Qualidade de Vida e fatores de risco cardiovascular em funcionários de uma empresa do comércio

BACKGROUND: The workplace is affected by poor lifestyle habits that can cause alterations in the quality of life (QOL) of the employees. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of life and the cardiovascular risk factors in employees of a business. Relate the quality of life with the variables of cardiovascular risk, gender and work sector. METHOD: 41 employees were evaluated (30 females and 11 males) aging between 18 and 54 years (mean 27.4 ± 8.9 years). A protocol was used with: personal data, personal background, physical examination (anthropometry) and the WHOQOL-bref questionnaire to evaluate the QOL. Statistical analysis was completed by the Chi-squared test and Sperman’s rank correlation, with a significance of 5%. RESULTS: We found 31(75.6%) sedentary; 16(39.0%) excess weight; 2(4.9%) smokers; 9(22.0%) alcohol consumers and 25(61.0%) family history. We also found 13(31.7%) overweight/low risk and 3(7.3%) obese/moderate risk. The best score on the WHOQOL-bref was on physical health (72.9), and the worst on environment (61.3) and mean score of 69.5 for total QOL. Male employees presented greater scores on all domains, but this association had a non-significant result. There was positive correlation between the physical and psychological domains with the environment and total QOL. CONCLUSION: The employees presented important cardiovascular risk factors like sedentary lifestyle, family history, excess weight and alcohol consumption. The employee’s QOL is considered satisfactory in the perception of health; the best QOL being in the physical domain and the worst in the environment. Change measures are suggested to the company for the cardiovascular risk factors detected.

Discriminant analysis of neuromuscular variables in chronic low back pain

Background: Investigation and discrimination of neuromuscular variables related to the complex aetiology of low back pain could contribute to clarifying the factors associated with symptoms. Objective: Analysing the discriminative power of neuromuscular variables in low back pain. Methods: This study compared muscle endurance, proprioception and isometric trunk assessments between women with low back pain (LBP, n=14) and a control group (CG, n=14). Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis of the data were performed. Results: The muscle endurance time (s) was shorter in the LBP group than in the CG (p=0.004) with values of 85.81 (37.79) and 134.25 (43.88), respectively. The peak torque (Nm/kg) for trunk extension was 2.48 (0.69) in the LBP group and 3.56 (0.88) in the GG (p=0.001); for trunk flexion, the mean torque was 1.49 (0.40) in the LBP group and 1.85 (0.39) in the CG (p=0.023). The repositioning error (degrees) before the endurance test was 2.66 (1.36) in the LBP group and 2.41 (1.46) in the CG (p=0.664), and after the endurance test, it was 2.95 (1.94) in the LBP group and 2.00 (1.16) in the CG (p=0.06). Furthermore, the variables showed discrimination between the groups (p=0.007), with 78.6% of the individuals with low back pain correctly classified in the LBP group. In turn, variables related to muscle activation showed no difference in discrimination between the groups (p=0.369). Conclusion: Based on these findings, the clinical management of low back pain should consist of both resistance and strength training, particularly in the extensor muscles.

Search for supersymmetry with razor variables in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Risk factors for facial melasma in women: a case-control study

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Individual and contextual factors related to dental caries in underprivileged Brazilian adolescents

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Oral cleft research: intraobserver agreement in the use of questionnaires.

In epidemiological studies, when the data is collected by interview, it is of importance to analyse the reliability of the information. This study was carried out with the purpose of examining the self-agreement of mothers in answering questions about variables of interest in oral cleft researches on two different occasions. A sample of 91 mothers of oral cleft babies were interviewed on two different occasions. The capacity of giving the same answer to questions related to heredity, type of clefts, period of gestation of the mother and birthweight were studied. The statistics type kappa (k) and intraclass correlation coefficient (r) by point and by 95% of confidence interval were applied. The intra-observer agreement for the variables history of oral clefts in the family, type of cleft, period of gestation of the mother and birthweight of the newborn was, respectively, k=0.9492, k=1.0000, k=0.9281 and r=0.9996. We concluded that the background on oral cleft in the family history of patients with this anomaly is a variable with an excellent degree of reliability. Also, the information given by the mothers related to the period of gestation, type of the baby’s cleft and birthweight are reliable.

Individual and contextual factors related to dental caries in underprivileged Brazilian adolescents

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Search for supersymmetry using razor variables in events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Correlation between heart rate variability indexes and aerobic physiological variables in patients with COPD

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Alterações mamográficas em mulheres que vivem com HIV-aids

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Instrumental activities of daily living performance in healthy and cognitively intact seniors from a Brazilian sample and its relation to age and other socio-demographic variables

Background: Studies on functional capacity in community-dwelling older people have shown associations between declines in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and several factors. Among these, age has been the most consistently related to functional capacity independent of other variables. We aimed at evaluating the performance of a sample of healthy and cognitively intact Brazilian older people on activities of daily living and to analyze its relation to social-demographic variables. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected for previous epidemiological studies with community-dwelling subjects aged 60 years or more. We selected subjects who did not have dementia or depression, and with no history of neurological diseases, heart attack, HIV, hepatitis or arthritis (n = 1,111). Functional capacity was assessed using the Brazilian version of the Older American Resources and Services Questionnaire (BOMFAQ). ADL performance was analyzed according to age, gender, education, and marital status (Pearson's chi(2), logistic regression). Results: IADL difficulties were present in our sample, especially in subjects aged 80 years or more, with lower levels of education, or widowed. The logistic regression analysis results indicated that "higher age" and "lower education" (p <= 0.001) remained significantly associated with IADL difficulty. Conclusions: Functional decline was present in older subjects even in the absence of medical conditions and cognitive impairment. Clinicians and researchers could benefit from knowing what to expect from older people regarding IADL performance in the absence of medical conditions.

Ethnicity and Cutaneous Melanoma in the City of Sao Paulo, Brazil: A Case-Control Study

Background: Over the last century the incidence of cutaneous melanoma has increased worldwide, a trend that has also been observed in Brazil. The identified risk factors for melanoma include the pattern of sun exposure, family history, and certain phenotypic features. In addition, the incidence of melanoma might be influenced by ethnicity. Like many countries, Brazil has high immigration rates and consequently a heterogenous population. However, Brazil is unique among such countries in that the ethnic heterogeneity of its population is primarily attributable to admixture. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of European ethnicity to the risk of cutaneous melanoma in Brazil. Methodology/Principal Findings: We carried out a hospital-based case-control study in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We evaluated 424 hospitalized patients (202 melanoma patients and 222 control patients) regarding phenotypic features, sun exposure, and number of grandparents born in Europe. Through multivariate logistic regression analysis, we found the following variables to be independently associated with melanoma: grandparents born in Europe-Spain (OR = 3.01, 95% CI: 1.03-8.77), Italy (OR = 3.47, 95% CI: 1.41-8.57), a Germanic/Slavic country (OR = 3.06, 95% CI: 1.05-8.93), or >= 2 European countries (OR = 2.82, 95% CI: 1.06-7.47); eye color-light brown (OR = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.14-3.84) and green/blue (OR = 4.62; 95% CI 2.22-9.58); pigmented lesion removal (OR = 3.78; 95% CI: 2.21-6.49); no lifetime sunscreen use (OR = 3.08; 95% CI: 1.03-9.22); and lifetime severe sunburn (OR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.03-3.19). Conclusions: Our results indicate that European ancestry is a risk factor for cutaneous melanoma. Such risk appears to be related not only to skin type, eye color, and tanning capacity but also to others specific characteristics of European populations introduced in the New World by European immigrants.

Analysis of plant LTR-retrotransposons at the fine-scale family level reveals individual molecular patterns

Background: Sugarcane is an important crop worldwide for sugar production and increasingly, as a renewable energy source. Modern cultivars have polyploid, large complex genomes, with highly unequal contributions from ancestral genomes. Long Terminal Repeat retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) are the single largest components of most plant genomes and can substantially impact the genome in many ways. It is therefore crucial to understand their contribution to the genome and transcriptome, however a detailed study of LTR-RTs in sugarcane has not been previously carried out. Results: Sixty complete LTR-RT elements were classified into 35 families within four Copia and three Gypsy lineages. Structurally, within lineages elements were similar, between lineages there were large size differences. FISH analysis resulted in the expected pattern of Gypsy/heterochromatin, Copia/euchromatin, but in two lineages there was localized clustering on some chromosomes. Analysis of related ESTs and RT-PCR showed transcriptional variation between tissues and families. Four distinct patterns were observed in sRNA mapping, the most unusual of which was that of Ale1, with very large numbers of 24nt sRNAs in the coding region. The results presented support the conclusion that distinct small RNA-regulated pathways in sugarcane target the lineages of LTR-RT elements. Conclusions: Individual LTR-RT sugarcane families have distinct structures, and transcriptional and regulatory signatures. Our results indicate that in sugarcane individual LTR-RT families have distinct behaviors and can potentially impact the genome in diverse ways. For instance, these transposable elements may affect nearby genes by generating a diverse set of small RNA's that trigger gene silencing mechanisms. There is also some evidence that ancestral genomes contribute significantly different element numbers from particular LTR-RT lineages to the modern sugarcane cultivar genome.

The effects of professional factors on the quality of life of family health team nurses

The objective of this study was to identify the professional factors affecting the quality of life of nurses working in the family health teams in the Macro Health Region, referred to as the South Triangle, in the State of Minas Gerais. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The participants were 90 nurses, who answered a questionnaire containing the professional variables and the Quality of Life assessment instrument - WHOQOL-100. The results showed a negative impact regarding the number of jobs, unstable jobs, excessive workload and job dissatisfaction in the nurses' Quality of Life domains. There is a need to (re)define the public policies that control the working conditions of these professionals. Actions that contribute towards improving nurses' Quality of Life are important, considering their strong influence on the quality of the healthcare that is delivered.

The impact of dental caries and trauma in children on family quality of life

Objectives: To assess the impact of childrens dental caries (DC) and traumatic dental injuries (TDI) on parents quality of life (QoL), adjusted by family income. Methods: Parents of 219 children aged 5 and 6 years answered the Family Impact Scale (FIS) on their perception of QoL and data about income. Three calibrated dentists examined the severity of DC according to decayed, missing and filled permanent teeth index, and children were categorized into: 0 = caries free; 15 = low severity; and =6 = high severity. TDI were classified into uncomplicated and complicated injuries. QoL was measured through FIS items and total score, and Poisson regression was used to associate the variables with the outcome. Results: Severity of DC showed a negative impact on the total score and subscales on parental/family activities, parental emotions and financial burden (P < 0.001). TDI showed a negative impact on total score and in some FIS items. The multivariate-adjusted model showed that only the increase in the severity of childrens DC (RR = 3.19; 95% CI = 2.36, 4.31; P < 0.001) was associated with a greater negative impact on parents QoL, while high family income was a protective factor (RR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.48, 0.95; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The severity of childrens DC has a negative impact on parents QoL, whereas TDI do not. A lower family income might have a negative impact on parents QoL.