62 resultados para Disadvantaged background


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Objective: Interventions to reduce health inequalities for young children and their mothers are important: involving peers is recommended, but evidence of value for this approach is limited. The authors aimed to examine the effect of an innovative tailored peer-mentoring programme, based on perceived needs, for first-time mothers in socio-economically deprived communities. Design: Randomised controlled trial; parallel qualitative study with purposive samples using semistructured interviews. Setting: Socio-economically disadvantaged areas, Belfast. Participants: Primigravidae, aged 16-30 years, without significant co-morbidity. Intervention: Peer-mentoring by a lay-worker fortnightly during pregnancy and monthly for the following year, tailored to participants' wishes (home visits/telephone contacts), additional to usual care. Main outcome measures: Infant psychomotor and mental development (Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II)) at 1 year, assessed by an observer blinded to group allocation. Mothers' health at 1 year postnatal (SF-36). Results: Of 534 women invited, 343(64%) participated; 85%, with their children, completed outcome assessments (140 of 172 intervention; 152 of 171 controls). Intervention and control groups did not differ in BSID-II psychomotor (mean difference 1.64, 95% CI -0.94 to 4.21) or mental (-0.81, -2.78 to 1.16) scores, nor SF-36 physical functioning (-5.4, -11.6 to 0.7) or mental health (-1.8, -6.1 to 2.6). Women valued advice given in context of personal experience of child-rearing. Mentors gained health-related knowledge, personal skills and new employment opportunities. Conclusions: Despite possible longer-term social advantage, this peer-mentoring programme showed no benefit for infant development or maternal health at 1 year. Further rigorous evaluation of important outcomes of complex interventions promoting health for children in socially disadvantaged communities is warranted. Trial registration no: ISRCTN 55055030.

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The oblique modulational instability of dust acoustic (DA) waves in an unmagnetized warm dusty plasma with nonthermal ions, taking into account dust grain charge variation (charging), is investigated. A nonlinear Schrodinger-type equation governing the slow modulation of the wave amplitude is derived. The effects of dust temperature, dust charge variation, ion deviation from Maxwellian equilibrium (nonthermality) and constituent species' concentration on the modulational instability of DA waves are examined. It is found that these parameters modify significantly the oblique modulational instability domain in the k-theta plane. Explicit expressions for the instability rate and threshold have been obtained in terms of the dispersion laws of the system. The possibility and conditions for the existence of different types of localized excitations are also discussed. The findings of this investigation may be useful in understanding the stable electrostatic wave packet acceleration mechanisms close to the Moon, and also enhances our knowledge on the occurrence of instability associated to pickup ions around unmagnetized bodies, such as comets, Mars, and Venus.

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Tissue specific somatic mutations occurring in the mtDNA control region have been proposed to provide a survival advantage. Data on twins and on relatives of long-lived subjects suggested that the occurrence/accumulation of these mutations may be genetically influenced. To further investigate control region somatic heteroplasmy in the elderly, we analyzed the segment surrounding the nt 150 position (previously reported as specific of Leukocytes) in various types of leukocytes obtained from 195 ultra-nonagenarians sib-pairs of Italian or Finnish origin collected in the frame of the GEHA Project. We found a significant correlation of the mtDNA control region heteroplasmy between sibs, confirming a genetic influence on this phenomenon. Furthermore, many subjects showed heteroplasmy due to mutations different from the C150T transition. In these cases heteroplasmy was correlated within sibpairs in Finnish and northern Italian samples, but not in southern Italians. This suggested that the genetic contribution to control region mutations may be population specific. Finally, we observed a possible correlation between heteroplasmy and Hand Grip strength, one of the best markers of physical performance and of mortality risk in the elderly. Our study provides new evidence on the relevance of mtDNA somatic mutations in aging and longevity and confirms that the occurrence of specific point mutations in the mtDNA control region may represent a strategy for the age-related remodelling of organismal functions.

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Neutron time of flight signals have been observed with a high resolution neutron spectrometer using the petawatt arm of the Vulcan laser facility at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory from plastic sandwich targets containing a deuterated layer. The neutron spectra have two elements: a high-energy component generated by beam-fusion reactions and a thermal component around 2.45 MeV. The ion temperatures calculated from the neutron signal width clearly demonstrate a dependence on the front layer thickness and are significantly higher than electron temperatures measured under similar conditions. The ion heating process is intensity dependent and is not observed with laser intensities on target below 10(20) W cm(-2). The measurements are consistent with an ion instability driven by electron perturbations.

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Purpose: To analyse the currently existing methods to infer the extent of cellular DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation when the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) technique is used.

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Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2) has been found to be the causative agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). However, PCV-2 is a ubiquitous virus in the swine population and a majority of pigs infected with PCV-2 do not develop the disease. Different factors such as age, maintenance, the genetics of PCV-2, other pathogens, etc. have been suggested to contribute to the development of PMWS. However, so far no proven connection between any of these factors and the disease development has been found. In this study we explored the possible presence of other so far unknown DNA containing infectious agents in lymph nodes collected from Swedish pigs with confirmed PMWS through random amplification and high-throughput sequencing. Although the vast majority of the amplified genetic sequences belonged to PCV-2, we also found genome sequences of Torque Teno virus (TTV) and of a novel parvovirus. The detection of TTV was expected since like PCV-2, TTV has been found to have high prevalence in pigs around the world. We were able to amplify a longer region of the parvovirus genome, consisting of the entire NP1 and partial VP1/2. By comparative analysis of the nucleotide sequences and phylogenetic studies we propose that this is a novel porcine parvovirus, with genetic relationship to bocaviruses.

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OBJECTIVE: Interventions to increase levels of physical activity (PA) in socio-economically disadvantaged communities are needed but little is known about their effectiveness. This review examines the effectiveness of interventions designed to increase PA in these communities and the theoretical frameworks and components used. METHODS: Five databases were searched for papers published in English between January 2000 and December 2010 that reported outcomes of PA interventions in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Studies targeting individuals with pre-existing disease and not reporting a measure of free-living PA were excluded. Two reviewers independently extracted data and evaluated quality of evidence against pre-defined criteria. RESULTS: Of 478 publications identified, 27 were included. We found that group-based interventions were effective for adults but not for children; evidence for the effectiveness of interventions targeting individuals was insufficient; limited evidence suggested that community-wide interventions produced small changes in PA. Interventions underpinned by any theoretical framework, compared to none, were more likely to be effective. Several effective interventions included education, PA and social support components. CONCLUSION: Compared to other approaches, multi-component adult group-based interventions with theoretical frameworks are most effective in increasing PA in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. More robust evaluations of interventions targeting individuals in these 'hard-to-reach' communities are required. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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Objective: A community-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in urban areas characterized by high levels of disadvantage to test the effectiveness of the Incredible Years BASIC parent training program (IYBP) for children with behavioral problems. Potential moderators of intervention effects on child behavioral outcomes were also explored. Method: Families were included if the child (aged 32-88 months) scored above a clinical cutoff on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Participants (n = 149) were randomly allocated on a 2:1 ratio to an intervention group (n = 103) or a waiting-list control group (n = 46). Child behavior, parenting skills, and parent well-being were assessed at baseline and 6 months later using parent-report and independent observations. An intention-to-treat analysis of covariance was used to examine postintervention differences between groups. Results: Statistically significant differences in child disordered behavior favored the intervention group on the ECBI Intensity (effect size = 0.7, p