Objectives To investigate the relationship between metabolically healthy obesity and cardiovascular disease risk in Taiwanese individuals. Methods Taiwanese individuals were recruited from a nationwide, representative community-based prospective cohort study and classified according to body mass index as follows: normal weight (18.5–23.9 kilogram (kg)/meter(m)2) and obesity/overweight (≥24 kg/m2). Participants without diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia and who did not meet the metabolic syndrome without waist circumference criteria were considered metabolically healthy. The study end points were cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained from a Cox regression analysis. Results Among 5 358 subjects (mean [standard deviation] age, 44.5 [15.3] years; women, 48.2%), 1 479 were metabolically healthy with normal weight and 491 were metabolically healthy with obesity. The prevalence of metabolically healthy obesity/overweight was 8.6% in the Taiwanese general population, which included individuals who were >20 years old, not pregnant, and did not have CVD (n = 5,719). In the median follow-up period of 13.7 years, 439 cardiovascular disease events occurred overall and 24 in the metabolically healthy obesity group. Compared with the reference group, the metabolically healthy obesity group had a significantly higher cardiovascular disease risk (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.74, 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 2.99). Conclusions Individuals with metabolically healthy obesity have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and require aggressive body weight control for cardiovascular disease control.

This article describes a theoretical model and computer program for calculating the pressure–volume ( PV ) diagram and the efficiency of an oil-injected screw compressor. The proposed model considers the mass and energy conservation laws, the heat transfer between air and oil, the leakages through various paths, and the discharges of air and oil. The proposed program, which uses seven empirical constants to account for the difference between the flow and the heat-transfer rates in the screw compressor and those estimated by available correlations, solves for the efficiency and the pressure curve of the compressed air. A systematic methodology for the determination of the seven empirical constants is presented in this article. Optimization is carried out to determine the seven empirical constants. With the empirical constants, which are determined with four sets of experiments, the maximum difference between the calculated and measured results in the training process, the verification process and the total process is 2.0 per cent for the volumetric and isentropic efficiencies and 5 per cent for the pressure curve. In the discharge process, the pressure in the compression chamber is noted to be affected by the area of the outlet port and the pressure in the neighbouring chambers.

Background: To investigate the standardized incidence ratios (SIR) of stroke in patients with head and neck cancer and their relationship to radiotherapy. Methods: Patients with head and neck cancer ages 20–85 years were enrolled from 2007 to 2016 using the Taiwan Cancer Registry. The study endpoint was fatal and non-fatal ischemic stroke, ascertained by the National Health Insurance Research Database. Age- and sex-adjusted SIRs, categorized by 10-year age standardization, were used to compare the patients with head and neck cancer with a randomly selected 2,000,000 general population. We compared the risk of stroke in patients with head and neck cancer who received radiotherapy or surgery alone. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained from Cox regression analysis with competing risk. Results: Among 41,266 patients (mean age, 54.1 years; men, 90.6%) in the median follow-up period of 3.9 years, 1,407 strokes occurred. Compared with the general population, the overall SIR of stroke was 1.37 (95% CI, 1.30–1.44) in patients with head and neck cancer. In patients with head and neck cancer, the fully adjusted HR of stroke in those who received radiotherapy was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.83–1.10), compared with those who received surgery alone. Conclusions: Patients with head and neck cancer had a higher risk of fatal or non-fatal ischemic stroke. The risk of stroke was not higher in patients initially treated with radiotherapy. Impact: Oncologists should emphasize stroke prevention in all patients with head and neck cancer, not only in those who received radiotherapy.

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The protective effect of different healthy lifestyle scores for the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) was reported, although the comparisons of performance were lacking. We compared the performance measures of CVDs from different healthy lifestyle scores among Taiwanese adults. We conducted a nationwide prospective cohort study of 6042 participants (median age 43 years, 50.2% women) in Taiwan’s Hypertensive, Hyperglycemia and Hyperlipidemia Survey, of whom 2002 were free of CVD at baseline. The simple and weighted the Mediterranean diet related healthy lifestyle (MHL) scores were defined as a combination of normal body mass index, Mediterranean diet, adequate physical activity, non-smokers, regular healthy drinking, and each dichotomous lifestyle factor. The World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research cancer prevention recommended lifestyle and Life's Simple 7 following the guideline definition. The incidence of CVD among the four healthy lifestyle scores, each divided into four subgroups, was estimated. During a median 14.3 years follow-up period, 520 cases developed CVD. In the multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models, adherence to the highest category compared with the lowest one was associated with a lower incidence of CVD events, based on the simple (hazard ratio [HR] 0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.2–0.94) and weighted MHL scores (HR 0.44, 95% CI 0.28–0.68). Additionally, age played a role as a significant effect modifier for the protective effect of the healthy lifestyle scores for CVD risk. Specifically, the performance measures by integrated discriminative improvement showed a significant increase after adding the simple MHL score (integrated discriminative improvement: 0.51, 95% CI 0.16–0.86, P = 0.002) and weighted MHL score (integrated discriminative improvement: 0.38, 95% CI 0.01–0.74, P = 0.021). We demonstrated that the healthy lifestyle scores with an inverse association with CVD and reduced CVD risk were more likely for young adults than for old adults. Further studies to study the mechanism of the role of lifestyle on CVD prevention are warranted.

Although previous studies have investigated the relationship between fracture risk and type 2 diabetes (T2D), cohort studies that estimate composite osteoporosis risk are lacking. This retrospective cohort study sought to determine the risk of osteoporosis in Taiwanese patients with T2D. Patients diagnosed with T2D between 2002 and 2015 identified through the 2002 Taiwan Survey of Hypertension, Hyperglycemia, and Hyperlipidemia were included. A total of 1690 men and 1641 women aged ≥40 years linked to the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) were followed up to the end of 2015 to identify the incidences of osteoporosis through ICD9-CM codes for osteoporosis or osteoporotic fractures or usage of anti-osteoporotic agents according to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical codes determined from NHIRD. The person year approach and Kaplan–Meier analysis were then used to estimate the incidences and cumulative event rates, whereas the Cox proportional hazard model was used to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for osteoporosis events. A total of 792 new osteoporosis events were documented over a median follow-up duration of 13.6 years. Participants with T2D had higher osteoporosis risk [adjusted HR: 1.37, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.69] compared with those without T2D. Subgroup analyses revealed that age had a marginally significant effect, indicating that T2D had a more pronounced effect on osteoporosis risk in younger population (<65 years old). No difference was found between patients stratified according to sex. In conclusion, T2D was significantly associated with increased osteoporosis risk, especially in younger participants.

Context Individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) are susceptible to various infections. Objective We estimated the risk of herpes zoster (HZ) among individuals with DM compared to individuals in the general population. Data Sources We searched the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and PerioPath databases from their inception to January 30, 2021 for studies on the risk of HZ in individuals with DM. Study Selection Two authors independently screened all articles identified. Data Extraction The same two authors independently extracted the data. Four case-control studies and 12 cohort studies were included. Data Synthesis Meta-analyses were performed using fixed and mixed-effects models. In the pooled analysis, individuals with DM had a higher risk of developing HZ (pooled relative risk: 1.38, 95% confidence interval: 1.21–1.57) than individuals in the general population. The results were consistent in subgroup analyses stratified by type of diabetes, age, and study design. In individuals with DM, cardiovascular disease had an additive effect on increasing the risk of HZ (pooled relative risk: 1.19, 95% confidence interval: 1.11–1.28). There was a linear dose-response association between age and the risk of HZ in individuals with DM. Conclusion Individuals with DM have an increased risk of HZ compared to the general population. Varicella vaccination should be provided to individuals with DM regardless of their age, prioritizing older adults and those with cardiovascular disease. Varicella vaccination policies for individuals with DM should be updated based on the evidence.

Aims To explore the effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RAs) on glycemic control and weight reduction in adults. Methods Databases were searched from August 2021 to March 2022. Data were analyzed using mean difference (MD) values with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Both random-and fixed-effect models were employed. Heterogeneity was explored using pre-specified subgroup analyses and meta-regression. Structural equation modeling fitting was used for the multivariate meta-analysis. Results A total of 31 double-blind randomized controlled trials with 22,948 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The MD and 95% CI of the pooled GLP1-RA-induced change in the glycated hemoglobin level was -0.78% (-0.97%, -0.60%) in the random-effects model and -0.45% (-0.47%, -0.44%) in the fixed-effect model, with a high heterogeneity (I2 = 97%). The pooled body weight reduction was -4.05 kg (-5.02 kg, -3.09 kg) in the random-effects model and -2.04 kg (-2.16 kg, -1.92 kg) in the fixed-effect model (I2 = 98%). The standardized pooled correlation coefficient between HbA1c levels and body weight was -0.42. A negative correlation between glycemic control and weight reduction was obtained. Conclusion Long-acting GLP-1 RAs significantly reduced the glycated hemoglobin level and body weight in adults.