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To evaluate the factors associated with functional capacity in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). All patients were submitted to six-minute walk test (6MWT), 10-repetition sit-to-stand test (STS-10) and SF-36 health-related quality of life questionnaire (HRQoL). Patients with functional capacity ≥80% exhibited higher education level, family income, body mass index, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and lower age and STS-10 time. Multiple linear regression showed that gender, age, family income, chronic kidney disease stage, STS-10 time, and physical component summary of HRQoL were significantly associated with the 6MWT distance. Functional capacity was significantly associated with gender, age, family income, CKD stage, STS-10 time, and physical component of HRQoL. The progression of CKD has an impact on the decrease in functional capacity in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who are obese sustain very high foot pressures when standing, with potential consequences to their feet soles' cutaneous sensibility. In the current investigation, we performed a detailed assessment of foot sole sensibility in women with morbid obesity (n = 13; age = 38.85, SD = 8.09 years) status in comparison with leaner women (n = 13; age = 37.62, SD = 7.10 years). We estimated tactile feet sole sensibility through graduated monofilament light touch applied at several hotspots of both feet soles, covering the toes, metatarsal heads, midfoot internal and lateral arches, and heel. Intergroup comparisons per foot sole region indicated significantly lower sensibility for the group with morbid obesity under the fifth and third metatarsal heads, midfoot lateral and internal arches and heel. We found a large variation across the sole regions, with the lowest difference between the obese and lean groups observed under the hallux (18%) and the largest difference observed under the lateral arch of the midfoot (76%). Correlation analyses between body weight and sensibility scores revealed a significant positive correlation among participants who were leaner (r s = 0.56, p = 0.05) but not among participants who were obese (r s = –0.06, p = 0.83). Mainly, our results showed that morbid obesity was associated with significantly higher cutaneous sensibility thresholds, with large variability of the sensibility deficit across different regions of both feet soles. Due to its functional relevance for body balance control, reduced sensibility thresholds among women who are morbidly obese may have implications for stance stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored how children’s prephonological writing foretells differential learning outcomes in primary school. The authors asked Portuguese-speaking preschool children in Brazil (mean age 4 year 3 months) to spell 12 words. Monte Carlo tests were used to identify the 31 children whose writing was not based on spellings or sounds of the target words. Two and a half years later, the children took a standardized spelling test. The more closely the digram (two-letter sequence) frequencies in the preschool task correlated with those in children’s books, the better scores the children had in primary school, and the more preschoolers used letters from their own name, the lower their subsequent scores. Thus, preschoolers whose prephonological writing revealed attentiveness to the statistical properties of text subsequently performed better in conventional spelling. These analytic techniques may help in the early identification of children at risk for spelling difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]