The relationship between the World Index for Sustainability and Health (WISH) score and mental health in women: A cross-sectional study.

Diet quality has been associated with mental health, and recently, there has been growing interest in the association between sustainability of diets and human health. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship between a newly developed dietary index for health and sustainability, and psychological disorders among Iranian women. Participants in this cross-sectional study included 479 women living in Tehran with no history of chronic disease. A validated 168-item food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake. The World Index for Sustainability and Health (WISH) was calculated, consisting of four sub-scores: less healthy, healthy, low environmental impact, and high environmental impact. Participants psychological status was assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between WISH and psychological disorders. Participant ages ranged from 20-50 years, with a mean age of 31.86 (SD:7.68) years. After adjusting for potential confounders (age, energy, BMI, marital status, education, family history of chronic disease, body satisfaction, socio-economic status, physical activity, smoking), women in the highest tertile of the healthy sub-score had significantly lower odds of experiencing depression (OR: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.24-0.67), anxiety (OR: 0.45; 95% CI: 0.23-0.87) and psychological distress (OR: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.28-0.77) compared to the reference group. Similarly, the less healthy sub-score was significantly associated with depression (OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.32-0.89), anxiety (OR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.25-0.78), and psychological distress (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.36-0.90). An inverse association was observed between the low environmental impact sub-score and depression (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.19-0.54), anxiety (OR: 0.38; 95% CI: 0.18-0.76), and psychological distress (OR: 0.30; 95% CI: 0.17-0.51). However, no further significant associations were found with the high environmental impact sub-score, except with depression (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.33-0.96). The healthy and low environmental impact sub-scores of the WISH were found to be inversely associated with depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. However, due to the cross-sectional study design, causality cannot be inferred. Further prospective studies are required to validate and expand upon these findings and explore potential mechanisms and alternative explanations, such as reverse causation. While this study suggests that choosing a diet that is both healthy for individuals and sustainable for the environment may be associated with lower risk of mental health issues among women, more research is needed.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of dietary diversity with undernutrition in school-aged children.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition in childhood has lasting consequences; its effects not only last a lifetime but are also passed down from generation to generation such as short stature, school-aged children are the most vulnerable section of the population and require special attention, including nutrition. METHOD: We searched Medline through PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify all observational studies published before Jun 2022. Observational studies with a pediatric population aged 5-18 years that evaluated risk estimate with 95% confidence intervals the relationship between dietary diversity and undernutrition (wasting, stunting, and thinness) were included. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) were followed. RESULTS: This is a first systematic review and meta-analysis with a total of 20 studies were eligible (n = 18 388). Fourteen data evaluated stunting resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.43 (95% CI: 1.08-1.89; p = 0.013). Ten data evaluated Thinness resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.10 (95% CI: 0.81-1.49; P = 0.542). Two studies were revealed wasting with a odds ratio of 2.18 (95% CI: 1.41-3.36; p-value < 0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the conclusions of this meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies, inadequate dietary diversity increases the risk of undernutrition in growth linear but not in thinness in school-aged children. The findings of this analysis suggest that initiatives that support improvements to the diversity of children's diets to reduce the risk of undernutrition may be warranted in LMICs.

Can Following Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diets Reduce the Risk of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: A Cross-Sectional Study on Iranian Women.

Background: Psychiatric disorders have been a challenge for public health and will bring economic problems to individuals and healthcare systems in the future. One of the important factors that could affect these disorders is diet. Objective: In the current study with a cross-sectional design, we investigated the association of Paleolithic and Mediterranean diets with psychological disorders in a sample of adult women. Methods: Participants were 435 adult women between 20 and 50 years old that refer to healthcare centers in the south of Tehran, Iran. The diet scores were created by the response to a valid and reliable semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and the psychological profile was determined by response to the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was applied to compute the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: After adjusted for potential confounders, it is evident that participants in the highest Paleolithic diet tertile had lower odds of depression (OR = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.37: P < 0.001), anxiety (OR = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.45: P < 0.001), and stress (OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.32; P < 0.001) in comparison to the lowest tertile. Furthermore, those in the third tertile of the Mediterranean diet score were at lower risk of depression (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.36; P < 0.001), anxiety (OR = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.38; P < 0.001), and stress (OR = 0.23; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.39; P < 0.001) compared with those in the first tertile. Conclusion: The result of the current study suggests that greater adherence to Paleolithic and Mediterranean dietary patterns may be related with a decreased risk of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

The effect of folic acid supplementation on body weight and body mass index: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Several trials have evaluated the effects of folate supplementation on obesity indices. However, their results were inconsistent. Therefore, the current meta-analysis was conducted to summarize data from available randomized clinical trials (RCTs) about the impact of folate supplementation on weight and body mass index (BMI). METHOD: Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and ISI web of science were searched to identify relevant articles up to December 2020. The effect sizes were expressed as weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using the random-effects model. RESULTS: Pooled data from nine studies showed that folic acid supplementation did not change body weight (WMD: -0.16 kg, 95%CI: -0.47 to 0.16, P = 0.32) and BMI (WMD: -0.23 kg/m2, 95%CI: -0.49 to 0.03, P = 0.31), but there was significant heterogeneity between the included studies for BMI (I2 = 90.1%, P < 0.001). Moreover, subgroup analyses in level of homocysteine and health status indicated significant effect of folic acid supplementation on BMI in those with homocysteine level ≥15 µmol/L (WMD: -0.17 kg/cm2, -0.33 to -0.01, p = 0.03) and in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) (WMD: - 0.30kg/cm2, -0.54 to -0.06, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Our outcomes demonstrated that folic acid improves BMI in those with homocysteine levels ≥15 µmol/L and women with PCOS.

Dietary Quality Index and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors among Adult Women.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of cardiovascular disease is dramatically increasing particularly in developing countries. Among the different factors, diet has an important role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. This study aimed to assess the relationship between dietary quality index-international (DQI-I) and cardiovascular risk factors in adult Iranian women. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 371 participants, aged 20-50 yr, and recruited from 10 health centers from health centers affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran in 2018. Usual dietary intake was evaluated by a validated and reliable 168-items food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). To assess overall quality of diet, the Dietary Quality Index-International (DQI) was used. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, and fasting blood of samples were taken to assess biochemical parameters related to cardiovascular disease. RESULTS: The results of linear regression showed that DQI-I score was inversely and directly associated with serum level of total cholesterol (TC) (0.27, confidence interval (CI): 0.13-0.58; P<0.001) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (2.53, CI: 1.42-4.52; P=0.001), respectively. However, there was no significant association between DQI-I and other cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSION: A greater DQI-I score was associated with preferable lipid profile including TC and HDL-C. Future large-scale, prospective cohort or clinical studies are required to confirm these findings.

QoS-aware service composition based on context-free grammar and skyline in service function chaining using genetic algorithm.

Service function chaining (SFC) is a mechanism that allows service providers to combine various service functions and exploit the available virtual infrastructure. The best selection of virtual services in the network is essential for meeting user requirements and constraints. This paper proposes a novel approach to generate the optimal composition of the service functions. To this end, a genetic algorithm based on context-free grammar (CFG) that adheres to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard and Skyline was developed to use in SFC. The IETF uses cases of the data center, security, and mobile network filtered out the invalid service chains, which resulted in reduced search space. The proposed genetic algorithm found the Skyline service chain instance with the highest quality. The genetic operations were defined to ensure that the service function chains generated in the algorithm process were standard. The experimental results showed that the proposed service composition method outperformed the other methods regarding the quality of service (QoS), running time, and time complexity metrics. Ultimately, the proposed CFG could be generalized to other SFC use cases.

The association of red meat consumption and mental health in women: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that red meat consumption has beneficial effects on health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between red meat consumption and depression, anxiety and psychological distress in Tehrani women. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 482 women aged 20-50 years old referred to the health centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018 were selected by multistage cluster sampling. The usual dietary intake was evaluated using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire containing 168 items that its validity and reliability were approved previously. The red meat category was defined as the sum of red meats (beef, lamb), and organ meats (beef liver, kidney, and heart, ruminant meat). Psychological disorders were assessed using a validated Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS) questionnaires with 21-items. In the logistic regression analysis, the results were adjusted to the confounding factors. RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 31.87 ± 7.6 years. The prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety and psychological distress among participants was 34%, 40% and 42%, respectively. After controlling for potential confounders, women in the highest quartile of red meat had a highest prevalence of depressive symptoms (OR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.32-4.76; p = 0.002), anxiety (OR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.00-3.29; p = 0.034) and stress (OR: 3.47; 95% CI: 1.88-6.42; p < 0.001) compared with those in the lowest quartile. CONCLUSIONS: We found a significant association between red meat intake and mental health in women. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

The Effect of L-Carnitine Supplementation on Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.

Accumulating evidence of previous experimental studies indicated that L-Carnitine positively ameliorates muscle damage. However, findings from trials vary substantially across studies. Therefore, current meta-analysis aimed to examine the effects of L-Carnitine supplementation on exercise-induced muscle damage. An electronic search of the online literature databases (Medline (PubMed), Scopus and Google Scholar) was performed up to November 2018. Either a fixed-effects model or a random-effects model (Diasorin-Liard) was used in order to estimate the effects size. Cochran's Q test and I2 tests were used to assess the heterogeneity among the studies. Funnel plot and Egger's regression test were also employed in order to assess the publication bias. Of 604 studies, seven eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this meta-analysis. Pooled data from seven studies showed that L-Carnitine resulted in significant improvements in muscle soreness (MS) at the five follow-up time points (0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours (h)) compared to placebo. Also, pooled data indicated that L-Carnitine significantly reduced creatine kinase (CK), myoglobin (Mb), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels at one follow-up period (24 h). However, no effects have been observed beyond this period. Our outcomes indicate that L-Carnitine supplementation improves delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and markers of muscle damage. Further research is needed to clarify impacts of L-Carnitine on DOMS after different types of mechanical or chemical damages.Key teaching pointsThe effect of L-Carnitine supplementation on exercise-induced muscle damage has come under scrutiny over many years.This systematic review and meta-analyses study investigated the effects of L-Carnitine supplementation on exercise-induced muscle damage.Overall, summary results indicate that L-Carnitine supplementation improves muscle soreness and markers of muscle damage (CK, LDH, and Mb).Overall, L-carnitine supplementation ameliorated muscle damage only in resistance training groups and untrained population.

The Effects of Supplementation with Probiotic on Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Adult Subjects: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials.

Previous studies have supposed that probiotic supplementation led to a positive effect on different health outcomes. Furthermore, several studies indicated that probiotics supplementation improved antioxidant status, while some studies did not indicate these effects. Hence, current systematic review and meta-analysis study was conducted to determine the effect of probiotic supplementation on some oxidative stress biomarkers among adult subjects. We searched four electronic databases PubMed, SCOPUS, ISI Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library till November 2017. Clinical trials that compared the effects of probiotic supplementation with the control group were included. A random-effect model was used to pool weighted mean difference (WMD). Finding of 11 included studies (n = 577) indicated that probiotic supplementation increased total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (WMD 77.30 mmol/L; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.60, 152.01; I2 = 88.3%) and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) (WMD - 0.31 µmol/L; 95% CI - 0.54, - 0.08; I2 = 71.5%) significantly compared to the control group. However, its effects on glutathione (GSH) was not significant (WMD = 19.32 µmol/L; 95% CI - 18.70, 57.33; I2 = 64.9%). The current meta-analysis revealed that probiotic supplementation may result in increasing TAC and lowering MDA, which improve antioxidant status. However, due to high heterogeneity, findings should be interpreted with caution. Further investigations are required to elucidate the effect of supplementation with probiotics on biomarkers of antioxidants.

Association of plant-based dietary patterns with psychological profile and obesity in Iranian women.

BACKGROUND: A bidirectional association exists between psychological disorders and obesity. Also, diet could impact on both of these disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between plant-based dietary patterns and psychological profile and obesity. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed in a sample of 435 Iranian women. A validated and reliable semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire was used to collect dietary data. Three dietary indices including an overall plant-based diet (PDI), healthful plant-based diet (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet (uPDI) were determined. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were used to define general and abdominal obesity, respectively. Psychological profile status was determined from the DASS-21 questionnaire. RESULTS: We found that higher uPDI scores increased the odds of overall (PDI: 2.62; 95% CI 1.28-5.35, Ptrend = 0.01) and abdominal (PDI: 2.36; 95% CI 1.11-5.02, Ptrend = 0.03) obesity in comparison with lower scores. Moreover, an inverse association was observed between higher PDI and hPDI scores and depression (PDI: 0.41; 95% CI 0.23-0.71, Ptrend = 0.001, hPDI: 0.44; 95% CI 0.25-0.76, Ptrend = 0.003), anxiety (PDI: 0.56; 95% CI 0.33-0.94, Ptrend = 0.03, hPDI: 0.55; 95% CI 0.33-0.94, Ptrend = 0.03), and psychological distress (PDI: 0.44; 95% CI 0.26-0.75, Ptrend = 0.003, hPDI: 0.49; 95% CI 0.29-0.82, Ptrend = 0.009). For uPDI, higher scores were associated with depression (uPDI: 1.91; 95% CI 1.03-3.55, Ptrend = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: A plant-based diet, particularly healthful-rich plant foods were inversely associated with psychological disorders. Furthermore, unhealthy plant foods were associated with increased risk of obesity as well as depression.

Dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity and Risk of Gastrointestinal Cancers: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies.

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are common types of cancers. Among different factors that affect the etiology of GI cancers, diet has an important contribution. Dietary antioxidants decrease oxidative stress which plays a pivotal role in carcinogenesis. Several studies assessed the relation between dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and risk of GI cancers. Dietary TAC was measured by three indices including FRAP (ferric ion reducing antioxidant power), TRAP (total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter), and TEAC (trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies to determine the association between dietary TAC and GI cancers risk. METHODS: Eligible studies were selected from PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Scopus databases from inception until May 2018. Case-control and cohort studies that reported GI cancer risk estimates for dietary TAC were included. We ignored the distinction between case-control and cohort studies. We applied random-effects to estimate pooled relative risks. Subgroup analysis was done based on study design. RESULTS: Among the seven observational studies that were included, four were cohort studies and three were case-control studies. Dietary FRAP, TRAP, and TEAC reduced GI cancer risk: FRAP; 0.71; 95% CI: 0.58-0.85, TRAP; 0.65; 95% CI: 0.57-0.75, TEAC; 0.70; 95% CI: 0.59-0.83, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that dietary TAC significantly decreased the risk of GI cancers. Nevertheless, further prospective studies are required to clarify the association between dietary TAC and risk of GI cancers.

Association of a plant-based dietary pattern in relation to gestational diabetes mellitus.

AIM: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), which has adverse effects on mothers and their offspring, is increasing worldwide. The role of a plant-based dietary pattern as a determinant of GDM is not well understood. Therefore, we examined the association between plant-based dietary patterns and the risk of GDM. METHODS: We enrolled 460 pregnant women in this case-control study, of them 200 were cases and 260 were controls. Dietary intake of participants was evaluated using three 24-hour dietary records. Adherence to the plant-based dietary patterns was scored using three indices of the overall plant-based dietary index (PDI), healthy plant-based diet (hPDI) and unhealthy plant-based diet index (uPDI). The risk of GDM was compared across tertiles of PDI, hPDI and uPDI. RESULTS: After multivariable adjustment, we demonstrated that the high PDI score was inversely associated with risk of GDM (OR = 0.47; 95% CI: 0.28-0.78, P = 0.004), but there was no significant association between hPDI (OR = 1.03; 95% CI: 0.64-1.65, P = 0.884) or uPDI (OR = 1.65; 95% CI: 0.98-2.78, P = 0.06) and GDM risk. CONCLUSIONS: We found that following an overall plant-based diet was associated with lower risk of GDM. Future studies are warranted with longitudinal designs to confirm these findings.

Prediction of microRNA target genes using an efficient genetic algorithm-based decision tree.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression in almost all plants and animals. They play an important role in key processes, such as proliferation, apoptosis, and pathogen-host interactions. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which miRNAs act are not fully understood. The first step toward unraveling the function of a particular miRNA is the identification of its direct targets. This step has shown to be quite challenging in animals primarily because of incomplete complementarities between miRNA and target mRNAs. In recent years, the use of machine-learning techniques has greatly increased the prediction of miRNA targets, avoiding the need for costly and time-consuming experiments to achieve miRNA targets experimentally. Among the most important machine-learning algorithms are decision trees, which classify data based on extracted rules. In the present work, we used a genetic algorithm in combination with C4.5 decision tree for prediction of miRNA targets. We applied our proposed method to a validated human datasets. We nearly achieved 93.9% accuracy of classification, which could be related to the selection of best rules.