Although the share of older people has been growing in Brazil in past decades, studies investigating trends in overweight and obesity prevalence in this population remain scarce. The objective of ...this study was to analyze the time trend of overweight and obesity prevalence in older adults in Brazilian State Capitals and the Federal District from 2006 to 2019. This is a time trend study based on data from the Surveillance System for Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey. The subsample used was composed of individuals aged 60 years or older (
n
= 202,049). Self-reported weight and height data were used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). Overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m
2
) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) prevalence were estimated per year for the total population and according to sex, age, schooling, region, and NCD presence. Prais–Winsten regression models were used to identify significant trends in overweight and obesity prevalence over the years. Overweight prevalence increased (
p
< 0.05) from 53.7 to 61.4% (1.09% per year) within the assessed period, whereas obesity prevalence increased from 16.1 to 22.3% (2.28% per year). Greater increases were observed among men, those aged 70 years old and over, with more than 9-year of schooling, and from less developed regions. The highest increases were observed in groups with the lowest values at the beginning of the study period. Results evidenced the high and growing prevalence of overweight and obesity among older people in Brazilian.
Abstract
The Outreach Cosmic Ray Activities (OCRA) project was created in 2018 within the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) to offer a platform for all outreach activities focusing ...on cosmic rays within the institute. OCRA now counts 22 of the institute’s divisions all over Italy as members. The project offers activities both for students and teachers. The one activity common to all local groups is the participation in the yearly International Cosmic Day, organized by DESY, inviting high school students to carry out hands-on measurements of the cosmic ray flux and learn about the related physics background. Two students from each division are then selected to participate in the annual OCRA science camp, a three-day full immersion into the life of a physicist. For both teachers and students, the OCRA website https://web.infn.it/OCRA/, offers a series of online laboratories designed both to be used by students individually but also to be offered in the classroom by teachers. A section dedicated to teachers provides ample material to help bring these laboratories to the classroom. The online materials were presented in a course for teachers in spring 2021. In addition to the national efforts, there are also local initiatives of the OCRA member groups: workshops and secondments, science competitions and the development of new detectors for outreach activities offer a multitude of possibilities for students to engage with our researchers and to explore the world of cosmic rays. This article provides an overview on all activities offered by OCRA with a particular focus on the 2022 science camp.
To explore the relationship between availability of different types of retail food stores and consumption of fruit and leafy vegetables.
This study is a cross-sectional study.
Data were derived from ...2032 adults living in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, participating in the longitudinal Pro-Saude Study. Exposure to street markets, fruit and vegetable stores, groceries and markets, unhealthy food outlets, restaurants, and supermarkets within 1600 m buffers was obtained by georeferencing residential addresses. Consumption of fruit and leafy vegetables was assessed via two single questions, categorized as 'yes' (≥4 days/week) and 'no' (<3 days/week). Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess relationships of interest adjusted for surrounding average monthly income, sex, age, education, and family income per capita.
Except for supermarkets, the presence of a greater number of retail food stores - irrespective of the type - was associated with higher odds of consumption of fruit and leafy vegetables than with areas with a lower number (e.g. odds ratio = 1.47; 95% confidence interval = 1.13-1.91).
The greater availability of several types of retail food stores close to participants' residences was associated with higher consumption of fruit and leafy vegetables in Rio de Janeiro.
Background
Ultra-processed foods (UPF) are becoming extensively available in the food environments. UPF are industrial formulations that are designed to maximize palatability and consumption through ...a combination of calorie-dense ingredients and chemical additives. UPFs are also aggressively marketed, which may make them more attractive than unprocessed/minimally processed foods (UMPF). Since consumers' purchase decisions are guided by food-evoked emotions, we aimed to provide evidence that UPF visual cues trigger higher emotional responses and approach motivation than UMPF visual cues, with potential impacts on individuals' intention to consume the UPF over the UMPF.
Methods
Participants (
n
= 174; 144 women; mean age = 20.7 years; standard deviation = 4.35) performed two tasks. In the first task, 16 pictures of foods (8 UPF and 8 UMPF), and 74 pictures from other affective categories, were presented. After viewing each picture, the participants rated it along two basic dimensions of emotion through the Self-Assessment Manikin scale: pleasantness and arousal. In the second task, the participants viewed the same food pictures, and they rated their intention to consume the foods depicted in the pictures. Each picture was plotted in terms of its mean pleasantness and arousal ratings in a Cartesian plane, which resulted in an affective space.
Results
Pictures of UPF and UMPF were positioned in the upper arm of the boomerang-shaped affective space that represents approach motivation. Pictures containing UPF triggered higher approach motivation and intention to consume than pictures containing UMPF. We also found a stronger association between emotional responses and intention to consume UPF relative to UMPF.
Conclusion
These results shed new light on the role of ultra-processed foods evoked emotions that contribute to less healthy and sustainable food environments.
Progress in the design and construction of SPES at INFN-LNL Bisoffi, G.; Prete, G.; Andrighetto, A. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms,
06/2016, Volume:
376
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
INFN-LNL is constructing an ISOL (Isotope Separation On Line) facility delivering neutron rich ion beams at 10AMeV or beyond, making use of the linear accelerator ALPI as the secondary accelerator. ...The facility includes a direct ISOL target based on UCx and able to reach 1013fissions/s. In parallel, an applied physics facility will be developed, with applications in medicine and neutron production. The SPES project is a national facility, approved and funded. Commissioning with the first exotic species is expected in 2019. The primary accelerator is a commercial cyclotron, which will send a 40MeV, 200μA proton beam onto an UCx target, connected to SIS, PIS and LIS ion sources. The extracted beam is purified through a Low Resolution Mass Separator (LMRS, i.e. a Wien filter and a dispersive dipole), a beam cooler and a High Resolution Mass Separator (HRMS) and sent to an ECR charge breeder to boost the exotic beam charge state. The highly charged exotic beam is further separated in a MRMS (Medium Resolution Mass Separator) and injected into a 100% duty cycle RFQ and into the existing superconducting linac ALPI, which will be refurbished and upgraded to be an efficient exotic beam accelerator. The upgrade of ALPI will give ∼10AMeV energy to 132Sn19+, taken as the reference ion beam. The paper presents the status of the design and construction of the SPES facility.
Introduction Body image distortion and/or dissatisfaction may occur primarily due to body fat accumulation and/or distribution. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of body image ...perception and (dis)satisfaction categories in adult men and women according to the adiposity classification. Methods This is a cross-sectional study (n = 514; 33–79 years; 265 women) that is part of a prospective cohort (Pró-Saúde study). Adiposity measurements were determined by two methods: anthropometry, used to calculate the body mass index (BMI) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), to estimate body fat percentage. Participants were grouped as “no excess adiposity” and “excess adiposity”, considering BMI and body fat percentage (>30% for men, >40% for women). Perception and (dis)satisfaction with body image were evaluated using the Kakeshita scale, composed by 15 silhouettes, developed for the Brazilian population. Degree of distortion (perceived BMI ‐ real BMI) and dissatisfaction (perceived BMI ‐ desired BMI) were calculated. Results A high proportion of men (58.6%; 74.3%), and especially of women (82.6%; 86.8%), presented body size overestimation and dissatisfaction due to excess weight, respectively. A relevant fraction of the women (32.6%) and men (30.8%) who were dissatisfied due to excess weight did not present excess adiposity, especially if classified by DXA. Variability in degree of distortion was hardly explained by anthropometric and DXA variables in women (<5%) and men (∼22%). Both anthropometric and DXA measurements accounted for ∼30% and ∼50% of the variability in degree of dissatisfaction among women and men, respectively. Conclusion Our results suggest a high frequency of body image distortion in Brazilian adult individuals, as well as dissatisfaction with excess weight, especially among women with excess adiposity. The findings indicate that anthropometric measurements explain much of the variability in degree of body image dissatisfaction in men, with no apparent advantage of the use of more refined DXA measurements.
Obesity is considered one of the main contemporary public health problems. We aim to assess changes in body weight and nutritional status in adulthood and the associated sociodemographic variables. ...We use data from the 2013 National Health Survey (
= 21,743). Changes in weight and body mass index (BMI) were calculated based on mean difference between measurements at age 20 and data collected at the interview, stratified by sex. The association was analyzed using linear regression. Mean weight gain was greater among women than men. The largest gain was verified among the younger adults for both sexes. Age was found to be associated with weight and BMI change in men and women where, for every additional year of age, there was an increase in weight and BMI of 0.10 kg and 0.04 kg/m
in men and of 0.22 kg and 0.09 kg/m
in women, respectively. For education, a direct association was found for men and an inverse for women. Association with area of residence was significant among males only, where rural men gained less than their urban counterparts. Weight gain was progressive, being more marked in the younger group, and was associated with education differently according to sex.
The aims were to evaluate the nutritional status, central adiposity, and physical growth profile of adolescents in a sports-oriented public school (SOPS) and to describe the results considering the ...Brazilian and American adolescents' survey studies.
This study was a dynamic cohort, performed in 2012-2013 and 2015. 1,082 adolescent athletes (11-16 years old) participated. Anthropometric data (height H, weight, and waist circumference WC) were collected yearly. The nutritional status was assessed using BMI Z-score; trunk fat, using WC and WC/H ratio; and growth, using height z-score. The SOPS results were described considering data from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey (HBS-Southeast region) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Anthropometric data was compared using linear mixed effects regression models, considering sex, age group and time.
Considering height Z-score and BMI Z-score values, none of the adolescents in the SOPS had short stature or underweight, and the obesity prevalence was approximately 1% throughout the study. HBS survey revealed 3.4% of obesity prevalence in adolescents (11-16 years old). Considering age and time, significant differences in WC for both sexes were observed. However, considering NHANES data, our participants were classified in P5-25.
These results suggest that the nutritional status of adolescents in the SOPS was good, obesity prevalence was 1% and WC measurement was within P5-25 considering NHANES data. This supports the public policies encouraging involvement in sports at school, which should be one of the priorities in the health promotion agenda, reducing the development of future chronic diseases.
The SPES Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facility at INFN-LNL is in the construction phase. It is based on the ISOL method with an UCx Direct Target able to sustain a power of 10 kW. The primary proton ...beam is delivered by a high current Cyclotron accelerator, with energy 35-70 MeV and a beam current of 0.2-0.5 mA. Neutron-rich radioactive ions will be produced by proton induced Uranium fission in the UCx target at an expected fission rate in the order of 10 super(13) fissions per second. The exotic isotopes will be re-accelerated by the ALPI superconducting LINAC at energies of 10A MeV and higher, for masses in the region A=130 amu at expected rate on the secondary target of 10 super(7) - 10 super(9) pps. The SPES project has the aim to provide high intensity and high-quality beams of neutron-rich nuclei as well as to develop an interdisciplinary research center based on the cyclotron proton beam.