Study on Varicella-Zoster Virus Antibody Levels among Children Aged 1-7 Years in Changzhou, China.

We aim to understand the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) antibody levels in children after vaccination and to construct VZV-IgG centile curves and reference values for children aged 1-7 years. From September to October 2023, a total of 806 children were recruited according to the time intervals of 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years after vaccination, as well as age groups. A generalized additive model for location, shape, and scale (GAMLSS) was applied to estimate P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90, and P97 centile reference values of VZV-IgG, and 95% reference intervals were calculated. A total of 785 children were included in the analysis, with an overall positivity rate of 70.3%, a median antibody concentration of 192.05 (82.89-571.14) mIU/mL, and a positivity rate of 57.7% for one dose of vaccine and 84.2% for two doses. Antibody positivity rates at 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years after vaccination were 65.1%, 74.4%, 80.4%, 67.7%, and 63.0%, respectively. The GAMLSS results showed that VZV-IgG had a tendency to increase and then decrease after vaccination, and the second dose of vaccination could significantly increase VZV-IgG. Two doses of varicella vaccine should be administered to children in a timely manner and included in the routine vaccination programs.

Association between the proportions of carbohydrate and fat intake and hypertension risk: findings from the China Health and Nutrition Survey.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to expound the dietary effects of different proportions of carbohydrate and fat on hypertension in the Chinese population. METHODS: We used data derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2011. In total, 10 459 Chinese participants aged over 12 years were included in the final analysis. A multivariable Cox regression was used to calculate the hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of hypertension in each group, and the medium proportion of carbohydrate and fat (MPCF) diet intake group was used as the reference. RESULTS: Compared with the participants who consumed an MPCF diet, the individuals who consumed a high-carbohydrate and low-fat (HCLF) diet had a higher risk of developing hypertension (hazard ratio: 1.295, 95% CI: 1.167-1.436), especially the individuals who were young (hazard ratio: 1.422, 95% CI: 1.106-1.828), were living in rural areas (hazard ratio: 1.373, 95% CI: 1.206-1.565) and consumed alcohol (hazard ratio: 1.363, 95% CI: 1.153-1.611). In addition, a low-carbohydrate and high-fat (LCHF) diet was not associated with hypertension (hazard ratio: 0.861, 95% CI: 0.694-1.068). Moreover, these associations were observed at the majority energy intake level. CONCLUSION: An HCLF diet was significantly associated with an increased risk of hypertension.

Estimation of losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity among Chinese adults aged 45 years and older.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to estimate the losses of quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) due to the joint effects of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity, and to further confirm additional losses attributable to this interaction among middle-aged and elderly Chinese people. METHODS: The National Cause of Death Monitoring Data were linked with the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). A mapping and assignment method was used to estimate health utility values, which were further used to calculate QALE. Losses of QALE were measured by comparing the differences between subgroups. All the losses of QALE were displayed at two levels: the individual and population levels. RESULTS: At age 45, the individual-level and population-level losses of QALE attributed to the combination of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity were 7.61 (95% CI: 5.68, 9.57) years and 4.30 (95% CI: 3.43, 5.20) years, respectively. The losses for cognitive impairment alone were 3.10 (95% CI: 2.29, 3.95) years and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.32, 2.13) years at the two levels. Similarly, the losses for multimorbidity alone were 3.53 (95% CI: 2.53, 4.56) years and 1.91 (95% CI: 1.24, 2.63) years at the two levels. Additional losses due to the interaction of cognitive impairment and multimorbidity were indicated by the 0.98 years of the individual-level gap and 0.67 years of the population-level gap. CONCLUSION: Among middle-aged and elderly Chinese people, cognitive impairment and multimorbidity resulted in substantial losses of QALE, and additional QALE losses were seen due to their interaction at both individual and population levels.

Association between Dietary Quality and Prediabetes based on the Diet Balance Index.

Dietary quality is an important factor influencing prediabetes, but few studies have applied the Chinese Diet Balance Index (DBI-16) to evaluate the dietary quality of individuals with prediabetes and explore the associations between dietary quality and prediabetes. In our study, the lower-bound score, higher-bound score and diet quality distance, were respectively calculated to assess dietary quality based on each food group. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of unfavorable dietary quality leading to prediabetes in every subgroup. The results were shown that individuals with prediabetes had excessive intake in the categories of cereals, salt and inadequate intake in vegetables, fish and diet variety than participants without prediabetes (all P < 0.01). Unfavourable dietary quality was significantly associated with an increased risk of prediabetes (OR: 1.45, 95%CI: 1.29-1.63), especially among the subjects who lived in rural areas (OR: 1.63, 95%CI: 1.25-1.76), those who had abdominal obesity (OR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.36-1.85), those who smoked (OR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.30-1.93), those who consumed alcohol (OR: 1.57, 95%CI: 1.28-1.93) and those who did not drink tea (OR: 1.64, 95%CI: 1.42-1.88). In Conclusion, unfavourable dietary quality was significantly associated with an increased risk of prediabetes.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and cystatin C independently and jointly predict all-cause mortality among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese population.

Studies investigating the relationship between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), cystatin C, and all-cause mortality yielded inconsistent results. Moreover, the joint effect of hs-CRP and cystatin C on mortality risk is largely unknown for the general population. In this study, we examined the associations between hs-CRP, cystatin C, and all-cause mortality using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Middle-aged and elderly participants with complete data were enrolled for a 4-year follow-up of total mortality and plasma levels of hs-CRP (n = 11,409) and cystatin C (n = 8680). In study population, the highest quartiles of hs-CRP and cystatin C were significantly associated with increased total mortality risk compared with the lowest quartile, and adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 2.08 (1.49-2.91) and 1.97 (1.33-2.94) for hs-CRP and cystatin C, respectively. Remarkably, the adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of the co-occurrence of elevated hs-CRP and increased cystatin C was 4.17 (2.94-5.92), in contrast to each elevation alone: 1.89 (1.45-2.47) for hs-CRP and 2.08 (1.46-2.97) for cystatin C. Moreover, a subgroup analysis by gender yielded similar associations. Lastly, the addition of hs-CRP and cystatin C to conventional factors significantly improved risk prediction of total mortality (net reclassification index 0.3622, P < 0.0001; integrated discrimination improvement 0.0354, P < 0.0001). Taken together, findings suggest that plasma hs-CRP and cystatin C serve as independent predictors of all-cause mortality among the middle-aged and elderly Chinese population. Furthermore, the combination of hs-CRP and cystatin C could predict overall mortality better than each component individually.