Background: This study will evaluate the Basic Income for Care Leavers in Wales pilot (BIP), which is the most generous basic income scheme in the world. A cohort of care-experienced young people who become aged 18 during a 12-month enrolment period (July 2022-June 2023) are receiving £1,600 (before tax) per month for two years, and the Welsh Government intends this to have a range of benefits. This evaluation will examine the impact of BIP, the implementation of the pilot and how it is experienced, and its value for money.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet
December 2023
Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common chromosomal conditions that results in intellectual disability. Children with DS have many different inflammatory and noninflammatory conditions that can affect joint mobility leading to arthralgia and altered joint range of motion (ROM), and it is important to have normal reference values for comparison to determine the degree of impairment. The objective of this study was to establish normative joint ROM values, using a standardized measurement approach, for upper and lower joints of healthy children of both genders with DS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytoplankton communities are major primary producers in the aquatic realm and are responsible for shaping aquatic ecosystems. The dynamics of algal blooms could be determined by a succession of variable taxonomic groups, which are altered based on complex environmental factors such as nutrient availability and hydraulic factors. In-river structures potentially increase the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) by increasing water residence time and deteriorating water quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Given the demands for public health and infectious disease management skills during COVID-19, a shortage of the public health workforce, particularly with skills and competencies in epidemiology and biostatistics, has emerged at the Centers for Disease Controls (CDCs) in China. This study aims to investigate the employment preferences of doctoral students majoring in epidemiology and biostatistics, to inform policy-makers and future employers to address recruitment and retention requirements at CDCs across China.
Methods: A convenience sampling approach for recruitment, and an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey instrument to elicit future employee profiles, and self-report of their employment and aspirational preferences during October 20 and November 12, 2020.
Background: Cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS) may partially stem from inadequate cerebral blood flow. Cerebral blood flow and cognitive function improve with aerobic exercise in healthy adults. The effect of aerobic exercise on cerebrovascular hemodynamics and cognitive performance in persons with MS is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
January 2021
Depressive symptoms are prevalent in university students and may impair their social, educational, and economic transition into adulthood. Identifying the factors that determine depressive symptoms is crucial for the design of effective policy interventions. This study aims to examine the associations between health literacy and depressive symptoms among medical students, and to evaluate the effect of different types of social support as a potential mediator.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and reduced work capacity, which could partly be explained by alterations to autonomic and hemodynamic regulation. The measurement of heart rate and blood pressure during isometric handgrip (HG) exercise, a sympathoexcitatory stimulus, is a noninvasive method to investigate autonomic and hemodynamic alterations. The purpose of this study was to assess alterations to autonomic and associated hemodynamic regulation between individuals with ID and a matched control group during isometric HG exercise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Economic evaluation of computerised decision-support software intended to assist in the interpretation of a cardiotocography (CTG) during birth.
Design: Individual patient level data from the INFANT study (an unmasked randomised controlled trial).
Setting: Maternity units in the UK and Ireland.
Aging increases arterial stiffness, which has a negative impact on cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation (decreases CBF and increases CBF pulsatility). The association between arterial stiffness and CBF pulsatility may, in part, explain the relationship between elevated blood pressure (BP) fluctuations and end-organ disease with aging. To understand the mechanisms by which large BP alterations influence cerebral blood flow regulation in both young and old, we examined the effects of age on central and cerebral blood flow regulation following an acute hypertensive stimulus [resistance-exercise (RE)].
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Individuals with intellectual disability have a high prevalence of obesity and low physical activity levels, which are risk factors for hypertension. This study estimated the prevalence of hypertension in a global data set of adults with intellectual disability participating in Special Olympics and investigated the role of physical activity and obesity in hypertension risk.
Methods: A total of 33,122 individuals aged ≥18 years with intellectual disability who participated in Special Olympic events from 2014 to 2018 had their brachial blood pressure, BMI, and self-reported physical activity assessed.
Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system with a prevalence of nearly 1 million adults in the United States. MS results in declines in physical activity and peak oxygen consumption that might be independently associated with declines in walking performance. Therefore our purpose was to evaluate the association between physical activity and peak oxygen consumption with walking performance in individuals with MS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex differences exist in vascular responses to blood pressure perturbations, such as resistance exercise. Increases in aortic stiffness following acute resistance exercise appear different between sexes, with attenuated increases in females vs. males.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
November 2019
Acute inflammation is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events and impaired vasodilatory capacity. Vasodilatory capacity can be measured in different segments of the arterial tree; however, it is unknown if the effects of acute inflammation are vascular segment-specific or if inflammation-induced dysfunction can be attenuated by factors that modulate cardiovascular risk, such as high cardiorespiratory fitness. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute inflammation and fitness on conduit artery, resistance artery, and microvascular function in healthy, young adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Unaddressed alcohol use among injured patients may result in recurrent injury or death. Many trauma centers incorporate alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for injured patients with alcohol use disorders, but systematic reviews evaluating the impact of these interventions are lacking.
Methods: An evidence-based systematic review was performed to answer the following population, intervention, comparator, outcomes question: Among adult patients presenting for acute injury, should emergency department, trauma center, or hospital-based alcohol screening with brief intervention and/or referral to treatment be instituted compared with usual care to prevent or decrease reinjury, hospital readmission, alcohol-related offenses, and/or alcohol consumption? A librarian-initiated query of PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library was performed.
Acute inflammation increases the risk of cardiac and cerebrovascular events, possibly related to alterations in the hemodynamic load. Wave reflection at the aorta and carotid provides insight into downstream vascular changes and hemodynamic load at the heart and brain. Acute inflammation has been suggested to reduce wave reflection via downstream vasodilation; however, this is not firmly established and has only been investigated at the aorta.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience autonomic dysfunction, with reduced sympathetic and parasympathetic control. This results in alterations in resting heart rate and blood pressure and attenuated responses to sympathoexcitatory stimuli. It is unknown to what extent this impacts the regulation of peripheral blood flow in response to sympathetic stimuli, which is an important prerequisite to exercise and perform work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSympathetic vasoconstriction is attenuated in exercising muscles to assist in matching of blood flow with metabolic demand. This "functional sympatholysis" may be impaired in young obese individuals due to greater sympathetic activation and/or reduced local vasodilatory capacity of both small and large arteries, but this remains poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that functional sympatholysis is impaired in obese individuals compared with normal-weight counterparts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed Sci Sports Exerc
September 2019
Introduction: Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are often sedentary and have low fitness levels. Current knowledge supports the existence of physiological barriers resulting in low fitness and exercise intolerance in individuals with Down syndrome, which might be applicable to other ID etiologies. If physiological barriers exist in ID, this would require adaptation of the physical activity guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: African-Americans are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with their white counterparts, potentially due to greater arterial stiffness and reduced vasodilatory capacity. Racial differences also exist in arterial stiffness and blood pressure (BP) following maximal aerobic exercise; African-Americans do not exhibit central post exercise BP reductions. Whether impaired vasodilatory function contributes to the lack of BP response is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough exercise has well-documented health benefits on cardiovascular disease (CVD), the benefit of combination exercise on CVD risk factors in individuals with elevated risk has not been fully elucidated. We compared the effects of aerobic, resistance, and a combination of both aerobic and resistance training on CVD risk factors including peripheral and central BP, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), muscular strength, body composition, blood glucose and lipids. Sixty-nine adults (58±7 years) with an elevated blood pressure or hypertension, overweight/obesity, and sedentary lifestyle were randomized to one of the three 8-week exercise programs or a non-exercise control group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While MS is considered, in part, an inflammatory disease, the relationship between measures of adiposity and MS have not been well studied. This is important considering the strength of the association between adiposity and inflammation reported in the general population, and the resultant increased risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Evidence demonstrates MS is associated with higher prevalence rates of cardiovascular disease than the general population, which provides an impetus to examine how measures of adiposity and systemic inflammation are related in individuals with MS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondria are integral to cellular energy metabolism and ATP production and are involved in regulating many cellular processes. Mitochondria produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which not only can damage cellular components but also participate in signal transduction. The kinase ATM, which is mutated in the neurodegenerative, autosomal recessive disease ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), is a key player in the nuclear DNA damage response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew Findings: What is the central question of the study? What are the effects of age and fitness on the vascular response to acute inflammation in younger and older adults? What is the main finding and its importance? In older adults, cardiorespiratory fitness level has a differential impact on endothelial function after acute inflammation. Compared with older adults with low fitness, older, moderately fit adults have a greater decrease in endothelial function, similar to that of younger adults. These findings have important implications in support of the beneficial effects of higher cardiorespiratory fitness in maintaining vascular reactivity and the ability to respond to stressors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate changes in arterial stiffness with positional change and whether the stiffness changes are due to hydrostatic pressure alone or if physiological changes in vasoconstriction of the conduit arteries play a role in the modulation of arterial stiffness.
Methods: Thirty participants' (male = 15, 24 ± 4 years) upper bodies were positioned at 0, 45, and 72° angles. Pulse wave velocity (PWV), cardio-ankle vascular index, carotid beta-stiffness index, carotid blood pressure (cBP), and carotid diameters were measured at each position.