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Poor diets are responsible for a large burden of noncommunicable disease (NCD). The prevalence of modifiable dietary risk factors is rising in lower-income countries such as Haiti, along with increasing urbanization and shifts to diets high in sugar, salt, and fat. We describe self-reported dietary patterns (intake of fruits, vegetables, fried food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and added salt and oil) among a population-based cohort of low-income adults in Port-au-Prince and assess for associated sociodemographic factors (age, sex, income, education, body mass index). Among 2989 participants, the median age was 40 years, and 58.0% were women. Less than 1% met the World Health Organization recommendation of at least five servings/day of fruits and vegetables. Participants consumed fried food on average 1.6 days/week and sugar-sweetened beverages on average 4.7 days/week; young males of low socioeconomic status were the most likely to consume these dietary risk factors. The vast majority of participants reported usually or often consuming salt (87.1%) and oil (86.5%) added to their meals eaten at home. Our findings underscore the need for public health campaigns, particularly those targeting young males and household cooks preparing family meals at home, to improve dietary patterns in Haiti in order to address the growing NCD burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the most prevalent comorbid chronic diseases in hypertensives on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in the general representative Korean population using the EuroQOL-5D (EQ-5D) and to assess this impact by sex and after controlling for sociodemographic factors. The effects of hypertension and comorbidity on HRQOL were examined using multiple linear regression models with Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. In a total of 5736 adults, the prevalence of hypertension alone was 20.8%, and the prevalence rates of hypertension comorbid with diabetes mellitus (DM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and musculoskeletal (MS) disease were 9.5%, 3.8%, and 33.5%, respectively. Females with hypertension and other comorbidity showed worse HRQOL scores, with the exception of hypertension and CVD, where males scored worse for HRQOL. After adjustment, subjects with comorbid DM, CVD, or MS experienced EQ-5D scores decreasing by 0.01, 0.09, and 0.05, respectively. Since comorbidity impairs HRQOL in hypertensives, health providers should consider comorbid diseases in hypertensives when developing methods of intervention to effectively manage hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background and Aim: Biopsy specimens are taken during transnasal esophagogastroduodenoscopy with 1.8 mm forceps. The aims of this study were to compare the concordance of the Campylobacter-like organism (CLO) test and histological diagnoses between biopsies taken with 1.8 mm and 2.2 mm forceps and to determine whether the concordance of the CLO test could be improved by increasing the number of specimens using 1.8 mm forceps. Methods: A total of 200 patients were enrolled. We first performed the CLO test twice using each sample taken with both forceps in 100 patients. The CLO test was conducted three times again after confirming the difference in the CLO test between two forceps: (i) one sample with 1.8 mm forceps; (ii) two with 1.8 mm; and (iii) one with 2.2 mm in the other 100 patients. Additionally, each specimen was taken from the same gastric lesions in 200 patients for the histological diagnosis using both forceps types. Results: The concordance rate of the CLO test between each sample with 1.8 mm and 2.2 mm forceps was 83% (κ-value, 0.64), and that between two samples with 1.8 mm and one with 2.2 mm was 92% (κ-value, 0.83). The concordance rate of the histological diagnosis with 1.8 and 2.2 mm was 97% (κ-value, 0.84). Conclusions: At least two samples using 1.8 mm forceps might be needed to obtain similar results on the CLO test using 2.2 mm. But, the size difference between two forceps did not influence the histological diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the spiked covariance model for High Dimension Low Sample Size (HDLSS) asymptotics where the dimension tends to infinity while the sample size is fixed, a few largest eigenvalues are assumed to grow as the dimension increases. The rate of growth is crucial as the asymptotic behavior of the sample Principal Component (PC) directions changes dramatically, from consistency to strong inconsistency at the boundary of the extreme and mild spiked covariance models. Yet, the behavior at the boundary spiked model is unexplored. We study the HDLSS asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of the sample covariance matrix at the boundary spiked model and observe that they show intermediate behavior between the extreme and mild spiked models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Meridian Massage is a traditional practice that manually stimulates the body's meridian system - the same network of vital energy channels used in acupuncture. The present study was to assess the effect of Meridian Massage on physical growth and infants' health as perceived by mothers. Methods: A study was conducted in a community health center in Korea. A total of 169 healthy infant-mother dyads were assigned to the Meridian Massage group ( n= 89) or the gentle touch massage group ( n= 80), based on the mother's preference. All massages were conducted by the mothers for 15 min per session, one time daily over a course of 6 weeks. In each group, the infant's weights, heights, and the number of days with illness as perceived by mothers and related clinic visits were measured. Results: Significant differences were observed in weight and height after 6 weeks between the Meridian group and the gentle touch massage group ( P < 0.001). Infants in the Meridian Massage group showed a significantly different number of days with perceived clinic visits compared to those in the control group ( P < 0.001). Conclusions: Meridian Massage may facilitate physical growth and improve infants' health outcome as perceived by mothers. A randomized controlled trial is required to further explore the effects of Meridian Massage in early infancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We consider a prediction of a scalar variable based on both a function-valued variable and a finite number of real-valued variables. For the estimation of the regression parameters, which include the infinite dimensional function as well as the slope parameters for the real-valued variables, it is inevitable to impose some kind of regularization. We consider two different approaches, which are shown to achieve the same convergence rate of the mean squared prediction error under respective assumptions. One is based on functional principal components regression (FPCR) and the alternative is functional ridge regression (FRR) based on Tikhonov regularization. Also, numerical studies are carried out for a simulation data and a real data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]