Factors contributing to depressive symptoms among undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: To investigate predictive factors of student's academic year, interest in the field of nursing, stress, self-efficacy, and problem-focused and emotion-focused coping on the depressive symptoms among undergraduate nursing students. BACKGROUND: As the burden of depression among students has increased worldwide, depressive symptoms have become a standard part of mental health problems in college and university students. Among the various fields of medical sciences, nursing students face more stressors during their study period and are more at risk of suffering depressive symptoms than other students. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design. METHODS: A total of 230 undergraduate nursing students from a university in Myanmar were recruited from August to September 2021. The data were collected using standard research instruments, including a Demographic Questionnaire, Student Nurse Stress Index Questionnaire, General Self-efficacy Scale, Brief COPE Inventory, and Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. Inferential statistics were used to identify the predictive effect of academic year, interest in the field of nursing, stress, self-efficacy, problem-focused coping, and emotion-focused coping on depressive symptoms, using multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Academic year, interest in the field of nursing, stress, self-efficacy, and problem-focused and emotion-focused coping accounted for 31.5% of the variance of depressive symptoms (F(8, 221) = 12.704, p < .001) with an R2 = .315. Stress was the factor that most influenced student's depressive symptoms (ß = .407, p < .001). Self-efficacy (ß = -.244, p < .001) and emotion-focused coping (ß = .199, p < .05) were also critical factors contributing to depressive symptoms among undergraduate nursing students. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide insight and knowledge about depressive symptoms and factors that can contribute to depressive symptoms among undergraduate nursing students. Results suggest that nurse educators and community mental health nurses should focus on reducing stress, increasing self-efficacy, and enhancing proper coping strategies among students to prevent depressive symptoms.

Improvement of GPS-attached Pocket PM2.5 Measuring Device for Personal Exposure Assessment.

Assessment of personal exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or 2.5 µm (PM2.5) is necessary to study the association between PM exposure and health risk. Development of a personal PM2.5 sensor or device is required for the evaluation of individual exposure level. In this study, we aimed to develop a small-sized, lightweight sensor with a global positioning system (GPS) attached that can measure PM2.5 and PM10 every second to assess continuous personal exposure levels. The participants in this study were apparently healthy housewives (n = 15) and university female teaching staff (n = 15) who live in a high PM2.5 area, Yangon, Myanmar. The average PM2.5 exposure levels during 24 h were 16.1 ± 10.0 µg/m3 in the housewives and 15.8 ± 4.0 µg/m3 in the university female teaching staff. The university female teaching staff showed high exposure concentrations during commuting hours, and had stable, relatively low concentrations at work, whereas the housewives showed short-term high exposure peaks due to differences in their lifestyles. This is the first study to show that a GPS-attached standalone PM2.5 and PM10 Sensor [PRO] can be successfully used for mobile sensing, easy use, continuous measurement, and rapid data analysis.

Social behavior, neuroimmune markers and glutamic acid decarboxylase levels in a rat model of valproic acid-induced autism.

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social communication and social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. The etiology of autism remains unknown and its molecular basis is not yet well understood. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were administered 600 mg/kg of valproic acid (VPA) by intraperitoneal injection on day 12.5 of gestation. Both 11- to 13-week-old male and female rat models of VPA-induced autism showed impaired sociability and impaired preference for social novelty as compared to the corresponding control SD rats. Significantly reduced mRNA expressions of social behavior-related genes, such as those encoding the serotonin receptor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neuroligin3, and significantly increased expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1 ß and tumor necrosis factor-α, were noted in the hippocampi of both male and female rats exposed to VPA in utero. The hippocampal expression level of gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 67 protein was reduced in both male and female VPA-exposed rats as compared to the corresponding control animals. Our results indicate that developmental exposure to VPA affects the social behavior in rats by modulating the expression levels of social behavior-related genes and inflammatory mediators accompanied with changes in GABA enzyme in the hippocampus.

Preliminary monitoring of concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5) in seven townships of Yangon City, Myanmar.

BACKGROUND: Airborne particulate pollution is more critical in the developing world than in the developed countries in which industrialization and urbanization are rapidly increased. Yangon, a second capital of Myanmar, is a highly congested and densely populated city. Yet, there is limited study which assesses particulate matter (PM2.5) in Yangon currently. Few previous local studies were performed to assess particulate air pollution but most results were concerned PM10 alone using fixed monitoring. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess distribution of PM2.5 in different townships of Yangon, Myanmar. This is the first study to quantify the regional distribution of PM2.5 in Yangon City. METHODS: The concentration of PM2.5 was measured using Pocket PM2.5 Sensor (Yaguchi Electric Co., Ltd., Miyagi, Japan) three times (7:00 h, 13:00 h, 19:00 h) for 15 min per day for 5 days from January 25th to 29th in seven townships. Detailed information of eight tracks for PM2.5 pollution status in different areas with different conditions within Kamayut Township were also collected. RESULTS: The results showed that in all townships, the highest PM2.5 concentrations in the morning followed by the evening and the lowest concentrations in the afternoon were observed. Among the seven townships, Hlaingtharyar Township had the highest concentrations (164 ± 52 µg/m3) in the morning and (100 ± 35 µg/m3) in the evening. Data from eight tracks in Kamayut Township also indicated that PM2.5 concentrations varied between different areas and conditions of the same township at the same time. CONCLUSION: Myanmar is one of the few countries that still have to establish national air quality standards. The results obtained from this study are useful for the better understanding of the nature of air pollution linked to PM2.5. Moreover, the sensor which was used in this study can provide real-time exposure, and this could give more accurate exposure data of the population especially those subpopulations that are highly exposed than fixed station monitoring.

Role of TLR4 in olfactory-based spatial learning activity of neonatal mice after developmental exposure to diesel exhaust origin secondary organic aerosol.

Exposure to ambient air pollutants has been reported to have various adverse health impacts. Ambient particulate matter comprises primary particles released directly via engine exhaust and secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) formed from oxidative reactions of the ultrafine particle fraction of diesel exhaust (DE). Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is well known to initiate the inflammatory cascade in the central nervous system. However, whether and how DE and DE-SOA exposure influences TLR4 signaling in the immature brain remains unclear. We attempted to evaluate the roles of TLR-4, inflammatory mediators and microglial markers in the impaired spatial learning ability of neonatal mice exposed to DE and DE-SOAs. Pregnant C3H/HeN (TLR4-intact) and C3H/HeJ (TLR4- mutated) mice were exposed to clean air, DE or DE-SOA from gestational day 14 to postnatal day (PND) 10 (5h/day for 5days) in exposure chambers. PND11 neonatal mice were examined for their performance in the olfactory-based spatial learning test. After the spatial learning test, the hippocampi of the mice were removed and real-time RT-PCR analysis was performed to examine the neurological and immunological markers. Both male and female C3H/HeN and C3H/HeJ neonatal mice exposed to DE and DE-SOAs showed poor performance in the test phase of spatial learning as compared to the mice exposed to clean air. However, this spatial learning deficit was prominent in C3H/HeJ neonatal mice. In the neonatal C3H/HeN male mice exposed to DE and DE-SOAs, the mRNA expression levels of the NMDA receptor subunits (NR1, NR2B), proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α and cyclooxygenase-2, oxidative stress marker, heme oxygenase-1, and microglial marker, Iba1, in the hippocampus were significantly increased, but these changes were not observed in female mice. Our findings indicate that activation of the neuroimmune system and TLR4 signaling may possibly be involved in environmental pollutant-induced spatial learning impairment in neonatal mice.

Correlations between the expression of the insulin sensitizing hormones, adiponectin, visfatin, and omentin, and the appetite regulatory hormone, neuropeptide Y and its receptors in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues.

Adiponectin, visfatin, and omentin are adipokines involved in insulin sensitivity. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and its receptors, Y1R, Y2R, and Y5R, are involved in appetite regulation. Here we examined the correlations between these two hormones groups in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues. We demonstrated that in subcutaneous adipose tissue, the adiponectin, visfatin and omentin expression positively correlated with that of subcutaneous NPY. Subcutaneous adiponectin expression positively correlated with subcutaneous Y1R and Y5R. Subcutaneous visfatin expression positively correlated with subcutaneous Y1R, Y2R, and Y5R. Subcutaneous omentin expression positively correlated with subcutaneous Y5R. In visceral adipose tissue, adiponectin, visfatin and omentin expression positively correlated with visceral NPY. Visceral visfatin expression positively correlated with visceral Y1R, Y2R and Y5R. There was no correlation between the subcutaneous and visceral expression of these adipokines and receptors. BMI correlated better with visceral adipocyte characteristics including width, height, perimeter, and area than with those of subcutaneous adipocyte. Visceral, but not subcutaneous, adipocyte parameters positively correlated with insulin and Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), but negatively associated with Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index (QUICKI). These results suggest that adiponectin, omentin, and visfatin expression correlated with NPY expression in either type of adipose tissue, with no evidence of cross-linking between adipose tissue depots, suggesting that there might be (a) different regulation mechanism(s) between subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues with regard to expressions of these two hormone groups. Further studies are required to identify factors that regulate the linkage between these hormones in each adipose tissue type.

Interactions between adiponectin, visfatin, and omentin in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues and serum, and correlations with clinical and peripheral metabolic factors.

Adiponectin, visfatin, and omentin are adipokines involved in insulin sensitivity. This study aimed to determine interactions between these adipokines in subcutaneous and visceral fat and in serum, and their associations with clinical factors. Adiponectin was present at the highest levels in subcutaneous and visceral fat and serum. Subcutaneous adiponectin showed positive correlations with serum adiponectin and the quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI). Serum adiponectin correlated positively with QUICKI and serum omentin-1 but negatively with body weight, BMI, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Subcutaneous omentin correlated positively with QUICKI but negatively with waist and hip circumferences. Serum omentin-1 correlated positively with QUICKI but negatively with body weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences, weight gain, and HOMA-IR. Serum visfatin correlated positively with serum omentin-1 and negatively with weight gain. Serum peptide YY (PYY) levels were correlated positively with subcutaneous visfatin but negatively with visceral visfatin. Positive correlations were observed between subcutaneous expression of adiponectin, visfatin, and omentin and visceral expression of these genes. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that serum adiponectin was associated with BMI and QUICKI. Serum omentin-1 could be predicted from BMI, QUICKI, and weight gain. Weight gain, serum adiponectin, omentin-1, and DBP could be used to predict serum visfatin. In conclusion, adiponectin and omentin from subcutaneous fat displayed correlations with decreased obesity and increased insulin sensitivity while visfatin showed an association with serum PYY and weight gain. The expressions of these adipokines were correlated within each type of fat but not between different fat depots.