Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at various old age homes in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia involving the geriatric population aged 60 years and above. A detailed questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic data including sex, age, household income, and dental variables such as the number of teeth and chewing difficulty was obtained. The Tinetti test (TT) was used to evaluate the patients' ability to walk, to maintain postural balance, and to determine their risk of falling. The short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess depression among the participants, and the Barthel Scale was used to analyze the subject's ability to perform the activities of daily living (ADL).
Results: Statistically significant association was observed in relation to the number of teeth present and risk of falls (p < 0.05). Subjects who had 19 teeth or less in total had moderate to highest risk of falls (p=0.001) in comparison with subjects who had 20 teeth or more. Those aged 70 years and above showed the highest risk of falls (p=0.001) in comparison with the subjects aged between 60 and 69 years. Subjects with depression (p=0.03) and presence of illness related to fall showed statistically significant difference (p=0.001) in comparison with those who did not suffer from the same. Compromised ADL (p=0.001) (which included ability to perform several tasks like indoor mobility, climbing stairs, toilet use, and feeding) and low monthly income (p=0.03) was also observed among subjects who had higher risk of falls.
Conclusion: According to the results achieved, there was a high statistically significant association observed between the number of teeth present, age, depression, ADL, and presence of illness in relation to the risk of falling among the geriatric population. Henceforth, oral rehabilitation of elderly patients with less number of teeth may reduce their risk of falls.
Methods: The rats were either OVX or sham OVX (sham), then were randomly assigned into three groups, G1: sham, G2: OVX and G3: OVX+L. helveticus (1 mL of 108-109 colony forming units). The supplementation was force-fed to the rats once a day for 16 weeks while control groups were force-fed with demineralized water.
Results: L. helveticus upregulated the expression of Runx2 and Bmp2, increased serum osteocalcin, bone volume/total volume and trabecular thickness, and decreased serum C-terminal telopeptide and total porosity percentage. It also altered bone microstructure, as a result increasing bone mineral density and bone strength.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that L. helveticus attenuates bone remodeling and consequently improves bone health in OVX rats by increasing bone formation along with bone resorption reduction. This study suggests a potential therapeutic effect of L. helveticus (ATCC 27558) on postmenopausal osteoporosis.
METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study of 65 Malay obese class I and class II adults aged 20-62 years (21 male, 44 female) from sub-urban areas of Malaysia. Overnight fasting venous blood samples were obtained to determine the triglyceride level (mmol/L). Subjects were classified into either normal or elevated triglyceride level groups based on the triglyceride level (normal < 1.6 mmol/L, elevated > 1.7 mmol/L). Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, defined as smoking status, hours per day spent on sitting passively and sitting with active motion, and the amount of saturated fat, mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fat from dietary intake, were measured from 24-h dietary intake and physical activity recall. We compare the variables of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors between subjects with normal and elevated triglyceride level using independent samples t-test.
RESULTS: Among 65 obese class I and II adults, 16 subjects (24.6%) were found to have elevated triglyceride levels (mean ± standard deviation of body mass index 31.89 ± 3.29 kg/m2). There are significant differences between subjects having normal and elevated triglyceride level with gender, marital status, the number of children, smoking status, weight and monounsaturated fat intake (all P-values < .05).
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study highlighted elevated triglyceride level in obese adults might be influenced by unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. We suggest that lifestyle modification intervention is appropriate to prevent cardiovascular disease among Malay obese class I and II adults.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in male and female adults living in the urban area of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Adiposity was determined based on body weight, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, and waist and hip circumference. Data on coffee consumption and other dietary components were collected using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire along with other caffeine-containing beverages such as tea, chocolate, and other beverages. The -866 G/A UCP2 gene variation was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The correlation between coffee intake and adiposity was tested using linear regression test with adjustment for sex, age, energy intake, table sugar intake, and total caffeine intake.
Results: In all subjects, coffee intake was inversely correlated with body weight (β = -0.122, p=0.028), BMI (β = -0.157, p=0.005), and body fat (β = -0.135, p=0.009). In subjects with AA + GA genotypes, coffee intake was inversely correlated with body weight (β = -0.155, p=0.027), BMI (β = -0.179, p=0.010), and body fat (β = -0.148, p=0.021). By contrast, in subjects with GG genotype, coffee intake was not correlated with body weight (β = -0.017, p=0.822), BMI (β = -0.068, p=0.377), and body fat (β = -0.047, p=0.504).
Conclusion: We showed that coffee intake was negatively correlated with adiposity, and this was independent of total caffeine intake. Additionally, we showed that the -866 G/A UCP2 gene variation influences the relationship between coffee intake and adiposity.