Sociodemographic characteristics, riding behavior and motorcycle crash involvement: a structural equation modeling approach.

BACKGROUND: The increasing rate of traffic crashes involving motorcyclists have turned into a public health and road safety concern. Furthermore, riding behaviors and their precedent factors have been identified as potential determinants for assessing, intervening, and preventing traffic injuries of motorists. This study aimed to identify the effects of a set of demographic and motorcycle-related variables as potential predictors on collision through riding behavior components. METHODS: The study sample was 1,611 motorcyclists who were selected through time-location sampling method from three cities in Iran. They responded a Motorcycle Rider Behavior Questionnaire (MRBQ) and a general questionnaire including sociodemographic and riding-related items. The chosen method to analyze the data was Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Lavaan package version 0.6-8 of R software version 4.1.0. RESULTS: All participants were male (100%) with a mean age of 28.1(SD=8.5) years. About 24.4% of riders experienced at least one crash during the last year and the majority of riders did not hold a motorcycle license (80.1%). The SEM model showed that riding license (0.06) and frequency of riding (0.09) had a direct effect on crash involvement. Some latent variables including speed violation (0.13), stunts (0.11) and traffic violation (0.07) had positive effects and safety violation (-0.07) had a negative effect on crash history. There were indirect effects between age and history of crash mediated by speed violation (-0.04), stunts (-0.04), traffic violation (-0.02) and safety violation (0.01). Also, the indirect effects of riding frequency on crash involvement were mediated by speed violation (0.01), traffic violation (0.006) and safety violation (-0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study's main finding is that age and riding frequency are the main variables indirectly affecting crash involvement. Therefore, periodic training courses for younger riders is essential in order to decreasing crash involvements.

The association between Helicobacter pylori and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies.

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between H. pylori infection and obesity development has remained controversial among various studies. The aim of this study was to clarify the pooled effect of H. pylori infection on the development of obesity and vice versa. METHODS: We searched international databases including Medline (PubMed), Web of sciences, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane, Ovid, and CINHAL to retrieve all case-control studies reporting the effect of H. pylori on obesity and vice versa, which had been published in English between January 1990 and June 2019. The quality of included studies was assessed by the Modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for Case-Control studies. The logarithm of the odds ratio (OR) and its standard error was used for the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Eight case-control studies with 25,519 participants were included for qualitative and quantitative analyses. The pooled analysis showed that obese participants had a higher risk of H. pylori infection than lean participants with an odds ratio of 1.46 (95%CI: 1.26, 1.68). Also, the pooled analysis revealed that participants infected by H. pylori had a higher risk of obesity than non-infected participants with an odds ratio of 1.01 (95%CI: 1.01, 1.02). CONCLUSION: The results of this meta-analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between the risk of H. pylori infection and the prevalence of obesity development. Thus, H. pylori positive patients were more likely to be obese, and obese individuals had higher risks of H. pylori infection.

Percentiles for anthropometric measures in 11-18 years-old students of 73 developing countries.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: one of the health concerns for any society is to have its own standard of growth. The aim of this study was to provide the age- and sex-specific percentile values of anthropometric measures for adolescents of developing countries. The use of global percentiles in developing countries overestimates underweight and stunting while underestimates overweight and obesity. METHODS: The data were obtained from the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). This study was conducted on school students, selected by multistage random cluster sampling from 73 developing countries. A parametric method was used for constructing age-specific reference intervals (normal ranges). RESULTS: In general, 210,045 11-18 years-old schoolchildren (14.38 ± 1.39) from 73 developing countries between 2003 and 2014 were included in this study, among which 103,080 (49.08%) were male and 106,965 (50.92%) were female. Calculation of body mass index (BMI) percentile showed that for all BMI percentile curves of both sexes, there was a gradual increase up to the age of around 15 years, and then remain stable (except for 95th percentile). Moreover in all weight percentile curves of boys, except 90th and above, there was a slight rise until the age of 18 years. In 10th height percentile curves and above in boys, there was a sharp increase up to the age of 17, followed by a decline. Similarly, this pattern was found for 50th height percentile and above in girls. CONCLUSION: The use of global percentiles in developing countries overestimates underweight and stunting while underestimates overweight and obesity.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in patients with diabetes.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Prior studies have shown that Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) has the important role in the development of gastrointestinal diseases and diabetes in patients with diabetes. Due to the contradictory results on the prevalence of H. pylori in patients, we carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to discover the pooled prevalence of H. Pylori in patients with diabetes. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed utilizing international databases including Medline (PubMed), Web of sciences, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane, Ovid and CINHAL to retrieve all cross-sectional studies which had reported H. pylori prevalence in patients with diabetes between January 1990 and March 2019. The random effects models were applied to calculate the pooled prevalence with 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: A total of 13 articles were selected for meta-analysis according to PRISMA guideline. The pooled prevalence of H. Pylori was obtained 54% (95% CI: 44%-64%) in patients with diabetes. The highest and least prevalence of H. pylori were associated to Africa (66%; 95%CI: 49%-73%) and USA (15%; 95%CI: 8%-26%). In addition, the rapid urease test and biopsy/histology had the most strength in detecting of the H. pylori infection. The meta-regression analysis demonstrated that H. pylori prevalence is not affected by patients' age, publication year, study duration, and HbA1C. CONCLUSION: Given that the high prevalence of H. pylori in patients with diabetes and its important role in the development of gastrointestinal diseases and diabetes, treatment and eradication of this bacterium should be considered in patients with diabetes.

Helicobacter pylori infection as a risk factor for diabetes: a meta-analysis of case-control studies.

BACKGROUND: There are several studies with varied and mixed results about the possible relationship between H. pylori and diabetes. Therefore, this current meta-analysis performed to determine the association between H. pylori infection and the risk of diabetes mellitus. METHODS: A systematic literature searches of international databases, including Medline (PubMed), Web of Sciences, Scopus, EMBASE, and CINHAL (January 1990-March 2019) was conducted to identify studies investigating the relationship between H. pylori infection and diabetes mellitus. Only case-control studies were analyzed using odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Stratified and subgroup analyses were performed to explore heterogeneity between studies and assess effects of study quality. Logarithm and standard error logarithm odds ratio (OR) were also used for meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 41 studies involving 9559 individuals (case; 4327 and control; 5232) were analyzed. The pooled estimate of the association between H. pylori infection with diabetes was OR = 1.27 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.45, P = 0.0001, I2 = 86.6%). The effect of H. pylori infection on diabetes mellitus (both types), type 1 and type 2 diabetes was 1.17 (95% CI 0.94 to 1.45), 1.19 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.45), and 1.43 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.85) respectively. Subgroup analysis by the geographical regions showed in Asian population risk of the effect of H. pylori infection on diabetes was slightly higher than other population, CONCLUSION: In overall a positive association between H. pylori infection and diabetes mellitus was found.