Background: Dehydration of elderly people living independently is a very important public health issue. This study compares two interventions to prevent dehydration in elderly people at risk: an educational intervention and an educational intervention in combination with a drink reminder device. Methods: This is an experimental two-armed parallel study. A Public Health Service develops the interventions and will be partnering with a general practice and a university to evaluate the effects. Two groups - all people aged 80 years and older, and people of 65 years and older who have cardiovascular disease - receive a letter from the general practice in which they are asked whether they want to participate in the study and if so to return the form. People who want to participate and whose daily fluid intake is insufficient are randomized to receive either the educational intervention or the educational intervention in combination with a drink reminder device. The participants are asked to fill in a questionnaire before the intervention, 6 weeks after the start of the intervention and 6 months after the start (or after the end) of the intervention. Changes between the two groups in fluid intake, knowledge, awareness of the risks of dehydration, and quality-of-life will be tested by Linear Mixed Model analyses. Conclusions: This study will improve the knowledge of the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent dehydration in elderly people.

Background: Although obesity is expected to be associated with intention to reduce weight, this effect may be through perceived overweight. This study tested if perceived overweight mediates the association between actual obesity and intention to control weight in groups based on the intersection of race and gender. For this purpose, we compared Non-Hispanic White men, Non-Hispanic White women, African American men, African American women, Caribbean Black men, and Caribbean Black women. Methods: National Survey of American Life, 2001-2003 included 5,810 American adults (3516 African Americans, 1415 Caribbean Blacks, and 879 Non-Hispanic Whites). Weight control intention was entered as the main outcome. In the first step, we fitted race/gender specific logistic regression models with the intention for weight control as outcome, body mass index as predictor and sociodemographics as covariates. In the next step, to test mediation, we added perceived weight to the model. Results: Obesity was positively associated with intention for weight control among all race × gender groups. Perceived overweight fully mediated the association between actual obesity and intention for weight control among Non-Hispanic White women, African American men, and Caribbean Black men. The mediation was only partial for Non-Hispanic White men, African American women, and Caribbean Black women. Conclusions: The complex relation between actual weight, perceived weight, and weight control intentions depends on the intersection of race and gender. Perceived overweight plays a more salient role for Non-Hispanic White women and Black men than White men and Black women. Weight loss programs may benefit from being tailored based on race and gender. This finding also sheds more light to the disproportionately high rate of obesity among Black women in US.

Background: Sophora belongs to the family of Fabaceae and the species in this genus are currently used as a folklore medicine for preventing a variety of ailments including cancer. Our aim was to identify and validate an anticancer compound from Sophora interrupta using multi-spectroscopic, anticancer screening, and molecular docking approach. Methods: The cytotoxicity of the various solvent extracts, petroleum ether, n-butanol, and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) of the S. interrupta root powder was evaluated in a breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7). The extract that had anticancer activity was subjected to column chromatography based on the polarity of the solvents. The anticancer activity of the elution fractions was validated using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The isolated metabolite fraction with anticancer activity was run through a C18 column isocratic and gradient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The structure of the isolated compound was characterized using ¹ H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ¹³ C-NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer methods. Results: The crude EtAOc extract effectively inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells. The column eluted chloroform and EtOAc (4:6) fraction of the EtOAc extract showed significant anticancer activity in the MCF-7 cells compared with normal mesenchymal stem cells. This fraction showed three major peaks in the HPLC chromatogram and the first major peak with a retention time (RT) of 7.153 was purified using preparative-HPLC. The structure of the compound is a piceatannol, which is a metabolic product of resveratrol. Piceatannol formed direct two hydrogen bond interactions between Cys912 (2H), and Glu878 of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1) with a glide-score (G-score) of −10.193, and two hydrogen bond interactions between Cys919, and Asp1046 of VEGFR2, with a G-score of −8.359. The structure is similar to that of the crystallized protein for VEGFR1 and R2. Conclusions: Piceatannol is a secondary metabolite of S. interrupta that has anticancer activity. Moreover, piceatannol has been isolated for the first time from S. interrupta.

Background: The aim of the present study is to assess the elementary schoolchildren's nutritional status based on anthropometric indices due to the sudden spread of obesity in children and adolescents in both developed and developing countries. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 3647 children with an age range of 7-11 years of primary schools in Babol using cluster random sampling method in 2012. Children younger than 7 years or older than 11 years, children with chronic diseases, pupils treated with corticosteroids or growth hormone replacement therapy and children with chromosomal abnormalities were excluded from the study. Anthropometric indices were measured by medical students and evaluated according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standard percentiles. Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS version 18 with Chi-square and independent samples t-test. Results: The body mass index of 26.1% of children was greater than the 85 ^th percentile, and 4.7% was less than the 5 ^th percentile. The prevalence of obesity among boys was significantly higher than girls (P = 0.007). Moreover, urban children (P = 0.0001) and children who studied in private schools (P = 0.0001) had a significantly higher proportion of obesity and overweight than the urban and private schoolstudents. The highest prevalence of obesity and overweight belonged to 18.0% of the students among fifth graders and 15.3% of schoolchildren among third graders, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the study was higher. It seems it is necessary to implement the intervention programs to prevent overweight and obesity among schoolchildren.

Background: As food insecurity has negative effects on health, the aim of this study was to determine tahe relationship between household food security and type 2 diabetes mellitus and its related risk factors. Methods: In this case-control study, 200 individuals with and 200 individuals without type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged over 40 years, were randomly selected from among participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. The questionnaire on household food security proposed by the United States Department of Agriculture was completed for them by trained personnel. Logistic regression was used to determine the variable that had the most significant relationship with food security status. Results: The average of food security score was 2.38 ± 2.0 in non-diabetic and 2.25 ± 2.0 in diabetic individuals (P = 0.6). In both groups, the risk for food insecurity in women was more than in men. In the diabetic group, being single and having education levels below high school increased the risk of food insecurity. In the non-diabetic group, the risk of food insecurity in obese individuals was 3.3 times higher than normal individuals (odds ratio = 2.1, 95% confidence interval: 1.2-4.1). Conclusions: There were no significant differences in food security levels of diabetic and non-diabetic groups. However, some risk factors of type 2 diabetes including sex, marital status, educational level, and obesity were associated with food insecurity.

Background: This study was designed to examine the effects of purslane seeds on biomarkers of oxidative stress in type 2 diabetic patients. Methods: This cross-over randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 40 patients with type 2 diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 10 g/day purslane seeds with 240 cc low-fat yogurt (intervention group) or only 240 cc low-fat yogurt (as a control group) for 5 weeks. After a 2-week washout period, subjects were moved to the alternate arm for an additional 5 weeks. At baseline and end of each study phase, fasting blood samples were collected to quantify biomarkers of oxidative stress. Results: We observed a slight decrease in plasma total antioxidant capacity in both groups, however, between-group changes were not significant (−2.67 vs. −2.95 μg/dL, P = 0.94). Plasma malondialdehyde in purslane group increased slightly, however, we observed no significant effect in the control group (1.62 vs. −0.47 μg/dL, P = 0.58). Although both groups had a slight reduction in plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), we failed to find any significant effect of purslane on plasma ox-LDL (−1.06 vs. −1.71 μg/dL, P = 0.85). Conclusions: This cross-over clinical trial revealed that consumption of purslane seeds for 5 weeks in type 2 diabetic patients did not result in improved oxidative stress.

Background: Prognostic tools are widely used in the practice of Oncology and have been developed to help stratify patients into specific risk-related grouping. We sought to apply of two such tools used for patients with early-stage breast cancer and to correlate them with actual outcomes. Methods: A retrospective study was designed to include early-stage breast cancer cases seen from 1994 to 2014 at the Seyedoshohada Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Information was derived from the patients' records, and indices were derived from prognostic tools. Information was analyzed using descriptive statistics and one sample t-test. Results: In 233 patients, the difference between the predicted overall survival (OS) by the Adjuvant Online (AO) prognosis tools (69.28) and the observed OS (71.2) was not statistically significant (P = 0.52), and the AO prognosis tools had predicted the patients' OS correctly. In the Nottingham prognosis index (NPI), this difference in all groups except the very poor prognosis group was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Adjuvant Online prognosis tools were capable of predicting the 10-year OS rate although not in all of the subgroups. The NPI was capable of distinguishing good, moderate, and poor survival rates, but this ability was not visible in more specific groups with moderate and poor prognosis.