Within-dyad bidirectional relations among maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems from infancy through preschool

Although dyadic theory focuses on the impact of a mother’s mental health on her own child and the impact of a child’s mental health on their own mother, commonly used statistical approaches are incapable of distinguishing the desired within-dyad processes from between-dyad effects. Using autoregressive latent trajectory modeling with structured residuals, the current study evaluated within-dyad, bidirectional associations between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems from child age 1–4.5 years among a sample of low-income, Mexican American women (N = 322, Mage = 27.8) and their children. Women reported on maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems during laboratory visits at child age 1, 1.5, 2, 3, and 4.5 years. Results provide novel evidence of child-driven bidirectional association between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems at the within-dyad level as early as child age 1 year and within-person stability in child behavior problems emerging early in life.

Associations between sarcopenia with asthmatic prevalence, lung function and comorbidity

Background Sarcopenia was listed as a treatment trait in behavioral/risk factors of severe asthma, but studies between asthma and sarcopenia were scant. This study plans to determine the associations between sarcopenia with asthmatic prevalence, symptoms, lung function and comorbidity. Methods 15404 individuals from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS) and 10263 individuals from Study on global AGEing and adult health(SAGE) in China were included in this study. Four components of this study were respectively used to assess bidirectional association in the prevalence between sarcopenia with asthma, and estimate the relationships between sarcopenia with asthmatic symptoms, lung function and comorbidity via generalized additive models. The 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale≥12 scores was classified as depression in CHARLS. Results In CHARLS and SAGE, the prevalence of sarcopenia in asthmatics was higher than those without asthma. Asthmatics with sarcopenia had a significantly increased prevalence of severe shortness of breath(sarcopenia yes vs no, adjusted OR=3.71, 95%CI: 1.43-9.60) and airway obstruction in SAGE(sarcopenia yes vs no, adjusted OR=6.82, 95%CI: 2.54-18.34) and an obvious reduction of PEF in CHARLS and SAGE(sarcopenia yes vs no, adjusted RR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.82-0.91) compared to asthmatics without sacropenia. The presence of sarcopenia was positively associated with the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(sarcopenia yes vs no, adjusted OR=5.76, 95%CI:2.01-16.5) and depression(sarcopenia yes vs no, adjusted OR=1.87, 95%CI:1.11-3.14) in asthmatics. Conclusions Our findings indicated that sarcopenia partakes in the development of asthma by affecting lung function and comorbidity and maybe considered a treatable trait of asthma management.

Causal Association Between Periodontitis and Type 2 Diabetes: A Bidirectional Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis

Background: Previous observational studies have reported a bidirectional association between periodontitis and type 2 diabetes, but the causality of these relationships remains unestablished. We clarified the bidirectional causal association through two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR).Methods: We obtained summary-level data for periodontitis and type 2 diabetes from several published large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of individuals of European ancestry. For the casual effect of periodontitis on type 2 diabetes, we used five independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) specific to periodontitis from three GWAS. The summary statistics for the associations of exposure-related SNPs with type 2 diabetes were drawn from the GWAS in the Diabetes Genetics Replication and Meta-analysis (DIAGRAM) consortium and the FinnGen consortium R5 release, respectively. For the reversed causal inference, 132 and 49 SNPs associated with type 2 diabetes from the DIAGRAM consortium and the FinnGen consortium R5 release were included, and the summary-level statistics were obtained from the Gene-Lifestyle Interactions in Dental Endpoints consortium. Multiple approaches of MR were carried out.Results: Periodontitis was not causally related with the risk of type 2 diabetes (all p > 0.05). No causal effect of type 2 diabetes on periodontitis was found (all p > 0.05). Estimates were consistent across multiple MR analyses.Conclusion: This study based on genetic data does not support a bidirectional causal association between periodontitis and type 2 diabetes.

Dynamics of indigenous community’s food and culture in the time of climate change in the Himalayan region

Global climate change has become the most significant challenge of modern times, confronting the lives and security of vulnerable societies around the world. The anticipated impact of climatic variability will be severe on local communities, particularly those residing near high-risk prone zones such as coastal areas and mountain regions. The indigenous knowledge and locally-held beliefs act as a refuge, which also prompt and prohibit the responsiveness towards climatic instabilities. Subsequently, ensuring food and nutritional security is the primary task of strategy makers. Hence, comprehensive knowledge of the indigenous traditional food habits and cultural values, beliefs, and gendered norms need to be explored on a priority basis to address the adverse impact of environmental changes, emphasizing the urgency of the Himalayan societies. Despite that, the integration of indigenous knowledge is not on the priority list of the researcher. Thus, this article reviews the existing literature on customary food habits to analyze the bidirectional association between climate change and the dietary practice of the indigenous communities for adaptation policy. PRISMA Statement technique is used for a systematic review of Scopus and Web of Science databases identified 24 related studies from 14 countries, with a specific focus on the Himalayan region, which resulted into four themes viz. impact of climatic variability of indigenous societies, the impact of climate change on community’s customary food beliefs, the impact of climate change on gender defined norms, climate change adaption strategies. The findings show that the current literature has failed to include the socio-ecological beliefs of traditional communities associated with dietary habits. Thus, the focus should be given to integrate the locally held beliefs of customary societies for the successful adoption of climate change adaptation and food security programs.

PPARg Dysfunction in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Mediates High-Fat Diet-Induced Depression

ObjectiveEpidemiological studies suggest a bidirectional association between depression and obesity; however, the biological mechanisms that link the development of depression to a metabolic disorder remain unclear. Even though nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) agonists show anti-depressive effect, and high-fat diet-(HFD)-induced PPARγ dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders, the neuronal PPARg has never been studied in HFD-induced depression. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of neuronal PPARγ on depressive-like behaviors in HFD-induced obese mice. MethodsWe fed male C57BL/6J mice with HFD to generate obese mice and conducted a series of behavioral tests to assess the effects of HFD feeding on depression. We generated neuron-specific PPARγ knockout mice (NKO) to determine whether neuronal PPARg deficiency was correlated with depressive-like behaviors. To further prove whether PPARγ in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons is involved in depressive-like behaviors, we applied AAV- CaMKIIa-Cre approach to specifically knockout PPARγ in the mPFC neurons of LoxP mice and used AAV-syn-PPARγ vectors to overexpress PPARγ in the mPFC neurons of NKO mice. ResultsWe observed a low mPFC PPARγ level and an increase in depressive-like behaviors in the HFD-fed mice. Moreover, neuronal-specific PPARγ deficiency in mice induced depressive-like behaviors, which could be abolished by imipramine. Furthermore, overexpressing PPARg in the mPFC reversed the depressive-like behaviors in HFD-fed mice as well as in neuronal-specific PPARγ knockout mice. ConclusionsThese results implicate that dysregulation of neuronal PPARγ in the mPFC may contribute to an increased risk for depression in obese populations.

Bidirectional Association Between Sleep and Brain Atrophy in Aging

Human brain aging is characterized by the gradual deterioration of its function and structure, affected by the interplay of a multitude of causal factors. The sleep, a periodically repeating state of reversible unconsciousness characterized by distinct electrical brain activity, is crucial for maintaining brain homeostasis. Indeed, insufficient sleep was associated with accelerated brain atrophy and impaired brain functional connectivity. Concurrently, alteration of sleep-related transient electrical events in senescence was correlated with structural and functional deterioration of brain regions responsible for their generation, implying the interconnectedness of sleep and brain structure. This review discusses currently available data on the link between human brain aging and sleep derived from various neuroimaging and neurophysiological methods. We advocate the notion of a mutual relationship between the sleep structure and age-related alterations of functional and structural brain integrity, pointing out the position of high-quality sleep as a potent preventive factor of early brain aging and neurodegeneration. However, further studies are needed to reveal the causality of the relationship between sleep and brain aging.

Age Effect on the Bidirectional Relations Between Alcohol Consumption and Pain

Alcohol consumption reduces but pain rises over the life course. Thus, we hypothesized that developmental variability in the bidirectional association between alcohol consumption and pain would vary as a function of age. This hypothesis was tested across three age groups – younger (<29), middle (29-65), and older (>65) using NESARC wave 1 and 2 data (N=34,653). The effect of pain interference at baseline on alcohol consumption at follow-up was non-significant across the age groups, indicating that self-medication theory was unsupported. The effect of alcohol consumption at baseline on pain interference at follow-up was significant among the middle (Estimate -.007, p=.002) and older (Estimate -.019, p<.001) groups, but non-significant among the younger group. This latter effect differed significantly between the younger and older groups (p =.005) and the middle and older groups (p=.041). Results show that alcohol consumption reduces pain interference, especially later in life.

Longitudinal Associations Between Loneliness and Self-Rated Health

Cross-lagged structural equation models examined the bidirectional association between loneliness and self rated health over three time points. We adjusted for age, gender, network size, and depressive symptoms at baseline. At baseline, the sample was 28% Black and 40% male. Average age at time 1 was 46 years, 56 years at time 2, and 63 years at time 3. Results indicated that loneliness at time 1 was associated with loneliness at time 2; loneliness at time 2 was associated with loneliness at time 3. We had similar findings for associations among self rated health. However, only one of the cross-lagged paths was significant. Specifically, more loneliness at time 2 was associated with worse self rated health at time 3. These associations did not vary across black and white race. Findings indicate that loneliness at later midlife may be detrimental to later life health, regardless of race.