Relative validation of a food frequency questionnaire to estimate food intake in an adult population

Background: Scientifically valid descriptions of dietary intake at population level are crucial for investigating diet effects on health and disease. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are the most common dietary tools used in large epidemiological studies. Objective: To examine the relative validity of a newly developed FFQ to be used as dietary assessment tool in epidemiological studies. Design: Validity was evaluated by comparing the FFQ and a 4-day weighed food record (4-d FR) at nutrient and food group levels, Spearman’s correlations, Bland–Altman analysis and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used. Fifty-six participants completed a paper format FFQ and a 4-d FR within 4 weeks. Results: Corrected correlations between the two instruments ranged from 0.27 (carbohydrates) to 0.55 (protein), and at food group level from 0.09 (soup) to 0.92 (alcohol). Nine out of 25 food groups showed correlations > 0.5, indicating moderate validity. More than half the food groups were overestimated in the FFQ, especially vegetables (82.8%) and fruits (56.3%). Water, tea and coffee were underestimated (–14.0%). Conclusions: The FFQ showed moderate relative validity for protein and the food groups fruits, egg, meat, sausage, nuts, salty snacks and beverages. This study supports the use of the FFQ as an acceptable tool for assessing nutrition as a health determinant in large epidemiological studies

Associations between dietary patterns and post-bronchodilation lung function in the SAPALDIA cohort

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not restricted to smokers. Dietary habits may contribute to the disease occurrence. Epidemiological studies point to a protective effect of fruit and vegetable intake against COPD. Objective: To investigate the associations between dietary patterns and parameters of lung function related to COPD in the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA). Methods: Data were included from the second follow-up assessment of the SAPALDIA cohort in 2010-2011 using a food frequency questionnaire. Principal component factor analysis was used to derive dietary patterns, whose association with FEV1, FEV1/FVC, FEF2575, and COPD was investigated by applying multivariate regression analyses. Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the “prudent dietary pattern” characterised by the predominant food groups vegetables, fruits, water, tea and coffee, fish, and nuts was positively associated with FEV1 (increase of 40 mL per SD, p < 0.001). Also for factor 3 (“high-carbohydrate diet”), we found a significant positive association with FEV1 (with an increase per SD of 36 mL, p = 0.006). Conclusions: The main results are consistent with a protective effect of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts against age-related chronic respiratory disease. If confirmed in prospective cohorts, our results may guide nutritional counselling towards respiratory health promotion

Worth the Effort: Protesting Successfully against Deportations

Kirchhoff M, Probst J, Schwenken H, Stern V. Worth the Effort: Protesting Successfully against Deportations. In: Rosenberger S, Stern V, Merhaut N, eds. Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation. Cham: Springer; 2018: 117-139

Tolerance to drought and salt stress in plants: Unraveling the signaling networks

Golldack D, Li C, Mohan H, Probst N. Tolerance to drought and salt stress in plants: Unraveling the signaling networks. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2014;5:151.Tolerance of plants to abiotic stressors such as drought and salinity is triggered by complex multicomponent signaling pathways to restore cellular homeostasis and promote survival. Major plant transcription factor families such as bZIP, NAC, AP2/ERF, and MYB orchestrate regulatory networks underlying abiotic stress tolerance. Sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways contribute to initiation of stress adaptive downstream responses and promote plant growth and development. As a convergent point of multiple abiotic cues, cellular effects of environmental stresses are not only imbalances of ionic and osmotic homeostasis but also impaired photosynthesis, cellular energy depletion, and redox imbalances. Recent evidence of regulatory systems that link sensing and signaling of environmental conditions and the intracellular redox status have shed light on interfaces of stress and energy signaling. ROS (reactive oxygen species) cause severe cellular damage by peroxidation and de-esterification of membrane-lipids, however, current models also define a pivotal signaling function of ROS in triggering tolerance against stress. Recent research advances suggest and support a regulatory role of ROS in the cross talks of stress triggered hormonal signaling such as the abscisic acid pathway and endogenously induced redox and metabolite signals. Here, we discuss and review the versatile molecular convergence in the abiotic stress responsive signaling networks in the context of ROS and lipid-derived signals and the specific role of stomatal signaling

Plant diversity effects on forage quality, yield and revenues of semi-natural grasslands

In agricultural settings, plant diversity is often associated with low biomass yield and forage quality, while biodiversity experiments typically find the opposite. We address this controversy by assessing, over 1 year, plant diversity effects on biomass yield, forage quality (i.e. nutritive values), quality-adjusted yield (biomass yield × forage quality), and revenues across different management intensities (extensive to intensive) on subplots of a large-scale grassland biodiversity experiment. Plant diversity substantially increased quality-adjusted yield and revenues. These findings hold for a wide range of management intensities, i.e., fertilization levels and cutting frequencies, in semi-natural grasslands. Plant diversity was an important production factor independent of management intensity, as it enhanced quality-adjusted yield and revenues similarly to increasing fertilization and cutting frequency. Consequently, maintaining and reestablishing plant diversity could be a way to sustainably manage temperate grasslands

Restrictive and permissive alcohol policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with alcohol consumption in the United States

Background: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol researchers anticipated that psychological distress and changes in alcohol availability would impact alcohol consumption patterns. While psychological distress was expected to increase alcohol use, particularly among vulnerable groups, restrictive alcohol policies might have led to reduced consumption. This study examined the complex relationship between psychological distress, alcohol policies, alcohol consumption, and their interactions with sociodemographic factors during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Methods: We used 2020–21 US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (BRFSS, N = 726,962 adults) data to analyze associations between psychological distress, alcohol policy scores, and alcohol consumption, considering age, sex, education, race and ethnicity, and COVID-19 government response as covariates in a zero-inflated multi-level regression. State-level monthly alcohol policy scores derived from Alcohol Policy Information System data reflect the restrictiveness and permissiveness of alcohol policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Psychological distress and exposure to restrictive policies increased the likelihood of abstaining from alcohol in the past month, although the observed effects were small. Among past-month drinkers, distress and restrictive policies were associated with slightly higher average daily consumption in pure alcohol grams/day. Younger respondents were more likely to abstain from alcohol when exposed to restrictive policies, while permissive policies correlated with higher drinking prevalence and heavy episodic drinking occurrence among those with higher education. Conclusion: Alcohol policies and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic were linked to both lower and higher alcohol consumption in different population subgroups. Restrictive and permissive policies had diverging associations with consumption patterns across subgroups. While effect sizes were modest, they could translate into meaningful changes in alcohol consumption at the population level, especially during prolonged times of crisis.</p

Understanding tinnitus symptom dynamics and clinical improvement through intensive longitudinal data

Intensive longitudinal sampling enhances subjective data collection by capturing real-time, dynamic inputs in natural settings, complementing traditional methods. This study evaluates the feasibility of using daily self-reported app data to assess clinical improvement among tinnitus patients undergoing treatment. App data from a multi-center randomized clinical trial were analysed using time-series feature extraction and nested cross-validated ordinal regression with elastic net regulation to predict clinical improvement based on the Clinical Global Impression—Improvement scale (CGI-I). With 50% app compliance (N = 129, 8480 entries), the model demonstrated good fit to the test data (McFadden R2 = 0.82) suggesting its generalizability. Clinical improvement was associated with linear declines in tinnitus-related thoughts, jaw tension, tinnitus loudness, increases in happiness, and variability changes in tinnitus loudness and distress. These findings suggest that daily self-reported data on tinnitus symptoms is sensitive to treatment response and provides insights into specific symptom changes that occur during treatment

Associations between dietary patterns and post-bronchodilation lung function in the SAPALDIA cohort

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not restricted to smokers. Dietary habits may contribute to the disease occurrence. Epidemiological studies point to a protective effect of fruit and vegetable intake against COPD.; To investigate the associations between dietary patterns and parameters of lung function related to COPD in the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA).; Data were included from the second follow-up assessment of the SAPALDIA cohort in 2010-2011 using a food frequency questionnaire. Principal component factor analysis was used to derive dietary patterns, whose association with FEV1, FEV1/FVC, FEF2575, and COPD was investigated by applying multivariate regression analyses.; After adjustment for potential confounders, the "prudent dietary pattern" characterised by the predominant food groups vegetables, fruits, water, tea and coffee, fish, and nuts was positively associated with FEV1 (increase of 40 mL per SD, p &lt; 0.001). Also for factor 3 ("high-carbohydrate diet"), we found a significant positive association with FEV1 (with an increase per SD of 36 mL, p = 0.006).; The main results are consistent with a protective effect of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts against age-related chronic respiratory disease. If confirmed in prospective cohorts, our results may guide nutritional counselling towards respiratory health promotion

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Targeting alcohol use in high-risk population groups: a US microsimulation study of beverage-specific pricing policies.

BackgroundRaising retail prices on alcoholic beverages preferred by high-risk groups (males, those of low socioeconomic status, and those with heavy alcohol use) might selectively reduce their alcohol consumption. However, the differential impact of beverage-specific price increases on US population groups has yet to be studied. This study aimed to simulate the effect of beverage-specific price increases on alcohol use within subgroups of the adult US population defined by sex, educational attainment, and alcohol use category.MethodsAn individual-level microsimulation of the US population (aged 18-79 years) was used to simulate alcohol consumption from 2000 to 2019 based on individual characteristics (ie, sex, age, race, ethnicity, and educational attainment as a proxy for socioeconomic status categorised as high school degree or less, some college, and college degree or more) and previous alcohol use. The microsimulation model was generated via integration of diverse data sources including decennial US Census data, annual data from the American Community Survey, annual data from the National Vital Statistics System, annual data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and biennial, longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Policy parameters were informed by the existing literature. Four national policy scenarios were compared with a reference scenario without price change in 2019: a uniform price increase of 10% (scenario 1), a uniform price increase of 30% (scenario 2), a beverage-specific price increase of 30% for beer and spirits and 10% for wine (scenario 3), and a beverage-specific price increase of 50% for beer and spirits and 10% for wine (scenario 4). Individual-level effects on alcohol consumption were simulated using beverage-specific own-price elasticities. Sensitivity analysis assessed assumption-based correlation coefficient between alcohol consumption and the individual-level percent reduction in alcohol consumed; and the application of the beverage-non-specific own-price participation elasticity.FindingsScenario 4 had the strongest effect on alcohol use overall and most effectively reduced consumption in high-risk groups: males and females with high alcohol use (more than 60 g of pure alcohol per day for males and 40 g of pure alcohol per day for females) and low educational attainment (high school degree or less) reduced their alcohol use by -17·30% (-17·62 g per day, credible interval [CI] -21·77 to -13·20) and -17·49% (-12·25 g per day, CI -14·72 to -9·58), respectively. In comparison, smaller relative changes were observed among groups at less risk of harm.InterpretationDisproportionate increases in retail prices for the cheapest beverages, beer and spirits, might lead to a greater decline in consumption among high-risk groups. Pricing policies could thus be used as a powerful public health tool to mitigate the unequal alcohol-attributable burden of disease.FundingNational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health