scholarly journals Obesity: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Therapeutics

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xihua Lin ◽  
Hong Li

Obesity is a complex multifactorial disease that accumulated excess body fat leads to negative effects on health. Obesity continues to accelerate resulting in an unprecedented epidemic that shows no significant signs of slowing down any time soon. Raised body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders, resulting in dramatic decrease of life quality and expectancy. The main cause of obesity is long-term energy imbalance between consumed calories and expended calories. Here, we explore the biological mechanisms of obesity with the aim of providing actionable treatment strategies to achieve a healthy body weight from nature to nurture. This review summarizes the global trends in obesity with a special focus on the pathogenesis of obesity from genetic factors to epigenetic factors, from social environmental factors to microenvironment factors. Against this background, we discuss several possible intervention strategies to minimize BMI.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaner Tang ◽  
Weiken Kong ◽  
Zhijian Pang ◽  
Shuwen Guan

Abstract The COVID-19 epidemic spreads around the world early in 2020. As a public emergency, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a public psychological crisis such as panic, anxiety and worry. Government trust and social support are considered social environmental factors affecting the public psychological crisis, but there is a lack of strong empirical evidence. Thus, it has important theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of government trust and social support on the public psychological crisis. Through regression analysis of the questionnaire during the pandemic, we found that government trust helps reduce public psychological crises, but informal social support increases public psychological crises. Therefore, strengthening government trust and preventing the negative effects of informal social support are effective ways to alleviate public psychological crises.


VASA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 313-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernemann ◽  
Bender ◽  
Melms ◽  
Brechtel ◽  
Kobba ◽  
...  

Interventional therapies using angioplasty and stenting of symptomatic stenosis of the proximal supraaortic vessels have evolved as safe and effective treatment strategies. The aim of this paper is to summarize the current treatment concepts for stenosis in the subclavian and brachiocephalic artery with regard to clinical indication, interventional technique including selection of the appropriate vascular approach and type of stent, angiographic and clinical short-term and long-term results and follow-up. The role of hybrid interventions for tandem stenoses of the carotid bifurcation and brachiocephalic artery is analysed. A systematic review of data for angioplasty and stenting of symptomatic extracranial vertebral artery stenosis is discussed with a special focus on restenosis rate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 958-958
Author(s):  
Gettens K ◽  
Gorin A

Abstract Objective Executive functions (EF) are crucial to successful weight management, yet few studies have prospectively explored the influence of social-environmental factors on the EF-weight loss (WL) link. This study examined interactions between EF, partner support, and household structure on weight loss outcomes in a couples-based intervention, grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Method Cohabitating dyads attended weekly weight loss groups (Ncouples = 64), Mage =54.0 ± 9.5, MBMI = 34.2 ± 5.4 kg/m2, 50% female, 88.8% Caucasian). Weight was measured at baseline and 6 months. The Behavior Rating Index of Executive Functions-Adult assessed 9 EF domains; higher scores indicate greater difficulty. Partner autonomy support (AS) was measured using the Important Other Climate Questionnaire, household structure with the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS), IQ with the WASI-II 2-subscale estimate. Results Multilevel models were specified with MIXED linear function in SPSS to account for dyadic interdependence, controlling for age, education, IQ and group. Moderators (AS and CHAOS) were grand-mean centered. High and low levels were created at +1SD and -1SD. At high levels of AS, Shifting (B = 1.50, p = .01) and Inhibition (B = 2.23, p = .01) were associated with greater 6-month WL. At low levels of AS, Working Memory was associated with greater WL (p < .01). Self-Monitoring was associated with greater WL at high chaos (B = .43, p = .01), but not low chaos (p = 0.1). Conclusions Findings suggest that context matters; recruiting specific EFs may promote more WL for individuals embedded in low support or chaotic home environments. Future interventions should address the complexity of successful weight management, targeting both individual and social-interpersonal factors.


Author(s):  
Nam Jeong Jeong ◽  
Eunil Park ◽  
Angel P. del Pobil

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are one of the major health threats in the world. Thus, identifying the factors that influence NCDs is crucial to monitor and manage diseases. This study investigates the effects of social-environmental and behavioral risk factors on NCDs as well as the effects of social-environmental factors on behavioral risk factors using an integrated research model. This study used a dataset from the 2017 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. After filtering incomplete responses, 5462 valid responses remained. Items including one’s social-environmental factors (household income, education level, and region), behavioral factors (alcohol use, tobacco use, and physical activity), and NCDs histories were used for analyses. To develop a comprehensive index of each factor that allows comparison between different concepts, the researchers assigned scores to indicators of the factors and calculated a ratio of the scores. A series of path analyses were conducted to determine the extent of relationships among NCDs and risk factors. The results showed that social-environmental factors have notable effects on stroke, myocardial infarction, angina, diabetes, and gastric, liver, colon, lung, and thyroid cancers. The results indicate that the effects of social-environmental and behavioral risk factors on NCDs vary across the different types of diseases. The effects of social-environmental factors and behavioral risk factors significantly affected NCDs. However, the effect of social-environmental factors on behavioral risk factors was not supported. Furthermore, social-environmental factors and behavioral risk factors affect NCDs in a similar way. However, the effects of behavioral risk factors were smaller than those of social-environmental factors. The current research suggests taking a comprehensive view of risk factors to further understand the antecedents of NCDs in South Korea.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Amelie Burkert ◽  
Heiko Fechtner ◽  
Benedikt Schmuelling

A variety of measures are currently being taken on both the national and international levels in order to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. The promotion of electric mobility is one such measure for the transport sector. As a key component in a more environmentally-friendly, resource-saving, and efficient transport sector, electric mobility promises to create better sustainability. Several challenges still need to be met to exploit its full potential. This requires adapting the car technology, the value chain of vehicles, loads on the electricity network, the power generation for the drive, traffic, and charging infrastructure. The challenges to this endeavor are not only technical in nature, but they also include social acceptance, concerns, and economic, as well as ecological, aspects. This paper seeks to discuss and elucidate these problems, giving special focus to the issues of driving range, phenomenon of range anxiety, charging time, and complexity of the charging infrastructure in Germany. Finally, the development of social acceptance in Germany from 2011 to 2020 is investigated.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1269
Author(s):  
María J. Andrade ◽  
João Pedro Costa ◽  
Eduardo Jiménez-Morales

In recent years, cruise tourism has increased the negative effects caused by touristification in many European port cities. Despite this, these cities are in a great competition to be a destination, a tourist-port. Cruise tourism has come to stay, and a steady growth can be expected in a post-COVID-19 scenario, but at what cost? The tourist-port demands highly effective planning answers occurring simultaneously, and the global pandemic crisis provides a buffer of time to seek best practices, combining the expected economical (re)development with social, environmental, and cultural sustainability. This paper proposes five different strategies that contribute to finding a sustainable coexistence between tourist ports and their cities. To this end, trans-scalar strategies developed in previous research from different disciplines have been studied and categorized in a port-city context, in order to provide a holistic viewpoint on the measures carried out to maximize the benefits and limit the negative impacts of cruise tourism on cities.


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