Somatic Factor Research Articles

Impact of Motor Learning on Overall Skill-Related Anxiety

The aim of this research is to determine the differences in participants’ overall anxiety and its factors before and after the motor skill learning process. A sample consisted of 96 examinees, college students who attended 3 learning sessions of a handspring vault in a crouch position. Students estimated their own anxiety by a questionnaire on a scale 1 – 4 at the beginning of the learning process and before the third session. Total anxiety is constructed of 3 factors: somatic, cognitive and self-confidence. The results showed that the highest manifestation of student’s anxiety was in the self-confidence referring to the highest (the worst) result, then in cognitive factor and the lowest in somatic factor. The average overall student’s anxiety reduced from 2.26 to 1.83, and the reduction (improvement) is manifested in all three anxiety factors. Anxiety reduction could be affected by adaptation processes, higher level of motor skill performance, controlled condition in the learning process, and interaction of all mentioned. The conclusion is that the motor learning can reduce the skill-related anxiety so it is recommended that high-anxiety participants are retained in the learning process.

Homozygous Mutation of gsdf Causes Infertility in Female Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Gonadal somatic cell-derived factor (Gsdf) is a member of the TGF-β superfamily, which exists mainly in fishes. Homozygous gsdf mutations in Japanese medaka and zebrafish resulted in infertile females, and the reasons for their infertility remain unknown. This study presents functional studies of Gsdf in ovary development using CRISPR/Cas9 in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The XX wild type (WT) female fish regularly reproduced from 12 months after hatching (mah), while the XX gsdf -/- female fish never reproduced and were infertile. Histological observation showed that at 24 mah, number of phase IV oocyte in the XX gsdf -/- female fish was significantly lower than that of the WT fish, although their gonadosomatic index (GSI) was similar. However, the GSI of the XX gsdf -/- female at 6 mah was higher than that of the WT. The mutated ovaries were hyperplastic with more phase I oocytes. Transcriptome analysis identified 344 and 51 up- and down-regulated genes in mutants compared with the WT ovaries at 6 mah. Some TGF-β signaling genes that are critical for ovary development in fish were differentially expressed. Genes such as amh and amhr2 were up-regulated, while inhbb and acvr2a were down-regulated in mutant ovaries. The cyp19a1a, the key gene for estrogen synthesis, was not differentially expressed. Moreover, the serum 17β-estradiol (E2) concentrations between XX gsdf -/- and WT were similar at 6 and 24 mah. Results from real-time PCR and immunofluorescence experiments were similar and validated the transcriptome data. Furthermore, Yeast-two-hybrid assays showed that Gsdf interacts with TGF-β type II receptors (Amhr2 and Bmpr2a). Altogether, these results suggest that Gsdf functions together with TGF-β signaling pathway to control ovary development and fertility. This study contributes to knowledge on the function of Gsdf in fish oogenesis.

Psychometric Properties of the Thai Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia among Older People with Knee Osteoarthritis

Background: Kinesiophobia is described as fear of physical movement resulting in painful injury. Older adults with knee osteoarthritis usually suffer from joint pain. Assessment of kinesiophobia is beneficial for prevention of further deterioration in performing activity. Even though, the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11) has been developed to briefly examine pain related to fear of movement in patients with chronic pain, the TSK-11 Thai version has not been examined for its validity and reliability yet. Objective: To examine psychometric properties of the TSK-11 Thai version. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with 200 older people with knee osteoarthritis living in the northeastern part of Thailand was used in the present study. Participants were asked to complete the demographic questionnaire, the TSK-11-Thai version, the numeric rating scale (NRS), and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) Thai version. To confirm the TSK-11 Thai version validity, construct validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to confirm the TSK-11-Thai version’s convergent validities. For internal consistency reliability, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were also assessed. Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a two-factor model, including somatic factor and activity avoidance, fitted with the data. The TSK11-Thai version was positively correlated with pain catastrophizing. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the total TSK11-Thai version was at 0.77. For subscale, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the TSK somatic factor and activity avoidance were 0.61 and 0.69, respectively. Conclusion: The Thai version of TSK-11 has acceptable validity and reliability. The TSK-11-Thai version is suitable to use to examine pain-related fear of movement in patients with knee osteoarthritis for clinical and research purposes. Keywords: Instrument; Knee osteoarthritis; Older people; Pain-related fear of movement; Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-Thai version; Psychometric properties; Validation

Performance, digestibility efficiencies, gut and liver morphologies of snub nose pompano Trachinotus blochii fed spray‐dried haemoglobin meal as protein substitute for fishmeal

Spray-dried haemoglobin meal, a by-product and derivative of the swine processing industry, is formed when haemoglobin is separated hygienically from pig's blood. A 120-days feeding trial using snub nose pompano Trachinotus blochii (1.01 ± 0.02 g) tested spray-dried haemoglobin meal (SHM) as an ingredient in six iso-nitrogenous (crude protein of 50%) and iso-lipidic (crude fat of 8%) diets, namely, a diet with 0% SHM (control) and five diets replacing fishmeal with SHM at 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20%. Weight gain percentage (WG%) significantly decreased (p < 0.05) when fish were fed diets with 12, 16 and 20% SHM inclusion levels. Feed conversion ratio and survival significantly decreased (p < 0.05) when fish were fed diets with 16 and 20% SHM inclusion levels. However, visceral somatic index, hepatosomatic index, condition factor and proximate composition were not affected (p > 0.05) by SHM inclusion levels. As an ingredient for pompano feed, SHM has digestibilities for protein, lipid and dry matter at 89, 78 and 45% respectively. No apparent pathological changes were observed in the intestines. However, physiological changes in the liver have been seen in fish fed diets containing 12, 16 and 20% of SHM. Based on the quadratic regression model at the maximum response of weight gain percentage, the optimum inclusion level of SHM was estimated to be 3.08% (5.87% SHM protein in the diet).

Evolution, Expression, and Function of Gonadal Somatic Cell-Derived Factor.

Fish gonads develop in very diverse ways different from mammalian gonads. This diversity is contributed by species-specific factors. Gonadal somatic cell-derived factor (Gsdf) is one such factor. The gsdf gene exists mostly in teleosts and is absent in many tetrapods, probably as a result of two gene losses during evolution. The gsdf transcript is expressed mainly in gonadal somatic cells, including Sertoli cell in testis and granulosa cells in ovary; however, these gonadal somatic cells can surround many types of germ cells at different developmental stages depending on the fish species. The function of gsdf is also variable. It is involved in germ cell proliferation, testicular formation, ovarian development and even male sex determination. Here, we summarize the common and diverse expression, regulation and functions of gsdf among different fish species with aspect of evolution.

Relationship between transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology and traumatic brain injury (TBI): A TRACK-TBI study.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common, comorbid, and often disabling for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Identifying transdiagnostic symptom dimensions post-TBI may help overcome limitations of traditional psychiatric diagnoses and advance treatment development. We characterized the dimensional structure of neuropsychiatric symptoms at 2-weeks postinjury in n = 1,732 TBI patients and n = 238 orthopedic-injured trauma controls (OTC) from the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI (TRACK-TBI) study. Symptoms were reported on the Brief Symptom Inventory-18, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Depression checklist, PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, PROMIS Pain Intensity scale, and Insomnia Severity Index. We established a novel factor model of neuropsychiatric symptoms and evaluated how 3 TBI severity strata and OTC patients differed in symptom severity. The final factor model had 6 first-order factors subsumed by 2 second-order factors: Internalizing (encompassing Depression, Anxiety, and Fear) and Somatic symptoms (Sleep, Physical, Pain). Somatic symptoms fit better as a correlated factor of (vs. a lower-order factor within) Internalizing. All symptom dimensions except for Pain were more severe in 1 or more TBI subgroups, as compared to the OTC group. Milder brain injury was generally associated with more severe symptoms, whereas more general injury severity (higher level of care, e.g., emergency department, intensive care unit) was associated with more pain. The findings indicate a broad factor resembling the internalizing factor of general psychopathology in traumatically injured patients, alongside a distinct somatic symptom factor. Brain injury, especially milder brain injury, may exacerbate liabilities toward these symptoms. These neuropsychiatric dimensions may help advance more precision medicine research for TBI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Factor structure of the BDI-II in Parkinson's disease.

There is substantial heterogeneity in depressive symptomology for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). It is unknown whether the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) is capable of identifying such phenotypic variations of depression. We investigated the factor structure of the BDI-II and its associations with demographic characteristics and other nonmotor symptoms in PD. We reviewed the cases of 236 patients with a confirmed PD diagnosis. Evaluations included the BDI-II, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Apathy Scale (AS), and Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI). We used exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) with target rotations as this method integrates aspects of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We conducted hierarchical regressions to assess for associations between the BDI-II factors and gender, age, education, disease duration, cognition, anxiety, and apathy. ESEM supported the retention of a Somatic factor and an Affective factor that accounted for 53% of the model variance. Model goodness-of-fit measures were within normal limits. Higher AS scores were positively associated with the Somatic and Affective factors. Higher GAI scores were positively associated only with the Affective factor. There were no other significant relationships with factor scores. This study supports the retention of a two-factor model of the BDI-II in PD. These unique clusters of depressive symptoms in PD can be used to guide clinical decisions about the need for further psychiatric evaluation and the appropriateness of different therapeutic interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Common and specific aspects of anxiety and depression and the metabolic syndrome

IntroductionThe associations of anxiety and depression with metabolic syndrome (MetS) are not consistent across studies. Anxiety and depression are highly correlated and traditional methods don't take the structure of this correlation into account. Our aim is to disentangle the relationship of these emotional conditions with MetS, using bifactor models, modelling both general and specific aspects between anxiety and depression. MethodsBifactor models were tested using the baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (n = 13,584). Anxiety and depression were accessed with the Clinical Interview Schedule - Revised. MetS was measured through assessment of its continuous components. ResultsA bifactor S-1 model better represent the 14 CIS-R indicators, composed by an internalizing factor corresponding to depressive symptoms, anxiety, worry and the shared variance of all remaining CIS-R indicators, and also by residual variance explained by a somatic (e.g., fatigue and pain) and fear (e.g., panic and phobias) specific factors. Internalizing spectrum (β = 0.116; p < 0.001) and the fear specific factor (β = 0.060; p = 0.008) were associated with MetS after adjusting for confounders, whereas somatic specific factor was unlikely to be associated with MetS (β = 0.002; p = 0.934). ConclusionsAnxiety and depression indicators were associated with MetS via a shared internalizing factor and also by a residual fear factor, but not by somatic residual factor. This finding has potential implications about shared biological and behavioral mechanisms that may link emotional conditions with MetS in adults.

The factor structure of major depressive symptoms in a sample of Chinese earthquake survivors

BackgroundExperiencing natural disasters is associated with common mental disorders including major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the latent structure of MDD is widely debated, and few studies tested the MDD factor structure in Chinese natural disaster survivors. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the factorial validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for DSM-5 major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms in Chinese earthquake survivors.MethodParticipants were 1058 Chinese earthquake survivors. Self-reported measures included the PHQ-9 and the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the latent structure of MDD and the associations between latent factors of MDD and different domains of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), respectively.ResultsIn the current sample, the model consisted of somatic and cognitive/affective (non-somatic) factors demonstrated significantly better fit than the other competing MDD models (χ2 = 173.89, df = 26, CFI = 0.986, TLI = 0.981, RMSEA = 0.073, BIC = 18,091.13). Further SEM analyses indicated that the non-somatic factor was significantly related to both physical (β = − 0.362, p < .01) and psychosocial HRQoL (β = − 0.773, p < .01), while the somatic factor was a uniquely predictor of physical HRQoL (β = − 0.336, p < .01). Furthermore, we found the somatic factor partially mediated the relationship between the cognitive/affective factor and physical HRQoL (all ps < .05).ConclusionsThe MDD symptoms was best captured by a two-factor model comprised of somatic and cognitive/affective factors in Chinese natural disaster survivors. The two MDD factors were differentially associated with physical and psychosocial HRQoL, and the cognitive/affective factor associated physical HRQoL partially through the somatic factor. The current findings increase our understanding of latent structure of MDD symptoms, and carry implications for assessment and intervention of post-disaster mental health problems.

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 among First-Trimester Pregnant Women in Japan: Factor Structure and Measurement and Structural Invariance between Nulliparas and Multiparas and across Perinatal Measurement Time Points

Background: Depression is frequently seen among pregnant women. The PHQ-9 is a diagnostic criteria-based screening instrument. Objective: The objective is to identify the factor structure of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and to confirm its measurement and structural invariance regarding parity and observation time, as well as to examine reliability by calculating omega indices in a population of pregnant Japanese women. Methods: The PHQ-9 was distributed to 382 pregnant women with a gestational age of 10 to 13 weeks who were attending antenatal clinics. Of these women, 129 were tested again with the PHQ-9 one week later. Results: Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) of the PHQ-9 items were conducted using a halved sample. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) among the other halved sample compared the single-, two-factor models derived from the EFAs, literature model and bifactor model. The bifactor model was significantly better in terms of goodness-of-fit indices: χ2/df = 1.030 (18), CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.012. ECV suggested multidimensionality. Internal consistency was excellent: ω = 0.868, ω. Somatic factor = 0.756, ω. Non-somatic factor = 0.817. ωH = 0.795, ωHS. Somatic factor = 0.330, ωHS. Non-somatic factor = 0.032. The bifactor structure model showed configural, measurement, and structural invariances between primiparas and multiparas as well as at two observation occasions. Conclusion: The findings suggested that the PHQ-9 used among pregnant women was robust in its factor structure.

Hepatic adenomatosis in a young woman with non-familial maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 3

Hepatic adenomatosis (HA) is a rare condition in which multiple adenomas exist in an otherwise healthy liver. The most common subtype (H-HA) is associated with bi-allelic, somatic hepatic nuclear factor 1-alpha (HNF1A) mutations. Maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 3 (MODY3) is most often seen in young individuals with heterozygous, germline mutations in HNF1A. In this report, we describe a 17-year-old woman with H-HA and non-familial MODY3.

Preliminary development and validation of a measure of fear of swallowing and swallowing-related movement injury in head and neck cancer: Swallowing Kinesiophobia Scale.

Fear is an under-recognized issue in intervention adherence in head and neck cancer (HNC). We developed and validated a patient reported outcome for swallowing fear in HNC patients. Items were adapted from the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia to swallowing function. A beta version was completed by 51 HNC patients undergoing chemo +/- radiotherapy at baseline and post-treatment. Psychometric and factor structure analyses were applied. Swallowing Kinesiophobia Scale (SWKS) demonstrated strong face and content validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Factor analysis revealed three-factors: somatic factor, swallow avoidance, and fear of harm. Factors correlated positively with depression score, worry scale, and anxiety and pain scales. Score differences between patient subgroups (dysphagic vs nondysphagic) confirmed discriminative validity. The SWKS is a psychometrically valid tool to identify patients with fear of swallowing and swallowing-related movement. It can help identify patients early in treatment who may need additional support.

Ansiedade pré-competitivas em basquetebolistas da selecção nacional de sub-16

Anxiety is a physiological response to the experience that is painful, because both have connection, thedifficulty experienced and the anxiety to overcome it. The study aimed to analyze the characteristics ofpre - competitive anxiety factors in the games of the national team of Mozambique U16. The sampleconsisted of 12 athletes, aged 14 - 16 years of which 4 aged 16 and 8 aged 14 years. The instrumentused was the “List of Stress and Pre-Competitive Symptoms (LSSPC) developed by Chagas (1995).The results showed moderate levels of precompetitive anxiety in the six games played with an averagesum of 56.92; In the six games played, the basketball players presented, respectively, the valorizationof the somatic anxiety with the following values: 59.16; 53.34; 59; 61.5; 56.17 and 55.4. The athletesvalued somatic anxiety relatively in the six games with the following values: 3.71; 3.09; 3.82; 4.12;3.58 and 3.69. Basketball players participating in the 2017 African Under-16 Basketball Championshipwere dominated by moderate anxiety with predominance of somatic factor.

BEDEN EĞİTİMİ DERSİNE YÖNELİK DURUMSAL GÜDÜLENME, TUTUM VE İÇSEL KONUŞMA ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİ

In this study was to determination of the relationship between situational motivation (SIM), self-talk (ST) and attitude towards physical education (PE) lesson and students' other perceptions (liking level of PE-SEV, the level of importance given to the PE by the student-KVO and the level of perception of the importance given to PE by the family-AVO). Furthermore, it has been done the comparisons in terms of age and gender. A total of 698 secondary school students aged between 11-14 in the study. In the findings, girls obtained higher means for all sub scales of SIM and attitude, while boys obtained higher score for worry dimension only of ST. Girls obtained higher scores for SEV and KVO, whereas boys obtained higher means for AVO. When the age increased, SEV, KVO, AVO, instrinsic motivation-IM, identification regulation-IR and attitude decreased but somatic fatique factor of negative ST increased. SEV, KVO and AVO were positive correlated with the positive dimesions whereas negative correlated with the negative dimensions. IM and IR dimensions were found positive correlated with positive ST dimensions and attitude; but extrinsic motivation and amotivation dimensions were found negative correlated with attitude and, positive correlated with negative ST dimensions.

The Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II With Middle School Teachers.

As previous researchers have found, like other parts of the world, depression is prevalent among middle school teachers in China. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) has been widely used to detect depression among workers in different careers all over the world and has shown good scale properties but inconsistent factor structures. To examine the psychometric properties of the BDI-II among middle school teachers, a nationally representative sample of 4,672 valid cases from 688 middle schools were included. We first generated a new bifactor model based on exploratory factor analysis and agglomerate cluster analysis of the residual item correlations and then validated the modes and examined measurement invariance across gender and school location with multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results indicated that (1) a new bifactor model with a general factor and two group factors (cognitive–affective group factor and somatic group factor) fitted well to the data [WLSMV χ2 = 745.651, df = 173, P < 0.001, CFI = 0.983, TLI = 0.979, RMSEA = 0.037; 90% CI (0.035, 0.040)]; Omega values for the three factors varied from 0.88 to 0.92; (2) measurement invariance tests indicated that the BDI-II could equally measure depression of middle school teachers across gender and school location groups. All the findings suggest that the BDI-II is a self-report inventory with good psychometric properties for measuring depression among middle school teachers in China.

MiR103a-3p and miR107 are related to adaptive coping in a cluster of fibromyalgia patients.

BackgroundMicroRNA (miRNA) mainly inhibit post-transcriptional gene expression of specific targets and may modulate disease severity.ObjectiveWe aimed to identify miRNA signatures distinguishing patient clusters with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).Subjects and methodsWe previously determined four FMS patient clusters labelled “maladaptive”, “adaptive”, “vulnerable”, and “resilient”. Here, we cluster-wise assessed relative gene expression of miR103a-3p, miR107, miR130a-3p, and miR125a-5p in white blood cell (WBC) RNA of 31 FMS patients and 16 healthy controls. Sum scores of pain-, stress-, and resilience-related questionnaires were correlated with miRNA relative gene expression. A cluster-specific speculative model of a miRNA-mediated regulatory cycle was proposed, and its potential targets verified by the online tool “target scan human”.ResultsOne-way ANOVA revealed lower gene expression of miR103a-3p, miR107, and miR130a-3p in FMS patients compared to controls (p < 0.05). Follow-up post-hoc tests indicated the highest peak of gene expression of miR103a-3p for the adaptive cluster (p < 0.05), i.e. in patients with low disability in all symptom categories. Gene expression of miR103a-3p correlated with FMS related disability and miR107 with the score “physical abuse” of the trauma questionnaire (p < 0.05). Target scan identified sucrose non-fermentable serine/threonine protein kinase, nuclear factor kappa-b, cyclin dependent kinase, and toll-like receptor 4 as genetic targets of the miR103a/107 miRNA family.ConclusionWe show an association between upregulated gene expression of miR103a, tendentially of miR107, and adaptive coping in FMS patients. Validation of this pair of miRNA may enable to identify a somatic resilience factor in FMS.

Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for Detecting Depression Among Pregnant Women in Lima, Peru.

Depression during pregnancy is linked to adverse perinatal and offspring outcomes. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) has been validated for identifying depression in pregnant women in limited cultural contexts. Construct validity and reliability have been assessed in Lima, Peru, but criterion validity has not. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the PHQ-9 among pregnant Peruvian women in the Pregnancy Outcomes, Maternal and Infant Study (PrOMIS). Using Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) criteria for past-12-month major depressive disorder as the reference standard, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of the PHQ-9 for detecting depression were assessed at various cutpoints of the PHQ-9. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate one- and two-factor structures for the PHQ-9. Cronbach's alpha was computed for the entire PHQ-9 scale and for subscales supported by CFA. A cutpoint of ≥8 maximized combined sensitivity (61%) and specificity (62%). At this cutpoint, positive predictive value was low (15%) and negative predictive values was high (93%). Reliability for the full scale was high (α=0.80). Both one- and two-factor solutions were appropriate for this population, but a two-factor solution containing an affective/mood factor (α=0.67) and a somatic factor (α=0.75) was optimal (CFI=0.93, RMSEA=0.075). Among pregnant women in Lima, screening with the PHQ-9 can identify those in need of mental health care, but may identify a large number of false positive cases.

Evaluation of reliability and validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 in patients with acne.

To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in patients with acne. Three hundred acne patients were enrolled from January 2019 to December 2019. PHQ-9 and Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD) survey was conducted to evaluate their depression status. Cronbach's α coefficient and test-retest reliability after 1 week were used to analyze the reliability of PHQ-9. Factor analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) were used for validity analysis of the PHQ-9.The screening validity was analyzed in different subgroups. Two hundred fifty-eight patients with acne completed the questionnaire. Forty-seven were diagnosed with depressive disorder. The best cut-off point for the PHQ-9 score is 9 points, with a sensitivity of 95.7%,a specificity of 88.6% and the area under the ROC curve(AUC) of 0.973.In validity analysis, the correlation coefficient between the total score of PHQ-9 and HAMD was 0.766,the kappa value was 0.530.Factor analysis revealed two common factors (cognitive-affective factor and somatic symptom factor),which explained 65.52% of the total variances. In reliability analysis, the Cronbach's α coefficient of the PHQ-9 was 0.851,the test-retest reliability value was 0.824.The time to complete the PHQ-9 was significantly less than the time to complete HAMD (P < .001).The PHQ-9 shows good reliability and validity for the diagnosis of depression in patients with acne, and can be used for preliminary screening of depression.

Beck depression inventory, second edition, Czech version: demographic correlates, factor structure and comparison with foreign data

Objective We aimed to examine whether demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, age and education) correlate with total scores of the Czech version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), understand the factorial structure of this scale, compare our results with findings of studies conducted in other countries and provide preliminary normative data for use in clinical practice. Methods Data of 450 participants were analysed using correlation analysis, non-parametric tests and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results Women, and participants with lower education, tended to score higher than men, and participants with higher education. There was no significant relationship between age and total scores. CFA confirmed two factors: cognitive-affective and somatic. Czech participants scored lower than participants in other studies. Preliminary normative data are presented in the form of percentile values for the whole sample and stratified according to gender and education level. Conclusions We recommend the usage of the BDI-II total score while taking into account also the cognitive-affective and somatic factor subscores. The comparison of our results with other foreign findings shows the need for the development of locally specific normative values for self-reported depression scales. KEY POINTS Women scored higher in the BDI-II than men. Participants with lower education scored higher in the BDI-II than participants with higher education. CFA confirmed two factors: cognitive-affective and somatic. Preliminary normative data for the Czech version of the BDI-II are stratified according to gender and education.

Depressive symptoms, its sub-factors, and augmentation index: the modifying effects according to inflammatory markers

Background This study aimed to investigate the association between depression and the augmentation index (AIx), and to further investigate whether there is a difference in this association according to the patients’ inflammatory status.Methods This study included 458 men and 815 women (mean age: 49.35 years), a community-dwelling and middle-aged Korean population. The Korean version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was used to assess depressive symptoms. Arterial stiffness was evaluated via an AIx normalized to 75 beats/min. We confirmed two factors from BDI-II after conducting a factor analysis. Multiple regression models were used after adjusting for socio-demographic factors, lifestyle factors, systolic blood pressure, diabetes history, and body mass index. We further stratified the data according to inflammatory biomarkers with cutoffs of the 75th percentile.Results There was a significant positive association between the BDI-II score and arterial stiffness (ß= 0.09, p-value=0.037). In women, the somatic-affective factor showed a stronger positive association (ß= 0.20, p-value=0.018) with arterial stiffness than the cognitive factor (ß= 0.12, p-value=0.148). There was no significant association in men (ß= -0.01, p-value=0.943). In subgroup analyses, women showed significant positive associations between the somatic affective factor of depressive symptoms on and arterial stiffness according to both inflammatory markers (IL-6: ß= 0.17, p-value=0.039; hs-CRP: ß= 0.17, p-value=0.094)Limitations The design of the cross-sectional study limits causal interpretation.Conclusion Depression and its somatic-affective factor were positively associated with arterial stiffness in women. Inflammatory status may be involved in modifying the association between depressive symptoms, its sub-factors, and AIx.