Aim
To evaluate the effectiveness of a nurse‐led personalized telephone lifestyle intervention versus automated SMSs in the reduction of fasting plasma glucose in adults with prediabetes.
Design
The ...PREDIPHONE is a randomized controlled, parallel, two arms, superiority trial with 15 months of follow‐up. Participants will be randomized to either the intervention group (teleconsultations) or the active control group (SMSs).
Methods
A total of 428 participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to one of the two arms and followed up during 9 months. The teleconsultations group will receive nurse‐led personalized advice, while the SMSs group will receive 4–5 brief SMSs a week. Participants in both groups will receive evidence‐based recommendations for diet and physical activity (PA). Outcome measures will be collected at baseline, months 4 and 9 and at month 15, to evaluate post‐intervention effects.
Discussion
Prevention of diabetes through the implementation of lifestyle interventions remains an important priority. The current pandemic situation has magnified its urgency as it heavily affected the functionality of the healthcare system. Moreover, it created the need of remotely delivering preventative interventions. This study will provide insights on the effectiveness and feasibility of a telephone‐based intervention led by nurses in the amelioration of risk factors associated with diabetes.
Impact
Findings from this study will offer health services decision‐makers sound evidence regarding an alternative method to face‐to‐face consultations that could be practical, acceptable and inexpensive, and that concretely answers the need for easily implementable prevention strategies.
Trial Registration
NCT04735640 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier).
Protocol version
V1.0, 18/02/2021.
CONTEXT Geographic variations in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated
risk factors have been recognized worldwide. However, little attention has
been directed to potential differences in ...hypertension between Europe and
North America. OBJECTIVE To determine whether higher blood pressure (BP) levels and hypertension
are more prevalent in Europe than in the United States and Canada. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Sample surveys that were national in scope and conducted in the 1990s
were identified in Germany, Finland, Sweden, England, Spain, Italy, Canada,
and the United States. Collaborating investigators provided tabular data in
a consistent format by age and sex for persons at least 35 years of age. Population
registries were the main basis for sampling. Survey sizes ranged from 1800
to 23 100, with response rates of 61% to 87.5%. The data were analyzed
to provide age-specific and age-adjusted estimates of BP and hypertension
prevalence by country and region (eg, European vs North American). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Blood pressure levels and prevalence of hypertension in Europe, the
United States, and Canada. RESULTS Average BP was 136/83 mm Hg in the European countries and 127/77 mm
Hg in Canada and the United States among men and women combined who were 35
to 74 years of age. This difference already existed among younger persons
(35-39 years) in whom treatment was uncommon (ie, 124/78 mm Hg and 115/75
mm Hg, respectively), and the slope with age was steeper in the European countries.
For all age groups, BP measurements were lowest in the United States and highest
in Germany. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of hypertension was 28% in
the North American countries and 44% in the European countries at the 140/90
mm Hg threshold. The findings for men and women by region were similar. Hypertension
prevalence was strongly correlated with stroke mortality (r = 0.78) and more modestly with total CVD (r =
0.44). CONCLUSIONS Despite extensive research on geographic patterns of CVD, the 60% higher
prevalence of hypertension in Europe compared with the United States and Canada
has not been generally appreciated. The implication of this finding for national
prevention strategies should be vigorously explored.
Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from Spanish dry-fermented sausages and screened for bacteriocin production. About 10% of the isolates produced antimicrobial substances when grown on solid media, ...but only 2% produced detectable activity in liquid media. Strain L50, identified as Pediococcus acidilactici, showed the strongest inhibitory activity and was active against members of all of the gram-positive genera tested. The strain produced a heat-stable bacteriocin when grown at 8 to 32 degrees C but not at 45 degrees C. The bacteriocin was purified to homogeneity. Its mass was determined to be 5,250.11 +/- 0.30 by electrospray mass spectrometry. The N terminus of the bacteriocin was blocked for sequencing by Edman degradation, but a partial sequence of 42 amino acids was obtained after cleavage of the peptide by cyanogen bromide. The sequence showed no similarity to those of other bacteriocins. Pediocin L50 appears to contain modified amino acids but not lanthionine or methyl-lanthionine
Tenerife is one of the most well monitored islands of the Canaries, but the surveillance generally is centred on Las Cañadas Caldera, where the Teide volcano is located. In the last 180 000 yr, the ...eruptions on Tenerife Island have never occurred in the same volcanic structure, except for the Teide and Pico Viejo central volcanic system, so that a complete monitoring network would have to cover the whole island. As a result, Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) is being used on Tenerife, because this space technique can provide a displacement map of the surface of the earth with centimetre precision. This paper presents the results obtained on Tenerife Island using 18 SAR images acquired by the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites during the period 1992–2000. Two important results have been obtained: no deformation on Las Cañadas Caldera, coinciding with results obtained using terrestrial techniques, and two subsidence episodes outside monitoring areas in the NW of the island, in the region of the last historic eruptions. These results show that InSAR is a useful technique for monitoring the entire island, thus allowing us to discover deformations in areas that are not routinely or easily monitored. This technique has been used in combination with Global Positioning System (GPS) observation of a global network on the island to define a new geodetic monitoring system. The possible causes of the deformations observed have been studied in an endeavour to discern if they might be of natural origin, in particular linked to a reactivation of prior volcanic activity. Examination of the geophysical observations on the island, human activities underway and the results of the modelling seem to indicate that at least part of the deformations may be caused by changes in the groundwater level and therefore are not linked to a volcanic reactivation. This result is important because it implies that, if geodetic volcano monitoring is to be performed on the island, the system used must be capable of discerning between various possible origins of the deformation by analysing their patterns and ancillary information from other sources. In this regard, InSAR is a basic tool on account of its unpaired wide area coverage and spatial density.
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