Variation in the prevalence of depression and patterns of association, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors in community-dwelling older adults in six low- and middle-income countries.

BACKGROUND: Data from the World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) were used to estimate the prevalence of depression in older adults in six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), namely China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation, and South Africa, and to examine the relationship between demographic and lifestyle characteristics and depression. METHOD: A total of 33,421 participants aged ≥ 50 years were included. A set of diagnostic questions from the World Mental Health Survey was used within SAGE to define depression. RESULTS: The crude population prevalence of depression was 7.4% [95%CI: 6.5%-8.3%] ranging from 1.5% in China to 15.2% in India. It was higher in females 8.6% [7.6%-9.6%] compared to males 6.1% [5.0%-7.2%]. The age-standardized prevalence of depression was 7.8% [6.3%-9.6%] in pooled data, 8.9% [6.9%-11.1%] in females and 6.6% [4.6%-9.0%] in males. Greater fruit (0.89[0.84-0.93]) and vegetable intake (0.94 [0.89-1.00]) was associated with a lower prevalence of depression. Furthermore, those who were older, female, underweight, and with lower education and lower wealth, had higher prevalence of depression. LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional design of this study precluded conclusions on causality. CONCLUSION: In nationally-representative samples of older adults in six LMICs, an average of one in every 13 participants suffered from depression. The prevalence of depression varied considerably between countries, sexes, and with wealth and educational disadvantage. Increased fruit and vegetable intake appeared to co-occur with significantly lower rates of depression, suggesting diet as a modifiable factor for addressing depression burden.

World Bank Income Group, Health Expenditure or Cardiometabolic Risk Factors? A Further Explanation of the Wide Gap in Cardiometabolic Mortality Between Worldwide Countries: An Ecological Study.

BACKGROUND: For addressing the burden of non-communicable diseases and policymaking, the world health organization uses World Bank income group to classify countries. This calcification method might not be optimal. This study aimed to investigate the role of World Bank income group, health expenditure, and cardiometabolic risk factors of countries in explaining the gap between their cardiometabolic mortality. METHODS: In total, 190 countries were categorized into four income groups according to the World Bank definition. The energy consumption, health expenditure, and data of sex-specified age-standardized prevalence of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, and physical inactivity in 2008 and cardiometabolic mortality in 2012 were used. Multivariable-adjusted mixed-effect linear regression models were applied to relate country-level predictors to their mortality outcomes. RESULTS: While the lowest cardiometabolic mortality was recorded in high-income countries in both genders, the highest rates were recorded in the low-income category for women and in low and middle-income for men. Countries had lower cardiometabolic mortality for women compared to men; however, such a difference was not shown in low-income countries. World Bank income group of countries, per se, explained one-third of the variation in their mortality outcomes while adding health expenditure, energy consumption, and cardiometabolic risk factors increased the explanatory power of the model considerably. Moreover, the more the health expenditure, the weaker the association of prevalence of hypertension with cardiometabolic mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Adding countries' health expenditure and/or the prevalence of risk factors to their World Bank income group may contribute to the better explanation of the gap between them in cardiometabolic mortality.

A peer-support lifestyle intervention for preventing type 2 diabetes in India: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program.

BACKGROUND: The major efficacy trials on diabetes prevention have used resource-intensive approaches to identify high-risk individuals and deliver lifestyle interventions. Such strategies are not feasible for wider implementation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-support lifestyle intervention in preventing type 2 diabetes among high-risk individuals identified on the basis of a simple diabetes risk score. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program was a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in 60 polling areas (clusters) of Neyyattinkara taluk (subdistrict) in Trivandrum district, Kerala state, India. Participants (age 30-60 years) were those with an Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) ≥60 and were free of diabetes on an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). A total of 1,007 participants (47.2% female) were enrolled (507 in the control group and 500 in the intervention group). Participants from intervention clusters participated in a 12-month community-based peer-support program comprising 15 group sessions (12 of which were led by trained lay peer leaders) and a range of community activities to support lifestyle change. Participants from control clusters received an education booklet with lifestyle change advice. The primary outcome was the incidence of diabetes at 24 months, diagnosed by an annual OGTT. Secondary outcomes were behavioral, clinical, and biochemical characteristics and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). A total of 964 (95.7%) participants were followed up at 24 months. Baseline characteristics of clusters and participants were similar between the study groups. After a median follow-up of 24 months, diabetes developed in 17.1% (79/463) of control participants and 14.9% (68/456) of intervention participants (relative risk [RR] 0.88, 95% CI 0.66-1.16, p = 0.36). At 24 months, compared with the control group, intervention participants had a greater reduction in IDRS score (mean difference: -1.50 points, p = 0.022) and alcohol use (RR 0.77, p = 0.018) and a greater increase in fruit and vegetable intake (≥5 servings/day) (RR 1.83, p = 0.008) and physical functioning score of the HRQoL scale (mean difference: 3.9 score, p = 0.016). The cost of delivering the peer-support intervention was US$22.5 per participant. There were no adverse events related to the intervention. We did not adjust for multiple comparisons, which may have increased the overall type I error rate. CONCLUSIONS: A low-cost community-based peer-support lifestyle intervention resulted in a nonsignificant reduction in diabetes incidence in this high-risk population at 24 months. However, there were significant improvements in some cardiovascular risk factors and physical functioning score of the HRQoL scale. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611000262909.

Distribution of ideal cardiovascular health in a community-based cohort of Middle East population.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To improve cardiovascular (CV) health of American population, the American Heart Association (AHA) developed definitions of ideal, intermediate, and poor CV health based on 7 accessible health metrics. The applicability of this construct and the distribution of its components in the community-based populations in the Middle East region have not been reported. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: A prospective population-based cohort study conducted from 1999 to 2011. METHODS: We used data from phase 4 of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (2009-2011) (2861 women and 2004 men, aged >= 20 years) to estimate the frequency of CV health levels (ideal, intermediate, and poor) in adults of both genders, and the frequency of each metric at each level of CV health. The median or mean of each CV health metric was also estimated in the whole spectrum of CV health in all subgroups. RESULTS: Only 1 adult participant met all 7 ideal CV health metrics; 25.01% of women and 26% of men had intermediate CV health; 74.8% of women and 74% of men exhibited poor CV health. Only 19.7% of women and 10.3% of men had 5 or more ideal CV health metrics. Nonsmoking was the most frequent ideal health behavior. A total of 89.6% of participants had 1 or 2 ideal CV health behaviors. Ideal smoking and fasting plasma glucose had the highest frequency of CV health factors among others. CONCLUSION: The frequency of ideal CV health was extremely low in this cohort of adults. The frequency of intermediate CV health was also low, and it may be significantly lower in the general population.