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BackgroundThere is an ongoing controversial issue regarding whether onset of puberty is related to childhood BMI.ObjectivesThis study aims at investigating the causal association and its shape between prepuberty BMI and early puberty onset.MethodsBreast development and testicular volume were assessed annually from a population-based prospective cohort of 997 children for consecutive years by professional endocrinologists. Seventeen puberty- and BMI-related SNPs were selected to calculate the polygenic risk score. The two-stage least square method was used to assess and confirm causal effects. A dose–response association between prepuberty BMI and early puberty onset was conducted by using restricted cubic spline Cox regression.ResultsAfter adjusting for covariates, prepuberty BMI was positively associated with early thelarche among girls (coefficients = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.29). A non-linear model suggested an inverted U-shaped relationship between prepuberty BMI and risk for early thelarche (χ2 = 276.3, p < 0.001). The risk for early thelarche increased rapidly from prepuberty BMI at 15.70 kg/m2 (P25) to 20.75 kg/m2 (P85) and gradually decreased afterward. Compared with the P25 of prepuberty BMI, the HRs (95% CI) for early thelarche were 5.08 (1.15, 8.55), 4.48 (1.02, 7.74), 10.15 (3.93, 17.50), and 8.43 (1.91, 13.71) for percentiles P25–P50, P50–P75, P75–P85, and ≥P85 of BMI categories, respectively. In boys, compared with the P25 of prepuberty BMI, boys with BMI between P25 and P50 showed an increased risk of early puberty (HR: 3.94, 95% CI: 1.44, 6.80).ConclusionsPrepuberty BMI may serve the purpose of identifying the girls at higher risk of early thelarche, which could assist in the adaptation of prevention and intervention strategies targeting childhood obesity. The findings emphasize a non-linear correlation between prepuberty BMI and early puberty onset.

ObjectivesTo comprehensively determine the effect of dance activities on the cognitive functions and its sub-domains of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).MethodsWe obtained data from PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, China national knowledge infrastructure, Wanfang data, and VIP databases from 2017/01/01 to 2022/03/01. We included trials of older adults with MCI that underwent dance activity intervention and fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Two researchers independently assessed the quality of the study using the Cochrane risk of the bias assessment tool. Meta-analysis was performed when data were available, with further subgroup analysis, using Review Manager 5.4, and sensitivity analysis was performed using Stata software 15.1.ResultsSearch terms yielded 183 articles, of which 12 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. This included 7 high-quality studies and 5 medium-quality studies. A total of 820 older adults were analyzed. Results showed that dance activity had beneficial effects for global cognition [SMDMMSE = 0.65, 95% CIMMSE (0.20, 1.09), pMMSE = 0.004; SMDMoCA = 0.87, 95% CIMoCA (0.44, 1.29), pMoCA < 0.0001], memory [SMD = 0.61, 95% CI (0.35, 0.88), p < 0.00001], visuospatial function [SMD = −0.39, 95% CI (−0.60, −0.19), p = 0.0002], cognitive flexibility [SMD = −0.31, 95% CI (−0.52, −0.11), p = 0.003], attention [SMD = 0.34, 95% CI (0.07, 0.61), p = 0.01], and balance [SMD = 1.25, 95% CI (0.06, 2.44), p = 0.04]. Further subgroup analysis showed that open-skill dance activity (OSDA) was more effective in promoting global cognition in older adults with MCI than closed-skill dance activity (CSDA) because of the different stimulation provided by the two types of dance activities in the brain regions of the older adults (p = 0.0002). It could be speculated that dance activity improved cognitive function mainly by affecting the microstructure and function of the cingulate tract, hippocampus, cardiovascular function, and other brain areas of older adults with MCI.ConclusionDance activities can significantly improve global cognition, memory, visuospatial function, cognitive flexibility, attention, and balance in older adults with MCI. However, more trials with rigorous study designs are necessary to provide more concrete evidence in the future.

To examine the effects of childhood parent-child separation with varying duration and form on later cognitive performance and psychopathological problems over a 6-year period, we use data from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS), which is an ongoing, prospective nationally representative study across 25 provinces in China. Of the 4033 children aged 4-10 years followed in 2012, 3522 children with complete data on separation from fathers and mothers were included. In 2018, 2560 participants were followed and interviewed to assess cognitive performance, behavioral problems as well as depressive symptoms at age 10-16 years. A total of 3522 children (mean [SD] age at baseline, 6.9 [2.0] years) were included. About 17.9% and 13.3% had separated from father and mother over 11 months or more in the year prior to the survey.