Voice self-assessment in individuals with Parkinson's Disease as compared to general voice disorders.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with Parkinson's Disease (IwPD) often fail to adjust their voice in different situations, without awareness of this limitation. Clinicians use self-report questionnaires that are typically designed for individuals with General Voice Disorders (GVD) in the vocal assessment of IwPD. However, these instruments may not consider that IwPD have a reduced self-perception of their vocal deficits. This study aimed to compare self-reported vocal symptoms and voice loudness between IwPD and GVD. METHODS: 28 IwPD and 26 with GVD completed the Voice Symptom Scale (VoiSS) questionnaire to evaluate their voice self-perception. Vocal loudness (dB) was also assessed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare the outcomes from these measures between the two groups. Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering Analysis were applied to explore data patterns related to voice symptoms. RESULTS: IwPD reported significantly fewer vocal symptoms than those with GVD in all VoiSS questionnaire domains. Multivariate principal component analysis found no significant correlations between VoiSS scores and participant similarities in voice measures. Despite experiencing hypophonia, IwPD scored lower in all VoiSS domains but still fell in the healthy voice range. Hierarchical Clustering Analysis grouped participants into three distinct categories, primarily based on age, vocal loudness, and VoiSS domain scores, distinguishing between PD and GVD individuals. CONCLUSIONS: IwPD reported fewer vocal symptoms than GVD. The voice self-assessment seems to be unreliable to assess vocal symptoms in IwPD, at least regarding loudness. New self-report instruments tailored to PD individuals are needed due to their particular voice characteristics.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in College Students: Evaluation of Psychometric Properties of the KIDMED Questionnaire.

No prior studies have examined the reliability properties of the 16-item Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) questionnaire among young adults from a non-Mediterranean country. The objective of this study was to determine the psychometric properties in terms of the reliability and validity of the KIDMED questionnaire in young adults from Colombia. A cross-sectional validation study was conducted among 604 Colombian college students (47.51% men and 52.48% women; mean age of 21.60 ± 2.02 years). Kappa statistics were used to assess the reliability of the KIDMED questionnaire. A categorical principal components analysis was used to determine validity. Based on the KIDMED score, 58.4% of students had a good adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). Good agreement in the general score of the questionnaire was observed (κ = 0.727, 95% confidence interval = 0.676 to 0.778, p < 0.001). A five-factor model was identified which explained almost 51.38% of the variability, showing the multidimensionality of the questionnaire. In conclusion, this study provides reasonable evidence for the reliability and validity of the KIDMED questionnaire for assessing adherence to MedDiet in college students within a Latin American country. The evaluation of the psychometric properties of this tool in early adulthood and in a non-Mediterranean country will be useful in clinical practice and epidemiological research, since practitioners and health researchers now have a valid and reliable short scale.

Medición de hábitos saludables y no saludables en niños: Síntesis de la información utilizando indicadores y conglomerados / Measuring eating habits and physical activity in children: Synthesis of information using indexes and clusters

Resumen Evaluar los hábitos de salud relacionados con el sobrepeso y la obesidad infantil resulta fundamental para la prevención de estas problemáticas. Existe una amplia variedad de instrumentos para medir dichos hábitos, siendo más comunes y costo-eficientes los cuestionarios de autorreporte, sin embargo estos generan información demasiado extensa y difícil de analizar. Por tanto, este estudio tuvo como objetivo desarrollar una propuesta de síntesis de la información obtenida del Cuestionario de Hábitos de Salud relacionados con el Sobrepeso/Obesidad Infantil (CHS-SO), a partir de la construcción de indicadores de hábitos de alimentación, de actividad física y de consumo de entretenimiento digital que permitan clasificar a los niños como saludables o no saludables. Participaron 239 niños y niñas de 8 a 12 años de edad, quienes completaron el CHS-SO. La combinación del análisis de correspondencias múltiples con el de conglomerados arrojó dos clústers. Los hábitos de alimentación fueron saludables en la mayoría de los niños, sin embargo fueron identificadas diferencias en función del sexo y el nivel socioeconómico. Por el contrario, los dos hábitos menos saludables fueron el comer mientras se emplean dispositivos de entretenimiento digital y el tiempo destinado a estos últimos.

Abstract Assessing healthy habits related to child overweight and obesity is important concerning the prevention efforts. A variety of measures to assess eating habits and physical activity are available, being the self-report frequency questionnaires the most common and cost-efficient. Nevertheless, those questionnaires generate a large amount of data. Considering this, the purpose of the study was to develop a proposal to synthesize information from the Child Overweight/Obesity Healthy related Habits Questionnaire (CHS-SO), through the creation of indexes and a combination of a factorial method and cluster analysis. Nine indexes were created to assess eating habits, physical activity, and digital entertainment use, allowing to classify children into healthy or unhealthy in each index. The CHS-SO was administered to 239 children between 8 and 12 years old from Cali, Colombia. Data obtained from the indexes were analyzed using a multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. Results show that most of the children have healthy eating habits, physical activity was lower in girls and digital entertainment use was high.

Tipologías de estilos de vida en jóvenes universitarios / Lifestyles typologies in college youth

Introducción: La evidencia actual sobre la relación entre los estilos de vida y las principales problemáticas de salud mundial es amplia, dando cuenta del aumento en las cifras de comportamientos de riesgo y de sus impactos en la salud de la población. Objetivo: Identificar agrupaciones entre los jóvenes matriculados en una universidad privada de Cali, a partir de ocho dimensiones relacionadas con sus estilos de vida. Materiales y métodos: Se aplicó el Cuestionario de Estilos de Vida de Jóvenes Universitarios, que permitió clasificar las prácticas de los jóvenes en saludables y no saludables a 370 estudiantes con edades entre 18 y 25 años. Se utilizaron modelos de regresión para respuesta binaria y una combinación de métodos factoriales con análisis de conglomerados para obtener tipificación de estilos de vida. Se trabajó con ayuda de los paquetes Stats para los modelos de regresión y FactoClass para el análisis multivariado con el software R. Resultados: Fue posible establecer tres conformaciones tipológicas: 1) hombres sin pareja, que no trabajan, con prácticas no saludables en actividad física; 2) mujeres sin pareja, que no trabajan, con prácticas no saludables de actividad física y alto nivel de estrés; 3) mujeres sin pareja, que no trabajan, con prácticas no saludables de actividad física. Conclusiones: Las tipologías encontradas permitirán a la universidad realizar intervenciones focalizadas que consideren las características propias de diferentes tipos de jóvenes, logrando mejores resultados y optimizando los recursos disponibles.

Introduction: The current evidence on the relationship between lifestyles and the main health problems in the world is wide, taking into account the increase in the numbers of behaviors of risk and their impacts on the health of the population Objetive: The aim of the study was to describe life styles of private college youth from Cali, according to their practices in eight dimensions, and to identify clustering of them. Materials and methods: The study sample consisted of 370 youth with ages between 18 and 25 years, who answered the Lifestyle Questionnaire for University Students - CEVJU-R2, which classifies healthy and unhealthy practices. Regression models for binary response factor and a combination of cluster analysis methods were used. The stats packages for the regression models and FactoClass (10) for multivariate analysis with the R software were used. Results: With binary regression models and combination of multivariate methods, it was possible to find three clusters: 1) men, without couple, not working, with unhealthy physical activity practices; 2) women, without couple, not working, with unhealthy physical activity practices and high level of stress; and 3) women, without couple, not working, with unhealthy physical activity practices. Conclusions: Typologies found will allow the university to make targeted interventions that consider the characteristics of different types of youth, achieving better results and optimizing the available resources.