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Background: Cognitive assessments for patients with neurocognitive disorders are mostly measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Visual Cognitive Assessment Test (VCAT) as screening tools. These cognitive scores are usually left-skewed and the results of the association analysis might not be robust. This study aims to study the distribution of the cognitive outcomes and to discuss potential solutions. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cohort study of individuals with subjective cognitive decline or mild cognitive impairment, the inverse-transformed cognitive outcomes are modelled using different statistical distributions. The robustness of the proposed models are checked under different scenarios: with intercept-only, models with covariates, and with and without bootstrapping. Results: The main results were based on the VCAT score and validated via the MoCA score. The findings suggested that the inverse transformation method improved the modelling the cognitive scores compared to the conventional methods using the original cognitive scores. The association of the baseline characteristics (age, gender, and years of education) and the cognitive outcomes were reported as estimates and 95% confidence intervals. Bootstrap methods improved the estimate precision and the bootstrapped standard errors of the estimates were more robust. Cognitive outcomes were widely analysed using linear regression models with the default normal distribution as a conventional method. We compared the results of our suggested models with the normal distribution under various scenarios. Goodness-of-fit measurements were compared between the proposed models and conventional methods. Conclusions: The findings support the use of the inverse transformation method to model the cognitive outcomes instead of the original cognitive scores for early-stage neurocognitive disorders where the cognitive outcomes are left-skewed.
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BACKGROUND: Neuroprotective role of olive and its natural products can introduce them as alternative candidates for the management of neurodegenerative diseases including stroke. The present study was designed to evaluate whether pretreatment of olive oil and leaf extract can attenuate the most important destructive processes in cerebral ischemia called excitotoxicity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The male rats were categorized into control, virgin olive oil (OVV), MCAO, MCAO + OVV (with doses of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 ml/kg as treatment groups), olive leaf extract, MCAO + olive leaf extract (with doses 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg as treatment groups) groups. Rats of treatment groups received gastric gavage with olive oil or leaf extract for 30 consecutive days. After pretreatment, the intraluminal filament technique was used to block middle cerebral artery (MCA) transiently. Neurological deficits, infarct volume and expression of Na+/Ca2+ exchangers (NCX1, NCX2 and NCX3) proteins were measured. RESULTS: The results revealed that olive oil at doses of 0.50 and 0.75 ml/kg reduced the infarction and neurological score and upregulated NCXs expression in rat brain. In addition, olive leaf extract at doses of 75 and 100 mg/kg attenuated the infarction and neurological score and enhanced NCXs expression in rat brain. CONCLUSION: These findings support the view that olive oil and leaf extract play the neuroprotective role in cerebral ischemia due to the upregulation of NCXs protein expression.
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Background: Some studies have shown that Socioeconomic Status (SES) is positively related to insulin resistance among different population groups, except for pregnant women. Therefore, we examined the relationship between SES and Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) index as well as mediating variables. Materials and Methods: This study was performed on 138 primiparous healthy women at 6-10 weeks of pregnancy. The association between SES and HOMA-IR was analyzed by regression analysis, and mediating variables were determined by mediation analysis. Results: SES score was positively correlated with HOMA-IR index [ß = 0.02, t101 = 2.20, p = 0.03, 95% CI: (0.00-0.05]. The higher percentage of mediation was related to maternal weigh (70.80%). Job activity had a protective effect on the association between SES and HOMA-IR (-62.50%). The total percentage of two mediators was 25%. Conclusions: The positive relationship between SES and (HOMA-IR) in early pregnancy may provide a way to control this condition.
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BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to determine comprehensive maternal characteristics associated with birth weight using Bayesian modeling. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 526 participants were included in this prospective study. Nutritional status, supplement consumption during the pregnancy, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, anthropometric measures, physical activity, and pregnancy outcomes were considered as effective variables on the birth weight. Bayesian approach of complex statistical models using Markov chain Monte Carlo approach was used for modeling the data considering the real distribution of the response variable. RESULTS: There was strong positive correlation between infant birth weight and the maternal intake of Vitamin C, folic acid, Vitamin B3, Vitamin A, selenium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium as micronutrients, and fiber and protein as macronutrients based on the 95% high posterior density regions for parameters in the Bayesian model. None of the maternal characteristics had statistical association with birth weight. CONCLUSION: Higher maternal macro- and micro-nutrient intake during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of delivering low birth weight infants. These findings support recommendations to expand intake of nutrients during pregnancy to high level.
