RESUMO
Human spaceflight has historically been managed by government agencies, such as the NASA Twins Study1, but new commercial spaceflight opportunities have opened spaceflight to a broader population. In 2021, the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission launched the first-ever all civilian crew to low Earth orbit, which included the youngest American astronaut (age 29), novel in-flight experimental technologies (handheld ultrasound imaging, smartwatch wearables, and immune profiling), ocular alignment measurements, and new protocols for in-depth, multi-omic molecular and cellular profiling. Here we report the primary findings from the 3-day spaceflight mission, which induced a broad range of physiological and stress responses, neurovestibular changes indexed by ocular misalignment, and altered neurocognitive functioning, some of which match long-term spaceflight2, but almost all of which did not differ from baseline (pre-flight) after return to Earth. Overall, these preliminary civilian spaceflight data suggest that short-duration missions do not pose a significant health risk, and moreover present a rich opportunity to measure the earliest phases of adaptation to spaceflight in the human body at anatomical, cellular, physiologic, and cognitive levels. Finally, these methods and results lay the foundation for an open, rapidly expanding biomedical database for astronauts3, which can inform countermeasure development for both private and government-sponsored space missions.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The epidemic of obesity has been identified as a major source of morbidity, not just in developed countries but globally, in adults as well as at younger ages. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to describe trends in obesity and overweight in Israeli adolescents and observe temporal changes and association by risk factors. METHODS: The research analyzed records of 2,148,342 Jewish adolescents, over a span of 44 years and included data for individual body measurements, place of residence, area of origin and education levels. Body mass index (BMI) was measured by professionals, calculated and categorized as overweight or obesity according to age- and gender-specific BMI curves established in recent years. We processed the data in multinomial logistic regression model and calculated odds ratios for various risk factors. RESULTS: Obesity and overweight are on the rise for male and female adolescents born from the mid-1960s onwards, and especially for men from the 1980s onwards. Risk factors for male adolescents include lower socioeconomic status, inferior education levels and Western origins (vs. Asian, African or Israeli origins). Risk modifiers for women were similar, except for African origins, which were associated with increased risk rather than decreased risk. Asian and Israeli origins were protective for both genders, and education was more strongly associated with obesity for women. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend stronger preventive efforts directed at adolescents as a whole, and particularly vulnerable groups with lower education levels and poverty, or those with specific geographical origins. Gender disparities are evident and should be considered in these efforts and in further research.