Effect of sociodemographic variables and time on food group contribution to total food availability in Portuguese elderly households.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the simultaneous effects of sociodemographic variables and time on each food group contribution to total Portuguese elderly household food availability. DESIGN: Four cross sectional Portuguese Household Budget Surveys were used. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), using a general linear model (GLM), was applied to analyze the simultaneous effects of sociodemographic variables and time. SETTING: Portuguese population. SUBJECTS: Nationally representative samples of households with members aged ≥ 65 years were selected and categorized as solitary elderly female, solitary elderly male, or couple (one elderly female and one elderly male). Samples included 1,967 households in 1989-1990, 2,219 households in 1994-1995, 2,533 households in 2000-2001 and 2,441 households in 2005-2006. RESULTS: The simultaneous effects of sociodemographic variables and time were significant for all food groups (P<0.001). The highest contribution for the total household food availability was found for cereals, potatoes, alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages and fruits. The effects were large for "household food availability" and medium for "elderly household type", "urbanization degree", "income", "food expenses" and "eating out expenses". Solitary elderly male households had the highest proportion of cereals and alcoholic beverages, whilst solitary elderly female households had higher availability of milk/milk products and fruits. Households located in urban areas had higher contribution of milk/milk products while rural, had higher contribution of potatoes. CONCLUSIONS: The simultaneous effect of the studied variables on food group contribution to total household food availability can be considered when addressing dietary recommendation for providing an insight into the motivations associated with food purchases.

Diet quality in elderly Portuguese households.

OBJECTIVE: To identify diet quality time trends in Portuguese elderly households and the association of diet quality with sociodemographic characteristics. DESIGN: Set of four cross-sectional studies. SETTING: Portuguese population. SUBJECTS: Nationally representative samples from Household Budget Surveys (1989-1990, 1994-1995, 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 versions). Households with members aged ≥ 65 years were categorized as solitary elderly female, solitary elderly male, or elderly couple (composed of one elderly female and one elderly male) and compared with adult households with the same composition. METHODS: Diet quality was assessed through a revised version of the Healthy Diet Indicator (HDIr). Univariate and multiple backward linear regression models were used to study the association with sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Mean values of dietary index were low and the proportion of elderly households with low diet quality (HDIr≤4) was high (between 47.4% and 68.4%). However, the frequency of HDIr inadequacy for adult household was even higher (P<0.05). In general, adjusted coefficients for survey year, educational level of the household head, and eating out expenses were inversely associated with HDIr; whilst semi-urban and rural location of the households predicted higher HDIr values. Exceptions were found in elderly male households where the educational level of the household head was positively associated with HDIr values. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, diet quality was low and decreased over time but lonely elderly female and elderly couple households had higher values of HDIr. Adherence to a healthier diet was associated with lower educational level of the household head and location of the household in less urbanized areas.

Growth trends in boys and girls (10-17 years-old) from autonomous region of Madeira, Portugal between 1996-1998 and 2007-2009.

BACKGROUND: Growth trends have never been studied in adolescents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal. AIMS: To analyse growth trends in weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and triceps skin-fold thickness (TST) of adolescents (10-17 years old) of the Autonomous Region of Madeira between 1996-1998 and 2007-2009. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out between 2007-2009, including 4314 adolescents, 2237 girls and 2077 boys (10-17 years old). To study secular growth trends, data were compared with a sample from 1996-1998, comparing the means for each anthropometric variable by age and sex using the independent-sample t-test. RESULTS: An average increase was found in weight of 5.8 kg in boys and 6.3 kg in girls; in height of 3.0 cm in boys and 3.7 cm in girls; in BMI of 1.5 kg/m(2) in boys and 1.7 kg/m(2) in girls; in WC a difference of 5.6 cm and 4.9 cm for boys and girls, respectively, and for MUAC a difference of 2.7 cm in boys and 2.0 cm in girls. No differences were found in TST in boys, but in girls an increase of 1.2 mm was observed. CONCLUSIONS: A general increase in anthropometric measurements, more marked in weight, BMI, WC and MUAC and at younger ages, was observed.

Markers of metabolic syndrome in obese children before and after 1-year lifestyle intervention program.

PURPOSE: Excess weight may be related to the development of adverse cardiometabolic risk factors in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a lifestyle intervention program (nutrition and exercise counseling) on anthropometric parameters and metabolic syndrome (MS) components in Portuguese overweight/obese children. METHODS: A total of 83 overweight/obese children aged 7-9 years were assigned to a 1-year individual or group-based treatment (GT); 61 children (z-score BMI (zBMI): 1.93 ± 0.28; 27 boys and 34 girls) completed the program. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were assessed at baseline, at 6 months and at 1 year. RESULTS: The overweight/obese children, compared to normal-weight ones, presented significantly higher blood pressure, total-cholesterol, total-cholesterol/high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) ratio, triglycerides, Apolipoprotein B and C-reactive protein levels, while HDL and Apolipoprotein A-I were significantly lower. At baseline, the prevalence of MS was 16.4% in overweight/obese and 0% in normal-weight children. The number of components of MS was significantly higher in children with higher zBMI. Lifestyle intervention led to a significant improvement in zBMI, waist circumference/height ratio, HDL, triglycerides, Apolipoprotein A-I, and Apolipoprotein B levels. The prevalence of MS decreased to 14.8%. The GT intervention seems to be more successful, with a significant decrease in zBMI and an increase in HDL and a lower drop-out rate. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight/obese children have multiple risk factors associated with the MS. Lifestyle intervention, both individual and group-based treatment, led to an improvement in the degree of overweight/obesity and in MS components.

Dynamics of immunological models.

We analyse the effect of the regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the local control of the immune responses by T cells. We obtain an explicit formula for the level of antigenic stimulation of T cells as a function of the concentration of T cells and the parameters of the model. The relation between the concentration of the T cells and the antigenic stimulation of T cells is an hysteresis, that is unfold for some parameter values. We study the appearance of autoimmunity from cross-reactivity between a pathogen and a self antigen or from bystander proliferation. We also study an asymmetry in the death rates. With this asymmetry we show that the antigenic stimulation of the Tregs is able to control locally the population size of Tregs. Other effects of this asymmetry are a faster immune response and an improvement in the simulations of the bystander proliferation. The rate of variation of the levels of antigenic stimulation determines if the outcome is an immune response or if Tregs are able to maintain control due to the presence of a transcritical bifurcation for some tuning between the antigenic stimuli of T cells and Tregs. This behavior is explained by the presence of a transcritical bifurcation.