Exploration of the Vaginal and Gut Microbiome in African American Women by Body Mass Index, Class of Obesity, and Gestational Weight Gain: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE: This study determines the differences in the distal gut and vaginal microbiome in African American (AA) women by prepregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain (GWG) comparing women with and without obesity and by obesity class. STUDY DESIGN: We prospectively sampled the vaginal and distal gut microbiome in pregnant AA women at two time points during pregnancy. Samples were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene. RESULTS: Distinct differences in vaginal and distal gut α-diversity were observed at time point 1 between women with and without obesity by total GWG. Significant differences in distal gut ß-diversity were also found at time point 1 in obese women by GWG. Within the Bacteroides genus, a significant association was observed by total GWG among obese women which was absent in nonobese women. Women with class III obesity who experienced low GWG had the lowest abundance of distal gut Bacteroides and appreciably higher relative abundance of a consortia of vaginal taxa including Atopobium, Gardnerella, Prevotella, and Sneathia. CONCLUSION: These results contribute new evidence showing that GWG in combination with obesity and obesity class is associated with an altered distal gut and vaginal composition early in pregnancy among AA women.

Developing and training mental toughness in sport: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and pre-test and post-test experiments.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of interventions designed to train and develop mental toughness (MT) in sport. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: Journal articles, conference papers and doctoral theses indexed in Embase, Scopus, PubMed and SPORTDiscus from inception to 22 November 2019. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Observational and pre-post experimental designs on the efficacy of physical and/or psychological interventions designed to promote MT in athletes. RESULTS: A total of 12 studies, published between 2005 and 2019, were included in the review. A majority of the studies included a sample comprised exclusively of male athletes (54.55%), MT interventions were primarily psychological (83.33%) and most studies measured MT via self-report (75%). The Psychological Performance Inventory (25%), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (16.67%), and the Mental, Emotional and Bodily Toughness Inventory (16.67%) were the most popular inventories used to measure MT. Methodological quality assessments for controlled intervention studies (k=7), single group pre-test-post-test designs (k=4) and single-subject designs (k=1) indicated that the risk of bias was high in most (75%) of the studies. The meta-analysis involving k=10 studies revealed a large effect (d=0.80, 95% CI 0.30 to 1.28), with variability across studies estimated at 0.56. CONCLUSION: Although the findings of this review suggest there are effective, empirically based interventions designed to train MT in sport, practitioners should be aware of the level of validity of intervention research before adopting any of the MT training programmes reported in the applied sport psychology literature.