Abstract

Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a common disease affecting older males. As obesity becomes an increasing problem worldwide, its role in prostatic hypertrophy has been discussed recently. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between waist circumferences and prostatic hyperplasia in Taiwan. There were 539 men enrolled in the study who had health examinations at the Healthcare Center of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 53 were excluded because of history of conditions affecting prostatic volume. Their anthropometry was measured and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels as well as lipid profiles were analyzed. Prostate volume was measured by transrectal ultrasonography performed by experienced urologists. The mean prostate volume was 26.43 mL, whereas mean body mass index (BMI) was 25.27 kg/m2 and mean waist circumference (WC) was 90.81 cm. By age-adjusted logistic regression, PSA > 4 ng/mL, WC ≥ 90 cm, and BMI > 24 kg/m2 are associated with increased risk of developing prostatic hyperplasia, only WC ≥ 90 cm can be validated by multiple logistic regression. Further analysis of obesity patterns showed that abdominal overweight/obesity places patients at increased risk independently rather than high WC or high BMI alone. Study results showed that waist circumference ≥ 90 cm is an independent risk factor of prostatic hyperplasia in Taiwan. Men with abdominal overweight/obesity (WC ≥ 90 cm and BMI > 24 kg/m2) have a twofold risk of developing prostatic hyperplasia.

Abstract

Alexithymia is a cognitive-affective disorder that causes a deficiency in the ability to identify, describe and express feelings (Sifneos, 1973), is related with familiar environment dysfunctional, as the involvement of the parents in the emotional needs of their children (Kind & Mallinckrodt, 2000). From this approach, the goal of the research was to determine if family functioning predicts alexithymia in persons with Body Mass Index (BMI) of normal weight, overweight and obesity. 428 collaborated voluntarily. Participated adults living in the Mexico City(M = 40 years, SD = 7.8) who responded to the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994), Scale of Family Functioning (Garcia Mendez et al., 2006) and reported their height and weight to get their BMI. Analysis of stepwise linear regression were performed and the results suggest that in people with overweight and obesity, factors cohesion/rules and hostility/avoidance conflict are predictors of alexithymia. In normoweight, forecasters were command/problems in expressing feelings and cohesion/rules. These results show clearly that dysfunctional relationships facilitate the presence of behaviours related to alexithymia.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between the flat-footedness and obesity. A total of 1158 school children (653 male and 505 female) participated in this cross sectional descriptive study. According to their age, children were divided into three groups for each gender (6–10, 11–13, 14–18 years old). Diagnosis and severity of flatfoot was assessed in using the Dennis method. BMI of children were calculated as body weight divided by height squared (kg*m−2 ). Majority (83.9%) of respondents had normal feet. The prevalence of flatfoot was 16.1% with a decreasing trend with age. Boys had a higher frequency of flatfoot than girls, however the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). The prevalence of flatfoot was 17.5% in boys and 14.5% in girls. The percentage of overweight and obese children was 10.3%. A significant difference in the prevalence of flatfoot occurred between, under-weight (13.9%), normal-weight (16.1%), overweight (26.9%), and obese (30.8%), children. The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity is one of the most serious health challenges across the globe, and a positive correlation between increased BMI, and flatfoot is one of the potential complications.