Religion and fertility patterns: comparison of life history traits in Catholics and Protestants, Hallstatt (Austria) 1733-1908.

Catholicism and Protestantism have different ways of promoting the family unit that could influence survival and fertility at a population level. Parish records in the Austrian village of Hallstatt allowed the reconstruction of Catholic and Protestant genealogies over a period of 175 years (1733-1908) to evaluate how religion and social changes affected reproduction and survival. Life history traits such as lifespan beyond 15 years, number of offspring, reproductive span, children born out of wedlock and child mortality were estimated in 5678 Catholic and 3282 Protestant individuals. The interaction of sex, time and religion was checked through non-parametric factorial ANOVAs. Religion and time showed statistically significant interactions with lifespan >15 years, number of offspring and age at birth of first child. Protestants lived longer, had a larger reproductive span and an earlier age at birth of first child. Before the famine crisis of 1845-1850, Protestants showed lower values of childhood mortality than Catholics. Comparison of the number of children born out of wedlock revealed small differences between the two religions. Religion influenced reproduction and survival, as significant differences were found between Catholics and Protestants. This influence could be explained in part by differential socioeconomic characteristics, since Protestants may have enjoyed better living and sanitary conditions in Hallstatt.

Measuring fitness heritability: Life history traits versus morphological traits in humans.

OBJECTIVES: Traditional interpretation of Fisher's Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection is that life history traits (LHT), which are closely related with fitness, show lower heritabilities, whereas morphological traits (MT) are less related with fitness and they are expected to show higher heritabilities. In humans, although few studies have examined the heritability of LHT and MT, none of them have analyzed the same sample for comparative purposes. Here we assessed, for the first time, the heritability, additive genetic variance (VA ), residual variance (VR ) and coefficient of genetic additive variation (CVA ) values of LHT and MT in a singular collection of identified skulls with associated demographic records from Hallstatt (Austria). MATERIALS AND METHODS: LHT, such as lifespan, number of offspring, age at birth of first and last child, reproductive span, and lifetime reproductive success, were estimated from 18,134 individuals from the Hallstatt Catholic parish records, which represent seven generations and correspond to a time span of 400 years. MT were assessed through 17 craniofacial indices and 7 angles obtained from 355 adult crania from the same population. Heritability, VA , VR , and CVA values of LHT and MT were calculated using restricted maximum likelihood methods. RESULTS: LHT heritabilities ranged from 2.3 to 34% for the whole sample, with men showing higher heritabilities (4-45%) than women (0-23.7%). Overall, MT presented higher heritability values than most of LHT, ranging from 0 to 40.5% in craniofacial indices, and from 13.8 to 32.4% in craniofacial angles. LHT showed considerable additive genetic variance values, similar to MT, but also high environmental variance values, and most of them presenting a higher evolutionary potential than MT. DISCUSSION: Our results demonstrate that, with the exception of lifespan, LHT show lower heritability values, than MT. The lower heritability of LHT is explained by a higher influence of environmental and cultural factors.

Randomized trial: inflammatory response to corticoids versus placebo in moderate and severe bronchiolitis. COTHEB study

ABSTRACT Introduction: The use of corticosteroids has been shown not to improve the prognosis of patients with bronchiolitis, but it could be assumed that steroids will reduce inflammation. Objective: This study aimed to assess whether corticoid therapy influenced the inflammatory and clinical response of critically ill infants. Methods: Prospective, randomized, double blind placebo-controlled trial of glucocorticoids (GCT) in infants of less than 12 months with severe or moderate bronchiolitis. Patients were randomized to receive systemic corticoid therapy (low dose for 7 days) or placebo. The main outcomes were: a) levels of lymphocyte subsets; b) levels of IL-2, IL-12, and IFNγ as pro-inflammatory factors, and c) levels of IL-4 and IL-10 as anti-inflammatory response. Secondary outcomes related with the clinical response were also analyzed. Results: 97 patients were randomized. Evolution of lymphocyte subsets was similar in both groups. Pro-inflammatory interleukins and interferon decreased, but without differences. Anti-inflammatory interleukins showed a significant decrease from baseline to the end of the study, and IL-10 values were significantly lower (p = 0.046) in the GCT group [1.82 pg/ml (1.2-3.5)] vs non-GCT [4 pg/ml (1.5-6.3)]. GCT group showed a lower time of mechanical ventilation and of hospitalization, but without statistically significant differences. No cases of severe adverse reaction to steroids were detected. Conclusions: Administration of systemic GCT did not modify the inflammatory nor the clinical response of patients with severe bronchiolitis, except for IL-10 levels that were significantly lower in the GCT group. This can open a line of investigation about the relation of IL-10 and response to bronchiolitis.

RESUMEN Introducción: Se ha demostrado que los glucocorticoides no mejoran el pronóstico de pacientes con bronquiolitis, pero se podría suponer que reducen la inflamación. Objetivo: Evaluar si los glucocorticoides influyen en la respuesta inflamatoria y clínica de los lactantes críticos. Métodos: Ensayo prospectivo, aleatorizado, doble ciego, controlado con placebo en lactantes < 12 meses con bronquiolitis grave y administración de glucocorticoides sistémicos (dosis bajas 7 días). Se examinaron: a) concentraciones de subconjuntos de linfocitos; b) concentraciones de IL-2, IL-12 e IFNγ como factores proinflamatorios, y c) concentraciones de IL-4 e IL-10 como respuesta antiinflamatoria. También se analizaron los resultados relacionados con la respuesta clínica. Resultados: Se aleatorizaron 97 pacientes. La evolución de los subconjuntos de linfocitos fue similar en ambos grupos. Disminuyeron las interleucinas proinflamatorias y el interferón, pero sin diferencias. Las interleucinas antiinflamatorias mostraron una disminución significativa desde el inicio hasta el final del estudio, y los valores de IL-10 fueron significativamente más bajos (p= 0,046) en el grupo de glucocorticoides [1,82 pg/ml (1,2-3,5)] frente a los no glucocorticoides [4 pg/ml (1,5 - 6,3)]. El grupo glucocorticoides mostró menor tiempo de ventilación mecánica y de hospitalización, pero sin diferencias significativas. No se detectaron reacciones adversas graves a glucocorticoides. Conclusiones: La administración de glucocorticoides sistémicos no modificó la respuesta inflamatoria ni clínica de los pacientes con bronquiolitis severa, excepto las concentraciones de IL-10 que fueron significativamente menores en el grupo de glucocorticoides. Esto puede abrir una línea de investigación sobre la relación de IL-10 y la respuesta a la bronquiolitis.