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Introduction: We explored the impact of a temporary tobacco-free public policy for the 2008 Summer Olympics on the smoking prevalence and secondhand smoke exposure among the population of a co-hosting city, Qingdao, China.Methods: The Qingdao Diabetes Survey was analyzed for 2006 (n = 4599) and 2009 (n = 4680), which are survey years before and after the tobacco-free Olympics public policy period (July 2007 to January 2009). We analyzed the differences in self-reported smoking prevalence and exposure to secondhand smoke at home and/or workplace, and compared odds of smoking by survey year and of exposure to secondhand smoke among nonsmokers.Results: From 2006 to 2009, the male smoking prevalence declined from 51.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 49.0% to 53.9%) to 42.6% (95% CI = 40.2% to 45.1%), and the proportion of lighter smokers decreased more. Among nonsmokers, the secondhand smoke exposure rate declined from 62.2% (95% CI = 60.5% to 63.9%) to 56.8% (95% CI = 55.1% to 58.6%). Regression analyses show 34% lower odds of men smoking after Olympics (OR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.57% to 0.77%). Rural residents and individuals who are not retired were more likely to smoke. Female nonsmokers report 17% less exposure to secondhand smoke after Olympics (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.70% to 0.98%). Urban nonsmokers were more likely to be exposed than their rural counterparts.Conclusions: Smoking prevalence among men and secondhand smoke exposure among women significantly decreased in Qingdao, China, after the tobacco-free Olympics public policy period. As only the proportion of lighter smokers decreased, this may help explain why urban nonsmokers reported increased exposure. Unintended increased secondhand smoke exposure and cessation support need to be addressed in large-scale policy campaigns.Implications: Hosting the Olympic Games can help to initiate large-scale tobacco-free public policies for hosting cities. Although previous studies have demonstrated reduction in nonsmoker exposure to secondhand smoke, the impact on the hosting city's smoking prevalence or exposure rates is unclear. After the Olympic Games in Qingdao, China, smoking prevalence among men significantly decreased, mostly due to light smokers. Secondhand smoke exposure at home and/or workplace significantly decreased among female nonsmokers. Urban nonsmokers had an unintended consequence of increased secondhand smoke exposure after the tobacco-free Olympic policy period. Concurrent promotion of cessation support for heavier smokers may be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To examine and compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with previously known diabetes, new screen-detected asymptomatic diabetes and people without diabetes. Methods: HRQoL of 4,613 individuals who participated in a population-based cross-sectional diabetes survey in Qingdao, China, in 2009, was assessed using the 15D instrument. A Tobit regression model to estimate the effects of diabetes on HRQoL separate from effects of other health determinants was constructed. Results: Among the surveyed population, 220 (4.8 %) individuals had previously known diabetes and 531 (11.5 %) individuals had new screen-detected diabetes, defined by fasting plasma glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l and/or 2-h plasma glucose ≥11.1 mmol/l. The age-, gender-, and BMI-adjusted mean 15D score of people without diabetes, with new screen-detected diabetes, and previously known diabetes was 0.975, 0.975, and 0.964, respectively, for urban and 0.971, 0.972, and 0.960, respectively, for rural participants. HRQoL overall and on all the dimensions ( p < 0.05) except for hearing, eating, and speech was worse in the people with previously known diabetes compared to those with new screen-detected diabetes and those without diabetes. Compared to people without diabetes, people with new screen-detected diabetes were worse off on the dimension of usual activities ( p < 0.05). After adjusting for comorbid diseases and other confounders, the impact of diabetes on reduced HRQoL was diminished. Conclusion: Health-related quality of life was impaired in people with previously known diabetes who had co-morbid conditions, but was largely unaltered in people with newly detected asymptomatic diabetes as compared to people without diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1998, the Qingdao Twin Registry was initiated as the main part of the Chinese National Twin Registry. By 2005, a total of 10,655 twin pairs had been recruited. Since then new twin cohorts have been sampled, with one longitudinal cohort of adolescent twins selected to explore determinants of metabolic disorders and health behaviors during puberty and young adulthood. Adult twins have been sampled for studying heritability of multiple phenotypes associated with metabolic disorders. In addition, an elderly twin cohort has been recruited with a focus on genetic studies of aging-related phenotypes using twin modeling and genome-wide association analysis. Cross-cultural collaborative studies have been carried out between China, Denmark, Finland, and US cohorts. Ongoing data collection and analysis for the Qingdao Twin Registry will be discussed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To investigate the association of fresh vegetable consumption with the risk of diabetes in a Chinese population. Methods: Data from 2386 individuals aged 35–74 years who participated in a population-based cross sectional diabetes survey in Qingdao, China were analyzed. Frequency of vegetable intake was obtained using a food frequency questionnaire. Diabetes was defined as self-reported diabetes or undiagnosed diabetes determined by 2-h 75g oral glucose tolerance test or fasting capillary blood glucose test. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for the presence (vs. the absence) of diabetes in association with the frequency of fresh vegetable intake was estimated using logistic regression analysis. Results: The OR for the presence of diabetes was 1.17 (95% CI 0.66, 2.05) in men and 0.50 (95% CI 0.33, 0.77) in women who ate fresh vegetables more than 14 times/week as compared with those who ate fresh vegetables less than 7 times/week after adjustment for age, family history of diabetes, BMI, systolic blood pressure, 24-h energy intake, physical activity and smoking and drinking. Conclusions: Consumption of fresh vegetables was associated with a low risk of having diabetes in women but not in men in this Chinese population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Health is a multidimensional and continual concept. Traditional latent analytic approaches have inherent deficits in capturing the complex nature of the concept; however, the Grade of Membership (GoM) model is well suited for this problem. We applied the GoM method to a set of 31 indicators to construct ideal profiles of health status based on physical, mental and social support items among 848 adult twins from Qingdao, China. Four profiles were identified: healthy individuals (pure type I), individuals with personality disorders (pure type II), individuals with mental impairments (pure type III) and individuals with physical impairments (pure type IV). The most frequently occurring combination in this population was profiles I, II, IV (14.74%), followed by profiles I, II, III, IV (13.44%), and then type I (11.08%). Only 13.56% of subjects fell completely into one single pure type, most individuals exhibited some of the characteristics of two or more pure types. Our results indicated that, compared to conventional statistical methods, the GoM model was more suited to capture the complex concept of health, reflecting its multidimensionality and continuity, while also exhibiting preferable reliability. This study also made an important contribution to research on GoM application in non-independent samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aims: Qingdao Diabetes Prevention Program aims to translate the trial experience to real-life settings with goals to: (1) raise the public awareness of diabetes and diabetes risk factors, and promote healthy diet and physical activity; (2) reduce the number of high-risk people developing diabetes through lifestyle counselling; (3) early diagnosis of diabetes; (4) evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability and sustainability of the programs. Program design: The project''s first phase (2006–2009) was focused on health promotion targeting at the entire population of 1.94 million, and training of professionals; and the second phase (2009–2012) on lifestyle counselling targeting at individuals with a diabetes risk score of ≥14. The effectiveness of the intervention and the cost-effectiveness of the program between the intervention arm (n =8000) and the control arm (n =4000) who are randomly selected from the project targeting and not-targeting areas will be evaluated with the diabetes incidence as the primary outcome. Milestone achieved from 2006 to 2009: 3993 health professionals finished training courses; 724,130 educational booklets were distributed to families and 318,284 high-risk individuals recorded and 130,164 underwent at least one follow-up counselling session. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

OBJECTIVE--The study's goal was to evaluate the performance of A1C and fasting capillary blood glucose (FCG) tests as mass screening tools for diabetes and pre-diabetes, as determined by the standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS--Data from 2,332 individuals aged 35-74 years who participated in a population-based cross-sectional diabetes survey in Qingdao, China, were analyzed. A 2-h 75-g OGTT was used to diagnose diabetes. The performance of A1C and FCG was evaluated against the results of the OGTTs by using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. RESULTS--The prevalence of newly diagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) was 11.9 and 29.5%, respectively. For subjects with newly diagnosed diabetes, the area under the ROC curve was 0.67 for A1C and 0.77 for FCG (P < 0.01) in men and 0.67 and 0.75 (P < 0.01) in women, whereas for pre-diabetes, these values were 0.47 and 0.64 (P < 0.001) in men and 0.51 and 0.65 (P < 0.001) in women. At the optimal A1C cutoff point of ≥5.6% for newly diagnosed diabetes, sensitivities (specificities) were 64.4% (61.6%) for men and 62.3% (63.3%) for women. CONCLUSIONS--As a screening tool for newly diagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes, the FCG measurement performed better than A1C in this general Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]