RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Dizziness is a common symptom in older adults. The majority of those with dizziness tend to have more than one risk factor, suggesting that dizziness is a multifactorial geriatric condition. Therefore, associated factors must be determined to permit risk-reduction approaches. OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between dizziness and socio-demographic, physical, functional and psychological health factors among older persons living in the Andes Mountains. DESIGN: Population-based cross-sectional study. SETTINGS/PARTICIPANTS: One thousand six hundred ninety-two community-living people aged 60 years and over living in four rural and suburban areas of villages in coffee-grower zones in the Colombian Andes Mountains. MEASUREMENTS: Outcome measures included self-reporting of dizziness as a symptom experienced either very frequently or continuously during the last month. Independent variables were demographic, socioeconomic and social factors; disease and biomedical factors; functional status and performance-based measures; and psychological factors such as depressive symptoms and self-rated health. RESULTS: Dizziness was reported by 15.2% of participants in the study. Variables independently associated with dizziness were: number of chronic conditions, visual impairment, and use of more than four medications. Independently associated psychological variables were: poor self-perceived health, cognitive impairment and depression. Health and psychological factors accounted for 85% of dizziness. CONCLUSION: Older persons who reported dizziness were more physically frail, with more instances of chronic conditions and sensory impairments, and had poor self-perceptions of their health. Biomedical and psychological factors showed a strong independent association with dizziness. A multifactorial intervention targeting the identified factors would reduce dizziness in older people. However, this approach may need to address different sets of specific factors related to the dizziness categories.
Asunto(s)
Trastornos del Conocimiento/complicaciones , Depresión/complicaciones , Mareo/etiología , Evaluación Geriátrica , Estado de Salud , Polifarmacia , Trastornos de la Visión/complicaciones , Anciano , Enfermedad Crónica , Colombia/epidemiología , Estudios Transversales , Mareo/epidemiología , Mareo/psicología , Femenino , Anciano Frágil , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Percepción , Prevalencia , Factores de Riesgo , Población Rural , AutoinformeRESUMEN
Transcribed sequences in the human genome can be identified with confidence only by alignment with sequences derived from cDNAs synthesized from naturally occurring mRNAs. We constructed a set of 250,000 cDNAs that represent partial expressed gene sequences and that are biased toward the central coding regions of the resulting transcripts. They are termed ORF expressed sequence tags (ORESTES). The 250,000 ORESTES were assembled into 81,429 contigs. Of these, 1, 181 (1.45%) were found to match sequences in chromosome 22 with at least one ORESTES contig for 162 (65.6%) of the 247 known genes, for 67 (44.6%) of the 150 related genes, and for 45 of the 148 (30.4%) EST-predicted genes on this chromosome. Using a set of stringent criteria to validate our sequences, we identified a further 219 previously unannotated transcribed sequences on chromosome 22. Of these, 171 were in fact also defined by EST or full length cDNA sequences available in GenBank but not utilized in the initial annotation of the first human chromosome sequence. Thus despite representing less than 15% of all expressed human sequences in the public databases at the time of the present analysis, ORESTES sequences defined 48 transcribed sequences on chromosome 22 not defined by other sequences. All of the transcribed sequences defined by ORESTES coincided with DNA regions predicted as encoding exons by genscan. (http://genes.mit.edu/GENSCAN.html).
Asunto(s)
Cromosomas Humanos Par 22 , Transcripción Genética , Etiquetas de Secuencia Expresada , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica , Humanos , Sistemas de Lectura AbiertaRESUMEN
Intact or surgically thyroidectomized (Tx) adult male Wistar rats, weighing 150-200 g, were fed a standard chow diet (approximately 1.8 Cal/g) or a high calorie (approximately 3.8 Cal/g) diet (cafeteria diet) for up to 30 days. Daily energy intake was about 5-fold higher in the rats fed the cafeteria diet regardless of their thyroid status. The cafeteria diet caused the retroperitoneal white fat pad to increase by approximately 2-fold, the volume of isolated white adipocytes to increase by 2-fold, and the total body fat to increase by a factor of approximately 3, again regardless of thyroid status. It also increased basal metabolic rate by about 20% in intact rats and by about 50% in Tx rats. The brown fat thermal response to norepinephrine (NE) infusion was approximately 2-fold increased in the intact rats fed the cafeteria diet. However, in the Tx rats, the brown fat thermal response to NE was blunted regardless of the dietary regimen adopted. In both intact and Tx rats, the cafeteria diet increased total brown fat mitochondria, uncoupling protein percentage, and total brown fat uncoupling protein by about 3-, 2-, and 5-fold, respectively. Serum leptin levels also increased approximately 4-fold in intact rats fed the cafeteria diet. However, in Tx rats, leptin levels did not change significantly during overfeeding. In conclusion, hypothyroidism caused the brown fat to become unresponsive to NE, even after 1 month on the cafeteria diet. However, these rats were able to increase basal metabolic rate and, as assessed by several different parameters, did not gain fat beyond that observed in intact controls kept on a similar overfeeding schedule.