Total Life Expectancy Research Articles

REPRODUCTION OF THE URBAN POPULATION OF THE TYUMEN REGION IN 1959-1970: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The study of fertility and mortality in the regions where Soviet territorial-production complexes were formed is of great interest. Such studies make it possible to answer the question in which direction the demographic dynamics changed in the conditions of profound economic and social changes that were taking place in them at that time. Demographic processes in the Tyumen region during the formation of the West Siberian oil and gas complex interested many researchers. However, in their works, the main attention was paid to migration movements, the formation of labor collectives. Much less attention has been paid to the analysis of natural movement. In addition, it was produced using general indicators that have a high error. In this regard, it is still not clear how much the birth rate and mortality rate of city dwellers actually changed. The aim of the article is to study the dynamics of the total fertility rate and life expectancy in the 1960s. in urban settlements of the Tyumen region. For solving it, there were used the method of conditional generation, historical-comparative and historical-genetic methods. The study revealed that initially in 1958-1959 fertility and mortality of the urban population were approximately at the level of Western Siberia. After the beginning of the Western Siberian Oil And Gas Complex formation in the social-class structure, there was a slight increase in the share of workers, in the system of urban settlement the role of the regional center decreased. As a result, the birth rate among the townspeople of the Tyumen region in 1969-1970 became the highest among the West Siberian regions. The harsh climate, low rates of construction of housing and social infrastructure facilities, poorly organized medical services, the development of industries characterized by high injuries, an increase in alcohol consumption have led to the fact that life expectancy in the region has become the lowest among the Western Siberian regions. All of these changes in reproduction occurred taking into account the fact that the share of the northern regions in 1970 still did not exceed one third of the urban population of the region.

Age of Migration and Cognitive Life Expectancies Among Older Latinos: Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study

This study used data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2014) to estimate Sullivan-based life tables of cognitively intact, cognitively impaired/no dementia (CIND), and dementia life expectancies by nativity, age of migration, and sex for older Latinos residing in the United States. Results show foreign-born Latinos, regardless of age of migration or sex, spend a greater number of years after age 50 with CIND compared to U.S.-born Latinos. Furthermore, we document an advantage in total life expectancy and cognitively intact life expectancy among mid-life immigrant men relative to their U.S.-born counterparts. The robust relationship between nativity, age of migration, and cognitive health suggests that the foreign-born may place particularly serious burdens on families and the government. This issue merits special attention in the development of community-based long-term care programs to appropriately target the specific needs of different subgroups of older Latinos who are entering into their last decades of life.

The Impact of Smoking and Obesity on Disability-Free Life Expectancy in Older Australians.

BackgroundSmoking and obesity are 2 modifiable risk factors for disability. We examine the impact of smoking and obesity on disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) at older ages, using 2 levels of disability.MethodWe used the DYNOPTA dataset, derived by harmonizing and pooling risk factors and disability outcomes from 5 Australian longitudinal aging studies. We defined mobility disability as inability to walk 1 km, and more severe (activities of daily living [ADL]) disability by the inability to dress or bathe. Mortality data for the analytic sample (N = 20 401; 81.2% women) were obtained from Government Records via data linkage. We estimated sex-specific total life expectancy, DFLE, and years spent with disability by Interpolated Markov Chain (IMaCh) software for each combination of smoking (never vs ever), obesity (body mass index ≥30 vs 18.5 to <30), and education (left school age 14 or younger vs age 15 or older).ResultsCompared to those without either risk factor, high educated nonobese smokers at age 65 lived shorter lives (men and women: 2.5 years) and fewer years free of mobility disability (men: 2.1 years; women: 2.0 years), with similar results for ADL disability. Obesity had the largest effect on mobility disability in women; high educated obese nonsmoking women lived 1.3 years less than nonsmoking, not obese women but had 5.1 years fewer free of mobility disability and 3.2 fewer free of ADL disability. Differences between risk factor groups were similar for the low educated.ConclusionsOur findings suggest eliminating obesity would lead to an absolute reduction of disability, particularly in women.

Prospects of application of drugs based on guaric acid in treatment of patients with osteoarthritis and comorbid course of steatohepatitis and excessive body weight

One of the factors of osteoarthritis is obesity, which is now considered to be one of the major health problems around the world. Patients with osteoarthritis have a high comorbidity index. Medicamental therapy of patients with osteoarthritis and comorbid course of steatohepatitis is associated with additional risks such as hepatotoxic effects of drugs that patients take.Purpose: to review scientific articles which cover information on effectiveness of using drugs based on guaric acid to reduce excess body weight.Conclusion. Increased accumulation of visceral adipose tissue is one of the main pathogenetic factors contributing to development of osteoarthritis, steatosis and steatohepatitis. Therefore, drugs aimed at reducing excess body weight should take a leading place in the complex therapy of patients. Such drugs can contribute to reducing early disability of population, optimizing the quality of life indicators, and total life expectancy.

Age- and cause-specific contributions to the life expectancy gap between Medical Aid recipients and National Health Insurance beneficiaries in Korea, 2008-2017.

Recipients of Medical Aid, a government-funded social assistance program for the poor, have a shorter life expectancy than National Health Insurance beneficiaries in Korea. This study aims to explore the contributions of age and major causes of death to the life expectancy difference between the two groups. We used the National Health Information Database provided by the National Health Insurance Service individually linked to mortality registration data of Statistics Korea between 2008 and 2017. Annual abridged life tables were constructed and Arriaga’s life expectancy decomposition method was employed to estimate age- and cause-specific contributions to the life expectancy gap between National Health Insurance beneficiaries and Medical Aid recipients. The life expectancy difference between National Health Insurance beneficiaries and Medical Aid recipients was 14.5 years during the period of 2008–2017. The age groups between 30 and 64 years accounted for 78.7% and 67.5% of the total life expectancy gap in men and women, respectively. Cancer was the leading cause of death contributing to excess mortality among Medical Aid recipients compared to National Health Insurance beneficiaries. More specifically, alcohol-attributable deaths (such as alcoholic liver disease, liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, and alcohol/substance abuse), suicide, and cardiometabolic risk factor–related deaths (such as cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes) were the leading contributors to the life expectancy gap. To decrease excess deaths in Medical Aid recipients and reduce health inequalities, effective policies for tobacco and alcohol regulation, suicide prevention, and interventions to address cardiometabolic risk factors are needed.

Impact of Immunization Programs on 11 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in China: 1950-2018

Background: China’s immunization program has determined dramatic declines in morbidity and mortality of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) in the past decades. To evaluate the program’s achievements, we explored the changes in morbidity and mortality of VPDs in China. Methods: 11 diseases were chosen as representative notifiable diseases in China, and annual surveillance data obtained between 1950 and 2018 were used to derive trends in morbidity and mortality for each stage. Quasi-Poisson regression models and Polynomial regression models were used to estimate the impacts of specific vaccine programs, and life-table methods were used to calculate the loss of life expectancy, years of life lost (YLLs) and loss of working years. Results: The total notification number for the 11 VPDs was 211,866,000 from 1950 to 2018. The greatest number occurred in 1959, with around 12 million cases and a total incidence rate of 1,723 per 100,000 persons. The quasi-Poisson regression models showed that most of the 11 diseases revealed dramatic declines in morbidity after integrating into Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), while varicella, and paratyphoid fever showed an increased morbidity, which did not integrate into EPI in China. From 1978 to 2018, the incidence rate of pertussis fell 98% from 126.35 to 1.58 per million, that of measles fell 99% from 249.76 to 0.28 per 100,000, that of meningococcal meningitis fell 99% from 32.23 to 0.01 per million, that of JE fell 98% from 5.39 to 0.13 per million, and diphtheria and polio were eradicated, with the last cases being reported in 2006 and 1994, respectively. From 1978 to 2018, the total life expectancy for the 11 VPDs increased by 0.79 years. Interpretation: China had great success in controlling VPDs in recent decades, and the burden of major diseases has been declining. The implementation of the National Immunization Program (NIP) accelerated the decreases in morbidity and mortality rates. Improving vaccination coverage is a key aspect of controlling VPDs in China. Funding Statement: This study was funded by the “Evaluation project on national immunization program of China” Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Life expectancy and active life expectancy by disability status in older U.S. adults.

The Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS) is the largest longitudinal survey of the U.S. community-dwelling elderly population. This study estimated total life expectancy, active life expectancy (ALE), and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) by disability status among HOS participants. Data were from the Medicare HOS Cohort 15 (baseline 2012, follow-up 2014). We included respondents aged ≥ 65 years (n = 164,597). Participants' disability status was assessed based on the following six activities of daily living (ADL): bathing, dressing, eating, getting in or out of chairs, walking, and using the toilet. The multi-state models were used to estimate life expectancy, ALE, and DFLE by participants' baseline disability status and age. Persons who had higher-level ADL limitations had a shorter life expectancy, ALE, and DFLE. Also persons with disability had greater expected life years with disability than those with no limitations and those with mild limitations. For example, among 65-year old respondents with no limitations, mild limitations, and disability, life expectancy was 19.9, 18.6, and 17.1 years, respectively; ALE was 14.0, 9.5, and 7.2 years, respectively; DFLE was 17.3, 15.2, and 11.4 years, respectively; and expected years with disability was 2.6, 3.4, and 5.7 years, respectively. This study demonstrated that greater levels of disability adversely impact life expectancy, ALE, DFLE, and expected number of years with a disability among U.S. older adults. Understanding levels of disability, and how these may change over time, would enhance health care quality and planning services related to home care and housing in this community-dwelling population.

Demographic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Life Expectancy With Hearing Impairment in the United States.

Hearing impairment is one of the most common disabilities among older people, and its prevalence will increase as the U.S. population ages. However, little is known about social disparities in onset or transitions into and out of hearing impairment, nor how these transitions impact years of life to be spent impaired. We investigate the number of years an "average" person can expect to live with and without hearing impairment after age 50; sex, race, educational, and regional differences in these expectancies; and the implication of hearing impairment for remaining life expectancy. Bayesian multistate life table methods are applied to 9 waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2014) to investigate social disparities in life expectancy with hearing impairment (n = 20,200) for the general population, people hearing impaired at age 50, and people hearing unimpaired at age 50. Men, Hispanics, persons with less educational attainment, and those born in the south can expect to live a larger proportion of their remaining lives hearing impaired. Although transitions from hearing impaired to unimpaired occur, those with some hearing impairment at age 50 can expect to live more years with hearing impairment, and hearing impairment does not shorten remaining life expectancy. Significant sociodemographic disparities in hearing impaired life expectancy exist. In contrast to past research, we find that hearing impairment does not affect total life expectancy. Future research should consider the consequences of hearing impairment for years to be lived with other age-related and potentially downstream health outcomes.

Educational Benefits and Cognitive Health Life Expectancies: Racial/Ethnic, Nativity, and Gender Disparities

To examine racial/ethnic, nativity, and gender differences in the benefits of educational attainment on cognitive health life expectancies among older adults in the United States. We used data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2014) to estimate Sullivan-based life tables of cognitively healthy, cognitively impaired/no dementia, and dementia life expectancies by gender for older White, Black, U.S.-born Hispanic, and foreign-born Hispanic adults with less than high school, high school, and some college or more. White respondents lived a greater percentage of their remaining lives cognitively healthy than their minority Black or Hispanic counterparts, regardless of level of education. Among respondents with some college or more, versus less than high school, Black and U.S.-born Hispanic women exhibited the greatest increase (both 37 percentage points higher) in the proportion of total life expectancy spent cognitively healthy; whereas White women had the smallest increase (17 percentage points higher). For men, the difference between respondents with some college or more, versus less than high school, was greatest for Black men (35 percentage points higher) and was lowest for U.S.-born Hispanic men (21 percentage points higher). Our results provide evidence that the benefits of education on cognitive health life expectancies are largest for Black men and women and U.S.-born Hispanic women. The combination of extended longevity and rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease points to the need for understanding why certain individuals spend an extended period of their lives with poor cognitive health.

Life expectancy and active life expectancy by marital status among older U.S. adults: Results from the U.S. Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS).

BackgroundPrevious investigations of the relationship between marital status and life expectancy and healthy life expectancy rely on the assumption that participants will remain in a given marital status until death. This study estimated total life expectancy (TLE) and active life expectancy (ALE) for respondents by their baseline marital status using a large longitudinal sample of the U.S. community-dwelling elderly population.MethodsData were from the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey Cohort 15 (2012 baseline, 2014 follow-up). We included respondents aged ≥65 years (n = 164,597). Multi-state models estimated TLE and ALE by marital status to allow participants’ marital status to change during the remaining lifetime.ResultsBetween 65 and 85 years, married men and women had a longer TLE and ALE than unmarried men and women. For example, at 65 years, TLE for married men was 18.6 years, 2.2 years longer than unmarried men, and ALE for married men was 12.3 years, 2.4 years longer than unmarried men. Similarly, at 65 years, TLE for married women was 21.1 years, 1.5 years longer than unmarried women, and ALE for married women was 13.0 years, 2.0 years longer than unmarried women. Such marriage protection effects decreased with age. In subgroups of unmarried persons, never married persons had the shortest TLE and ALE among men, and never married, divorced, and widowed persons had a similar, and shorter, TLE and ALE among women. The difference in TLE between married and unmarried persons was smaller after adjusting for baseline activity limitation status.ConclusionsThis study provides additional evidence for marriage's protective effect, with the magnitude of protection being greater for younger as compared to older persons. Selection bias was a large contributor to longer life expectancy among married persons.

Cognitive health expectancies of cardiovascular risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia

Cognitive health expectancy estimates the proportion of the lifespan that is lived in good cognitive health at the population level. A number of cardiovascular diseases have been identified to be risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia including diabetes, stroke, heart diseases and hypertension. The aim of this study was to examine how these cardiovascular conditions relate to cognitive health expectancy. Longitudinal data were obtained from the US Health and Retirement Study. Multistate modelling was used to estimate total life expectancy (LE), cognitive impairment free life expectancy (CIFLE) and years spent with cognitive impairment (CILE) across self-reported diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and stroke. Individual and cumulative effects of multiple cardiovascular conditions were examined. The presence of cardiovascular disease was associated with a 5- to 9-year decrease in LE and 4- to 8-year decrease in CIFLE at age 55. The outcomes varied in a hierarchical fashion by cardiovascular condition. Relative to other conditions, individuals with stroke had the shortest LE and CIFLE. Analysis of multiple cardiovascular risk factors revealed that each additional cardiovascular condition was associated with an exponential decrease in LE and CIFLE. Having a cardiovascular condition is associated with a lower CIFLE and higher proportion of life lived with cognitive impairment. However, the outcomes vary depending on the type of cardiovascular condition. Reducing incidence of stroke and minimising exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors may be beneficial in helping to improve population estimates of cognitive health expectancy.

Choosing which COVID-19 patient to save? The ethical triage and rationing dilemma

Killing someone directly is never morally right, but sometimes, choosing someone to save and leaving another to die is. The moral philosophy, law, and medical ethics have all wrestled with the problem of distinguishing between saving someone and leaving another to die. While this distinction might seem intuitively straightforward, it becomes far more complex when applied in treating patients of novel Coronavirus Disease pandemic (COVID-19). The World Health Organization reports more than eight million and half cases of infection and more than 450,000 deaths, 26% in USA. However, with the exponential rise in number of COVID-19 victims and the shortage of life-saving ventilators, the pandemic has imposed to health professionals an ethical medical triage decision-making based on the utilitarian theory to maximize total benefits and life expectancy. Moreover, the decision to put restrictions on treatment beneficence is not discretionary, but an indispensable response to the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. The main concern is not whether to underline priorities, but how to do so systematically and ethically, instead of building decisions on individualized institutional aspirations or health professionals’ intuition. The serious glaring disequilibrium, in healthcare market, between supply and demand for scarce medical resources in several developed nations (including the USA, UK, France, Italy, Spain, etc.) imposes a fundamental question: which COVID-19 patient to save when facing scarce resources?

Impact of Diabetes on Life and Healthy Life Expectancy Among Older Women.

Diabetes is a major chronic condition with ever-increasing health and economic burden. This study aimed to measure the impact of diabetes on total life expectancy (TLE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) at ages 70 and 80 and to assess how educational level, obesity, and comorbidity affected the expectancies. The study involved 9849 population-representative women born between 1921 and 1926 from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Self-rated health was obtained from the ALSWH surveys. Diabetes diagnosis was ascertained using survey and health care administrative data. Total life expectancy and HLE were estimated for women with and without diabetes using multistate modeling. Diabetes was associated with an increased risk of poor health (adjusted risk ratio: 1.63, 95% confidence interval: 1.49-1.79). Diabetes was also associated with a reduction of 0.9 years in HLE and 2.6 years in TLE at age 70 and 0.4 years in HLE and 1.3 years in TLE at age 80. If a woman had low education, obesity, and more than 2 comorbidities in addition to diabetes, these reductions increased to 3.0 years in TLE and 7.9 years in HLE at age 70 and 1.5 years in TLE and 3.8 years in HLE at age 80. Diabetes substantially reduced older women's quantity and quality of life, with further reductions for those with lower education, obesity, and comorbidities. These findings underscore the importance of optimally managing diabetes by maintaining a healthy weight and delaying the onset of comorbidities, to promote healthy aging for older women with diabetes.

Simulations of future cardiometabolic disease and life expectancy under counterfactual obesity reduction scenarios

The aim of this study was to provide decision makers with an assessment of potential future health effects of interventions against overweight and obesity (OWOB). By means of the DYNAMO-HIA tool we conducted a health impact assessment simulating future prevented disease (ischemic heart disease (IHD), diabetes, stroke, and multi morbidity) incidence, prevalence and life expectancy (LE) related to a scenario where OWOB is reduced by 25% and a scenario where obesity is eliminated. The study covered projected number of persons living in Copenhagen, Denmark during year 2014-2040 (n 2040=742,129). Reducing the proportion of men/women with OWOB with 25% will increase population LE by 2.4/1.2months and at the same time decrease LE with diabetes by 3.1/2.2months. As a result of eliminating obesity, total LE will increase by 6.0/3.6months and LE with diabetes will decrease with 9.8/10.3months for men/women. We found no important effects on LE with IHD and stroke. This illustrates that the positive effects of lowering OWOB levels on IHD and stroke incidence is offset due to increasing total LE. Although the population of Copenhagen is relatively lean, reducing obesity levels will result in significant benefits for population cardiometabolic health status and LE. Future public health prevention programs may use the results as reference data for potential impact of reductions in OWOB.

Poverty, Income, and Unemployment as Determinants of Life Expectancy: Empirical Evidence from Panel Data of Thirteen Malaysian States

The primary indicator of public health, which all nations aim to prolong, is life expectancy at birth. Uncovering its socioeconomic determinants is key to extending life expectancy. This study examined the determinants of life expectancy in Malaysia. This observational study employs secondary data from various official sources of 12 states and one federal territory in Malaysia (2002-2014). Panel data of 78 observations (13 cross-sections at six points in time) were used in multivariate, fixed-effect, regressions to estimate the effects of socioeconomic variables on life expectancy at birth for male, female and both-gender. Poverty and income significantly determine female, male, and total life expectancies. Unemployment significantly determines female and total life expectancies, but not male. Income inequality and public spending on health (as a percentage of total health spending) do not significantly determine life expectancy. The coefficients of the multivariate regressions suggest that a 1% reduction in poverty, 1% reduction in unemployment, and around USD 23.20 increase in household monthly income prolong total life expectancy at birth by 17.9, 72.0, and 16.3 d, respectively. The magnitudes of the effects of the socioeconomic variables on life expectancy vary somewhat by gender. Life expectancy in Malaysia is higher than the world average and higher than that in some developing countries in the region. However, it is far lower than the advanced world. Reducing poverty and unemployment and increasing income are three effective channels to enhance longevity.

ACCOUNTING FOR UNCERTAINTY ABOUT PAST VALUES IN PROBABILISTIC PROJECTIONS OF THE TOTAL FERTILITY RATE FOR MOST COUNTRIES.

Since the 1940s, population projections have in most cases been produced using the deterministic cohort component method. However, in 2015, for the first time, in a major advance, the United Nations issued official probabilistic population projections for all countries based on Bayesian hierarchical models for total fertility and life expectancy. The estimates of these models and the resulting projections are conditional on the UN's official estimates of past values. However, these past values are themselves uncertain, particularly for the majority of the world's countries that do not have longstanding high-quality vital registration systems, when they rely on surveys and censuses with their own biases and measurement errors. This paper extends the UN model for projecting future total fertility rates to take account of uncertainty about past values. This is done by adding an additional level to the hierarchical model to represent the multiple data sources, in each case estimating their bias and measurement error variance. We assess the method by out-of-sample predictive validation. While the prediction intervals produced by the extant method (which does not account for this source of uncertainty) have somewhat less than nominal coverage, we find that our proposed method achieves closer to nominal coverage. The prediction intervals become wider for countries for which the estimates of past total fertility rates rely heavily on surveys rather than on vital registration data, especially in high fertility countries.

Study on the outdoor scientific physical exercise of the masses in Gansu plateau from the Environmental Science

Based on the perspective of environmental safety, this study uses literature, instrument measurement and data statistics to study the physical exercise of the masses in the Gansu Plateau. It points out the environmental characteristics of the Gansu Plateau and the impact of the plateau environment on human health. Environment construction strategy. According to the WHO, outdoor environmental air pollution in urban and rural areas caused 4.2 million premature deaths in 2016 due to exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) with a diameter of 2.5μm or less, which can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer. The World Cancer Organization’s International Cancer Research Institute conducted an assessment in 2013 and found that outdoor air pollution has a carcinogenic effect on humans. The particulate matter composition of air pollution is closely related to the increase in the incidence of cancer, especially lung cancer. [1] A study by Kunai et al, Points out that outdoor air pollution causes approximately 800,000 deaths worldwide each year, and the total healthy life expectancy of the world population is reduced by approximately 4.6 million years. Among them, twice as many people die each year as a result of traffic accidents. [2] Environmental pollution has severely affected our work and life, especially the haze weather in recent years has seriously harmed our physical and mental health.

Association of Walnut Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality and Life Expectancy in U.S. Women and Men

Abstract Objectives We aim to 1) examine the association between walnut consumption and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality; 2) to estimate life expectancy that would be potentially gained by varying intake of walnuts in U.S. women and men. Methods Walnut consumption was assessed using validated food frequency questionnaires in 1998 (baseline year) and updated every 4 years. We included data from 68,308 women of the Nurses’ Health Study (1998–2016) and 26,760 men of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1998–2016) who were free of cancer, heart disease, and stroke at baseline. We used Cox regression models adjusting for confounders to estimate mortality risk associated with walnut consumption stratified by sex and dietary quality. We used population based multistate life tables to calculate the differences in life expectancy and years lived in relation to walnut consumption. Results During up to 18 years of follow-up, we documented 30,502 deaths from any cause. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for total mortality across categories of walnut intake (servings/week), as compared to non-consumers, were 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89–0.94), for &amp;lt;1 serving/week, 0.87 (95% CI, 0.83–0.92) for 1 serving/week, 0.79 (95% CI, 0.75–0.85), for 2–4 servings/week, and 0.77 (95% CI,: 0.71–0.81) for &amp;gt;= 5 servings/week (P for trend &amp;lt;0.0001). Per 0.5 serving/day walnut consumption was associated of a reduced risk of total mortality (HR: 0.82, 95% CI,: 0.77–0.88), CVD mortality (HR: 0.78, 95% CI,: 0.67–0.33), and cancer mortality (HR: 0.93, 95% CI:, 0.81–1.07) in participants with a suboptimal diet (AHEI score &amp;lt;60% of cohort distribution). A greater life expectancy of 1.78 years in women and 1.94 years in men was observed among those who consumed walnuts more than 5 servings/week, compared to non-consumers at age 60. Conclusions Higher walnut consumption was associated with lower risk for total mortality and longer estimated life expectancy among U.S. men and women of two prospective cohort studies. Our results provide evidence on the potential role of walnut in the prevention of premature death. Funding Sources UM1 CA186107, UM1 CA176726, UM1 CA167552 Y.L. was partly funded by the California Walnut Commission. The funders have no roles in the design and conduct of the study.

Comparative study of the effects of heavy metals on embryonic development of zebrafish

This study aimed to investigate the effects of heavy metals, such as copper, zinc, iron, cobalt, chromium, aluminium, manganese and molybdenum, on zebrafish egg hatching rate and the subsequent survival rate of the larvae. Each metal was used in the various concentrations of0.05 mg/L, 50 mg/L and 500 mg/L to detect the threshold limit of tolerance. The study's results showed significant differences in the hatching and survival rate of larvae between the control group and most of the experimental groups when adding heavy metals in various concentrations. The highest concentration (500 mg/L) of the induced heavy metals tested in this study resulted in total egg or larval mortality within 96 hr and significantly lower egg or larval life expectancy. Among the tested metals, zinc and molybdenum had the most significant impact on hatching time, in contrast to iron that did not differentiate the results from the control group. Copper, cobalt, chromium, aluminium and manganese did affect zebrafish eggs depending on their exposure concentrations, which differentiated the results from the control group. Also, the study's findings demonstrate a significant dependence of the hatched egg heart rate on the metal concentration, and in particular, higher concentrations of metals correspond to higher heart rate. Zinc, Molybdenum and copper was proved to be the most toxic heavy metals causing increased hazard rate to mortality up to 96 hr and shorter life expectancy. Finally, skeletal deformities that occasionally observed did not significantly affect the total life expectancy of the hatched eggs.

Allocation of scarce resources during the COVID-19 pandemic: a Jewish ethical perspective

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has placed medical triage decision-making in the spotlight. As life-saving ventilators become scarce, clinicians are being forced to allocate scarce resources in even the wealthiest countries....