 men), aged 20-64 years, from two ethnic groups (445 Azeri Turks and 278 Kurds). Results: Three major dietary patterns were extracted: 'Traditional High SES' (THS), 'Traditional Low SES' (TLS) and 'Transitional'. After adjusting for confounders, the THS pattern was positively associated with education level and negatively associated with moderate or severe food insecurity in Azeri Turks; whereas, among Kurds, it was more common in women and positively associated with age. The TLS pattern was more common among men and negatively associated with educational level and all levels of food insecurity in Azeris; while, among Kurds, it was more common among men, positively associated with being married and negatively associated with household income/capita. The 'Transitional' pattern was positively associated with being employed and negatively associated with age and all levels of food insecurity in Azeris; while, among Kurds, it was more common among men and negatively associated with age, being married and physical activity level. Conclusions: Findings suggest that household SES and food insecurity are associated with detrimental dietary patterns and that this effect may be stronger than cultural and ethnic background. These patterns differ by age and gender. Therefore, such characteristics should be considered in planning and formulating diet-related policies and programmes.

This article describes a methodology for applying a discrete-time survival model-the complementary log-log model-to estimate effects of socioeconomic variables on (1) the total fertility rate and its components and (2) trends in the total fertility rate and its components. For the methodology to be applicable, the total fertility rate (TFR) must be calculated from parity progression ratios (PPRs). The components of the TFR are PPRs, the total marital fertility rate (TMFR), and the TFR itself as measures of the quantum of fertility, and mean and median ages at first marriage and mean and median closed birth intervals by birth order as measures of the tempo or timing of fertility. The focus is on effects of predictor variables on these measures rather than on coefficients, which are often difficult to interpret in the complex models that are considered. The methodology is applicable to both period and cohort data. It is illustrated by application to data from the 1993, 1998, and 2003 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in the Philippines.

PurposeTo determine whether 5-methylenetetrahydrofolate (MTHF) is more effective than folic acid supplementation in treatment of recurrent abortion in different MTHFR gene C677T and A1298C polymorphisms.MethodsA randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted April 2011-September 2014 in recurrent abortion clinics in Tehran, Iran. The participants were women with three or more idiopathic recurrent abortion, aged 20 to 45 years. Two hundred and twenty eligible women who consented to participate were randomly assigned to receive either folic acid or 5-MTHF according to the stratified blocked randomization by age and the number of previous abortions. Participants took daily 1 mg 5-methylentetrahydrofolate or 1 mg folic acid from at least 8 weeks before conception to the 20th week of the pregnancy. The primary outcome was ongoing pregnancy rate at 20th week of pregnancy, and the secondary outcomes were serum folate and homocysteine at the baseline, after 8 weeks, and at the gestational age of 4, 8, 12, and 20 weeks, MTHFR gene C677T and A1298C polymorphisms.ResultsThere was no significant difference in abortion rate between two groups. Serum folate increased significantly in both groups over time; these changes were significantly higher in the group receiving 5-MTHF than the group receiving folic acid (value = 2.39, p<00.1) and the result was the same by considering the time (value = 1.24, p<0.01). Plasma tHcys decreased significantly in both groups over time; however these changes were not significantly different between the groups (value = 0.01, p = 0.47).ConclusionThe results do not support any beneficial effect of 5-MTHF vs. folate supplementation in women with recurrent abortion with any MTHFR C677T and/or A1298C polymorphism.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01976676

It is well known that dietary intakes play a pivotal role in pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); however, the role of each component of diet has not yet been elucidated. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of onion consumption on prevention of NAFLD/NASH development. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either high-fat, high sugar diet (model group), or high-fat, high sugar diet plus 7% onion powder (model + onion), or chow diet ad libitum for 7 weeks. Serum levels of fasting glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, liver enzymes, insulin, and hepatic tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene expression were determined. Hepatic histology was examined by H&E stain. Model + onion group had significantly lower hepatic steatosis, ballooning, lobular inflammation, and portal inflammation ( < 0.001), lower hepatic TNF-α gene expression ( < 0.001), lower plasma levels of ALT ( = 0.026), AST ( = 0.041), insulin ( < 0.001), TG ( = 0.041), and glucose ( = 0.009) compared with model group; however, weight gain, food intake, plasma total cholesterol and LDL levels were not significantly different between these two groups. Our data indicate that regular consumption of onion can prevent NAFLD even in the presence of the other risk factors such as obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and high energy, fat, and sugar intakes.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of onion powder consumption on treatment of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in an experimental model of disease.

Background The objective of the present study was to compare the ability of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) scoring systems with the combination of an anthropometric variable score “adductor pollicis muscle (APM) thickness” to the APACHE systems in predicting mortality in the intensive care unit. Methods A prospective observational study was conducted with the APM thickness in the dominant hand, and APACHE II and III scores were measured for each patient upon admission. Given scores for the APM thickness were added to APACHE score systems to make two composite scores of APACHE II-APM and APACHE III-APM. The accuracy of the two composite models and APACHE II and III systems in predicting mortality of patients was compared using the area under the ROC curve. Results Three hundred and four patients with the mean age of 54.75 ± 18.28 years were studied, of which 96 (31.57%) patients died. Median (interquartile range) of APACHE II and III scores was 15 (12–20) and 47 (33–66), respectively. Median (interquartile range) of APM thickness was 15 (12–17) mm, respectively. The area under the ROC curves for the prediction of mortality was 0.771 (95% CI: 0.715–0.827), 0.802 (95% CI: 0.751–0.854), 0.851 (95% CI: 0.807–0.896), and 0.865 (95% CI: 0.822–0.908) for APACHE II, APACHE III, APACHE II-APM, and APACHE III-APM, respectively. Conclusion Although improvements in the area under ROC curves were not statistically significant when the APM thickness added to the APACHE systems, but the numerical value added to AUCs are considerable.