Annals of Human Biology最新文献

Background: Long-term training focused on specific skills significantly influences athletes' physical control abilities.

Aim: To evaluate the balance control capabilities during kicking actions of different Taekwondo skill groups (kyorugi (K); poomsae (P); demonstration (D)), and long-term training effects of the different Taekwondo skills on body control.

Subjects and methods: The present study utilised a motion capture system and a ground reaction force system to compare and analyse the balance control abilities of athletes across various Taekwondo practices (kyorugi, poomsae, demonstration) during the execution of an identical kicking motion. All participants' (23 male college athletes) kicks were aimed at nose height.

Results: The results indicate that K exhibited distinct COM trajectories in left-right and front-back directions during front kicks, whereas differences of COM lateral displacement during kicking moments existed across all groups. P demonstrated greater COP movements in forward, backward, left, and right directions. Long-term training in different skills affected mechanisms of body control during the kicking technique. K and D tended to prioritise maintaining vertical stability, upward power output, and efficient movements to ensure rapid, accurate striking while maintaining balance and stability, whereas P emphasised the horizontal posture, flexibility, expressive qualities, and artistry of their movements, which may be involving more body sway and adjustments during competitions.

Conclusions: Athletes in different skill groups should develop personalised training plans tailored to their specific skill characteristics and competition demands. These plans aim to enhance the movement control abilities of athletes in various disciplines, ensuring they can deliver optimal performance during competitions.

Background: Breastfeeding has been shown to reduce risks for the development of obesity. While initiation of breastfeeding is almost universal in Samoa, there is an opportunity to improve the proportion of infants exclusively breastfed to 6 months (51.7%).

Aim: To investigate how Samoan mothers perceive infant appetite in breastfed infants, which has implications for early cessation of exclusive breastfeeding.

Subjects and methods: We administered the Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (BEBQ) to 100 mothers of exclusively breastfed infants aged 1-4 months alongside anthropometric and body composition measurements, information on breastfeeding practices, and maternal/household demographic characteristics. Associations of maternal and infant characteristics with the five BEBQ constructs - Food Responsiveness (FR), Enjoyment of Food (EF), Satiety Responsiveness (SR), Slowness in Eating (SE), and General Appetite (GA) - were examined using Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression.

Results: We found that BEBQ constructs were correlated with infant age, infant sex, maternal BMI, maternal educational status, infant BMI-for-age, feeding routine, average feeding bout length, and maternal confidence in milk.

Conclusion: Maternal perception of infant appetite appears to be influenced partially by maternal and infant body composition and breastfeeding patterns in our sample, highlighting potential points of intervention to promote recommended breastfeeding practices.

Background: Relatively, little is known about bone parameter trajectories after attainment of peak bone mass (PBM).

Aim: To investigate the individual and mean trajectories of bone mineral content (BMC) and areal bone mineral density (aBMD) after the attainment of PBM at four anatomical sites (Total Body (TB), Lumbar Spine (LS), Total Hip (TH), Femoral Neck (FN)).

Subjects and methods: SITAR models were fitted to 162 individual's (70 males and 92 females) longitudinally collected bone parameters.

Results: It was found from PBM to 15-years post PBM, that males TB, TH and LS increased by 4-7% in BMC and by 10% in TB aBMD, and a 1.3% decrease in FN BMC and a 2-4% decrease in LS, TH and FN aBMD. In comparison, females TB, LS TH and FN increased by 1-7% in BMC and increased in TB and LS aBMD by 3-15% and decreased by 1-3% in TH and FN aBMD, 15 years after the attainment of PBM.

Conclusion: Comparing the change to the precision of the instrument it was found that males and females showed real change in BMC at the TB, LS and TH but no real change at the FN from PBM to 15 years post PBM. In aBMD a real increase was found in TB and decrease in FN. Future studies should explore the roles of other factors, such as changes in lifestyle, related to bone mineral change after PBM attainment on bone trajectories.

Background: The accuracy of body composition assessments with bioelectrical impedance (BIA) based devices may be affected, besides the well-known factors (e.g. hydration status), by factors which are related to anthropometric characteristics.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of somatotype on body composition estimation, especially on lean body mass (LBM), using BIA.

Methods: 539 male (mean age: 15.8 ± 2.5 years) and 121 female young athletes (mean age: 16.5 ± 3.2 years) were included. Body composition was assessed by BIA and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Somatotype was determined using the Heath-Carter method (endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy). Intergroup differences were analysed with one-way and repeated measures analysis of variance.

Results: On average, BIA underestimated percent body fat (PBF) by 7.6% and overestimated LBM by 3.9 kg compared to DXA. Significantly smaller bias between the two methods was found in mesomorphy for both LBM and PBF. The ectomorph group demonstrated the largest underestimation in PBF, while the endomorph group the largest overestimation in LBM. Segmental analysis revealed larger overestimation of LBM of the lower limbs in ectomorphy.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that LBM estimates are affected by somatotype with mesomorphy reducing, while ectomorphy and endomorphy increase, the estimation bias between BIA and DXA.

Context: Balance ability is a crucial component of human motor function, essential for maintaining postural stability in both static and dynamic conditions. It plays a fundamental role in everyday activities such as standing and walking, as well as in sports performance and injury prevention.Objective: To examine the comparative effects of static stretching (SS) and dynamic stretching (DS) on balance performance in healthy adults using meta-analysis.Methods: Following PRISMA and PERSIST guidelines, a systematic literature search was conducted in July 2024 across PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, EBSCO, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases for randomised controlled trials evaluating the impact of SS and DS on balance outcomes. Fourteen studies involving 346 participants met the inclusion criteria.

Results: The primary analysis indicated that SS significantly impaired static balance compared to DS (effect size = -0.05). No significant differences were observed for dynamic balance or centre of pressure (COP). Meta-regression identified stretching duration as a significant source of heterogeneity, with durations between 20 and 200 s associated with better balance outcomes. A visual distribution of effect sizes further supported this optimal duration range for static balance enhancement.

Conclusion: Dynamic stretching is more effective than static stretching for improving static balance in healthy adults. Stretching duration plays a critical role, and optimising both the type and timing of stretching interventions may enhance balance performance in athletic and clinical populations.

Background: Most research focuses on the relationship of individual movement behaviours, neglecting how different compositions throughout the day associate with cardiometabolic health outcomes.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the optimal awake movement behaviour composition associated with predicted cardiometabolic health outcomes in youth.

Subjects and methods: The study included participants (N = 1,310 participants; 11.1 ± 2.5 [range = 7.98-17.1 years]; 55.9% female; 100% European) from the International Children's Accelerometry Database. Accelerometer measured sedentary behaviour (SB), light-(LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) defined the awake movement behaviour composition. Four cardiometabolic health outcomes (lipid profile, blood pressure, glucose metabolism, and body mass) were assessed through nine parameters. These were regressed against the awake movement behaviour composition, adjusting for relevant covariates to estimate the optimal awake movement behaviour composition for each predicted cardiometabolic health outcome (i.e. "Goldilocks Day").

Results: The final models found a significant relationship between the awake movement behaviour composition and cardiometabolic health outcome, excluding lipid profile indicators. For indicators of glucose metabolism, blood pressure and body mass, the Goldilocks Day consisted of less SB (-12 to -39 min), LPA (-8 to -32 min) and more MVPA (+44 to 47 min) when compared to the sample mean.

Conclusion: These findings concur with current guidelines that more MVPA and less SB are better, but the optimal time youth should spend in each behaviour depends on the health outcome of interest. This indicates that one size does not fit all when making recommendations for multiple cardiometabolic health outcomes.

Background: While ferroptosis has been recognised for its key role in tumour development, its involvement in DKD is not well understood. Identifying differentially expressed ferroptosis-related genes (DEIRGs) could help improve early diagnosis and treatment strategies for DKD.

Aim: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a complication of diabetes that can progress to end-stage renal disease. Early diagnosis and identification of biomarkers related to its pathogenesis are crucial. This study aims to investigate the role of ferroptosis, a type of programmed cell death, in DKD, which remains largely unexplored.

Objective: The objective of this study was to screen for diagnosis-related DEIRGs (DDEIRGs) in DKD and construct a diagnostic model with high accuracy.

Method: We intersected differentially expressed genes in the DKD dataset with ferroptosis-related genes to obtain DEIRGs. Gene importance was ranked using the random forest and Adaboost algorithms, and DDEIRGs were identified by intersecting results. A diagnostic model was constructed using logistic regression, and its accuracy was evaluated. Additionally, the immune landscape of DDEIRGs was analysed, and RT-qPCR was used to validate gene expression levels.

Results: The diagnostic model constructed with logistic regression demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy for DKD. Immune landscape analysis of DDEIRGs provided further insights into their potential roles. RT-qPCR confirmed the differential expression of diagnosis-related genes.

Conclusion: This study successfully identified diagnosis-related ferroptosis genes in DKD and constructed an accurate diagnostic model. These findings enhance our understanding of the role of ferroptosis in DKD and may contribute to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Context: Climate disasters have been tied to prenatal stress and pregnancy outcomes. However, it is unclear if these outcomes are influenced by the stage of foetal development when the disaster hits.

Objective: To compare the birth outcomes by trimester for those pregnant during Hurricane Florence and those in the same community 1-2 years earlier. We further assessed the role of marital status and race.

Methods: We included people who gave birth between 2016-2019 in one of the coastal communities impacted by Hurricane Florence (n = 7,240). We used multiple logistic regression to determine the effects of period (hurricane or pre-hurricane) and trimester and their respective interactions on birth outcomes controlling for key demographic variables.

Results: Individuals in their first trimester during the hurricane had a greater likelihood of having low-birthweight, low-APGAR, or preterm babies compared to those in the same community a year earlier and those in later trimesters during the hurricane. Unmarried individuals in their first trimester during the hurricane were particularly at risk for low-birthweight neonates.

Conclusion: Increased prenatal stress associated with disasters disrupts first trimester foetal development across all groups but is most pronounced in unmarried individuals. Differences in birthweight reflect intergenerational impacts in disaster events.

Background: Head orientation during photography can distort facial shape, but this is rarely considered in cross-population studies focusing on facial morphology and its perception.

Aim: To assess how head positioning (Frankfurt Horizontal [FH] vs. natural position [NP]) affects facial shape and trait perception across two ethnic populations.

Subjects and methods: Facial photographs were collected from Buryats of Mongolian descent (N = 148) and Russians of European descent (N = 155). Geometric morphometrics were used to compare the facial shapes in the FH and NP positions. Independent rater groups with similar population origins, Kalmyks (N = 162) and Russians (N = 242), evaluated perceived aggressiveness and attractiveness based on these portraits.

Results: Head orientation significantly altered facial shape, particularly among the Buryat group. Despite the larger facial sexual dimorphism in the Buryat group, sex differences were more pronounced in FH across both samples. Correlations between facial shape and body metrics (height, Body Mass Index, and body fat mass) were stronger in FH. Ratings of male aggressiveness and female attractiveness were consistently influenced by head position across both rater populations and sexes.

Conclusion: Head positioning introduces systematic bias into facial shape analysis and perception. Failure to control for this factor may compromise study comparability and distort meta-analytic findings.