The objective of this study was to elucidate the association of various risk factors with dengue cases reported in Lundu district, Sarawak, by analyzing the interaction between environmental, entomological, socio-demographic factors. Besides conventional entomological, serological and house surveys, this study also used GIS technology to generate geographic and environmental data on Aedes albopictus and dengue transmission. Seven villages were chosen based on the high number of dengue cases reported. A total of 551 households were surveyed. An overall description of the socio-demographic background and basic facilities was presented together with entomological and geographical profiles. For serological and ovitrap studies, systematic random sampling was used. Serological tests indicated that 23.7% of the 215 samples had a history of dengue, either recent or previous infections. Two samples (0.9%) were confirmed by IgM ELISA and 49 samples (22.8%) had IgG responses. A total of 32,838 Aedes albopictus eggs were collected in 56 days of trapping. Cluster sampling was also done to determine whether any of the risk factors (entomological or geographical) were influenced by geographical location. These clusters were defined as border villages with East Kalimantan and roadside villages along Lundu/Biawas trunk road. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 10.01. Descriptive analysis using frequency, means, and median were used. To determine the association between variables and dengue cases reported, and to describe the differences between the two clusters of villages, two-sample t-test, and Pearson's Chi-Square were used. Accurate maps were produced with overlay and density function, which facilitates the map visualization and report generating phases. This study also highlights the use of differential Global Positioning System in mapping sites of 1m accuracy. Analysis of the data revealed there are significant differences in clusters of villages attributable to container density, house density, distance of the house from the main road, and number of Ae. albopictus eggs from ovitraps set indoor, outdoor and in dumping sites (Person's Chi-Square = 6.111, df = 1, p < 0.01). Further analysis using t-test showed that house density, container density, indoor mosquitoes egg count, outdoor mosquitoes egg count, and dumping sites mosquitoes egg count were higher at the roadside villages compared to border villages. A number of potential risk factors including those generated from GIS were investigated. None of the factors investigated in this study were associated with the dengue cases reported.
Dengue ; seconds ; physical density ; Risk Factors ; Analysis of substances

Aim:The usefulness of high-density barium, which was made to 150w/v% (MIX150), was examined to obtain better radiographs of the intestines. Methods: “MIX150” was compared with existing pharmaceutical “BAM100” to evaluate x-ray images (barium adhesion, dryness evaluation). MIX150 was used in 232 patients (mean age 56 years), while BAM 100 in 210 patients (mean age 55 years). Results: In terms of adhesion, MIX150 was excellent in the the cecum significantly and in dryness evaluation, in the entire region of the colon. Conclusion: High-density barium (150w/v%) was useful for enhancing the quality of radiographic images.
physical density ; Euphoric mood ; Roentgen Rays ; Barium ; Lower case vee

We examined an urban population's awareness of dietary guidelines to determine whether they perceived them to be necessary, and identified the factors affecting this awareness and perceived necessity. Data were collected via physical examinations and face-to-face interviews. Health indicators were collected from health examinations, and information on individual characteristics, including awareness, perceived necessity, and dietary status were obtained from the interviews. The subjects' sociodemographic, health and dietary status were examined as potential factors influencing awareness and perceived necessity. Descriptive statistics, contingency tables, and logistic regression modeling were used in the analysis. Low awareness of the dietary guidelines was displayed by the elderly and poorly educated individuals, and those without a spouse. Most people who were not aware of the dietary guidelines thought the guidelines unnecessary. Males with hypertension and lower hemoglobin levels, and females with less education had low awareness. Elderly females with lower bone density had less perceived necessity. Males and females with poor dietary status reported low perceived necessity.
Aged ; Bone Density ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Nutrition Policy* ; Physical Examination ; Spouses

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Tai Chi exercise on flexibility, balance, walking ability, muscle strength, bone mineral density, and fracture risk in institutionalized elders. METHOD: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a nonequivalent comparison group was utilized, and 53 older adults living in one institution were recruited and assigned to one of two groups, experimental group (18) or comparison (20). Both groups completed posttest measures at 6 months. There was a 31% rate of dropouts. Tai Chi exercise was provided twice a week for 24 weeks. Outcome measurements were conducted by a physiotherapist at a university hospital health promotion center who did not know the group assignment. RESULTS: At 6 months, the experimental group had significantly greater grip strength(t=2.12, p=.04), back muscle strength (t=2.42, p=.02), balance (t=5.31, p<.001), and flexibility (t=3.57, p<.001). They also showed significantly greater bone mineral density of lumbar spine and femur, and reduced fracture risk. CONCLUSION: Tai Chi exercise was safely and effectively used with institutionalized elders for 6 months and significantly improved physical fitness, bone mineral density along with a reduction in fracture risk. Whether Tai Chi exercise would lead to prevention of fall episodes and fall related fractures in this population will require further study.
Adult ; Aged ; Bone Density ; Femur ; Fractures, Bone ; Hand Strength ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Muscle Strength ; Patient Dropouts ; Physical Fitness ; Physical Therapists ; Pliability ; Postural Balance ; Spine ; Tai Ji ; Walking

BACKGROUND: It is widely accepted tht Tai Chi has been suited for whole aged people, especially old aged women and improves bone mineral density and physical fitness levels. To investigate the efficacy of Tai Chi in postmenopausal women, we compared the bone mineral density and physical fitness levels between Tai Chi and control groups. METHODS: The study subjects were 10 Tai Chi and 18 control group who were postmenopausal women aged 40 years and older. Bone mineral density(BMD) was measured at the lumbar spine and femoral area using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and maximal O2 intake, flexibility, grip strength, sit up, broad jump, balance, side-to-side step were checked for assessment of fitness levels. Other data was gathered from the questionnaire. RESULTS: The BMD of lumbar spine and Ward's triangle was significantly higher in control group(P<0.05) and the results of maximal O2 intake(P<0.05), grip strength(P<0.05), sit up(P<0.05), balance(P<0.01) were significantly higher in the control group. Logistic regression analysis showed that the results of grip strength, sit up, balance were significantly higher in the control group(P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Tai Chi improve physical finess levels and bone mineral density and can be a useful exercise type for menopausal women.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Bone Density* ; Female ; Hand Strength ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Physical Fitness* ; Pliability ; Spine ; Tai Ji* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

To elucidate the effect of soy isoflavone supplementation on bone mineral density and antioxidant enzyme activity in 60 postmenopausal women residing in Iksan area were recruited. There were 31 participants in the treatment group and 29 in the control group. The treatment group consumed isoflavone extract capsules daily (which contained 90 mg of soy isoflavones) for 12 weeks. The study compared before and after isoflavone intake in the following areas: Physical examination, diet survey, bone mineral density (BMD) and antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and total antioxidant capacity (TA)). The average age of the treatment group was 64.6 years and that of the control group was 66.5 years. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of height, weight and body mass index. Both groups maintained a regular diet pattern in terms of their average daily nutrient intake. There were no significant differences between the treatment group (23.3 mg) and the control group (24.0 mg) in terms of daily isoflavone intake based on diet. Isoflavone supplementation of 12 weeks did not resulted in any significant changes in BMD or parameters of antioxidant enzyme activity, implying the necessity of more intensive intervention for a substantial change. In conclusion, this study revealed that antioxidant enzyme activity holds a significant relationship with the bone mineral density in postmenopausal women and further systematic research on dose and period of isoflavone supplementation is needed to clearify the positive effect of isoflavone on BMD and/or blood antioxidant capacity in postmenopausal women.
Body Mass Index ; Bone Density* ; Capsules ; Catalase ; Diet ; Diet Surveys ; Female ; Glutathione Peroxidase ; Humans ; Jeollabuk-do ; Physical Examination

OBJECTIVETo explore the influence of different strength intermittent treadmill training of growth period rats on the bone metabolism, so as to provide the training intensity of teenagers to set theory support.

METHODSSelect 70 male four weeks Wistar rats according to body weight randomly divided into seven groups (n = 10): the control group and the exercise group. According to the VO2max the exercise group was divided into 6 groups: 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85% and 90% group. Nine weeks treadmill training, training six days a week, each group of training three times, each time not less than 10min, the interval was 30 min. The last movement after 24 h, took the femur and blood to measured the bone mineral density (BMD), bone mass (BMC) and alkaline phosphatase (AKP), resist tartaric acid acidic phosphatase (Str-ACP).

RESULTS1. The femoral BMD (0.1393 +/- 0.0031), BMC (0.4525 +/- 0.0335) of 70% group were significantly higher than those in the control group (BMD: 0.1200 +/- 0.0095, BMC: 0.3238 +/- 0.0485) and the other sports group (65% BMD:0.1339 +/- 0.0062, BMC: 0.4058 +/- 0.0492, 75% BMD: 0.1296 +/- 0.0015, BMC: 0.3869 +/- 0.0254, 80% BMD: 0.1223 +/- 0.0082, BMC: 0.3454 +/- 0.0483, 85% BMD: 0.1250 +/- 0.0044, BMC: 0.3731 +/- 0.0381, 90% BMD: 0.1171 +/- 0.0047, BMC: 0.3051 +/- 0.0286) (P < 0.05), the femoral BMD, BMC of 90% group were lower than those of the control group, the other in the exercise group were higher than those in the control group; 2. Serum AKP in the exercise group were significantly higher than those in the control group, the group of 65% (41.015 +/- 2.114), 70% (46.035 +/- 2.611), 75% (43.834 +/- 3.155), and 80% (38.043 +/- 4.073) were very significantly higher than those in the control group (26.875 +/- 1.188) (P < 0.01); 70% group and 75% group were significantly higher than those in the 80% group , 85% group and 90% group, while 70% group serum AKP level were significantly higher than those in 65% group (P < 0.05), it showed that 70% of the VO2 max training intensity of osteoblasts was most active. The serum Str-ACP of exercise group were significantly higher than those in the control group, along with the increase of the training intensity, serum Str-ACP level was rising and the group of 80% (22.430 +/- 1.591), 85% (23.990 +/- 1.870), and 90% (28.009 +/- 1.839) serum of Str-ACP were significantly higher than those in the group of 65% (18.503 +/- 2.429), 70% (16.447 +/- 2.120) and 75%(17.769 +/- 1.642) ( P < 0.05), the group of 90% serum Str-ACP were significantly higher than those in the group of 80% and 85% (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe training of 70% of the VO2max, moderate intensity intermittent running, make the growth period rat bone mass and bone mineral density to increase obviously.

Animals ; Bone Density ; Bone Development ; Bone and Bones ; metabolism ; Male ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Resistance Training

For investigating the changes in continuous biomechanical nature of bone bearing intensive stress in vivo, we adopted the animal model of persistent intensive stress. Thirty-seven rabbits were involved in the experiment; they were randomly divided into control group (5 rabbits) and trained group (32 rabbits). All animals were forced to jump and run about 300 times everyday in the electric stimulation cage so as to simulate the persistent intensive stress on tibias for different periods. Subsequently, all animals were sacrificed at different times (1-11 weeks), and all tibias of them were collected for biochemical investigation. By torsion destroy test, the experiment showed that the changes of biomechanical nature appeared obviously in a period of 6 weeks or so in the experiment. Furthermore, during the 2nd-3rd week of each period, the biomechanical indexes decreased strikingly; the abilities of deformation resistant dropped, the twisting rigidity decreased (69.7% lower than control, P< 0.01), the flexible index inereased (203.2% higher than control, P<0.05), the angle of twisting destroy increased (102.9% greater than control, P< 0.05). And the tibial mechanical strength declined too; the destroy torsion, energy absorption and energy absorb density decreased (most of them being 50% lower than control, even accounting for 34.5% of control; P< 0.05 or P< 0.01). We noticed that the biomechanical properties of bone endured persistent intensive stress presented periodicity and the period of change in bone biomechanical nature covered about 6 weeks in the experiment. Therefore, we have ground to conclude that a weakness period did exist when rabbit tibias endured 2-3 weeks persistent intensive stress, and such weakness did exist at the 2nd-3rd week of each training period.
Adaptation, Physiological ; Animals ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Bone Density ; Male ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Stress, Mechanical ; Tibia ; physiology ; Time Factors

AIMTo investigate the effect of exercise on bone mineral element metabolism and relative hormones in ovariectomized rats.

METHODS24 female SD rats were divided randomly into 4 groups: (1) normal control, (2) sham ovariectomy, (3) ovariectomy (OVX), (4) OVX + exercise.

RESULTS(1) Ca, Mg, S,Co,Mn, Zn reduced obviously and P increases in bone of the OVX rats. (2) E2, P, TSH, T4, CT, Cortisol, GH reduced obviously and IL-6, FSH, LH increased obviously in serum of the OVX rats. (3) Exercised opposed the changes of Ca, Mg, S, Co, Mn, Zn and P in bone as well as the changes of E2, P, TSH, T4, CT, Cortisol, GH and IL-6, FSH, LH in serum of the OVX rats.

CONCLUSIONExercise may correct the changes of bone mineral element and the relative hormones in ovariectomized rats.

Animals ; Bone Density ; Bone and Bones ; metabolism ; Female ; Hormones ; blood ; Ovariectomy ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of alendronate for premenopausal women with low bone density not resulted from secondary causes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty thee women who was diagnosed low bone mineral density (BMD) before menopause were included. All patients were evaluated by history taking, physical examination, and laboratory investigation to rule out underlying secondary causes of osteoporosis. They were randomized into two groups: Group I was administered oral alendronate 70 mg per week and Group II was not. All the participants received calcium carbonate 1,250 mg and cholecalciferol 1,000 IU daily. Bone mineral density by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was measured before and after 1 year of treatment. RESULTS: At baseline, there were no significant differences among the two groups in patient's age, body mass index (BMI), and BMD. After 1 year of treatment, Group I showed significant increase in BMD. CONCLUSIONS: In premenopausal women with low BMD in the absence of secondary causes for osteoporosis, alendronate treatment for 1 year may increase BMD. We suggest that management of low bone density in the premenopausal women without secondary causes should be considered.
Absorptiometry, Photon ; Alendronate ; Body Mass Index ; Bone Density ; Calcium Carbonate ; Cholecalciferol ; Female ; Humans ; Menopause ; Osteoporosis ; Physical Examination ; Premenopause