Roczniki Panstwowego Zakladu Higieny最新文献

Background: Sea buckthorn contains almost 200 nutrients and bioactive substances, including phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, vitamins, proteins, amino acids, minerals, alkaloids, chlorophyll derivatives, amines, organic acids, fatty acids and phytosterols. Human and animal studies suggest that sea buckthorn may have a variety of beneficial effects: cardioprotective, antiatherogenic, antioxidant, anticancer, immunomodulatory, antibacterial, antiviral and antiinflammatory.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of regular consumption of 100% sea buckthorn juice on the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in women of productive age with hypercholesterolemia.

Material and methods: A clinical study involved 19 women with a mean age of 54.06 ±2.97 years who consumed 50 mL of sea buckthorn juice daily for 8 weeks. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters in blood serum were monitored before the start of sea buckthorn consumption and after 8 weeks of consumption. Body composition was determined using an multifrequency analyzer InBody720. Routine biochemical analyzes were performed by standard methods in an accredited laboratory of the University Hospital by automatic biochemical analyzer BioMajesty JCA-BM6010/C. Statistical comparison between individual measurements was performed using a paired t-test, using Statistica Cz version 10 (TIBCO Software, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, USA).

Results: We observed significant decrease of body weight, body mass index (P<0.05), body fat and visceral fat (P<0.001) after 8 weeks of consumption of 100% sea buckthorn juice. In this intervention study, we observed a significant decrease in low-density cholesterol (P˂0.05) and a significant increase in high-density cholesterol (P˂0.001). The level of triglycerides was similar at the end of the study (P>0.05). After the intervention, we observed decrease of orosomucoid, immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M (P<0.001) and C-reactive protein (P<0.01).

Conclusions: The obtained results support the hypothesis that the daily consumption of sea buckthorn juice for eight weeks could contribute to the beneficial effects of reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as the reduction of body and visceral fat, LDL-C, CRP and the increase of HDL-C.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus was accompanied by the emergence of various adverse conditions, as well as the deterioration of health from the point of view of chronic diseases, as well as lifestyle changes related to the preference of certain foods and changes in body weight due to the restriction of free movement.

Objective: The objective of our survey was to assess the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on selected key lifestyle elements affecting the overall health status of the Slovak population and subsequently to evaluate subjectively assessed changes in the respondents' eating habits, daily routine, physical activity and body weight.

Material and methods: The research group consisted of 528 participants who took part in an online distributed questionnaire survey.

Results: Respondents subjectively evaluated the change in lifestyle rather negatively. Up to 48.37% of men and 38.93% of women reported a change for the worse. Almost 59% of participants reported no change in their health, while almost a quarter reported a slight deterioration in their health. A change in eating habits for the worse was reported by 22.88% of men and 28.26% of women (p<0.05). Increased appetite during the lockdown was reported by 24.18% of men and 35.47% of women (p<0.05), more frequent overeating during the pandemic occurred in 30.07% of men and 38.13% of women. When evaluating the consumption of individual food commodities, the increased consumption of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables (p<0.01), homemade bread (p<0.05), homemade pastries (p<0.05) and dairy products (p<0.05) is very favourable. We also found a significant increase in the consumption of sweets (p<0.01) and coffee (p<0.001). When evaluating the sleep pattern, we noted an increase in sleep during the pandemic, as well as more time spent sitting. Over half of the respondents reported a change in body weight, in most cases it was an increase in both sexes.

Conclusions: The results show that the pandemic and the restrictions during it caused changes not only in diet, but also in physical activity, daily routine and overall lifestyle. However, this is a very specific issue that needs to be assessed in a comprehensive and strictly personalized manner. The positive or negative impact of the pandemic on the health of the population will be the subject of research in the near future.

Background: The bacterial infections treatment is complicated by antibiotic resistance. In this fact, the need for new therapeutic approaches to control bacterial infections is crucial. Therefore, discovering new antibiotics from medicinal plants, able to kill drug-resistant bacteria, is essential to saving modern medicine.

Objective: This study was to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity of Salvia officinalis essential oil (SoEO) growing in Morocco.

Material and methods: The essential oil was extracted by hydro distillation, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were determined by agar dilution method. The essential oil was analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and fractionated/purified using column chromatography followed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC).

Results: The results revealed that SoEO showed higher antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Citrobacter freundii. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, and purification/fractionation of SoEO, indicates that the most polar fraction F6 is the active fraction of SoEO. This finding can be explained by the existence of polar compounds in this fraction including alcohols, and phenols as thymol, eugenol, globulol, and spathulenol.

Conclusions: It can be conclude that alcohols and phenols from Salvia officinalis essential oil (SoEO) have promising antibacterial activity. This action can offer a great possibility of the application of SoEO in the treatment of bacterial diseases.

Background: The changes in consumers' eating habits are one of the most important factors affecting the consumption of selected foods. The most important factors for bakery products consumers are freshness, taste, price, durability, composition, and country of origin.

Objective: The aim of this study was to monitor changes in selected anthropometric characteristics in women from the general population in Slovakia, after 6 weeks of bakery products consumption.

Material and methods: The study was conducted on healthy adult women from the general population (n=78), who were divided into four subgroups ("gluten" group, "gluten-free" group, "whole-grain" group and "control" group). The intervention dose consisted of a different combination of several types of bakery products (bread, pastries, soft pastries) within the individual weeks of consumption, while the intervention lasted 6 weeks, women consumed 150-200 grams per day. Anthropometric characteristics were measured by body composition analyser InBody 720 (Biospace Co. Ltd., Seoul, Republic of Korea), which works on the principle of bioelectrical impedance analysis. We also used the Lookin´Body 3.0 software to process the results. The collected data from these measurements were evaluated statistically and graphically in Microsoft Office Excel 2010 (Los Angeles, CA, USA). The levels of statistical significance were set at P<0.05 (*); P<0.01 (**); P<0.001 (***). Differences among subgroups of probands were tested with Pared Student t-test.

Results: The amount of fat mass (FM) in the participants changed along a similar curve as their body weight. After the 6-week intervention, there was a slight decrease in FM with statistical significance (P<0.01). In the third measurement, i.e., two months after the intervention, there was an increase in the amount of FM, but without statistical significance. Fat free mass (FFM) values in women increased very slightly after 6 weeks of consumption and remained approximately at the same level two months after the intervention (without statistical significance). We noted the most significant changes in the visceral fat area (VFA) parameter, which had a steadily increasing tendency. Changes in VFA values were statistically significant after the 6-week intervention (P<0.01) and also after two months of the intervention (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Changes in body composition in women were noted already after 6 weeks of bakery products consumption, especially in the FM, FFM, VFA and partially BMI parameters, but no changes were recorded in the WHR parameters during the entire duration of the study. One of the most significant results is the finding that there was an increase in VFA when consuming all types of bakery products (gluten, gluten-free and whole grain).

Background: Thailand is a tropical developing country which has a serious increase in health risk due to hot weather exposure among outdoor workers.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to compare the factors related to environmental heat exposure in three different seasons, and to assess the relationship between environmental heat and dehydration status in each season among farmworkers in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

Methods: A semi-longitudinal study was carried out in 22 male farmworkers throughout a year of farming. The primary data were collected in farmworkers for socio-demographic information, clinical assessments, and heat-related illnesses.

Results: Average of environmental heat index (Median, SD) were severe in summer (WBGT=38.1, 2.8°C), rainy season (WBGT=36.1, 2.1°C), and winter (WBGT=31.5, 2.7°C). Average urine Sp. Gr. in summer, rainy season, and winter were 1.022, 1.020, and 1.018 respectively. The third sentence should be corrected as follows: The Friedman analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the three different seasons in WBGT (wet bulb globe temperature), body temperature, heart rate (P<0.01), and respiratory rate (P<0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between the three different seasons for skin rash/itching, dizziness, muscle cramp dyspnea (P<0.05), and weakness (P<0.01). Wilcoxon signed-ranks analysis found a significant difference in the medians of the paired sets of urine Sp. Gr. values between baseline and summer (P<0.05). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient did not find a relationship between WBGT and urine Sp. Gr. in the three different seasons.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that farmworkers had exposure to environmental heat stress which was expressed through physical changes. Therefore, there is a need for either interventions or guidelines to prevent dehydration for outdoor workers in this region.

Background: The most studied risk factors for Down Syndrom (DS) were: region of residence, exposure to chemicals, parents' education level, cigarette and alcohol use by father or mother or both, and oral contraceptive (OC) use.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare certain variables considered as risk factors on DS such as parental age at birth, OC use, child's sex, and rank of birth between children with DS and their siblings without DS as well as to determine the socio-bio-demographic characteristics of the families studied compared with the general Moroccan population.

Material and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 277 families with 925 siblings and at least one child with DS (279 with DS) between 2014 and 2017. The data are collected using a standardized questionnaire in MarrakechSafi region. Data were entered and analyzed using the statistical program SPSS statistics software for Windows (version 20.0). Chi-square (χ2) and Student t tests were used for testing statistical significance. Differences were considered significant when the p-value <0.05.

Results: The binary logistic regression analysis between DS and non-DS children in their bio-demographic characteristics studied (sex, maternal age at birth, paternal age at birth, oral contraceptive (OC) use, length of oral contraceptive use before pregnancy and rank of birth) showed that only maternal age and paternal age at birth and OC use were associated with DS birth (OR= 1.16; 95% CL: 1.11-1.21, OR= 1.05; 95%CL: 1.01-1.09 and OR= 0.01; 95%CL: 0.00-0.003, respectively). In the other hand, the comparison between socio and bio-demographic characteristics of households studied with data from National Population Survey and Family health (2018) showed a higher level of education in women and men in our sample. Similar results were shown in rate of men and women in paid employment, the rate of smoking and alcohol consumption among men and the rate of OC use before pregnancy among women.

Conclusion: These results will help to sensitize the Moroccan population about risk factors for DS.

Background: Nutri-score is a useful and comprehensible system of extended nutrition labeling of food, which is intended to provide the consumer with simple guidance in choosing food products, taking into account the consumer's healthy diet. In several countries, in addition to the mandatory nutritional value of food indicated on the product packaging, the use of the so-called food traffic lights, which, based on a simple graphic display, make it easier for consumers to concentrate on choosing healthier food options.

Objective: The aim of the work was to evaluate the nutritional composition of gluten-free food products based on the nutritional data indicated on the packaging of these products in order to find out how useful the use of Front-of-Pack labeling (FOPL) Nutri-score will be in distinguishing the nutritional value of products.

Material and methods: We analyzed 206 randomly selected gluten-free food products obtained from commercial retail chains (semi-finished products, other bakery products, biscuits, flour mixtures, porridges, pasta, muesli, snacks, confectionery, etc.) intended for celiacs. Based on the obtained data, we evaluated the composition of the products using a modified algorithm for calculating the Nutri-score.

Results: We found that gluten-free products are a very rich source of energy, especially fats, carbohydrates and sugars, while the proportion of fiber and protein is very low. More than one third of the products had a nutritional score of category A or B, which are healthier variants, but over 40% of the analyzed products already fell into categories D or E. We found the lowest average energy value in the case of products classified in category B, the lowest average fat content and saturated fatty acids were found in products labeled A, the highest sugar content was found in products labeled D and E, the highest average protein content in products labeled A. The highest average salt content was found in products labeled C, fiber in products labeled B and A.

Conclusions: Nutritional profiling can significantly contribute to several health-beneficial decisions, especially when choosing and buying healthier food options, including gluten-free foods.

Background: Prevalence and practices of tobacco usage in India are diverse and incongruent and Government of India has enacted various laws to overcome this burden. To make tobacco control measures effective and powerful, WHO introduced MPOWER in 2004 and India was one of the first countries that implemented the MPOWER.

Objective: This study is aimed to quantify the implementation of MPOWER tobacco control policies in India.

Material and methods: In this retrospective analysis, data was gathered from the WHO MPOWER of India from 2015 to 2021. This analysis was based on the checklist which was designed previously by Iranian and international tobacco control specialists in their study on tobacco control.

Results: In the present comparative analysis, India was categorized by scores and these were acquired from each indicator for each activity and 2021 year got the highest scores as compared to the previous year scores i.e. 27 in 2015. In context to individual indicators, noticeable increase in scores has been seen in both health warning on cigarette packages and adult daily smoking prevalence, whereas no progress was observed in smoking related policies.

Conclusion: Although MPOWER programmes are widely accepted by the Indian government, but still substantial improvement in fewer sections is required.

Background: Cigarette smoking has been reported as the significant adverse effects on lung function, which can be evaluated by measuring forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and the ratio of FEV1 to FVC (FEV1/FVC) values.

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of tobacco use and nicotine dependence among college students and their stress levels to inform targeted interventions for smoking prevention and cessation.

Material and methods: A total of 429 participants were interviewed face-to-face, of which 71.6% were female and 28.4% were male. Pulmonary function tests were exclusively administered to the 9.8% of participants who reported using tobacco.

Results: Our findings revealed a low prevalence of nicotine dependence among college students, with only 6.8% exhibiting moderate or high levels of dependence. Students who reported tobacco use were found to have moderate stress levels,suggesting a potential association between smoking and stress. Chi-square tests revealed that gender, school affiliation,and nicotine dependence were significantly associated with smoking behavior. Long-term smoking (>5 years) was found to be associated with negative health outcomes, such as higher BMI, and increased smoking per day. The analysis of lung function parameters showed that smoking frequency and duration were negatively associated with lung function, while nicotine dependence increased with smoking frequency and duration.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that targeted prevention and cessation programs should address these factors to reduce smoking rates among college students.

Background: The most important component of a well-balanced diet is the proper energetic value. However, adequate estimation of the body's energy needs is difficult for professional athletes, including soccer players. There is little research showing energy expenditure during training and lack of studies on the energy expenditure of professional female soccer players during a match.

Objective: The aim of our study was to estimate energy expenditure during training and official league match in female soccer players and comparing it.

Material and methods: Seven Polish professionally practicing soccer females (23.4±6,6 years old; 63.5±7.8 kg; 168.5±5.8 cm; 46±4.4 kg fat-free mass) participated in the study. The participants had their height and body mass measured. Energy expenditure during activities was measured by means of a SenseWear Pro3 Armband device. Body composition was assessed with Akern BIA 101 Anniversary Sport Edition device.

Results: Statistically higher energy expenditure was achieved in the study group during the match hour (452±55 kcal/hour) compared to the training hour (353±28 kcal/ hour) as well as in the case of energy expenditure per hour of activity per kg of fat-free mass (match: 9.94±1.75 kcal/kg fat-free mass/hour; training: 7.71±0.8 kcal/kg fat-free mass/hour). During one hour of training, more time was spent on sedentary, light, and moderate activities, but the difference was statistically significant only for light activities. More time during the match hour than during the training hour was spent on vigorous and very vigorous activities.

Conclusions: In conclusion, the energy expenditure of the players during the match was greater than in the case of the planned intensive training, which was caused by the timeshare of more intense physical activities and going a longer distance during match.