Are mental health problems and depression associated with bruxism in children?

Renner AC, da Silva AAM, Rodriguez JDM, Simoes VMF, Barbieri MA, Bettiol H, Thomaz EBAF, Saraiva MC. Are mental health problems and depression associated with bruxism in children? Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2011. (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract Objectives: Previous studies have found an association between bruxism and emotional and behavioral problems in children, but reported data are inconsistent. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of bruxism, and of its components clenching and grinding, and its associations with mental problems and depression. Methods: Data from two Brazilian birth cohorts were analyzed: one from 869 children in Ribeirao Preto RP (Sao Paulo), a more developed city, and the other from 805 children in Sao Luis SL (Maranhao). Current bruxism evaluated by means of a questionnaire applied to the parents/persons responsible for the children was defined when the habit of tooth clenching during daytime and/or tooth grinding at night still persisted until the time of the assessment. Additionally, the lifetime prevalence of clenching during daytime only and grinding at night only was also evaluated. Mental health problems were investigated using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and depression using the Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI). Analyses were carried out for each city: with the SDQ subscales (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, attention/hyperactivity disorder), with the total score (sum of the subscales), and with the CDI. These analyses were performed considering different response variables: bruxism, clenching only, and grinding only. The risks were estimated using a Poisson regression model. Statistical inferences were based on 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: There was a high prevalence of current bruxism: 28.7% in RP and 30.0% in SL. The prevalence of clenching was 20.3% in RP and 18.8% in SL, and grinding was found in 35.7% of the children in RP and 39.1% in SL. Multivariable analysis showed a significant association of bruxism with emotional symptoms and total SDQ score in both cities. When analyzed separately, teeth clenching was associated with emotional symptoms, peer problems, and total SDQ score; grinding was significantly associated with emotional symptoms and total SDQ score in RP and SL. Female sex appeared as a protective factor for bruxism, and for clenching and grinding in RP. Furthermore, maternal employment outside the home and white skin color of children were associated with increased prevalence of teeth clenching in SL. Conclusions: Mental health problems were associated with bruxism, with teeth clenching only and grinding at night only. No association was detected between depression and bruxism, neither clenching nor grinding. But it is necessary to be cautious regarding the inferences from some of our results.

The evolution of health status and chronic conditions in Catalonia, 1994-2006: the paradox of health revisited using the Blinder - Oaxaca decomposition

[EN] Background: The paradox of health refers to the improvement in objective measures of health and the increase in the reported prevalence of chronic conditions. The objective of this paper is to test the paradox of health in Catalonia from 1994 to 2006. Methods: Longitudinal cross-sectional study using the Catalonia Health Interview Survey of 1994 and 2006. The approach used was the three-fold Blinder - Oaxaca decomposition, separating the part of the differential in mean visual analogue scale value (VAS) due to group differences in the predictors (prevalence effect), due to differences in the coefficients (severity effect), and an interaction term. Variables included were the VAS value, education level, labour status, marital status, all common chronic conditions over the two cross-sections, and a variable for non-common chronic conditions and other conditions. Sample weights have been applied. Results: Results show that there is an increase in mean VAS for men aged 15-44, and a decrease in mean VAS for women aged 65-74 and 75 and more. The increase in mean VAS for men aged 15-44 could be explained by a decrease in the severity effect, which offsets the increase in the prevalence effect. The decrease in mean VAS for women aged 65-74 and 75 and more could be explained by an increase in the prevalence effect, which does not offset the decrease in the severity effect. Conclusions: The results of the present analysis corroborate the paradox of health hypothesis for the population of Catalonia, and highlight the need to be careful when measuring population health over time, as well as their usefulness to detect population's perceptions.

Technological processes study for high value health ingredients and foods production

This PhD thesis describes set up of technological models for obtaining high health value foods and ingredients that preserve the final product characteristics as well as enrich with nutritional components. In particular, the main object of my research has been Virgin Olive Oil (VOO) and its important antioxidant compounds which differentiate it from all other vegetables oils. It is well known how the qualitative and quantitative presence of phenolic molecules extracted from olives during oil production is fundamental for its oxidative and nutritional quality. For this purpose, agronomic and technological conditions of its production have been investigated. It has also been examined how this fraction can be better preserved during storage. Moreover, its relation with VOO sensorial characteristics and its interaction with a protein in emulsion foods have also been studied. Finally, an experimental work was carried out to determine the antioxidative and heat resistance properties of a new antioxidant (EVS-OL) when used for high temperature frying such as is typically employed for the preparation of french fries. Results of the scientific research have been submitted for a publication and some data has already been published in national and international scientific journals.

Poverty and Mental Health. Tangible and Intangible Aspects of Microcredit

Microcredit, a small lending system, invests on an individual's creativity by stimulating the development of their own potential. This process leads to the attainment of various objectives which in turn allow individuals to develop their skill awareness. Consequently, this process also increases an individual’s self-esteem and self-confidence. These factors play an important role in the aetiology of a number of mental disorders. Namely, those characterized by a series of psychological conditions which impede the full development of a person’s personal, relational and social sphere. Furthermore, since Microcredit is thought to produce tangible goods, such as income, and intangible goods, such as self-esteem and mutual trust, it could also represent an innovative socio-economic tool. We therefore also hypothesize that, Microcredit would be valuable in maximizing abilities/skills in those subjects who are financially excluded and rarely perceived as a ‘resource’ for the Community The longitudinal study set the impact of the Grameen Bank microcredit program on new borrowers women from Noakhali District at the south Bangladesh. The impact evaluation assessment has been structured to detect individual, family and social changes. Manova Analysis allowed distinguishing from women with positive or negative outcomes related to the loan performance. Data revealed consistent differences in terms of economical outcomes and psychological well being amongst the groups of subject analyzed. The data gathered in relation to the changes arisen in the individuals should be looked into through future, continuous and systematic, monitoring.

The elderly health status and its correlation with ageing biomarkers: the European Project Mark-Age

According to the latest statistics projections formulated by Eurostat, the proportion of elderly EU-27’s population aged over 65 years old is predicted to increase from 17.5 % in 2011 to 29.5 % by 2060. This "population explosion" makes extremely important to identify the different genetic and molecular mechanisms which underpin the morbidity and mortality along with new strategies able to counteract or slow down its progress. In this scenario fits the European Project MARK-AGE whose aim was to identify a robust set of biomarkers of human ageing able to discriminate between chronological and biological ageing and to derive a model for healthy ageing through the analysis of three populations from different European countries, supposed to be characterized by different ageing rate: 1. Subjects representing the “Normal” or “Physiological” aging. 2. Subjects representing the “successful” or “decelerate” aging 3. Subjects representing the “accelerated” aging. The aim of this work was to recruit and characterize volunteers, to perform an accurate analysis of the health status of elderly recruited subjects (60-79 years) verifying any possible dissimilarity in their aging trajectories, to identify a set of robust ageing biomarkers and investigate possible correlations between ageing biomarkers and health status of recruited volunteers. The model proposed by MARK-AGE Project regarding different ageing trajectories has been confirmed and several ageing biomarkers have been identified.

Efficient certification of feasibility and objective value of linear programs and its applications

The use of linear programming in various areas has increased with the significant improvement of specialized solvers. Linear programs are used as such to model practical problems, or as subroutines in algorithms such as formal proofs or branch-and-cut frameworks. In many situations a certified answer is needed, for example the guarantee that the linear program is feasible or infeasible, or a provably safe bound on its objective value. Most of the available solvers work with floating-point arithmetic and are thus subject to its shortcomings such as rounding errors or underflow, therefore they can deliver incorrect answers. While adequate for some applications, this is unacceptable for critical applications like flight controlling or nuclear plant management due to the potential catastrophic consequences. We propose a method that gives a certified answer whether a linear program is feasible or infeasible, or returns unknown'. The advantage of our method is that it is reasonably fast and rarely answers unknown'. It works by computing a safe solution that is in some way the best possible in the relative interior of the feasible set. To certify the relative interior, we employ exact arithmetic, whose use is nevertheless limited in general to critical places, allowing us to rnremain computationally efficient. Moreover, when certain conditions are fulfilled, our method is able to deliver a provable bound on the objective value of the linear program. We test our algorithm on typical benchmark sets and obtain higher rates of success compared to previous approaches for this problem, while keeping the running times acceptably small. The computed objective value bounds are in most of the cases very close to the known exact objective values. We prove the usability of the method we developed by additionally employing a variant of it in a different scenario, namely to improve the results of a Satisfiability Modulo Theories solver. Our method is used as a black box in the nodes of a branch-and-bound tree to implement conflict learning based on the certificate of infeasibility for linear programs consisting of subsets of linear constraints. The generated conflict clauses are in general small and give good rnprospects for reducing the search space. Compared to other methods we obtain significant improvements in the running time, especially on the large instances.

Tackling of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and obesity: health effects and cost-effectiveness

The obesity epidemic is spreading to low-income and middle-income countries as a result of new dietary habits and sedentary ways of life, fuelling chronic diseases and premature mortality. In this report we present an assessment of public health strategies designed to tackle behavioural risk factors for chronic diseases that are closely linked with obesity, including aspects of diet and physical inactivity, in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. England was included for comparative purposes. Several population-based prevention policies can be expected to generate substantial health gains while entirely or largely paying for themselves through future reductions of health-care expenditures. These strategies include health information and communication strategies that improve population awareness about the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity; fiscal measures that increase the price of unhealthy food content or reduce the cost of healthy foods rich in fibre; and regulatory measures that improve nutritional information or restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods to children. A package of measures for the prevention of chronic diseases would deliver substantial health gains, with a very favourable cost-effectiveness profile.

Tooth wear and erosion: methodological issues in epidemiological and public health research and the future research agenda

This paper addresses methodological issues in the field of tooth wear and erosion research including the epidemiological indices, and identifies future work that is needed to improve knowledge about tooth wear and erosion.

Thyroid function and prevalent and incident metabolic syndrome in older adults: the health, ageing and body composition study

Both subclinical hypothyroidism and the metabolic syndrome have been associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease events. It is unknown whether the prevalence and incidence of metabolic syndrome is higher as TSH levels increase, or in individuals with subclinical hypothyroidism. We sought to determine the association between thyroid function and the prevalence and incidence of the metabolic syndrome in a cohort of older adults.

Health, Justice, and Fairness

In this study I will endeavor to show that the American system of health care violates any conception of distributive justice understood as equality of opportunity. This system fails to provide equal access through a lack of universal insurance, a consumer driven conception of quality, and a system wide focus on cost control, leaving millions of Americans exposed to the ravages of disease. However, if health is understood as an antecedent for one's ability to function across a number of categories that have been objectively deemed as vital to engage in a life that is fully human than the commitment our nation has to the protection of fair equality of opportunity, established by our adoption of a Rawlsian conception of justice, necessitates a revision of our nation's conception of quality to encapsulate health outcomes as well as the advent of a system of universal coverage. Quality care will come to be understood as care that returns to the patient the ability to function across those categories of functioning that illness has jeopardized, and this conception of quality will precipitate system wide reform geared at the creation of positive health outcomes. This paper will articulate this argument by reconstructing and synthesizing precepts from the contemporary philosophical sources and then applying these to the practical workings of our healthcare system, while concurrently demonstrating that a system of distributive justice is compatible with the creation of a universal system of healthcare.

Mental Health Problems and Aging: A Short Quiz.

The mental health needs of older adults remain largely unmet. This gap is due, in part, to a lack of adequately trained professionals and paraprofessionals. The sixteen-item quiz presented in this article has two purposes: 1) to present an overview of salient empirical and theoretical issues in the area of mental health and aging, and 2) to promote discussion of these topics. Each item is documented with supporting literature. In addition, average scores, item difficulties, and item-to-total correlations are presented for two groups of undergraduate students.

Health status and health care utilisation of patients in complementary and conventional primary care in Switzerland--an observational study

BACKGROUND: The study is part of a nationwide evaluation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in primary care in Switzerland. OBJECTIVES: Patient health status with respect to demographic attributes such as gender, age, and health care utilisation pattern was studied and compared with conventional primary care. METHODS: The study was performed as a cross-sectional survey including 11932 adult patients seeking complementary or conventional primary care. Patients were asked to document their self-perceived health status by completing a questionnaire in the waiting room. Physicians were performing conventional medicine and/or various forms of complementary primary care such as homeopathy, anthroposophic medicine, neural therapy, herbal medicine, or traditional Chinese medicine. Additional information on patient demographics and yearly consultation rates for participating physicians was obtained from the data pool of all Swiss health insurers. These data were used to confirm the survey results. RESULTS: We observed considerable and significant differences in demographic attributes of patients seeking complementary and conventional care. Patients seeking complementary care documented longer lasting and more severe main health problems than patients in conventional care. The number of previous physician visits differed between patient groups, which indicates higher consumption of medical resources by CAM patients. CONCLUSIONS: The study supports the hypothesis of differences in socio-demographic and behavioural attributes of patients seeking conventional medicine or CAM in primary care. The study provides empirical evidence that CAM users are requiring more physician-based medical services in primary care than users of conventional medicine.

Modelling the results of health promotion activities in Switzerland: development of the Swiss Model for Outcome Classification in Health Promotion and Prevention

This paper describes the Model for Outcome Classification in Health Promotion and Prevention adopted by Health Promotion Switzerland (SMOC, Swiss Model for Outcome Classification) and the process of its development. The context and method of model development, and the aim and objectives of the model are outlined. Preliminary experience with application of the model in evaluation planning and situation analysis is reported. On the basis of an extensive literature search, the model is situated within the wider international context of similar efforts to meet the challenge of developing tools to assess systematically the activities of health promotion and prevention.

Physical long-term health problems and mental comorbidity: evidence from Vietnam

OBJECTIVE: The mental health of children living in low-income countries remains a neglected research area despite the high burden of disease. This study is one of the first that examines the effects of long-term physical health problems on child mental health disorders in a low-income country and investigates whether this association is modified by the socio-economic status of the child's family. METHODS: Community-based cross-sectional survey of 975 eight-year-old children from 20 sites in Vietnam. Long-term physical health problems were measured by a caregiver report and included conditions such as anaemia, congenital malformation, physical disability and skin problems. Child mental disorders were assessed using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Generalised estimating equations models were fitted to explore the association between long-term physical health problems and child mental disorders. RESULTS: Vietnamese children who suffer from long-term physical health problems have odds 2:1 times greater than children without long-term physical health problems of having a mental disorder (95% CI 1.2 to 3.6, p = 0.006). No significant interaction with socio-economic status was found. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a high burden of mental disorders among physically ill children, re-enforcing the idea that there is "no health without mental health". While this association needs to be explored longitudinally, children with long-term health problems may be a visible group for targeted mental-health interventions.