Solving the barriers to diabetes education through the use of multimedia.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that affects > 180 million people worldwide. It is persistent in Thai communities in spite of much effort in prevention and control. This study examined the knowledge capacity of villagers in the Klongmai community of Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, regarding diabetes by way of action research. A health status assessment and a survey of the community were carried out and used as the basis for designing an educational video on diabetes that is accessible regardless of age and educational background. Evaluations of the pre- and poststudy questionnaires were carried out using statistical analysis. The results indicated that the devised educational materials were effective in encouraging the community's self-awareness and perception of diabetes at the significance level of 0.05. Most importantly, the participants demonstrated proficiency in adapting the knowledge gained from the workshop to their own lifestyle.

Paraoxonasel phenotype distribution in Thais.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the PON1 activity and phenotype distribution in a Thai population. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective Descriptive study. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Between October 2001 and April 2002, 160 healthy Thai individuals aged 20-74 years were assessed for PON1 activity and the phenotype distribution by using dual substrate method. RESULTS: The means +/- SD of basal, salt-stimulated paraoxonase and arylesterase activities were 239.7 +/- 83.9 nmol/min/mL 555.2 +/- 222.2 nmol/min/mL and 147.6 +/- 33.8 micromol/min/mL respectively. The authors observed a wide interindividual variability up to 6.9-fold for paraoxonase activity and 4.6-fold for arylesterase activity. The authors found a range of ssPON/ARE ratio from 1.04 to 7.05 and three distinctive phenotype modals of AA (1.04-2.25), AB (2.44-4.29), and BB (4.53-7.05) with frequencies of 14.4% (AA), 51.9% (AB), and 33.7% (BB). The authors also observed the association of sex with lipid parameters and PON1 activity. CONCLUSION: The distribution of PON1 phenotype in Thais is clearly trimodal with high frequency in BB phenotype.

Coincidence of obesity associated with cardio-renal abnormalities in Thais obese population.

AIM: To investigate the patterns and relationship among the metabolic syndrome (MS), coronary heart disease (CHD) and kidney function. METHODS: A cross-sectional secondary data set of 9359 individuals, age 30-74 years, receiving annual health check-up in 2012 were used in this studied. Identification of MS and CHD development was determined by International Diabetes Federation criteria and Framingham risk score, respectively, while kidney function was assessed by using the estimate glomerulus filtration rate (eGFR) and chronic kidney disease epidemiology (CKD-EPI) formula. RESULTS: The prevalence of MS was 16.1%. The majority pattern of MS in male displayed abnormalities of body mass index (BMI) plus triglyceride and blood pressure (BP). Most of them had high risk of CHD, and kidney function in stage 1 and 2. Furthermore, abnormalities of BMI plus BP and blood glucose were the main components related to high risk of CHD, and stage 1 of kidney function in female. CONCLUSION: This finding showed the cleared pattern of the sequential abnormality factors which potentially use for setting the activity and empowerment team to prevention, promotion, and treatment strategy in MS patients. Particularly, BMI is the first assessment and then follow by blood pressure and blood sugar which could be used as the guideline for reducing MS associated with CHD and kidney disorder in Thai population.

Determining a new formula for calculating low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: data mining approach.

Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a risk factor of coronary heart diseases. The estimation of LDL-C (LDL-Cal) level was performed using Friedewald's equation for triglyceride (TG) level less than 400 mg/dL. Therefore, the aim of this study is to generate a new formula for LDL-Cal and validate the correlation coefficient between LDL-Cal and LDL-C directly measured (LDL-Direct). A data set of 1786 individuals receiving annual medical check-ups from the Faculty of Medical Technology, Mahidol University, Thailand in 2008 was used in this study. Lipid profiles including total cholesterol (TC), TG, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and LDL-C were determined using Roche/Hitachi modular system analyzer. The estimated LDL-C was obtained using Friedewald's equation and the homogenous enzymatic method. The level of TG was divided into 6 groups (TG<200, <300, <400, <500, <600 and < 1000 mg/dL) for constructing the LDL-Cal formula. The pace regression model was used to construct the candidate formula for the LDL-Cal and determine the correlation coefficient (r) with the LDL-Direct. The candidate LDL-Cal formula was generated for 6 groups of TG levels that displayed well correlation between LDL-Cal and LDL-Direct. Interestingly, The TG level was less than 1000 mg/dL, the regression model was able to generate the equation as shown as strong r of 0.9769 with LDL-Direct. Furthermore, external data set (n = 666) with TG measurement (36-1480 mg/dL) was used to validate new formula which displayed high r of 0.971 between LDL-Cal and LDL-direct. This study explored a new formula for LDL-Cal which exhibited higher r of 0.9769 and far beyond the limitation of TG more than 1000 mg/dL and potential used for estimating LDL-C in routine clinical laboratories.

Determining the optimal cutoff points for waist circumference and body mass index for identification of metabolic abnormalities and metabolic syndrome in urban Thai population.

This study describes the prevalence and optimal waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) cutoff point for metabolic abnormalities and metabolic syndrome (MS) from urban Thai population. The optimal BMI/WC cutoff has been used for identifying and evaluating metabolic abnormalities for screening individuals having risk factor of MS.