Associations of Coffee and Tea Consumption With Survival to Age 90 Years Among Older Women.

BACKGROUND: Coffee and tea are two of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide and have been associated with reduced risk of mortality in some studies. However, it is unknown whether consumption of these beverages is associated with survival to an advanced age. OBJECTIVE: To examine associations of coffee and tea consumption with survival to age 90 years. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study among participants from the Women's Health Initiative, recruited during 1993 to 1998 and followed up until March 31, 2018. SETTING: The setting included 40 US clinical centers. PARTICIPANTS: A racially and ethnically diverse cohort of 27,480 older women, aged 65 to 81 years at baseline. MEASUREMENTS: Women were classified as having either survived to age 90 years or died before this age. Consumption of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and caffeinated tea was assessed at baseline and categorized as 0, 1, 2 to 3, or 4 or more cups/day. Associations of coffee and tea consumption with survival to age 90 years were examined using logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, dietary quality, and chronic disease history. RESULTS: A total of 14,659 (53.3%) women survived to age 90 years during follow-up. Caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, or caffeinated tea consumption was not significantly associated with survival to age 90 years after adjusting for confounders. Findings did not significantly vary by smoking, body mass index, or race/ethnicity. CONCLUSION: No amount of coffee or tea consumption was associated with late-age survival among older women. These findings may be reassuring to older women who consume coffee and tea as part of their daily diets but do not support drinking these beverages to achieve longevity.

Sleep Health: An Opportunity for Public Health to Address Health Equity.

The concept of sleep health provides a positive holistic framing of multiple sleep characteristics, including sleep duration, continuity, timing, alertness, and satisfaction. Sleep health promotion is an underrecognized public health opportunity with implications for a wide range of critical health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, mental health, and neurodegenerative disease. Using a socioecological framework, we describe interacting domains of individual, social, and contextual influences on sleep health. To the extent that these determinants of sleep health are modifiable, sleep and public health researchers may benefit from taking a multilevel approach for addressing disparities in sleep health. For example, in addition to providing individual-level sleep behavioral recommendations, health promotion interventions need to occur at multiple contextual levels (e.g., family, schools, workplaces, media, and policy). Because sleep health, a key indicator of overall health, is unevenly distributed across the population, we consider improving sleep health a necessary step toward achieving health equity.

Disassembling insomnia symptoms and their associations with depressive symptoms in a community sample: the differential role of sleep symptoms, daytime symptoms, and perception symptoms of insomnia.

OBJECTIVE: Insomnia and depression are closely related. However, few studies have investigated whether certain insomnia symptoms differentially relate to certain depressive symptoms. The present study aimed to examine relationship between specific types of insomnia symptoms (sleep symptoms, daytime symptoms, and perception symptoms) and specific symptoms of depression. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, observational study data from the Sleep, Health, Activity, Diet and Environment and Social Factors (SHADES) Survey. SETTING: Community-level population. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1003 community-based adults aged 22-60 from the Philadelphia area. MEASUREMENTS: Insomnia symptoms were represented by scores of sleep symptoms, daytime symptoms and perception symptoms, derived from the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Depression symptoms were assessed with the items of the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9). RESULTS: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported the three-factor model based on ISI data. Binary logistic regressions examined independent associations between the three insomnia symptom types and individual depression symptoms. Sleep symptoms were more strongly associated with physiological aspects of depressive symptoms (appetite symptoms, psychomotor symptoms, and suicidal ideation). The daytime symptoms, on the other hand, were significantly associated with almost all depressive symptoms, except for appetite. Moreover, daytime symptoms were exclusively related to cognitive symptoms of depression (eg, trouble concentrating). The perception symptoms were independently associated with mood symptoms, tiredness, appetite, and judgment of oneself as a failure, but not with psychomotor, cognitive and suicidal ideation symptoms. CONCLUSION: Daytime symptoms and perception symptoms of insomnia were more strongly associated with a full range of depressive symptoms than sleep symptoms. The sleep symptoms were mainly associated with more physiological symptoms of depression, implicating more biological mechanisms. Further research is needed regarding how these types of insomnia symptoms differentially related to multiple health consequences.

Phosphorus recovery and reuse by pyrolysis: Applications for agriculture and environment.

Phosphorus ore extraction for soil fertilization supports the demand of modern agriculture, but extractable resource limitations, due to scarcity, impose a P reuse and recycling research agenda. Here we propose to integrate biochar production (pyrogenic carbon) with municipal and agricultural waste management systems, to recover and reuse phosphorous that would otherwise be lost from the ecological food web. A meta-analysis and available data on total P in biochar indicated that P-enriched feedstocks include animal manure, human excreta, and plant-biomass collected from P-polluted sites. Phosphorus in biochar could participate in P equilibriums in soils and is expected to supply P. The release, sorption and desorption of P by biochar will codetermine the potential of P replenishment by biochar and P loss from biochar-amended soils. Abiotic and biotic factors are expected to affect sorption/desorption of P between biochar and soil aggregates, and P acquisition by plants. Chemical extraction, using acid or alkaline solutions, is considered as a means for P retrieval from high P biochar, especially for biochar with high heavy metal contents. To bridge the gap between academia and practice, this paper proposes future development for phosphorus acclamation by pyrolysis: 1) identification of high-P bio-waste for pyrolysis; 2) retrieval of P by using biochar as soil amendment or by chemical leaching; 3) biochar modification by inorganic nutrients, P solubilizing microorganisms and other organic matter; and 4) compatible pyrolysis equipment fit to the current waste management context, such as households, and waste water treatment plants.

Divergent taxonomic and functional responses of microbial communities to field simulation of aeolian soil erosion and deposition.

Aeolian soil erosion and deposition have worldwide impacts on agriculture, air quality and public health. However, ecosystem responses to soil erosion and deposition remain largely unclear in regard to microorganisms, which are the crucial drivers of biogeochemical cycles. Using integrated metagenomics technologies, we analysed microbial communities subjected to simulated soil erosion and deposition in a semiarid grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. As expected, soil total organic carbon and plant coverage were decreased by soil erosion, and soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was increased by soil deposition, demonstrating that field simulation was reliable. Soil microbial communities were altered (p < .039) by both soil erosion and deposition, with dramatic increase in Cyanobacteria related to increased stability in soil aggregates. amyA genes encoding α-amylases were specifically increased (p = .01) by soil deposition and positively correlated (p = .02) to DOC, which likely explained changes in DOC. Surprisingly, most of microbial functional genes associated with carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium cycling were decreased or unaltered by both erosion and deposition, probably arising from acceleration of organic matter mineralization. These divergent responses support the necessity to include microbial components in evaluating ecological consequences. Furthermore, Mantel tests showed strong, significant correlations between soil nutrients and functional structure but not taxonomic structure, demonstrating close relevance of microbial function traits to nutrient cycling.