Emotional symptoms, dietary patterns and dental caries: A cross-sectional study in adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the relationship between emotional symptoms and dental caries in adolescents and the role of dietary patterns as mediating variables. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a multistage stratified random sample of schools, in Jiangsu, with a sample of 17,997 adolescents aged 11-19. Measures included emotional symptoms, dental caries, toothbrushing frequency, and dietary patterns. Logistic and Poisson regression models were conducted to test mediation hypotheses. RESULTS: The decayed, missing, and filled teeth index (DMFT) was related to depressive symptoms following adjustment for other variables (incidence rate ratios [IRR] = 1.09; p < 0.05), but not to anxiety symptoms level (IRR = 1.02; p > 0.05). The link between depressive symptoms and DMFT had a partial mediation impact on toothbrushing frequency (a, b, c' all p < 0.05). Sugary foods, but not fried foods, partially mediated the link between depressive symptoms and caries when toothbrushing frequency was adjusted. CONCLUSION: There are direct and indirect associations between emotional symptoms and caries; the latter may be due to changes in oral health behaviours that increase the risk of caries.

Relationship between family structures and adolescents mental health and health associated behaviors / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To explore the associations of family structure with adolescent mental health and health associated behaviors, to support interventions to decrease the occurrence of psychological problems and adverse health associated behaviors among adolescents in families without two parents.@*Methods@#The multi stage stratified random cluster sampling method was used to select 18 700 adolescents of the 13 districts and cities from Jiangsu Province for a questionnaire survey on mental health and health associated behaviors, to compare differences in mental health and health associated behaviors among adolescents with different family structures.@*Results@#Among the adolescents, 82.1% had two parent families, 8.6% had single mother families, 4.0% had single father families, and 5.3 % had families with both parents absent. After controlling for age, urban/rural areas, gender, academic period and region, Logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that compared with adolescents from two parent families, the incidence of depression, social anxiety and bullying on campus of adolescents with single mother families increased significantly( OR=1.31, 1.15, 1.36，P ＜0.05). Compared with adolescents in two parent families, adolescents in families without two parents had significantly more types of health risk behaviors, and those in single mother families had significantly less frequent intake of a healthful diet( OR =0.81), significantly more smoking( OR =1.20), drinking behaviors( OR =1.22), and significantly less moderate intensity physical activity ( OR =0.84) and shorter duration of sleep( OR =0.87)( P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#Psychological and health associated problems were significantly higher among adolescents in families without two parents than in those with two parent families. Psychological problems and adverse health associated behaviors were particularly prominent among adolescents in single mother families.

Effects of grandparent involvement in parenting on health related behaviors among urban preschoolers / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To explore the effects of grandparent involvement in parenting on health related behaviors among urban preschool children, so as to provide a basis for the development of interventions for unhealthy behaviors among preschool children with different parenting pattern.@*Methods@#A total of 5 431 preschool children aged 3-6 years old in Xinbei District, Changzhou City, were selected by census method during January to October, 2022. General household characteristics and health related behaviors of children were investigated by questionnaires, and the differences in health related behaviors with different parenting pattern involving grandparents were explored by the χ 2 test. A multifactorial Logistic regression model was used to analyze the effects of grandparenting on preschool children s health behaviors.@*Results@#About 51.2% of preschoolers were raised by both parents, 46.1 % were co parented by grandparents, and 2.7% were raised by grandparents. After multifactorial Logistic regression analysis controlling for age, gender, annual household income, and family structure, children co parented by grandparents had a reduced risk of screen exposure time>1 h/d ( OR =0.79, P <0.05), with increased risks of outdoor activity time<2 h/d ( OR =1.30, P < 0.05 ), sleep duration <10 h/d ( OR =1.31, P <0.05), sleep difficulties ( OR =1.39, P <0.05) and adverse eating behaviors ( OR =1.20， P < 0.05), compared with children parented by both parents. Children raised by grandparents were at increased risk for outdoor activity time<2 h/d ( OR =2.19) and unhealthy eating behaviors ( OR =1.39) ( P <0.05).@*Conclusions@#Compared with children raised by both parents, the incidence of unhealthy behaviors is increased in children raised by parents and grandparents and in children raised by full grandparents. Active intervention should be focused on unhealthy behaviors of preschool children with pareting involving grandparents to promote the physical and mental health of preschool children.

Sesamin induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis through p38/C-Jun N-terminal kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in human colorectal cancer cells.

Sesamin, a lignan compound, exhibits a variety of biological activities and possesses potent anticancer properties on some human cancers. However, its effect on human colorectal cancer (CRC) remains to be elucidated. To investigate the effects of sesamin on CRC cells and further to explore the mechanisms, cell viability, cell cycle and apoptosis assays were performed in this study. We found that sesamin had a selective antiproliferation of CRC cell line HCT116 in a dose- and time-dependent manner, but no obvious effect on human normal colorectal mucosa epithelial cell FHC. Further study showed that sesamin-induced cell cycle arrest and decreased the expression of Cyclin D1 significantly and dose-dependently in HCT116 cells. Moreover, sesamin dose-dependently triggered apoptosis of HCT116 but not FHC, and promoted the expression levels of proapoptotic biomarkers Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP-1 and inhibited the expression of antiapoptotic biomarker Bcl-2. Western blot analysis was used to reveal the possible signaling pathways, and we found that sesamin upregulated the phosphorylation expression levels of C-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 except ERK1/2 in a dose-dependent way in both HCT116 and another CRC cell line SW480. Moreover, we found that the apoptosis effect induced by sesamin was partially eliminated by inhibiting JNK or p38 activation. Finally, we showed that sesamin effectively reduced the growth of xenograft tumors derived from cell lines with limited toxicity. Taken together, the potential ability of sesamin to induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis was shown to be via the p38 and JNK mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways, which may be one of the mechanisms of the anticancer activity of this low-toxic agent.