Iranian Journal of Health Sciences
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Spring 2020

Maternal depression and anxiety can cause nutritional problems in offspring. Despite the numerous literature, the knowledge regarding the impact of maternal mental health on child’s eating disorder is still limited. This study explored the impact of maternal depression and anxiety on eating disorders among children aged 6 to 36 months in Tehran, Iran.

A total number of 320 children aged 6 to 36 months old and their mothers were enrolled at a teaching university hospital in Tehran (Ziaeian Hospital). To collect the data, the inventory of problematic eating behaviors for 36-month old children, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) questionnaire, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questionnaire, and demographic information questionnaire were used. To examine the relationship between maternal depression and anxiety with childhood feeding problems, bivariate (Chi-square) and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were employed.

The mean mothers’ depression and anxiety scores were found to be 15.97 (SD = 12.08) and 14.26 (SD = 11.87), respectively. An estimated 23.8 % of children were suffering from eating disorders. There was a significant association between the mother’s severe depression and child’s eating disorder [OR = 5.7; CI (95%) = 2.92-11.43]. Although this association attenuated for the moderate level of depression in mothers, it was still statistically significant [OR= 2.25; CI (95%) = 1.05-4.8]. There was also a significant association between the moderate level of anxiety in mother and child’s eating disorder [OR = 2.17; CI (95%) = 1.15-4.10].

It appeared that the children of mothers with higher levels of depression experienced more eating disorders during childhood. Furthermore, middle maternal anxiety level was associated with more feeding abnormalities in children. Therefore, screening and addressing the mental health issues in mothers at the early stages could prevent from future eating disorders in offspring.

By evolving science, knowledge, and technology, we deal with high-dimensional data in which the number of predictors may considerably exceed the sample size. The main problems with high-dimensional data are the estimation of the coefficients and interpretation. For high-dimension problems, classical methods are not reliable because of a large number of predictor variables. In addition, classical methods are affected by the presence of outliers and collinearity.

Nowadays, many real-world data sets carry structures of high-dimensional problems. To handle this problem, we used the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Also, due to the flexibility and applicability of the semiparametric model in medical data, it can be used for modeling the genomic data. Motivated by these, here an improved robust approach in a high-dimensional data set was developed for the analysis of gene expression and prediction in the presence of outliers.

Among the common problems in regression analysis, there was the problem of outliers. In the regression concept, an outlier is a point that fails to follow the main linear pattern of the data. The ordinary least-squares estimator was found potentially sensitive to the outliers; this fact provided necessary motivations to investigate robust estimations. Generally, the robust regression is among the most popular problems in the statistics community. In the present study, the least trimmed squares (LTS) estimation was applied to overcome the outlier problem.

We have proposed an optimization approach for semiparametric models to combat outliers in the data set. Especially, based on a penalization LASSO scheme, we have suggested a nonlinear integer programming problem as the semiparametric model which can be effectively solved by any evolutionary algorithm. We have also studied a real-world application related to the riboflavin production. The results showed that the proposed method was reasonably efficient in contrast to the LTS Method.

People with chronic illnesses, such as HIV infection, face many barriers in the way of adherence to the treatment. In this study, the researchers attempted to investigate the barriers and facilitators of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among patients with HIV.

Focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted with the primary objectives of investigating the barriers to ART adherence. Nine participants with HIV infection were recruited through a purposive sampling method at Great Tehran Prison.

In terms of the influencing factors of non-adherence; the drug side effects, especially with Efavirenz, Methadone and opioids effects resolution due to interaction with antiretroviral drugs, forgetfulness, fear of hangover due to the missed or delayed Methadone use, inappropriate nutrition and lack of access to food supplements and poverty were noted by majority of participants. In addition, there were some less, but still important factors of non-adherence among the patients, which were mentioned in the manuscript of the article.

The medications side effects, inappropriate methadone prescription, stigma, lack of family support, and unfavorable prison conditions were found to be the potential barriers of adherence to HIV medication, whilst a strong and realistic patient-physician relationship, psychosocial and family support, and knowledge regarding the level of CD4 were amongst the possible facilitators for adherence to HIV medication in HIV-positive prisoners.

Wood dust have been approved as a harmful and carcinogenic agent for humans. This study aimed to evaluate risk assessment of Workers' exposure to inhalable wood dust among 100 workers in 25 furniture manufacturing workshops in one of the northern cities in Iran.

NIOSH0501 method was used to assess the occupational exposure to Inhalable wood dust and Semi-quantitative risk assessment method recommended by Singapore Department of Occupational Health was used to assess risk level of occupational exposure. Airborne particles were collected from the workers' breathing zone using calibrated personal sampler pump and a PVC filter with a 25 mm diameter, 5 µm pore size embedded inside an IOM Sampler.

The mean occupational exposure to inhalable wood dust among all exposed workers was found to be 22.3 ± 6.9 (Mean ± SD) mg.m-3. The risk level of workers' exposure to inhalable wood dust was also documented to be in medium level in all workshops. In addition, the researchers found that among environmental variables, the door area of workshops was the most effective predictor variable to predict variations of workers' exposure to inhalable wood dust (ADJ.R2=0.113, R2=0.122, p<0.001).

Exposure to inhalable wood dust was several times higher than the OEL of Iran and TLV recommended by ACGIH. Since the risk level of workers' exposure to inhalable wood dust was in medium level, their health could be threatened by prolonged exposure. Therefore, technical-engineering and managerial controls seemed to be necessary.

The dapagliflozin’s safety profile in insulin-treated adult type-1 diabetes mellites (T1DM) patients remains poorly explored. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis compared the risk of all-cause side effects, study discontinuation of participants due to side effects, urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetic ketoacidosis, and hypoglycemia between dapagliflozin 10 mg and dapagliflozin 5 mg, dapagliflozin 10 mg and placebo, and dapagliflozin 5 mg and placebo.

Parallel-arm randomized controlled trials juxtaposing the above outcomes between the afore-mentioned interventions were eligible for inclusion in this study and were searched in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. Utilizing the Cochrane tool, the risk of bias was assessed in the recruited trials. Finally, by random-effect meta-analysis, each outcome was compared among the above interventions, and the risk ratio was estimated.

Four trials of varying length (1-52 weeks) sourcing data from almost 1760 participants from about 32 nations were reviewed. Overall, the trials had a low or unclear risk of bias, and only one was at a high risk of bias.  Compared to the placebo, the risk of side effects was higher in those treated with dapagliflozin 5 mg (RR=1.10; 95% CI=1.02-1.18; p=0.014; I2=0%). UTI risk was less with the 10mg dapagliflozin than its lower dose (RR=0.50; 95% CI=0.32-0.79; p-value=0.003; I2=0%). All the remaining comparisons were statistically not significantly different between the juxtaposed intervention pairs.

In contrast to placebo, dapagliflozin 5mg increased the risk of overall adversities in insulin-treated type-1 diabetes, and dapagliflozin 10 mg had a reduced risk of UTI than its 5mg preparation.