To examine 9-year trends and relationships regarding misperceptions of body size and dieting for weight loss among adolescents from 24 countries, and explore the influence of country-level overweight ...prevalence.
Sociodemographic characteristics, body size perception and dieting for weight loss were assessed in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey conducted in 24 countries cross-sectionally at three time points (2001/2002, 2005/2006 and 2009/2010). Logistic regression models examined change over time in overestimation of body size in non-overweight adolescents, underestimation of body size in overweight adolescents, dieting for weight loss in non-overweight and overweight adolescents and relationships between body size perception and dieting. Analyses were stratified by weight status and sex. Covariates included country-level overweight prevalence, family affluence and country level of development. Body mass index was only included in models examining dieting for weight loss.
Country-level overweight prevalence increased over time (11.6-14.7%). Compared with Time 1, overweight adolescents had greater odds of body size underestimation at Time 3 (odds ratio (OR)=1.68 for girls; OR=1.10 for boys), whereas non-overweight adolescents had lower odds of body size overestimation at Time 3 (OR=0.87 for girls; OR=0.89 for boys). Controlling for country-level overweight prevalence attenuated these relationships. Compared with Time 1, overweight and non-overweight boys were 10% more likely to diet at Time 3, whereas overweight and non-overweight girls were 19% and 16%, respectively, less likely to diet at Time 3. Controlling for country-level overweight prevalence did not impact trends in dieting for weight loss. Additionally, the association of self-perceived overweight with increased odds of dieting diminished over time.
Body size perceptions among adolescents may have changed over time concurrent with shifts in country-level body weight. However, controlling for country-level overweight prevalence did not impact trends in dieting for weight loss, suggesting a potentially stronger impact of social comparison on weight-related perceptions than on behavior.
Loneliness and social inequality in health are important public health concerns. We examined (i) trends in loneliness among adolescents from 1991 to 2014 in Denmark and (ii) trends in social ...inequality in loneliness.
Study population: 11-15-year olds in random samples of schools in 1991, 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2014, n = 19 096. Loneliness was measured by a single item and social background by parents' occupational social class (OSC). We calculated absolute (%) differences in loneliness between high and low OSC and relative differences by odds ratio for loneliness.
Across all surveys, 6.3% reported feeling lonely. The prevalence increased from 4.4% in 1991 to 7.2% in 2014. The prevalence of loneliness in high, middle and low OSC was 5.8, 5.9 and 8.0%. The increase in loneliness was more pronounced in higher than lower OSC, resulting in a decreasing absolute social inequality in loneliness. The statistical interaction between OSC and survey year was significant, P = 0.0176, i.e. the relative social inequality in loneliness also decreased from 1991 to 2014.
The prevalence of loneliness increased from 1991 to 2014. The social inequality in loneliness decreased in both absolute and relative terms because of a rising prevalence of loneliness among children from high OSC.
Objective: This study examined the effects of chronic focal lesions to the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) or orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) on neuropsychological test performance and self-reported ...executive functioning in everyday living.
Methods: Fourteen adults with OFC lesions were compared to 10 patients with LPFC injuries and 21 healthy controls. Neuropsychological tests with emphasis on measures of cognitive executive function were administered along with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF-A) and a psychiatric screening instrument.
Results: The LPFC group differed from healthy controls on neuropsychological tests of sustained mental effort, response inhibition, working memory and mental switching, while the BRIEF-A provided more clinically important information on deficits in everyday life in the OFC group compared to the LPFC group. Correlations between neuropsychological test results and BRIEF-A were weak, while the BRIEF-A correlated strongly with emotional distress.
Conclusions: It was demonstrated that LPFC damage is particularly prone to cause cognitive executive deficit, while OFC injury is more strongly associated with self-reported dysexecutive symptoms in everyday living. The study illustrates the challenge of identifying executive deficit in individual patients and the lack of strong anatomical specificity of the currently employed methods. There is a need for an integrative methodological approach where standard testing batteries are supplemented with neuropsychiatric and frontal-specific rating scales.
Magnetic resonance imaging volumetry studies report inverted U-patterns with increasing white-matter (WM) volume into middle age suggesting protracted WM maturation compared with the cortical gray ...matter. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is sensitive to degree and direction of water permeability in biological tissues, providing in vivo indices of WM microstructure. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to delineate age trajectories of WM volume and DTI indices in 430 healthy subjects ranging 8–85 years of age. We used automated regional brain volume segmentation and tract-based statistics of fractional anisotropy, mean, and radial diffusivity as markers of WM integrity. Nonparametric regressions were used to fit the age trajectories and to estimate the timing of maximum development and deterioration in aging. Although the volumetric data supported protracted growth into the sixth decade, DTI indices plateaued early in the fourth decade across all tested regions and then declined slowly into late adulthood followed by an accelerating decrease in senescence. Tractwise and voxel-based analyses yielded regional differences in development and aging but did not provide ample evidence in support of a simple last-in-first-out hypothesis of life-span changes.
More children from lower social backgrounds are physically inactive than those from higher ones. We studied whether bullying was a mediating factor between lower social background and physical ...inactivity. We also examined the combined effect of low social class and exposure to bullying on physical inactivity. The Danish sample of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study 2006 included 6269 schoolchildren in three age groups: 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds from a random sample of 80 schools. The students answered the internationally standardized HBSC questionnaire. The applied definition leaves 4.0% in the category physically inactive. The sex and age-adjusted OR (95% CI) for physical inactivity was 2.10 (1.39-3.18) among students with low social class and unclassifiable 3.53 (2.26-5.53). Exposure to bullying was associated with physical inactivity, sex and age-adjusted OR = 2.39 (1.67-3.41). Exposure to bullying did not explain the association between social class and physical inactivity. The association between social class and physical inactivity was more pronounced among participants also exposed to bullying. In conclusion, there was a significantly increased odds ratio for physical inactivity among students from lower social classes and for students exposed to bullying. There was a combined effect of low social class and bullying on physical inactivity. (Autor).
► A case study with two unilateral lesions including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is presented. ► Neuropsychologically, both patients had memory impairment while Stroop performance was normal. ► ...Both patients had a diminished Novelty P3 Event Related Potential (ERP) in a Novelty Oddball task. ► Both patients had an Error-Related Negativity (ERN) ERP-component in a Stop-Signal task. ► The study suggests ACC involvement in cognition that is not restricted to error monitoring.
Whereas neuroimaging studies of healthy subjects have demonstrated an association between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and cognitive control functions, including response monitoring and error detection, lesion studies are sparse and have produced mixed results. Due to largely normal behavioral test results in two patients with medial prefrontal lesions, a hypothesis has been advanced claiming that the ACC is not involved in cognitive operations. In the current study, two comparably rare patients with unilateral lesions to dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) encompassing the ACC were assessed with neuropsychological tests as well as Event-Related Potentials in two experimental paradigms known to engage prefrontal cortex (PFC). These included an auditory Novelty Oddball task and a visual Stop-signal task. Both patients performed normally on the Stroop test but showed reduced performance on tests of learning and memory. Moreover, altered attentional control was reflected in a diminished Novelty P3, whereas the posterior P3b to target stimuli was present in both patients. The error-related negativity, which has been hypothesized to be generated in the ACC, was present in both patients, but alterations of inhibitory behavior were observed. Although interpretative caution is generally called for in single case studies, and the fact that the lesions extended outside the ACC, the findings nevertheless suggest a role for MPFC in cognitive control that is not restricted to error monitoring.
Morphometric cerebral characteristics were studied in children with prenatal poly-substance exposure (
n
=
14) compared to controls (
n
=
14) without such exposure. Ten of the substance-exposed ...children were born to mothers who used opiates (heroin) throughout the pregnancy. Groups were compared across 16 brain measures: cortical gray matter, cerebral white matter, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, accumbens area, caudate, putamen, pallidum, brainstem, cerebellar cortex, cerebellar white matter, lateral ventricles, inferior lateral ventricles, and the 3rd and 4th ventricles. In addition, continuous measurement of thickness across the entire cortical mantle was performed. Volumetric characteristics were correlated with ability and questionnaire assessments 2 years prior to scan. Compared to controls, the substance-exposed children had smaller intracranial and brain volumes, including smaller cerebral cortex, amygdala, accumbens area, putamen, pallidum, brainstem, cerebellar cortex, cerebellar white matter, and inferior lateral ventricles, and thinner cortex of the right anterior cingulate and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Pallidum and putamen appeared especially reduced in the subgroup exposed to opiates. Only volumes of the right anterior cingulate, the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the accumbens area, showed some association with ability and questionnaire measures. The sample studied is rare and hence small, so conclusions cannot be drawn with certainty. Morphometric group differences were observed, but associations with previous behavioral assessment were generally weak. Some of the volumetric differences, particularly thinner cortex in part of the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, may be moderately involved in cognitive and behavioral difficulties more frequently experienced by opiate and poly-substance-exposed children.
Some infants experience excessive weight gain (EWG) during exclusive breastfeeding, but causes and consequences are unknown. The objective was to identify factors associated with early EWG. Infants ...with EWG (HW-group) were examined at 5, 9 and 18 mo and compared to a breastfed group with normal weight gain (NW-group). Anthropometry, body composition, milk and blood samples, and milk intake were measured. Mean body-mass-index-for-age
-scores (BAZ) increased 1.93 from birth to 5 mo in the HW-group (
= 13) while the NW-group (
= 17) was unchanged (-0.01). The HW-group had 70% more fat mass at 5 mo, and then showed marked catch-down in BAZ from 5 to 18 mo (-0.84). Milk intake at 5⁻6 mo did not differ between the groups. In the HW-group milk-leptin was lower at 5 mo and serum-leptin was considerably higher at 5 and 9 mo compared to the NW-group. Serum-leptin at 5 mo was positively associated with weight-for-age
-score (WAZ) and fat mass and negatively with WAZ change from 5 to 9 mo. In conclusion, breastfed infants with EWG had catch-down growth when other foods were introduced. Low milk-leptin in the HW-group may have stimulated appetite and milk intake when weight gain was high. High serum-leptin in the HW-group suggests early leptin resistance, which could impact cerebral regulation of energy intake. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results.
Prenatal drug exposure may influence the developing brain. Our aim was to study WM characteristics with DTI in children with prenatal opiate and polysubstance exposure and in controls. We assessed ...whether group differences in FA, DA, and DR could be found and related to cognitive function.
The study was approved by a committee for medical research ethics. Parents signed an informed consent; children gave spoken consent. Our sample included 14 prenatally substance-exposed adopted children (5 girls; age range, 8.6-13.9 years; mean, 11.3 +/- 1.7 years) and 14 control children (7 girls; age range, 9.0-10.2 years; mean, 9.8 +/- 0.3 years). Tract-based spatial statistics were used to define a common WM skeleton for the sample, and FA was compared between groups throughout the skeleton, controlling for age and sex. Clusters of significant group differences >or=100 voxels (P <. 05) were identified. FA, DA, and DR within clusters were correlated with cognitive function.
Ten clusters of FA group differences, mostly in central, posterior, and inferior parts of the brain, were identified (P <. 05), showing lower FA in substance-exposed children. FA and DA correlated positively and DR, negatively with cognitive function across groups.
Prenatally substance-exposed children exhibited lower FA in restricted areas of WM, mostly relatively central, inferior, and posterior, where myelination occurs early in development. Myelin in these areas may be particularly vulnerable to prenatal substance exposure. FA and DR related moderately to cognitive function. Potential confounding factors existed and were considered.
This study compared sensitivity of FDG-PET, MR morphometry, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived fractional anisotropy (FA) measures to diagnosis and memory function in mild cognitive ...impairment (MCI). Patients (
n
=
44) and normal controls (NC,
n
=
22) underwent FDG-PET and MRI scanning yielding measures of metabolism, morphometry and FA in nine temporal and parietal areas affected by Alzheimer's disease and involved in the episodic memory network. Patients also underwent memory testing (RAVLT). Logistic regression analysis yielded 100% diagnostic accuracy when all methods and ROIs were combined, but none of the variables then served as unique predictors. Within separate ROIs, diagnostic accuracy for the methods combined ranged from 65.6% (parahippocampal gyrus) to 73.4 (inferior parietal cortex). Morphometry predicted diagnostic group for most ROIs. PET and FA did not uniquely predict group, but a trend was seen for the precuneus metabolism. For the MCI group, stepwise regression analyses predicting memory scores were performed with the same methods and ROIs. Hippocampal volume and FA of the retrosplenial WM predicted learning, and hippocampal metabolism and parahippocampal cortical thickness predicted 5 minute recall. No variable predicted 30 minute recall independently of learning. In conclusion, higher diagnostic accuracy was achieved when multiple methods and ROIs were combined, but morphometry showed superior diagnostic sensitivity. Metabolism, morphometry and FA all uniquely explained memory performance, making a multi-modal approach superior. Memory variation in MCI is likely related to conversion risk, and the results indicate potential for improved predictive power by the use of multimodal imaging.
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