Physical Health Indicators Research Articles

노인 당뇨병 환자들의 신체활동이 우울과 삶의 만족에 미치는 영향

Objectives The primary aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence the psychological well-being of elderly individuals with diabetes through the implementation of a physical activity exercise program. Additionally, the study seeks to analyze the changes that occur in these factors.
 Methods A cohort of nine elderly diabetic patients, who received education at the J Diabetes and Hypertension Registration Education Center in J City, participated in an eight-week exercise program conducted on a weekly basis. Pre- and post-program assessments were performed to measure the outcomes. Subsequently, interviews were conducted with the participants upon completion of the program to evaluate its effects and analyze the obtained results.
 Results The findings of study indicated that the exercise program implemented for elderly diabetic patients had some impacts, albeit not statistically significant, on various health indicators. The intervention led to a minor reduction of 0.3 in body mass index and a 0.5 decrease in body fat percentage. However, these changes did not show statistical significance. Similarly, the Berg Balance Scale evaluation showed a moderate increase of 0.44, but this increase did not reach statistical significance either. Nonetheless, when examining specific aspects of balance perception, the study indicated noteworthy and statistically significant results (p<.001). With respect to psychological factors, the findings indicated a slight reduction of 0.25 points in depression scores and a modest increase of 0.2 points in life satisfaction scores. However, similar to the physical health indicators, these changes did not show statistical significance. Notably, during the qualitative interviews conducted with the participants, positive experiences were reported by the participants regarding adecrease in depressive symptoms and an overall improvement in life satisfaction.
 Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that the exercise program leads to a significant reduction in body mass index and body fat, along with an improvement in balance perception. Additionally, it exerts a positive influence on psychological factors by reducing depressive symptoms and increasing life satisfaction among elderly individuals with diabetes. Further research is required to explore the health status, levels of depression, and life satisfaction of elderly diabetic patients in more depth.

Physical Health Outcomes of Trauma Exposure Across the Lifespan.

Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are established risk factors for poorer physical health. Prior work has focused on childhood adversities and PTSS in relation to physical health conditions, but trauma exposure over the lifespan has been overlooked. Further, the associations between trauma and PTSS and other physical health markers, such as diet and exercise, are less clear. Very little is known regarding how different trauma types (i.e., interpersonal, non-interpersonal), may be tied to aspects of physical health. To expand this area of research, this study aimed to: (a) examine the links between cumulative trauma and PTSS, and body mass index (BMI), diet, and exercise; and (b) investigate the relations between interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma and these three health indices, while controlling for PTSS. Participants were 493 Midwestern University students (Mage = 23.87, standard deviation [SD] = 6.90, range = 18-63; 79.3% female; 57.4% White). Cumulative trauma corresponded with higher BMIs and less exercise use (B = 0.10; B = -0.09), while PTSS were unrelated. Conversely, PTSS were tied to greater consumption of added sugars (B = 0.11), and cumulative trauma was not linked with diet. Interpersonal and non-interpersonal traumas were not tied to BMI or exercise, although interpersonal trauma and PTSS were linked with greater sugar intake and non-interpersonal trauma was associated with fruit and vegetable consumption. Trauma exposure and PTSS may have complicated and distinct associations with physical health indices, such as BMI, diet, and exercise, and additional research is needed to further parse out these relations.

Exploiting Neural Network for Heart Disease Probability Prediction

In general, doctors determine the presence of heart disease through clinical evaluation and pathological data, and the diagnosis process is complex and inefficient. Based on the above situation, professionals are committed to researching efficient and accurate methods for predicting heart disease. After studying many literatures, this paper found that the existing heart disease prediction system has high requirements for clinical data. Based on the reality of the shortage of medical resources under the COVID-19 epidemic, this paper develops a simple heart disease prediction system, which predicts heart disease through simple and easy-to-measure data of patients, and then prevents heart disease. The method consists of two steps. First, collect the characteristics related to heart disease, and then select the most important 10 characteristics through correlation analysis and literature research, namely gender, age range, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, physical health index, walking difficulty, stroke status, skin cancer, diabetes, kidney disease. Second, an algorithm for heart disease based on artificial neural networks classification based on these features is developed. The prediction accuracy is close to 92%. In the future, the proposed model could be leveraged for heart disease recognition.

Agricultural practices to improve near-surface soil health and crop yield in subtropical soils

Integrated crop and livestock systems (ICLS) have the potential to minimize soil degradation, improve soil health, and maximize food production. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of no-till (NT) in association with ICLS on soil health and soybean yield in Inceptisol and Oxisol soils in Southern Brazil. The response of physical, chemical, and biological soil health indicators to soil and crop management systems was measured over the short- (<5 years) and long-term (>10 years) under ICLS with soybean in spring/summer and forage grazed by cattle in the autumn/winter. A soil management index was calculated for each soil based on ICLS management. Independent of soil type, ICLS in association with NT for 10+ years improved chemical and biological properties in the near soil surface (0–6 cm depth). The Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) scores for soil organic carbon (SOC), phosphorus (P), and bulk density were close to 1.0 in the Inceptisol, independent of management or soil depth, while the pH scores were lower in the ICLS topsoil. For the Oxisol, the SMAF scores for SOC and P were approximately 1.0 in the 0–6 cm depth under long-term ICLS. The SMAF overall soil quality index was high (approximately 0.9) for both soils and there were no significant differences between management practices. Overall, the adoption of ICLS in association with NT (i) improved or maintained soil health, (ii) promoted soil carbon sequestration, and (iii) increased soybean yield in the studied soils. This study confirmed the potential for conservation practices (ICLS combined with NT) to improve soil quality with environmental sustainability.

Longitude-based time zone partitions and rates of suicide

BackgroundIncreasing evidence suggests that conditions with decreased morning and increased evening light exposure, including shift work, daylight-saving time, and eveningness, are associated with elevated mortality and suicide risk. Given that the alignment between the astronomical, biological, and social time varies across a time zone, with later-shifted daylight exposure in the western partition, we hypothesized that western time zone partitions would have higher suicide rates than eastern partitions. MethodsUnited States (U.S.) county-level suicide and demographic data, from 2010 to 2018, were obtained from a Centers for Disease Control database. Using longitude and latitude, counties were sorted into the western, middle, or eastern partition of their respective time zones, as well as the northern and southern halves of the U.S. Linear regressions were used to estimate the associations between suicide rates and time zone partitions, adjusting for gender, race, ethnicity, age group, and unemployment rates. ResultsData were available for 2872 counties. Across the U.S., western partitions had statistically significantly higher rates of suicide compared to eastern partitions and averaged up to two additional yearly deaths per 100,000 people (p < .001). LimitationsEcological design and limited adjustment for socioeconomic factors. ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study of the relationship between longitude-based time zone partitions and suicide. The results were consistent with the hypothesized elevated suicide rates in the western partitions, and concordant with previous reports on cancer mortality and transportation fatalities. The next step is to retest the hypothesis with individual-level data, accounting for latitude, photoperiodic changes, daylight-saving time, geoclimatic variables, physical and mental health indicators, as well as socioeconomic adversity and protection.

Long‐term conservation and conventional tillage systems impact physical and biochemical soil health indicators in a corn–soybean rotation

AbstractAgricultural management practices tend to influence soil structure stabilization, mediating many physical, chemical, and biological processes in soils. Therefore, understanding the long‐term effects of management practices on various soil health indicators is crucial to develop sustainable agricultural practices. This study aimed to assess the long‐term conventional and conservation tillage effects on soil physical (aggregates) and biochemical (soil organic carbon [SOC], enzymes, and microbial biomass) parameters under a range of tillage practices in a corn–soybean rotation in Nebraska. The experiment was conducted at two locations as follows: (1) Concord site (36 years) with the three treatments: no‐till (NT), disk, and moldboard plow; and (2) Lincoln site (40 years) with four tillage treatments: NT, double disk, chisel, and moldboard plow. Results showed that NT at both sites significantly increased SOC concentration by 24%–66% compared to moldboard plow. Similarly, double disk tillage increased SOC by 54% compared to the moldboard plow at the Lincoln site. Arylsulfatase, β‐glucosidase, hot‐ and cold‐water extractable carbon, microbial biomass carbon, and nitrogen concentrations significantly decreased with the increased tillage intensity at both sites. This implies that the NT increased these parameters compared to the disk and moldboard plow. However, aggregate size fraction 0.053–0.25 mm was the only parameter higher under moldboard plow (20.8%) than NT. Overall, the results from these long‐term studies indicate that NT, and to a lesser extent the reduced tillage practice of disk till, can improve soil health more than conventional tillage practices under a corn–soybean cropping system, suggesting the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices to improve soil health.

The Longitudinal Interplay between Sleep, Anthropometric Indices, Eating Behaviors, and Nutritional Aspects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Sleep is fundamental for adolescents' healthy development but undergoes dramatic changes in quantity and quality due to the conflict between biological and social rhythms. Insufficient sleep has been associated with worse physical health status and irregular eating behaviors in adolescents. This review aims to systematically synthesize the longitudinal associations between adolescents' sleep dimensions (i.e., duration, timing, quality, and insomnia symptoms) and physical health indicators (i.e., anthropometric indices, fat percentage, and risk of obesity), eating behaviors, and nutritional aspects (i.e., type of diet related to the intake of specific foods and nutrients, amount and timing of food consumption, energy expenditure). A total of 28 longitudinal studies were included. The meta-analytic results showed that longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, and lower insomnia symptoms were associated with lower BMI and fat percentage and that shorter sleep duration (<7 h) and lower sleep quality were associated with a higher risk of obesity. Conversely, anthropometric indices were not related to sleep over time. Limited literature examined the bidirectional association between adolescents' sleep and their eating behaviors and nutritional aspects. Such knowledge sheds new light on the role of sleep for adolescents' health, highlighting the need to examine further the interplay between these variables.

Spatial variations and influencing factors of Cumulative Health Deficit Index of elderly in China

BackgroundWith the acceleration of aging and urbanization, how to make cities more age-friendly has become a hot topic. During the long-term demographic transition, the health of the elderly has become an important consideration in urban planning and management. The health of the elderly is a complex issue. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the health defects related to disease incidence, loss of function, mortality, etc., yet a comprehensive evaluation of health status is lacking. The Cumulative Health Deficit Index (CHDI) is a composite index that combines psychological and physiological indicators. Health deficits can reduce the quality of life of the elderly and increase the burden on families, cities and even society, so it is indispensable to understand the individual factors and regional factors that affect CHDI. The research on the spatial differentiation of CHDI and its driving factors can provide scientific geographic information basis for the construction of age-friendly cities and healthy city planning. It also has great significance in narrowing the differences in the health status among regions and reducing the overall burden of the country.MethodsThis research analyzed a nationwide dataset, the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey in 2018 conducted by the Renmin University of China, which contained 11,418 elderly aged 60 years and older from 28 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions that represent 95% of the population in mainland China. The Cumulative Health Deficit Index (CHDI) was the first time constructed using the entropy-TOPSIS method to evaluate the health status of the elderly. Entropy-TOPSIS is to quantify the importance of each indicator by calculating the entropy value to improve the reliability and accuracy of the results and avoid the influence of previous researchers’ subjective assignments and model assumptions on the results. The selected variables include physical health 27 indicators (self-rated health, basic mobility assessment, daily activity ability, disease and treatment) and mental health 36 indicators (cognitive ability, depression and loneliness, social adjustment, and filial piety concept). The research used the Geodetector methods (factor detection and interaction detection) that combined individual and regional indicators to analyze the spatial variation characters and reveal the driving factors of CHDI.ResultsThe weight of mental health indicators (75.73) is three times that of physical health indicators (24.27), and its composition formula is: CHDI value = (14.77% disease and treatment + 5.54% daily activity ability + 2.14% health self-assessment + 1.81% basic mobility assessment) + (33.37% depression and loneliness + 25.21% cognitive ability + 12.46% social adjustment + 4.7% filial piety). Individual CHDI was more associated with age and was more evident in females than males. CHDI average values show the distribution trend of Hu Line (HL) in the geographic information graph that the CHDI in West HL regions are lower than in the East HL regions. The highest CHDI cities are in Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Hubei, whereas the lowest CHDI cities are Inner Mongolia, Hunan and Anhui. The geographical distribution maps of the 5-levels of CHDI levels show very different CHDI classification levels among the elderly in the same region. Further, the top three influential factors are personal income, empty nest, aged 80+, and regional factors also obviously affect CHDI values, such as the proportion participating in insurance, population density, and GDP. The two different factors in individual and regional factors all show a two-factor interaction effect, and enhancement or nonlinear enhancement. The top three ranks are personal income ∩ quality of air (0.94), personal income ∩ GDP (0.94), and personal income ∩ urbanization rate (0.87).ConclusionsCHDI is a subjective and objective comprehensive index, and mental indicators are primary factors. Thus attaching importance to the psychological care of the elderly is the key to building a healthy aging society. The large individual heterogeneity and spatial differentiation of CHDI in the elderly were demonstrated by map visualization. The analysis of the influencing factors of CHDI by the Geodetector method proves that spatial differentiation is mainly affected by individual economic and social security factors, but also by the interaction with regional factors such as quality of air, GDP, and urbanization rate. This research fills a gap in the elderly health status in the field of spatial geography. The results can provide empirical evidence for policymakers to take measures according to local conditions to improve the health status of the elderly according to regional differences in physical and mental conditions. It also plays a guiding role for the country in balancing regional economic development, promoting healthy and sustainable urban development, and creating age-friendly cities.

Effects of Aquatic Interventions on Physical Health Indicators in People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Review.

Exercise in water is widely used for improving the physical capacities of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). In this review, we examined the results of studies on the effects of water interventions on functional abilities, as well as the physiological and biochemical status of people with IDs. We considered studies in the PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Research Gate databases which were published between 2010 and 31 December 2022. Based on our inclusion criteria, 15 studies were selected for review. We found incomplete recording of data on the intensity and timing of physical activity. There was also wide variation in the terminology used to describe physical abilities. The study results suggested that aquatic interventions brought about improvements in endurance and strength; however, conflicting data were found with respect to balance and body mass index, and there were few data on biomarkers related to stress and brain health. Further research with more accurate training load data and a more common fitness terminology is needed. Lastly, traditional swimming should probably be considered as an aquatic intervention.

Quality of life after pediatric cancer: comparison of long-term childhood cancer survivors’ quality of life with a representative general population sample and associations with physical health and risk indicators

BackgroundThis study aimed to compare the quality of life (QoL) reported by childhood cancer survivors (CCS) drawn from a cohort of the German Childhood Cancer Registry with a representative general population sample and, within CCS, to test associations between QoL and health behavior, health risk factors, and physical illness.MethodsCCS (N = 633, age at diagnosis M = 6.34 (SD = 4.38), age at medical assessment M = 34.92 (SD = 5.70)) and a general population sample (age-aligned; N = 975) filled out the EORTC QLQ-C30. Comparisons were performed using General linear models (GLMs) (fixed effects: sex/gender, group (CCS vs. general population); covariates: age, education level). CCS underwent an extensive medical assessment (mean time from diagnosis to assessment was 28.07 (SD = 3.21) years) including an objective diagnosis of health risk factors and physical illnesses (e.g., diabetes and cardiovascular disease). Within CCS, we tested associations between QoL and sociodemographic characteristics, health behavior, health risk factors, and physical illness.ResultsCCS, especially female CCS, reported both worse functional QoL and higher symptom burden than the general population. Among CCS, better total QoL was related to younger age, higher level of education, being married, and engaging in active sports. Both health risk factors (dyslipidemia and physical inactivity) and manifest physical illnesses (cardiovascular disease) were associated with lower total QoL.ConclusionsIn all domains, long-term CCS reported worse QoL than the comparison sample. The negative associations with risk factors and physical illnesses indicate an urgent need for long-term surveillance and health promotion.

POMS and eye movement: Two indicators for performance in athletics

BackgroundRegularly and scientifically participating in athletics is beneficial for physical and mental health. Mood or emotions are important component of psychology and a major indicator of physical and mental health. Positive and negative mood or emotions can have a strong impact on physical responsiveness. The aim of the present study was to explore whether mood or emotional state influence performance in athletics. MethodsMood, analyzed by Profile of Mood States, and emotional state, reflected by eye movement (looking at times and length), were used to predict track or field performance in training and competition. Results1. The profile of track training (except 3rd week) resembled an iceberg profile (highest vigor scores) and the profile on the 3rd week resembled a “melting” iceberg profile, in which positive mood (vigor and self-esteem) was decreased and negative mood, particularly depression and anger, was significantly increased. The profile of field training almost overlapped, with the exception of depression decreasing markedly on the 3rd and 4th weeks. 2. Positive mood overpowered negative mood, particularly following a track competition; positive emotions exceed negative emotions following track and field competition. 3. The results of the regression analysis showed that an improvement in track performance was negatively correlated with a rise in total mood disturbance (TMD), and field performances were positively correlated with positivity of emotion, as tested by eye movement. 4. Good performance in track events appeared to be associated with decreased vigor and increased fatigue during 3rd and 4th track training; decreased depression and fatigue, and increased vigor as well as low observe length of watching negative emotional pictures (NEPs) before track competition. A good performance in field events appeared to be associated with anger decrease and confusion increase, increased fixation counts of watching positive emotional pictures (PEPs), and decreased fixation and observe counts of watching NEPs before field competition. ConclusionsThe present study proved that different indicators appeared to measure different sport performances: More indicators of Profile of Mood States inclined to predict track performance, while more eye movement indicators could predict field performance. Mixed methods could provide a better understanding of performance than a single approach alone. These findings provided theoretical support and supplementary data for practical applications in the design of comprehensive training programs.

Valeological relationship of physical workability with health indicators

A theoretical study is written in the form of a short report on approaches to qualitative and quantitative assessment of health and physical performance. Physical, mental, social, sexual health, their relationship to physical performance, and measurability to assess and compare individual and population outcomes are discussed. Separate models of health quality assessment and its formation are noted. Philosophical systems of understanding health, psychological approaches to its study, pedagogical systems of formation are described. It was noted that the level of physical health of a person depends on his ability to maintain the balance of homeokinesis parameters. The significance of adaptation and dysadaptation processes is described. It is proposed to draw up a "vegetative passport" of a person with an indication of the vagosympathetic balance. Physical performance, which is often evaluated together with anthropometric data, aerobic and anaerobic endurance, neuromuscular coordination, flexibility, stress resistance, is taken into account when planning sports training and professional tasks with a difficult physical component. In ordinary life, it can be reduced due to the wide distribution of hypertension, coronary disease and smoking, and frequent vascular crises. Cardiorespiratory capacity (reserves) and exercise tolerance can be carefully determined using special functional tests. The relationship between physical capacity and health indicators determined in the study allows to objectively determine tolerance to physical exertion and compare capacity in the population and in different periods of a person's life. Keywords: models of health diagnosis, adaptation and maladaptation, homeokinesis, tolerance to physical exertion.

Income-Related Inequalities in Physical and Cognitive Health Domains Over the Later Life Course: Longitudinal Evidence From the U.S. (1992-2016).

This study aims to investigate changes in the income-health gradient over the later life course. We test the age-as-leveler, the cumulative advantage/disadvantage, and the persistent inequality pattern for physical and cognitive health domains, and analyze whether these patterns are gendered. We used HRS data (1992-2016) and Poisson growth curve models to predict multimorbidity (33,860 participants) as an indicator of physical health and memory (25,291 participants) as an indicator of cognitive health. We disentangled the within-participant from the between-participant effects. For multimorbidity, the income-health gradient weakened as individuals aged; whereas for memory, the income-health gradient strengthened as individuals aged. The cumulative advantage/disadvantage of higher/lower income on memory may be more pronounced among women than men. Findings were confirmed by sensitivity analyses. Findings suggest that the support for the age-as-leveler or cumulative advantage/disadvantage pattern may depend on health domains and the effect strength may depend on gender.

Physical health level and osteopathic status of students

Physical health level and osteopathic status of students

Transgender-related stigma and gender minority stress-related health disparities in Aotearoa New Zealand: hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes, and general health

Research has found that transgender-related enacted stigma-including discrimination, harassment, violence, cyberbullying, community rejection, and conversion efforts-is associated with negative mental health among transgender people. Transgender people also experience physical health disparities that could be due to chronic gender minority stress caused by stigma and prejudice. We compared a large New Zealand national survey of transgender participants with the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS) with age and ethnicity weightings on stress-related health conditions and indicators. We conducted multivariate logistic regression to test associations between transgender-related enacted stigma and physical health conditions and indicators, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, gender affirming hormone use, and alcohol and tobacco use. Transgender participants had a greater likelihood of ever having hypertension (63%, 95% CI 41%-89%), a myocardial infarction (98%, 6%-271%), a stroke (104%, 2%-311%), hypercholesteremia 148% (114%-188%), and current poor or fair general health (128%, 107%-151%). There were no significant differences for diabetes. Compared with those scoring at the 10th percentile on transgender-related enacted stigma, those at the 90th percentile were more likely to have had hypertension (81%, 36%-140%), hypercholesteremia (54%, 20%-98), and poor/fair health (75%, 45%-110%). We found large disparities for stress-related physical health conditions and indicators, and transgender people who experienced higher transgender-related enacted stigma had a significantly increased prevalence of these negative outcomes. Our findings highlight the need for health professionals to consider gender minority stress and for interventions and policy/law reforms to address transgender-related stigma. The Health Research Council of New Zealand and Rule Foundation.

Özellikli Çocuk Gruplarıyla Doğa Etkinlikleri

Spending more time outdoors improves children's social and cognitive development, physical activity, and vision. Regular moderate-intensity physical activity is linked to many health benefits, including a reduced risk of high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and depression. Besides physical health indicators, physical activity has also been associated with higher academic and cognitive performance, and higher self-esteem. Since children's outdoor activities are primarily in public areas, there is a need for improvement studies to make these areas suitable for all children, including special child groups, and to supervise them. There are some special preparations and points to be considered during the activity when nature activities are desired to be held with child groups with chronic diseases such as epilepsy, diabetes, asthma, autism, or with atopic structure. With this review, we wanted to share some of the information needed to ensure that nature activities start and end happily with both special and healthy child groups.

Sparsity preserving projection aided baselined hyperdisk modeling for interpretable machine health monitoring

Geometric representation optimization models have been widely introduced for machine health monitoring. Nevertheless, their extracted features for machine fault diagnosis lack physical interpretability and health indicators (HIs) have inapparently initial degradation points. In this study, a sparsity preserving projection aided baselined hyperdisk model for interpretable initial fault detection, diagnosis, and degradation assessment is proposed. Herein, a hyperdisk that constructs a proper geometric approximation of a dataset is defined as the cross zone between a hypersphere and an affine hull. Firstly, based on sparsity preserving projection, a physics-informed methodology is proposed to extract interpretable projection features for immediate fault diagnosis. Simultaneously, based on extracted low-dimensional features, a hyperdisk based degradation modeling methodology is proposed to construct a HI for initial fault detection. Herein, once a baselined hyperdisk model is constructed, a HI can be efficiently computed by simultaneously considering the projection and relative distances of the baselined hyperdisk model. Case studies show that the proposed methodology has superior performances than support vector data description (SVDD), hyperplane based degradation modeling, and other statistical based HIs.

Unplanned Costs and Benefits: Gender and Spousal Spillover Effects of Retirement on Health.

Our study assesses how women and men's health indicators are shaped by their spouse's retirement. The retirement process can reshape the health of a retiree, but these effects can also extend onto the health of spouses. Although past research has largely focused on how men's retirement might negatively shape their wife's health outcomes, it is possible that wives' retirement has detrimental effects on their husband's health as well. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effects of spousal retirement on indicators of physical and mental health in married older adults. Our results suggested that men, not women, experience the most negative spousal spillover effects of retirement on their health outcomes. We found the most support for spillover effects on spouses' physical health outcomes. Additionally, men who are not working when their spouse retires experienced the most negative health effects. Women and men's health is differentially affected by spousal retirement, where men might be the most negatively affected by their spouses' transition in the U.S. context. These results contradict conventional wisdom that undergirds numerous untested assumptions underlying prior research on this significant life transition.

Empirical approach for developing production environment soil health benchmarks

Defining quantitative soil health benchmarks can support efforts to improve soil quality and meet broader ecosystem services goals, while simultaneously helping field-level benchmarking of soil health on farms. However, soil health metrics in agricultural systems require edaphic context, notably climate, soil texture and classification, as well as cropping system information for optimal interpretation. Soil samples (n = 1328) from New York State (USA) with Land Resource Regions (LRR), texture, and cropping system information were analyzed for eight physical and biological soil health indicators (i.e., soil organic matter, permanganate-oxidizable carbon, respiration, protein, available water capacity, wet aggregate stability from 0 to 15 cm depth, and penetration resistance from 0 to 15 and 15–45 cm), from which population distribution functions were determined. Production environment soil health (PESH) benchmarks were derived as potential management goals for four soil texture groups and six cropping systems by proposing the 75th and 90th percentile for each factorial class. Finer-textured (sand content <50%) soils and Pasture and Mixed Vegetable cropping systems generally had the highest values for soil health benchmarks, followed by Dairy Crop and Orchard systems, then Annual Grain, and lastly Processing Vegetable systems. Soil organic matter PESH benchmarks for silt loam soils, defined by the 75th percentile, ranged from 4.2% (Annual Grain and Processing Vegetable) to 5.9% (Pasture). Long Island (LRR-S) had soil organic matter PESH benchmarks that were, on average, 0.7% numerically lower than the rest of New York State (LRRs-L&R). This implies that regional PESH benchmarks within a state or region may be warranted if edaphic context is considerably different.

Alcohol and opiate misuse in adults with cystic fibrosis.

International consensus statements on depression and anxiety in adolescents and adults with cystic fibrosis(awCF) recommend assessment for comorbid substance misuse. However, at CF centers, the frequency and impact of substance misuse have not been well characterized, and best practices for prevention, identification, and evidence-based treatment have not been routinely implemented. Medical records of 148 awCF over 3 years were reviewed to determine the prevalence of substance misuse (alcohol or opiates) and its relationship with clinical variables and healthcare utilization. Independent sample ttest for continuous outcomes and χ2 test for binary outcomes were used to compare groups with and without substance misuse. Substance misuse was documented in 28 (19%) awCF, equally distributed between alcohol (n = 13) and opiates (n = 15). Adults with substance misuse were more likely to be male. The prevalence of diagnosed anxiety and depression did not differ significantly between groups, but those with substance misuse had more severe anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Item [GAD-7]: 10.0 ± 6.1 vs. 3.3 ± 4.4; p < 0.001) and depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9: 10.4 ± 6.5 vs. 4.0 ± 4.8; p < 0.001). Adults with substance misuse had higher annual rates of missed outpatient CF visits, more frequent "sick" visits, more frequent and longer hospitalizations, and a higher mortality rate. In awCF, substance misuse is common and associated with adverse indicators of emotional and physical health, including via proxy of service utilization, suggesting that systematic approaches to addressing substance misuse in CF clinics should be considered. Prospective, longitudinal study is warranted to elucidate the complex relationships between depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and health outcomes in individuals with CF.