Background To investigate the current use status of official WeChat accounts for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in public health education and relevant factors that can impact the effectiveness of message delivery. Methods A retrospective survey was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of official WeChat accounts. About 531 official WeChat accounts and 50 939 articles were analyzed using a cluster sampling survey design. The Kruskal–Wallis test and multivariate logistic regression were used to explore factors associated with the usefulness of the number of views and “Likes” of the articles. Results The study identified a total of 531 public WeChat accounts, including 19 province-level accounts, 179 municipal-level accounts and 333 county-level accounts. In the univariable analysis, the administrative level of the account, article order, time segment, article originality and thematic category were associated with the number of views and “Likes.” Province-level accounts, first articles, the 5:00–6:00 time segment, original articles and theme 3 (emergencies) had higher numbers of views and “Likes” than the others (P < 0.05). Conclusions Promoting health education through Official WeChat account is an effective, sustainable and feasible strategy. Potential indicators of the impact of public health education suggest that administrators should effectively use official WeChat accounts for public health education.

In order to explore frailty subtypes and find their associated risk factors, we conducted cross-sectional surveys of 5,341 seniors aged 60 and over in China using the Frailty Index (FI) scale. We identified four frailty subtypes, namely multi-frail, cognitive and functionally frail, psychologically frail and physiologically frail. Old age and low education level were the common risk factors among the four subtypes. Being widowed, divorced or unmarried was a risk factor for multi-frail, cognitive and functionally frail and psychologically frail, and male sex was a protective factor against cognitive and functionally frail and psychologically frail subtypes. Having a harmonious relationship with family was a protective factor against multi-frail, and fewer visits to the elderly by their children was a risk factor for psychologically frail. Dissatisfaction with their housing was a risk factor for cognitive and functionally frail, psychologically frail and physiologically frail, and a pension being the main source of income was a risk factor for cognitive and functionally frail and psychologically frail. Exercising every day was a protective factor against multi-frail and cognitive and functionally frail, and a lower level of physical activity was a risk factor for all four frailty subtypes. Our findings confirm the heterogeneity of frailty and suggest that different frail elderly individuals need more targeted care interventions.

Background An estimated 5–10 % of healthy vaccinees lack adequate antibody response following receipt of a standard three-dose hepatitis B vaccination regimen. The cellular mechanisms responsible for poor immunological responses to hepatitis B vaccine have not been fully elucidated to date. Methods There were 61 low responders and 56 hyper responders involved in our study. Peripheral blood samples were mainly collected at D7, D14 and D28 after revaccinated with a further dose of 20 µg of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. Results We found low responders to the hepatitis B vaccine presented lower frequencies of circulating follicular helper T (cTfh) cells, plasmablasts and a profound skewing away from cTfh2 and cTfh17 cells both toward cTfh1 cells. Importantly, the skewing of Tfh cell subsets correlated with IL-21 and protective antibody titers. Based on the key role of microRNAs involved in Tfh cell differentiation, we revealed miR-19b-1 and miR-92a-1 correlated with the cTfh cell subsets distribution and antibody production. Conclusions Our findings highlighted a decrease in cTfh cells and specific subset skewing contribute to reduced antibody responses in low responders.

Health-risk assessments of temperature are central to determine total non-accidental human mortality; however, few studies have investigated the effect of temperature on accidental human mortality. We performed a time-series study combined with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to quantify the non-linear and delayed effects of daily mean temperature on accidental human mortality between 2013 and 2017 in Shenzhen, China. The threshold for effects of temperature on accidental human mortality occurred between 5.6 °C and 18.5 °C. Cold exposures, but not hot exposures, were significantly associated with accidental human mortality. All of the observed groups were susceptible to cold effects, with the strongest effects presented in females (relative risk [RR]: 3.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.44-6.84]), followed by poorly educated people (RR: 2.63, 95% CI [1.59-4.36]), males (RR: 1.79, 95% CI [1.10-2.92]), and well-educated people (RR: 1.20, 95% CI [0.58-2.51]). Pooled estimates for cold effects at a lag of 0-21 days (d) were also stronger than hot effects at a lag of 0-2 d. Our results indicate that low temperatures increased the risk of accidental human mortality. Females and poorly educated people were more susceptible to the low temperatures. These findings imply that interventions which target vulnerable populations during cold days should be developed to reduce accidental human mortality risk. Along with the climate change, the effect of temperature on human mortality remains an issue of increasing public health significance worldwide 1. The considerable temperature impact on human mortality have been extensively reported in many countries at global. For example, a global study including 306 communities across twelve countries /regions with varies climate patterns revealed both cold and hot temperatures increased the risk of non-accidental human mortality 2. A national study of mortality including 12 large cities in China found that 1 °C increase of moderately high temperature is associated with 4.6%, 4.2%, and 6.3% in mortality of non-accidental cause, circulatory disease and respiratory disease, respectively 3. The proportion of temperature-related stroke death was 17.7% in southern China 4. These findings highlight the adverse effects of temperature on non-accidental human mortality. However, most of previous studies on this subject have been focus on examining the effects of temperature on non-accidental human mortality and cause-specific human mortality, few studies have quantified the effects of temperature on accidental human mortality, especially in China, despite growing awareness of human vulnerability to weather change. Accidental human mortality was characterized by unexpected causes, and unintentional events or behavior, including transport accidents and other external causes of accidental injury, such as falls, accidental drowning and submersion, accidental poisoning. It is a well-recognized major cause of death and contributes significantly to health care costs and the burden on society...

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We conducted a cross-sectional study investigating community-dwelling older population to determine association between immunoscenescence marker, inflammatory cytokines and frailty. Frailty status was classified with 33-item modified frailty index and latent class analysis was applied to explore the latent classes (subtypes) of frailty. In multivariable analysis, higher Tfh2 cells were associated with a higher risk of frailty [1.13(1.03-1.25)] in females, but a lower risk of cognitive and functional frail [0.92(0.86-0.99)] and physiological frail [0.92(0.87-0.98)]. Additionally, a greater risk of multi-frail and physiological frail correlated with low Tfh1 [0.

Hot air roasting is a popular method for preparing almonds, but it takes a long time. We roasted almonds via dielectric heating using 5 kW, 40.68 MHz batch radio-frequency (RF) equipment and analyzed their quality and aroma using a gas chromatography/ion mobility spectrometer and sensory evaluation. Almonds with an initial moisture content of 8.47% (w.b.) were heated at an RF electrode gap of 10 cm; the target roasting temperature of 120 °C was achieved at weights of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 kg for 4, 3.5, 7.5, and 11 min, respectively; and the moisture content was reduced to less than 2% (w.b.). For comparison, 1 kg of almonds was roasted in a 105 °C conventional oven for 120 min. The darker color and lower moisture content, water activity, and acid value of the RF-roasted almonds were favorable for preservation. The aroma analysis using gas chromatography/ion mobility spectroscopy (GC–IMS) revealed that the aroma signal after roasting was richer than that of raw almonds, and principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that the aromas of roasted and commercial almonds were similar. The RF-roasted almonds presented a better flavor, texture, and overall preferability compared to commercial almonds. RF heating could be used in the food industry to roast nuts.

Objective: To characterize the patients in the diabetes mellitus (DM) multimorbidity network in people over 50 years and explore the association between DM and other chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the variations in age and sex subgroups.Methods: Data on 75 NCDs were extracted from electronic medical record of 309,843 hospitalized patients older than 50-years-old who had at least one NCD. The association rules analysis was used as a novel cluster method. Result: The four NCDs that co-occurred with DM at the highest prevalence were hypertension (Hyp) (14.19%), dyslipidemia (Dys) (7.27%), cerebrovascular disease (CVD) (7.00%) and chronic liver disease (CLD) (6.15%). The most common triads were (Hyp, CVD, DM) (5.55%); (Hyp, Dys, DM) (4.80%); and (Hyp, coronary heart disease (CHD), DM) (4.44%). A total of 12 NCDs were closely related to DM ( >1.1) with (cholelithiasis (Cho), DM) as an unexpected combination. Coexistence of (Dys, DM) and (gout, DM) had the largest in male and female groups. The negative related cluster contained seven NCDs ( <0.9). There were nine NCDs included in the strong association rules. In males, the strongest rule was (peripheral vascular disease (PVD), Dys, DM), while (Hyp, Dys, CLD, DM) was the strongest in females. Most combinations were different by age and sex. In patients younger than 70 years, Hyp, CLD, and Dys were the most dominant NCDs in the DM multimorbidity network. In patients 70 years or older, chronic kidney disease (CKD), CVD, CHD, and heart disease (HD) frequently co-occurred with DM. Gout was more common in females. There were differences in the findings for Dys in male and female groups. Conclusion: Future primary healthcare policies for DM should be formulated based on age and sex. In patients younger than 70 years, more attention for hypertension, CLD, and Dyslipidemia is needed, while attention for CKD, CVD, CHD and HD is needed in patients older than 70 years. More attention should be paid to the prevention and treatment of the concurrence of gout and DM in females. Furthermore, there should be different recommendations in the guidelines for treatment of dyslipidemia in DM patients by sex.