scholarly journals Association between Visceral Fat and Brain Structural Changes or Cognitive Function

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1036
Author(s):  
Naoki Ozato ◽  
Shinnichiro Saitou ◽  
Tohru Yamaguchi ◽  
Mitsuhiro Katashima ◽  
Mina Misawa ◽  
...  

Visceral fat accumulation is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. Visceral fat is a causal risk factor for hypertension and type 2 diabetes, which was reported as one of the risk factors for dementia. Visceral fat areas (VFA) might be clinically important to prevent dementia; however, the association between VFA and cognitive function in the elderly remains unknown. We aimed to evaluate the association between brain structural abnormalities using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and VFA, and the association between cognitive function and VFA, in the elderly. A total of 2364 healthy individuals were enrolled, and we excluded those diagnosed with dementia. Participants were divided into a high-VFA and a low-VFA group based on median VFA. The high-VFA group had significantly lower cognitive function than the low-VFA group (p = 0.025), after adjustment for related factors using a linear regression model. Regarding brain structure in MRI, VFA remained significantly associated with white matter lesions (odds ratio (OR), 1.90; 95% confidence interval (1.33–2.70); adjusted p < 0.001) and perivascular space (OR, 1.28; 95% confidence interval (1.02–1.61); adjusted p = 0.033). Further follow-up studies are needed, but reducing visceral fat might be important, not only to prevent cardiovascular disease but also to prevent dementia.

Esophagus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinya Ohashi ◽  
Takahisa Maruno ◽  
Keita Fukuyama ◽  
Osamu Kikuchi ◽  
Tomohiko Sunami ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Visceral fat obesity can be defined quantitatively by abdominal computed tomography, however, the usefulness of measuring visceral fat area to assess the etiology of gastrointestinal reflux disease has not been fully elucidated. Methods A total of 433 healthy subjects aged 40–69 years (234 men, 199 women) were included in the study. The relationship between obesity-related factors (total fat area, visceral fat area, subcutaneous fat area, waist circumference, and body mass index) and the incidence of reflux erosive esophagitis was investigated. Lifestyle factors and stomach conditions relevant to the onset of erosive esophagitis were also analyzed. Results The prevalence of reflux erosive esophagitis was 27.2% (118/433; 106 men, 12 women). Visceral fat area was higher in subjects with erosive esophagitis than in those without (116.6 cm2 vs. 64.9 cm2, respectively). The incidence of erosive esophagitis was higher in subjects with visceral fat obesity (visceral fat area ≥ 100 cm2) than in those without (61.2% vs. 12.8%, respectively). Visceral fat obesity had the highest odds ratio (OR) among obesity-related factors. Multivariate analysis showed that visceral fat area was associated with the incidence of erosive esophagitis (OR = 2.18), indicating that it is an independent risk factor for erosive esophagitis. In addition, daily alcohol intake (OR = 1.54), gastric atrophy open type (OR = 0.29), and never-smoking history (OR = 0.49) were also independently associated with the development of erosive esophagitis. Conclusions Visceral fat obesity is the key risk factor for the development of reflux erosive esophagitis in subjects aged 40–69 years.


2010 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 1658-1663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazushi Nomura ◽  
Masato Eto ◽  
Taro Kojima ◽  
Sumito Ogawa ◽  
Katsuya Iijima ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1184-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaaki Fujimura ◽  
Shinichi Sakamoto ◽  
Nobuyuki Sekita ◽  
Kazuo Mikami ◽  
Tomohiko Ichikawa ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-167
Author(s):  
M. Zimmermann ◽  
I. Wurster ◽  
S. Lerche ◽  
B. Roeben ◽  
G. Machetanz ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jihyun Jeong ◽  
Sang-moon Yun ◽  
Minkyeong Kim ◽  
Young Ho Koh

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally, although the mortality rate has declined with improved technology and risk factor control. The incidence rate of stroke, one of the CVDs, is increasing in young adults, whereas it is decreasing in the elderly. The risk factors for CVD may differ between young adults and the elderly. Previous studies have suggested that cadmium was a potential CVD risk factor in the overall and middle-aged to elderly populations. We assessed the associations between cadmium and CVD events in the Korean population aged 20–59 years using the 2008–2013 and 2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), a population-based cross-sectional study. Among 10,626 participants aged 20–59 years, those with high blood cadmium (BCd) level (>1.874 µg/L, 90th percentile) were higher associated with stroke and hypertension (stroke: odds ratio (OR), 2.39; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.03–5.56; hypertension: OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.20–1.76). The strongest association between high blood cadmium concentrations and hypertension was among current smokers. Ischemic heart disease (IHD) was not associated with high blood cadmium level. These findings suggest that high blood cadmium levels may be associated with prevalent stroke and hypertension in the Korean population under 60 years of age.


2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Petti ◽  
B. J. Cowling

Abstract Ecologic studies investigating COVID-19 mortality determinants, used to make predictions and design public health control measures, generally focused on population-based variable counterparts of individual-based risk factors. Influenza is not causally associated with COVID-19, but shares population-based determinants, such as similar incidence/mortality trends, transmission patterns, efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions, comorbidities and underdiagnosis. We investigated the ecologic association between influenza mortality rates and COVID-19 mortality rates in the European context. We considered the 3-year average influenza (2014–2016) and COVID-19 (31 May 2020) crude mortality rates in 34 countries using EUROSTAT and ECDC databases and performed correlation and regression analyses. The two variables – log transformed, showed significant Spearman's correlation ρ = 0.439 (P = 0.01), and regression coefficients, b = 0.743 (95% confidence interval, 0.272–1.214; R2 = 0.244; P = 0.003), b = 0.472 (95% confidence interval, 0.067–0.878; R2 = 0.549; P = 0.02), unadjusted and adjusted for confounders (population size and cardiovascular disease mortality), respectively. Common significant determinants of both COVID-19 and influenza mortality rates were life expectancy, influenza vaccination in the elderly (direct associations), number of hospital beds per population unit and crude cardiovascular disease mortality rate (inverse associations). This analysis suggests that influenza mortality rates were independently associated with COVID-19 mortality rates in Europe, with implications for public health preparedness, and implies preliminary undetected SARS-CoV-2 spread in Europe.


Aging Health ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 983-997
Author(s):  
Betti Giusti ◽  
Anna Maria Gori ◽  
Rossella Marcucci ◽  
Claudia Saracini ◽  
Paola Bolli ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi Hue Man Vo ◽  
Keiko Nakamura ◽  
Kaoruko Seino ◽  
Hoang Thuy Linh Nguyen ◽  
Thang Van Vo

Abstract Background Fear of falling (FoF) in the elderly is one of the major public health concerns in this era of aging of the population. Identifying risk factors is a step towards devising interventions for FoF. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of FoF and the associations between cognitive impairment and FoF by the social support level, after adjustments for potential confounders. Methods Data from the “Health needs assessment of elderly in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam in 2018” survey of 725 elderly aged 60 years or older were used for analysis. FoF was assessed using the Fall Efficacy Scale - International. High FoF was defined as a score above 28. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure the perception of support. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the factors that might be significantly (p <0.05) associated with the FoF. Results The prevalence of high FoF among the elderly was 40.8%. Female gender, advanced age, a marital status of single or formerly married, living alone, history of injury, history of falls, chronic diseases (arthritis and/or hypertension), limitations of the IADL and BADL, visual difficulty and walking difficulty, low social support, and cognitive impairment were all significantly associated with a high FoF. After adjustments for the age, gender, marital status, history of falls and health-related factors, cognitive impairment remained significantly associated with a high FoF among the elderly with a low to moderate social support level (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.49-5.89), but not in those with a high social support level. Conclusions Impairment of cognitive function was associated with a high FoF among the elderly who perceived themselves as having low or moderate support levels, even after adjustments for socio demographic and physical functional factors. However, this association was not observed among the elderly who perceived themselves as having high social support levels. Fall prevention programs for the elderly with various levels of social support should be carefully devised, keeping in mind the cognitive function levels of the target recipients.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Zhang ◽  
Biyan Wang ◽  
Di Liu ◽  
Jinxia Zhang ◽  
Qiuyue Tian ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Observational studies showed that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) attacks universally and its most menacing progression uniquely endangers the elderly with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether COVID-19 is causally related to increasing susceptibility and severity of atrial fibrillation (AF), the main form of CVD, remains still unknown. Methods The study aims to investigate the bidirectional causal relations of COVID-19 with AF using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Results MR evidence suggested genetically predicted severe COVID-19 was significantly associated with higher risk of AF (odds ratio [OR], 1.041; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.007-1.076; P = 0.017), while genetically predicted AF was not causally associated with severe COVID-19 (OR, 0.831; 95% CI, 1.619-1.115; P=0.217). There was limited evidence to support association of genetically proxied COVID-19 with risk of AF (OR, 1.051; 95% CI, 0.991-1.114; P=0.097), and vice versa (OR, 0.163; 95% CI, 0.004-6.790; P=0.341). MR-Egger indicated no evidence of pleiotropic bias. Conclusion Overall, severe COVID-19 may causally affect AF through independent biological pathway. Survivors from severe COVID-19 might be of high risk of AF in the future. Key words Coronavirus disease 2019; Atrial Fibrillation; Bidirectional mendelian randomization


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