scholarly journals Bone and Lean Mass Loss and Cognitive Impairment for Healthy Elder Adults: Analysis of the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan 2013–2016 and a Validation Study With Structural Equation Modeling

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Feng Lin ◽  
Yen-Chun Fan ◽  
Wen-Harn Pan ◽  
Chyi-Huey Bai

Purpose: Bone and lean mass loss and cognitive impairment are prevalent in elder adults and have been hypothesized to share a potential link.Methods: This nationwide cross-sectional study systemically sampled elder adults aged ≥65 years and conducted the door-to-door survey. The causal diagrams help to decide which covariates were included in the generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs). The structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed for the validation.Results: A total of 535 participants were enrolled and categorized into the normal (67.3%), mild cognitive impairment (18.3%), and dementia groups (14.4%). With increasing in the severity of cognitive impairment, the bone marrow density and lean mass consistently showed the trend of decreasing values. In the GLMMs, a significant association existed between the decrease of the bone mineral density (BMD) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (β = 5.819 scores per g/cm2 decrease, p = 0.0305) with adjustment of the age, sex, and physical activity. The SEM models confirmed that the MMSE was significantly and directly predicted by the age (β = 0.1363, p = 0.0003) and BMD (β = 0.1251, p = 0.0006) independently and indirectly predicted by lean mass (β = 0.1138, p = 0.0003) through the bone density path.Conclusion: In conclusion, an independent association between bone loss and cognitive impairment was existed rather than the confounding effect and the decrease of lean mass indirectly contributed to cognitive impairment by influencing the bone density.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 679-689
Author(s):  
Chang Hyun Lee ◽  
Do Hoon Kim

AbstractObjective:The aim of this study was to model the relationships among white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), depressive symptoms, and cognitive function and to examine the mediating effect of depressive symptoms on the relationship between WMHs and cognitive impairment.Methods:We performed structural equation modeling using cross-sectional data from 1158 patients from the Clinical Research for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) registry who were diagnosed with mild-to-moderate dementia. Periventricular white matter hyperintensities (PWMHs) and deep white matter hyperintensities (DWMHs) were obtained separately on the protocol of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Depression and cognitive function were assessed using the Korean Form of the Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS) and the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB), respectively.Results:The model that best reflected the relationships among the variables was the model in which DWMHs affected cognitive function directly and indirectly through the depressive symptoms; on the other hand, PWMHs only directly affected cognitive function.Conclusions:This study presents the mediation model including the developmental pathway from DWMHs to cognitive impairment through depressive symptoms and suggests that the two types of WMHs may affect cognitive impairment through different pathways.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Koawo Edjah ◽  
Francis Ankomah ◽  
Ebenezer Domey ◽  
John Ekow Laryea

AbstractStress is concomitant with students’ life and can have a significant impact on their lives, and even how they go about their academic work. Globally, in every five visits by patients to the doctor, three are stress-related problems. This study examined stress and its impact on the academic and social life among students of a university in Ghana. The descriptive cross-sectional survey design was employed. Using the stratified and simple random (random numbers) sampling methods, 500 regular undergraduate students were engaged in the study. A questionnaire made up of Perceived Stress Scale and Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale was used to gather data for the study. Frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), with AMOS were used for the analyses. It was found that majority of the students were moderately stressed. Paramount among the stressors were academic stressors, followed by institutional stressors, and external stressors. Stress had a significant positive impact on the academic and social life of students. It was concluded that undergraduate students, in one way or the other, go through some kind of stress during the course of their study. It was recommended that the university, through its Students’ Affairs, and Counselling Sections, continue to empower students on how to manage and deal with stress in order to enhance their academic life.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huanlin Wang ◽  
LanYu Liang ◽  
ChunLin Du ◽  
YongKang Wu

BACKGROUND Online hospitals are part of an innovative model that allows China to explore telemedicine services based on national conditions with large populations, uneven distribution of medical resources, and lack of quality medical resources, especially among residents needing to be protected from COVID-19 infection. OBJECTIVE In this study, we built a hypothesis model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology in order to analyze the factors that may influence patients’ willingness to use mobile medical services. This research was designed to assist in the development of mobile medical services. Residents who do not live in urban areas and cannot access medical assistance would greatly benefit from this research, as they could immediately go to the online hospital when needed. METHODS A cross-sectional study based at the West China Hospital, Sichuan University, was conducted in July 2020. A total of 407 respondents, 18 to 59 years old, in Western China were recruited by convenience sampling. We also conducted an empirical test for the hypothesis model and applied structural equation modeling to estimate the significance of path coefficients so that we could better understand the influencing factors. RESULTS Out of 407 respondents, 95 (23.3%) were aware of online hospitals, while 312 (76.7%) indicated that they have never heard of online hospitals before. Gender (<i>P</i>=.048) and education level (<i>P</i>=.04) affected people’s willingness to use online hospitals, and both of these factors promoted the use of online hospitals (odds ratio [OR] 2.844, 95% CI 1.010-8.003, and OR 2.187, 95% CI 1.031-4.636, respectively). According to structural equation modeling, the results of the path coefficient analysis indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions have positive effects on patients’ willingness to use online hospitals. CONCLUSIONS The goal of our research was to determine the factors that influence patients’ awareness and willingness to use online hospitals. Currently, the public’s awareness and usage of online hospitals is low. In fact, effort expectancy was the most important factor that influenced the use of online hospitals; being female and having a high education also played positive roles toward the use of mobile medical services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Velotti ◽  
Guyonne Rogier ◽  
Sara Beomonte Zobel ◽  
Rosetta Castellano ◽  
Renata Tambelli

Background: Our study aimed to test the hypotheses that an increased level of loneliness experienced during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) confinement was predictive of internalizing symptoms and that this pathway was mediated by emotion dysregulation levels.Methods: To reach this aim, we performed an online longitudinal survey recruiting 1,330 participants at Time 1 (at the beginning of the lockdown) and 308 participants at Time 2 (few days before the end of the lockdown). All filled out a set of questionnaires: demographic data, University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale−18 items, and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale−21 items. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling in two steps and controlling for age. First, hypotheses were tested on cross-sectional data. Then, a cross-lagged panel analysis was performed on longitudinal data.Results: Models obtained a good fit and evidenced the predictive role of loneliness levels on the three outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress). Moreover, we found that emotion dysregulation levels partially mediated the longitudinal relationship between loneliness and both depression and stress but not between loneliness and anxiety levels.Conclusions: This study points out that a central goal of clinical intervention could be the ability to regulate negative emotional states.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Kamal Khurana

Spiritually is an essential part of our physical and mental well-being. Spirituality dimensions also effects marital quality. This paper presents evidences that there exists a positive effect of spirituality dimensions on marital satisfaction. The results are proved through structural equation modeling among the latent variables- direct relationship with God, relationship with God through others and martial satisfaction- in a cross-sectional study of 382 married adults aged 18 to 48 years comprising of 225 males and 157 female respondents. Data was collected in Delhi NCR region through self-administrated questionnaire formulated through marital quality index (Norton, 1983)15 and daily spiritual scale (Underwood, 2002)19. Results of structural equation modeling suggest that there is a positive impact of spirituality dimensions on marital satisfaction.


2014 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 95-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Boyer ◽  
Julien Testart ◽  
Pierre Michel ◽  
Raphaëlle Richieri ◽  
Catherine Faget-Agius ◽  
...  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0259280
Author(s):  
Säde Stenlund ◽  
Niina Junttila ◽  
Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen ◽  
Lauri Sillanmäki ◽  
David Stenlund ◽  
...  

Background The bidirectional relationship between health behavior and subjective well-being has previously been studied sparsely, and mainly for individual health behaviors and regression models. In the present study, we deepen this knowledge focusing on the four principal health behaviors and using structural equation modeling with selected covariates. Methods The follow-up data (n = 11,804) was derived from a population-based random sample of working-age Finns from two waves (2003 and 2012) of the Health and Social Support (HeSSup) postal survey. Structural equation modeling was used to study the cross-sectional, cross-lagged, and longitudinal relationships between the four principal health behaviors and subjective well-being at baseline and after the nine-year follow-up adjusted for age, gender, education, and self-reported diseases. The included health behaviors were physical activity, dietary habits, alcohol consumption, and smoking status. Subjective well-being was measured through four items comprising happiness, interest, and ease in life, and perceived loneliness. Results Bidirectionally, only health behavior in 2003 predicted subjective well-being in 2012, whereas subjective well-being in 2003 did not predict health behavior in 2012. In addition, the cross-sectional interactions in 2003 and in 2012 between health behavior and subjective well-being were statistically significant. The baseline levels predicted their respective follow-up levels, the effect being stronger in health behavior than in subjective well-being. Conclusion The four principal health behaviors together predict subsequent subjective well-being after an extensive follow-up. Although not particularly strong, the results could still be used for motivation for health behavior change, because of the beneficial effects of health behavior on subjective well-being.


Author(s):  
SAMIRA GHIYASI ◽  
FATEMEH VERDI BAGHDADI ◽  
FARSHAD HASHEMZADEH ◽  
AHMAD SOLTANZADEH

Enhancing the index of crisis resilience is one of the key goals in medical environments. Various parameters can affect crisis resilience. The current study was designed to analyze crisis resilience in medical environments based on the crisis management components. This cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study was performed in 14 hospitals and medical centers, in 2020. A sample size of 343.5 was determined based on the Cochran's formula. We used a 44-item crisis management questionnaire of Azadian et al. to collect data. The components of this questionnaire included management commitment, error learning, culture learning, awareness, preparedness, flexibility, and transparency. The data was analyzed based on the structural equation modeling approach using IBM SPSS AMOS v. 23.0. The participants’ age and work experience mean were 37.78±8.14 and 8.22±4.47 years. The index of crisis resilience was equal to 2.96±0.87. The results showed that all components of crisis management had a significant relationship with this index (p <0.05). The highest and lowest impact on the resilience index were related to preparedness (E=0.88) and transparency (E=0.60). The goodness of fit indices of this model including RMSEA, CFI, NFI, and NNFI (TLI) was 2.86, 0.071, 0.965, 0.972, and 0.978. The index of crisis resilience in the medical environments was at a moderate level. Furthermore, the structural equation modeling findings indicated that the impact of each component of crisis management should be considered in prioritizing measures to increase the level of resilience.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 1003-1022
Author(s):  
Simon Ayo Adekunle ◽  
Olamitunji Dakare

PurposeThis study empirically examined and investigated the relationship between sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs) and performance of table water industry (TWI) in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional survey research design was adopted for this study. The population of this study covers all the registered table water firms in Delta and Edo states by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Convenience sampling, a nonprobability sampling method, was used in administering the questionnaire to selected table water firms in the two states used for the study. The sample can be considered as experimental group used for the research and analysis. Data collected through questionnaire administration were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in estimating the research models, through the use of Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS version 24) software.FindingsThe study found that SMPs are adopted by table water firms registered by NAFDAC. It was also found that sustainable packaging and waste management significantly influence the different dimensions of sustainable performance of table water firms.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that table water producers should ensure they consistently adhere to NAFDAC standards after product registration and certification to make the products safe for consumption. Also, NAFDAC should promote a regulatory environment with appropriate incentives to table water firms that consistently comply with stipulated regulations that can promote the sustainability of the environment while any table water firms found engaging in unwholesome activities that can undermine the health status of consumers should be severely sanctioned.Originality/valueThe study provides a comprehensive analysis of sustainability practices in the Nigerian TWI by examining four manufacturing practices and how they impact on sustainability performance of the industry. The study will help to reinforce the need for stakeholders in the TWI to be more environmentally conscious.


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