The Role of Ethnic Disparities in the Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Bariatric surgery is increasingly performed over the past decade for the treatment of morbid obesity. It has beneficial effects on weight reduction, along with diabetes remission. Conflicting results have been reported to evaluate the effect of ethics differences on the outcomes of bariatric surgery. We conducted this meta-analysis to outline the effects of ethnic differences on the outcomes of bariatric surgery, including weight reduction, biochemical variables, diabetes, and hypertension remission. A comprehensive literature search was conducted, using PubMed, Web of Science (ISI), Google Scholar, Popline, Global Health Library (GHL), Virtual Health Library (VHL) including Cochrane database, New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), and System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE) for studies reporting body mass index (BMI), percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL), waist circumference, hypertension, lipid profile, and diabetes variables. We used the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) tool (Bethesda, MD: NHLBI, National Institutes of Health {NIH}) for quality assessment. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 2 software (Englewood, NJ: Biostat, Inc.) was applied to perform the meta-analysis of the variables of interest. We included 23 studies of 71,679 subjects, who underwent bariatric surgery. The majority of the included cases were Whites 55,030 (77%), while 705 (1%) were Asians. The percentages of Blacks, African Americans, Hispanics, and Non-Hispanics were 9.3%, 1.3%, 10.4%, and 1%, respectively. BMI showed no significant difference between Whites vs African American and Hispanic vs Non-Hispanic groups (MD: 0.858; 95% CI: 3.408-1.691; p = 0.509 and MD: 0.455; 95% CI: 2.444-1.554; p = 0.663, respectively). The same result was reported for %EWL, comparing Whites vs African Americans. Lipid biochemical variables, diabetes remission, and hypertension control were significantly more seen among the Asian population. In conclusion, we reported a significant ethnic diversity and reduction in waist circumference, hyperlipidemia, and the associated morbidity one year after bariatric surgery in the Asian population. Further, high-quality prospective studies should focus on the social and psychological ethnic differences associated with obesity.

Relationship of dementia and visual hallucinations in tremor and non-tremor dominant Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVES: Both visual hallucinations and cognitive dysfunction are experienced by a significant number of patients with Parkinson's disease. There were three main objectives of this study: (1) to determine if there is a difference in the prevalence of dementia in patients with tremor versus non-tremor dominant Parkinson's; (2) to determine if there is a difference of prevalence of visual hallucinations in patients with tremor and non-tremor dominant Parkinson's disease; and (3) to determine if there is a relationship between visual hallucinations and dementia in Parkinson's disease patients. BACKGROUND: Dementia and visual hallucinations are common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease that affect a significant number of patients. Previous research has shown that visual hallucinations may be predictive of future onset of dementia. We wanted to compare the prevalence of these non-motor symptoms in tremor vs. non-tremor dominant Parkinson's disease, although previous research has shown that dementia may be more common in the akinetic rigid variant of Parkinson's disease without tremor. Visual hallucinations have not yet been studied in this way. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart analysis on 314 patients with Parkinson's disease in this study. Patients meeting the inclusion criteria were stratified into several categories based on the presence or absence of tremor dominant PD, akinetic rigid dominant PD, dementia and visual hallucinations. Nonparametric tests were used for performing statistical analyses. The Chi Squared test was used for the analysis of categorical variables. RESULTS: Patients without tremor had a higher prevalence of dementia (29%) than those with tremor (14%). There was no difference in visual hallucinations in tremor versus non-tremor patients, although there was a significant trend between tremor and visual hallucinations in female patients. A significant correlation was found between dementia and visual hallucinations in the sample, however further investigation showed this was largely associated with female Parkinson's disease patients.

Impact of ethnicity on non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative illness characterized by various non-motor symptoms that may contribute to disability, impaired quality of life and shortened life expectancy. The aim of present study was to determine the relative prevalence of common non-motor symptoms in various ethnic groups. A retrospective chart analysis was performed on Parkinson's disease patients where a total of 314 PD patients from six ethnic categories were examined for the occurrence of anxiety, visual hallucinations, nocturia, drooling and dementia. Our results show that anxiety in PD patients was correlated with their ethnicity classification. Interesting trends were observed with respect to nocturia and dementia symptoms and no significant differences were found between ethnic groups for visual hallucinations and drooling. Our study shows that non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease are prevalent across all ethnic groups, and except anxiety there may not be any impact of ethnicity on dementia, nocturia, drooling, and visual hallucinations.