Bi-directional association between outdoor or social activities and cognitive function: do the PM2.5 exposure catalyze the detrimental inactivity-poor cognition cycle?

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that lack of leisure activities, either outdoor or social activities, impedes cognitive function. However, the interrelationship between poor cognition and deficient activities is understudied. In addition, whether exposure to air pollution, such as PM2.5, can accelerate the detrimental 'inactivity-poor cognition' cycle, is worthy of investigation. METHODS: We used data from the 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2018 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). We assessed the frequency of outdoor or social activities at each wave. The cognitive function was examined using a China-Modified Mini-mental State Examination. We estimated the residential exposure to fine particular matter (PM2.5) via a satellite-based model. We applied cross-lagged panel (CLP) model to examine the bi-directional relationship between outdoor or social activities and cognitive function. We then examined the effect of PM2.5 exposure with sequent cognitive function and activities using generalized estimation equation (GEE) model. FINDINGS: Overall, we observed significant bi-directional associations between outdoor or social activities and cognitive function. Participants with better cognitive function in the last wave were more likely to engage in outdoor or social activities in the following wave (outdoor activities: ß = 0.37, 95% CI [0.27,0.48], P < 0.01; social activities: ß = 0.05, 95% CI [0.02,0.09] P < 0.01). Meanwhile, higher engagement in outdoor or social activities in the last wave was associated with more favorable cognitive function in the following wave (outdoor activities: ß = 0.06, 95% CI [0.03,0.09], P < 0.01; social activities: ß = 0.10, 95% CI [0.03,0.18], P < 0.01). Notably, an increase in PM2.5 exposure during the preceding year was significantly associated with a declining cognitive function (ß = -0.05, 95% CI [-0.08,-0.03], P < 0.01), outdoor activities (ß = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.04, -0.01], P < 0.01) and social activities (ß = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.02, -0.01], P < 0.01) in the current year; the lagged effects of the PM2.5 exposure in the past year of the last wave on activities and cognitive function of the following wave were also observed. INTERPRETATION: Our findings not only indicate the bi-directional links between the frequency of outdoor or social activities and cognitive function, but also report that PM2.5 exposure plays a role in catalyzing the detrimental inactivity-poor cognition cycle. Future research should investigate whether the policy-driven interventions, such as clean air policies, can break the unfavorable activity-cognition cycle, and thereby promoting health from the dual gains in leisure activities and cognition.

Plant-based dietary pattern and low muscle mass: a nation-wide cohort analysis of Chinese older adults.

BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether plant-based or animal-based dietary patterns are more beneficial for older adults more in maintaining muscle mass. Using a prospective cohort with nationwide sample of China older adults in this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between adhering to plant-based diet patterns or animal-based diet patterns and muscle loss. METHODS: We included 2771 older adults (≥ 65 years) from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey (CLHLS) with normal muscle mass at baseline (2011 and 2014 waves), which followed up into 2018. Plant-based dietary pattern scores and preference subgroups were constructed using 16 common animal-based and plant-based food frequencies. We used the corrected appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) prediction formula to assess muscle mass. We applied the Cox proportional hazard risk regression to explore associations between dietary patterns and low muscle mass (LMM). RESULTS: During a mean of 4.1 years follow-up, 234 (8.4%) participants with normal muscle mass at baseline showed LMM. The plant-based dietary pattern reduced the risk of LMM by 5% (Hazard Ratios [HR]: 0.95, 95% confidence intervals [95%CI]: 0.92-0.97). In addition, a high plant-based food company with a high animal-based food intake pattern reduced the risk of LMM by 60% (HR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.240-0.661) and 73% (HR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.11-0.61) in the BADL disability and IADL disability population compared with a low plant-based food and high animal-based food intake, whereas a high plant-based food and low animal-based food intake was more beneficial in reducing the risk of LMM in the normal BADL functioning (HR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.35-0.90) and IADL functioning (HR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.28-0.91) population. CONCLUSIONS: When it comes to maintaining muscle mass in older Chinese people with functional independence, a plant-based diet pattern is more beneficial and effective than the animal-based one. People with functional dependence may profit from a combination of plant-based and animal-based diets to minimize muscle loss.

The moderating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between falls, anxiety and depressive symptoms.

BACKGROUND: There is a greater likelihood of anxiety and depression among older adults who suffer falls. This study examined the relationships of falls and severe falls with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the moderating role of psychological resilience on these associations. METHODS: Our study recruited participants from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), a nationally representative cohort study. A total of 11,857 participants included in the analysis. We used a linear regression model to investigate the relationship between falls/severe falls and anxiety/depressive symptoms, adjusting for a range of potential covariates and a bootstrapping sample test to examine the potential moderating role of psychological resilience in these relationships. RESULTS: Older adults who suffered the falls have higher anxiety/depressive symptoms (ß = 0.28 [0.23, 0.32] for anxiety symptoms, p < 0.001; ß = 0.21 [0.16, 0.25] for depressive symptoms, p < 0.001), and those who suffered the severe falls have higher anxiety/depressive symptoms (ß = 0.30 [0.24, 0.37] for anxiety symptoms, p < 0.001; ß = 0.21 [0.15, 0.27] for depressive symptoms, p < 0.001), in the fully adjusted model. The relationship between falls/severe falls and anxiety/depressive symptoms was mitigated in participants with higher levels of psychological resilience. LIMITATIONS: The present study is based on cross-sectional data, which limits the ability to infer causal relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Falls/severe falls were positively associated with anxiety and depression, and that psychological resilience could moderate this association. Our findings suggest that psychological resilience may be an effective target for intervention and prevention of fall-related symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The effectiveness of chemotherapy for patients with pT3N0M0 renal pelvic urothelial carcinomas: An inverse probability of treatment weighting comparison using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data.

INTRODUCTION: Unlike the established evidence to use chemotherapy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder, presently there are insufficient data to inform a recommendation on upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma treatment. The prognosis for patients with stage T4 and positive lymph nodes is poor; however, primary tumors in the renal pelvis are associated with favorable prognoses compared to those located in the ureter. Our study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with pT3N0M0 renal pelvic urothelial carcinomas (RPUC) who have relative favorable prognosis. METHODS: Patients with pT3N0M0 tumors who underwent radical nephroureterectomy combined with bladder cuff excision between 2005 and 2014 and registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database were eligible for inclusion (n = 939). Baseline characteristics between the chemotherapy and observation groups were controlled for with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW)-adjusted analysis. RESULTS: After the IPTW-adjusted analysis, the 5-year IPTW-adjusted rates of overall survival (OS) for the chemotherapy and observation groups were 53.1% and 44.9%, respectively. The IPTW-adjusted Kaplan-Meier curves suggested that chemotherapy was associated with increased OS compared with observation (P = .028). In the IPTW-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression model, chemotherapy was associated with favorable survival benefits compared with observation (hazard ratio [HR] 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.92, P = .031), and this was maintained after bootstrapping (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.49-0.93). Chemotherapy had a protective effect on OS benefits, which were found in a majority of the results of the subgroup analysis and were consistent with the main results (all P-interactions > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Chemotherapy may provide significant OS benefits for patients with pT3N0M0 RPUC. The results of our study could strengthen the evidence for using adjuvant chemotherapy in this rare group of patients.

Influence of body mass index on oncological outcomes in patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma treated with radical nephroureterectomy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between body mass index and oncological outcomes in Chinese patients who had undergone radical nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma. METHODS: Between August 1998 and October 2009, 236 consecutive Chinese patients underwent radical nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangzhou, China). Body mass index data were available for 230 (97.5%) of these patients. All 230 patients were classified into three groups according to the body mass index criteria for Asians, issued by the Asia Cohort Consortium: underweight, body mass index <18.5 kg/m(2) (n = 21, 9.1%); normal weight, body mass index ≥18.5 and <25 kg/m(2) (n = 151, 65.7%); and obesity, body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2), (n = 58, 25.2%). Spearman's rank correlation, Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Being underweight was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.017) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (P = 0.003). Univariate analysis showed recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival were significantly worse in underweight patients than in patients with normal weight or obese patients. After adjustments for other clinicopathological variables, multivariate analysis confirmed that recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival were significantly worse in underweight patients than in patients with normal weight or obese patients (recurrence-free survival P = 0.014, cancer-specific survival P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative underweight is an independent predictor of unfavorable recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival in Chinese patients with upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma treated by radical nephroureterectomy, whereas obesity is associated with superior recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival. Further studies, including a multi-institutional, prospective, Asian cohort study, are required to confirm these findings.

High expression of H3K27me3 is an independent predictor of worse outcome in patients with urothelial carcinoma of bladder treated with radical cystectomy.

It has been suggested that trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) is a crucial epigenetic process in tumorigenesis. However, the expression pattern of H3K27me3 and its clinicopathological/prognostic significance in urothelial carcinoma of bladder (UCB) are unclear. In this study, upregulated expression of H3K27me3 protein was observed in the majority of UCBs by Western blotting. High expression of H3K27me3 was examined by IHC in 59/126 (46.8%) of UCB tissues and in 18/72 (25.0%) of normal urothelial bladder epithelial tissues (P = 0.002). High expression of H3K27me3 was associated with multifocal tumors and lymph node metastases (P < 0.05). Patients with high expression of H3K27me3 had shorter cancer-specific survival (CSS) time than patients with low expression of H3K27me3 (P < 0.001). In different subsets of UCB patients, high expression of H3K27me3 was also a prognostic indicator in patients with grade 2 and grade 3, pT1, pT2, pT3, and pN- disease (P < 0.05). Importantly, expression of H3K27me3 was an independent predictor for CSS (P < 0.001) of UCB patients treated with radical cystectomy (RC). Our data suggests that high expression of H3K27me3 is an independent molecular marker for predicting poor prognosis of UCB patients treated with RC.

Overexpression of YAP 1 contributes to progressive features and poor prognosis of human urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.

BACKGROUND: Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP 1), the nuclear effector of the Hippo pathway, is a key regulator of organ size and a candidate human oncogene in multiple tumors. However, the expression dynamics of YAP 1 in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) and its clinical/prognostic significance are unclear. METHODS: In this study, the methods of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blotting and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were utilized to investigate mRNA/ protein expression of YAP 1 in UCBs. Spearman's rank correlation, Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Up-regulated expression of YAP 1 mRNA and protein was observed in the majority of UCBs by qRT-PCR and Western blotting, when compared with their paired normal bladder tissues. By IHC, positive expression of YAP 1 was examined in 113/213 (53.1%) of UCBs and in 6/86 (7.0%) of normal bladder specimens tissues. Positive expression of YAP 1 was correlated with poorer differentiation, higher T classification and higher N classification (P < 0.05). In univariate survival analysis, a significant association between positive expression of YAP 1 and shortened patients' survival was found (P < 0.001). In different subsets of UCB patients, YAP 1 expression was also a prognostic indicator in patients with grade 2 (P = 0.005) or grade 3 (P = 0.046) UCB, and in patients in pT1 (P = 0.013), pT2-4 (P = 0.002), pN- (P < 0.001) or pT2-4/pN- (P = 0.004) stage. Importantly, YAP 1 expression (P = 0.003) together with pT and pN status (P< 0.05) provided significant independent prognostic parameters in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide evidences that positive expression of YAP 1 in UCB may be important in the acquisition of an aggressive phenotype, and it is an independent biomarker for poor prognosis of patients with UCB.

Age-specific effect of gender on upper tract urothelial carcinoma outcomes.

The research is to evaluate the age-specific differential effects of gender on outcomes in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) treated with radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). Between August 1998 and October 2010, we retrospectively reviewed the data from 285 (67.7%) men and 136 (32.3%) women treated with RNU for UTUC at our two institutions. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates the age-specific effect of gender on cancer-specific survival (CSS). Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to address the effect of gender on CSS. No significant sex-related differences were found in age and diagnosis, clinicopathologic features, and treatment (all P values >0.05). Women had a 18.7% increased risk of death from UTUC than men (hazard ratio [HR] 1.187; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.017-1.893; P = 0.021). The survival disadvantage was only present in patients aged 59 years and older (P < 0.001). Conversely, the survival advantage for women was found in women aged 42 to 58 years (P = 0.011) and in the age group <42 years (P = 0.019). On multivariable Cox regression analyses that adjusted for the effects of clinicopathologic features, the female gender was associated with decreased CSS (P = 0.036). In conclusion, the impact of gender on UTUC outcomes after RNU is age-specific. Females who aged 59 years and older experienced worse outcomes than their male counterparts, while women in the age group <42 years and 42-58 years have better outcomes than men. Further research is needed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the age-specific differential effect of gender on UTUC outcomes.

The risk factors for the presence of pelvic lymph node metastasis in penile squamous cell carcinoma patients with inguinal lymph node dissection.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate factors in penile squamous cell carcinoma predictive of pelvic lymph node metastasis and survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected and analyzed retrospectively in 146 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of penis who underwent bilateral inguinal lymph node dissection in our center between January 1998 and April 2011. Variables recorded included serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen, primary tumor p53 immunoreactivity, histological grade, pathological tumor stage, lymphatic or vascular invasion, absent/unilateral or bilateral inguinal lymph node involvement, number of metastatic inguinal lymph nodes, presence of extracapsular growth and lymph node density. RESULTS: Seventy patients had inguinal lymph node metastasis (LNM). Of these, 33 (47.1%) had pelvic LNM. Primary tumor strong p53 expression, lymphatic or vascular invasion, involvement of more than two inguinal lymph nodes and 30% or greater lymph node density were significant predictors of pelvic LNM. Primary tumor strong p53 expression (odds ratio [OR] 5.997, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.615-22.275), presence of extracapsular growth (OR 2.209, 95% CI 1.166-4.184), involvement of more than two inguinal lymph nodes (OR 2.494, 95% CI 1.086-5.728) and pelvic lymph node involvement (OR 18.206, 95% CI 6.807-48.696) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Primary tumor expression of p53, lymphatic or vascular invasion, number of metastatic inguinal lymph nodes and lymph node density were all predictors of pathologic pelvic lymph node involvement. Patients with pelvic LNM had an adverse prognosis, with a 3-year overall survival rate of approximately 12.1%. Pelvic lymph node dissection should be considered in these cases.

Prognostic significance of tumor location and superficial urothelial bladder carcinoma history in patients with ureteral urothelial carcinoma treated with radical nephroureterectomy.

PURPOSE: To investigate the significance of tumor location and superficial urothelial bladder carcinoma (UBC) history on oncological outcomes in patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for ureteral urothelial carcinoma (UC). METHODS: One hundred and thirty-two patients treated with RNU for ureteral UC between January 1999 and July 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. Recurrence probabilities and survival rates were analyzed, stratified by tumor location and superficial UBC history. RESULTS: Comparison of patients with proximal, middle, and distal ureteral UC showed that percentage of bladder recurrence was 13.3, 14.7, and 25.0 %, respectively (P = 0.285); retroperitoneal (tumor bed or lymph node) recurrence was 26.7, 14.7, and 27.9 % (P = 0.319); and contralateral recurrence was 0, 2.9, and 0 % (P = 0.234). Comparison of patients with and without history of superficial UBC revealed that percentage of bladder recurrence was 15.4 and 20.2 %, respectively (P = 0.681); retroperitoneal recurrence was 15.4 and 25.2 % (P = 0.433); and contralateral recurrence was 0 and 0.84 % (P = 0.740). Using multivariable Cox regression analyses, there were no significant differences of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) with regard to neither tumor location nor superficial UBC history (RFS: P = 0.282 and 0.762, CSS: P = 0.272 and 0.818, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Tumor location and history of superficial UBC could not be used to predict oncological outcomes of patients who underwent RNU for ureteral UC. Therefore, operative strategies or postoperative surveillance should not be affected by tumor location or history of superficial UBC.

[Total cystectomy and neobladder for women patients with invasive bladder cancer: a report of eight cases].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Although total cystectomy plus neobladder is widely used, with good outcome, to treat men patients with invasive bladder cancer, the experience of treating women patients with the same therapy is limit. This study was designed to investigate the outcome of total cystectomy plus sigmoid neobladder for women patients with invasive bladder cancer. METHODS: Clinical data of 8 women with invasive bladder cancer, who underwent total cystectomy plus sigmoid neobladder from Jan. 2002 to Oct. 2003 in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The operations were technically successful in all cases. The mean follow-up was 18 months (ranged 6-24 months). Six patients survived disease-freely;2 developed pelvic metastasis 6 and 12 months after operation respectively. All patients could actively urinate, 4 were continent day and night, 4 were continent at daytime with mild nocturnal incontinence. Mild hydronephrosis was detected in 1 patient 3 months after operation, which disappeared spontaneously 3 months later. Renal function and serum electrolytes were normal in all cases. CONCLUSIONS: Total cystectomy plus sigmoid neobladder could manage invasive bladder cancer in women patients, and the new bladders function well. But night continence in women patients is not as good as that in men patients.