Competition Theory in Ecology By Peter A. Abrams, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2022. pp. 336. $45.00 (paperback)
American Journal of Human Biology, Volume 35, Issue 10, October 2023.
Category Archives: American Journal of Human Biology
Leukocyte telomere length predicts subsequent infectious morbidity among Colombian schoolchildren
Abstract
Objective
Telomere length (TL) attrition is related to chronic disease risk. However, less is known on whether TL predicts infectious outcomes, especially in childhood. We examined whether leukocyte TL (LTL) was associated with subsequent infectious morbidity in schoolchildren.
Methods
We assessed LTL in 717 Colombian children 5–12 years-old at the beginning of a school year and followed them through the year for daily occurrence of common infection symptoms and doctor visits. We estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of gastrointestinal and respiratory syndromes for quartiles of standardized LTL Z score and per unit LTL Z score.
Results
A longer LTL was associated with increased incidence of all infectious morbidity syndromes considered. Adjusted IRR (95% CI) per unit LTL Z score were 1.55 (1.20, 2.00) for diarrhea with vomiting, 1.34 (1.13, 1.60) for cough with fever, 1.70 (1.28, 2.28) for ear infection, and 1.66 (1.36, 2.02) for doctor visits with symptoms.
Conclusions
Longer LTL is related to increased incidence of common infectious morbidities in middle childhood.
Impact of pubertal timing and socioeconomic status on adult height and body proportions in Igbo ethnicity
Abstract
Objectives
Age at menarche is a marker of pubertal timing that may influence adult height and body proportions. Previous studies have shown that socioeconomic status can affect age at menarche and growth patterns in different populations. This study aims to examine the associations between age at menarche, socioeconomic status, height, and leg length in a sample of Igbo ethnicity.
Methods
The study used data from questionnaires and anthropometric measurements of 300 female students aged 18–25 years. Study tested the hypotheses that earlier menarche is associated with shorter stature and shorter leg length, and that these associations are modified by socioeconomic status using nonparametric analysis.
Results
Mean age at menarche was fluctuating around 12.84 ± 1.40 and 13.59 ± 1.41 years with school girls and grew 3.0 cm taller per year birth cohort. The study also found that girls with earlier menarche were shorter adult height (162.51 ± 6.00) compared with girls who have menarche at a later age. The linear regression coefficients (bs) ranged from 0.37–0.49 in later year birth cohort and 0.37–0.44 in early year birth cohort for height. The effect of age at menarche on leg length was similar to the relation between age at menarche and birth cohort height.
Conclusion
The study will contribute to the understanding of how pubertal timing and socioeconomic status interact to shape adult health outcomes in a transitioning population.
Community food environment and childhood obesity in a medium‐sized Brazilian city: An approach to school and neighborhood environments
Abstract
Objective
We aimed to analyze the relationship of community food environments with childhood obesity in a medium-sized Brazilian city.
Methods
This is a cross-sectional study with 366 schoolchildren aged 8 and 9 years. Children's body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and concentrations of total cholesterol (TC), high cholesterol density lipoprotein (HDL-c), low cholesterol density lipoprotein (LDL-c) and triglycerides (TG) were measured. The parent's nutritional status was assessed by calculating the BMI. All food stores within a 200- and 400-m radius buffers of schools and households were evaluated. The food stores were classified as healthy, unhealthy, and mixed according to the predominance of foods commercialized. Binary logistic regression models were proposed for each category.
Results
Over seventy percent (70.2%) of the food stores were categorized as “unhealthy”. The prevalence of obesity was 15.6%. In the 200-m buffer around schools, there was an inverse and direct association between obesity and the presence of healthy food stores and unhealthy food stores, respectively. Around the households, there was an inverse association between the presence of healthy food stores and obesity in both buffers.
Conclusion
The community food environment may be protective or potentiating childhood obesity, depending on the access and types of food sold.
A comparative study of different sleep assessment methods for preschool children
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to examine the differences between different sleep assessment methods for preschool children.
Methods
Preschool children (n = 54, mean age: 4.6 years) were recruited from kindergarten. Data were collected using an accelerometer, a sleep log, and sleep questionnaire. Furthermore, correlation analysis, Bland–Altman analysis, and repeated measures ANOVA were performed.
Results
(1) The sleep duration evaluated by different sleep assessment methods were all significantly correlated, among which the sleep log and Sadeh algorithm showed the highest correlation (r = 0.972, p < .001), while the Tudor-Locke algorithm and the sleep questionnaire demonstrated the lowest correlation (r = 0.383, p < .01); (2) The points between different sleep assessment methods were all within 95% LoA, except for the sleep log and Tudor-Locke algorithm; (3) In various methods of sleep assessment, significant differences were observed in sleep onset (F2 (1.6,85.0) = 32.8, p < .001, η2: 0.38), while no significant differences were observed in sleep offset (F2 (1.5,80.1) = 32.8, p = .05, η2: 0.05); (4) In addition, no significant difference in sleep onset was observed between the sleep questionnaire and sleep log (p > .05), and there was also no significant difference in sleep onset between the Sadeh algorithm and the Tudor-Locke algorithm (p > .05).
Conclusions
Both the Sadeh algorithm and the Tudor-Locke algorithm can be used as effective algorithms for sleep duration assessment of Chinese preschool children, with the latter having obvious advantages in large sample surveys. Future research should pay attention to the differences between different sleep assessment methods when using these algorithms.
Mapping spatial morbidity patterns for bronchiolitis related to socioeconomic estimators: A spatial epidemiology approach to identify health disparities in Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Abstract
Objectives
To describe the frequency of hospitalizations of infants under 1 year of age with bronchiolitis in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, and to study the spatial distribution of cases throughout the city in relation to socioeconomic indicators. To visualize and better understand the underlying processes behind the local manifestation of the disease by creating a vulnerability map of the city.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional study of all patients discharged for bronchiolitis from the local public Hospital in 2017, considering length of hospital stay, readmission rate, patient age, home address and socioeconomic indicators (household overcrowding). To understand the local spatial distribution of the disease and its relationship to overcrowding, we used GIS and Moran's global and local spatial autocorrelation indices.
Results
The spatial distribution of bronchiolitis cases was not random, but significantly aggregated. Of the 120 hospitalized children, 100 infants (83.33%) live in areas identified as having at least one unsatisfied basic need (UBN). We found a positive and statistically significant relationship between frequency of cases and percentage of overcrowded housing by census radius.
Conclusions
A clear association was found between bronchiolitis and neighborhoods with UBNs, and overcrowding is likely to be a particularly important explanatory factor in this association. By combining GIS tools, spatial statistics, geo-referenced epidemiological data, and population-level information, vulnerability maps can be created to facilitate visualization of priority areas for development and implementation of more effective health interventions. Incorporating the spatial and syndemic perspective into health studies makes important contributions to the understanding of local health-disease processes.
Body size and weight status of adult Indian males born in the 1890s–1950s: Age and secular change in the context of demographic, economic, and political transformation
Abstract
Objectives
To evaluate secular change in body size and weight status of adult Indian males born in 1891–1957 and surveyed in the 1970s.
Methods
Data are from Anthropological Surveys. Only men were included in the surveys due to high female illiteracy and lack of female researchers. Indian society was also strongly conservative at the time, especially in rural areas, and the measurement of women by men was not permitted. Heights and weights of 43 950 males 18–84 years (born 1891–1957) were measured. The BMI was calculated; weight status of individuals was classified relative to WHO criteria and suggested criteria for the Asia-Pacific region. Heights of men 35+ years were also adjusted for age-related stature loss. Trends in measured and adjusted heights, body weight and the BMI, and in weight status were evaluated by age groups. Linear regression of measured height and adjusted height on year of birth was used to estimate secular effects.
Results
Mean heights declined slightly with age to 50 years and declined sharply through 60+ years, while mean weights increased into the 40s and then declined. Mean BMIs were relatively stable from 30 to 60 years. The prevalence of thinness and normal weight was high, while that of overweight and obesity was low. Regression analyses indicated limited secular change across the total range of birth years but suggested a decline in adjusted heights among men born in 1891 through the 1930s, and little change among men born subsequently.
Conclusions
Age-related trends and results of the regression analyses by year of birth indicated negligible secular change in heights of Indian men 18–84 years born between 1891 and 1957. BMIs indicated a high prevalence of thinness and normal weight and low prevalence of overweight and obesity.
A comparison of FELS and Tanner‐Whitehouse II skeletal ages in male youth soccer players from the Middle East
Abstract
Objectives
To assess measurement agreement between FELS and Tanner-Whitehouse (TW) II skeletal ages in male youth soccer players from the Middle East.
Methods
We examined agreement between FELS and TW-II skeletal ages using data collected between- and within-subjects (n = 1057 observations) for 409 male, full-time, academy student-athletes recruited as part of the Qatar Football Association national soccer development programme (chronological age range, 9.8 to 18 years; annual screening range, one to seven visits). The Bland–Altman method for repeated measurements estimated the limits of agreement describing the expected range of differences for 95% of pairs of future FELS and TW-II skeletal ages determined on similar individuals from the reference population.
Results
The mean difference for TW-II versus FELS protocols was 0.02 years (95% confidence interval, −0.04 to 0.08 years) with lower and upper limits of agreement ranging from −1.39 years (95% confidence interval, −1.48 to −1.30 years) to 1.43 years (95% confidence interval, 1.34 to 1.52 years).
Conclusion
Differences for 95% of pairs of future skeletal ages determined with FELS and TW-II methods in this population could be as high as ~3 years for some people that suggested protocols may not be interchangeable in youth Middle Eastern athletes. Justification of skeletal age protocol selection rests on knowledge of measurement bias and variability of expected growth estimations for rationalized application to a population of interest.
Immigrant generation status and its association with pubertal timing and tempo among Hispanic girls and boys
Abstract
Purpose
In the United States, Hispanic-Latino children reach puberty earlier on average than non-Hispanic white children. Yet among U.S. Hispanic/Latino children, pubertal timing comparisons between immigrant generations have not been made, hence we examined whether pubertal timing differs by immigrant generational status, independent of BMI and acculturation measures.
Methods
Cross-sectional data on 724 boys and 735 girls, aged 10–15 years, from the Hispanic Community Children's Health Study/Study of Latino (SOL) Youth, were used to predict the median ages of thelarche, pubarche, and menarche in girls, and pubarche and voice change in boys, using Weibull survival models, while adjusting for SOL center, BMI, and acculturation.
Results
In girls, the first generation began thelarche earlier than second and third generations (median age [years] [95% confidence interval]: 7.4 [6.1, 8.8] vs. 8.5 [7.3, 9.7] and 9.1 [7.6, 10.7], respectively), but began menarche later (12.9 [12.0,137] vs. 11.8 [11.0, 12.5] and 11.6 [10.6, 12.6], respectively). Pubertal timing and tempo for boys did not differ by generational status.
Conclusions
First-generation U.S. Hispanic/Latino girls had the earliest thelarche, latest menarche and longest pubertal tempo, compared to second and third generations. Factors beyond BMI and acculturation may account for the differences in pubertal timing by generational status of U.S. Hispanic/Latino girls.
Human adaptation to cold and warm climatic conditions: A comparison between two geographically diverse Indigenous populations
Abstract
Objectives
The present study aims to compare body adiposity and blood pressure (BP) in two climatically and ethnically diverse populations, examining whether thermoregulatory adaptive mechanism may protect Indigenous populations from exhibiting adverse consequences of increased adiposity.
Methods
A cross sectional sample of 404 subjects, of which 200 were Monpa and 204 were Santhal, from two ethnically and geographically distinct populations of India were studied. Body mass index (BMI; kg/m2), fat mass (FM; kg), fat free mass (kg), and percent body fat (%BF) were calculated for evaluation of body adiposity. Multivariate multiple regression analysis was adopted to examine the influence of age and sex of populations under study, on body adiposity and BP variables.
Results
BMI, %BF, and FM were found to be significantly higher (p ˂ .001) among the Monpa males and females compared with their Santhal counterparts. In contrast, the prevalence of hypertension among Monpa and Santhal is comparable (3.5%Monpa vs. 3.9%Santhal for systolic BP; 8.5%Monpa vs. 8.3%Santhal for diastolic BP). Adiposity, as quantitated by the fat mass index and %BF was significantly (p ˂ .001) correlated to age and sex of study population, explaining ~75.3% and ~75.4% of total variations of these variables, respectively.
Conclusions
Overall the present study suggests that modern human populations follow thermoregulatory mechanism for adaptation to different climatic conditions. Consequently, greater adiposity was evident among the Monpa who adapt to the cold climate, in comparison to their Santhal counterparts who dwell in warm climate.