Nutritional pyramid for post-gastric bypass patients.

Background: Life-long nutrition education and diet evaluation are key to the long-term success of surgical treatment of obesity. Diet guidelines provided for bariatric surgery patients generally focus on a progression through dietary stages, from the immediate post-surgical period to 6 months after surgery. However, long-term dietary guidelines for those surgically treated for obesity are not readily available.

A novel family-based intervention trial to improve heart health: FIT Heart: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Family members of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) may be at increased risk due to shared genes and lifestyle. Hospitalization of a family member with CVD may represent a "motivational moment" to take preventive action.

Methods And Results: A randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted in healthy adult family members (N=501; 66% female; 36% nonwhite; mean age, 48 years) of patients hospitalized with CVD to evaluate a special intervention (SI) with personalized risk factor screening, therapeutic lifestyle-change counseling, and progress reports to physicians versus a control intervention (CIN) on the primary outcome, mean percent change in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and other risk factors.

Clinical utility of a fingerstick technology to identify individuals with abnormal blood lipids and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of a commonly used fingerstick technology to identify individuals with abnormal blood levels of total cholesterol (TC), calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) compared with a standardized laboratory.

Methods: Participants (n = 250; mean age, 48.0 +/- 13.

Waist circumference, body mass index, and their association with cardiometabolic and global risk.

Total body fat and adipose tissue distribution are associated with cardiometabolic risk, yet there are conflicting data as to whether waist circumference (WC) or body mass index (BMI) is a better predictor of cardiovascular risk. To determine whether WC or BMI was more strongly associated with cardiometabolic risk, family members of patients with cardiac disease were studied (N=501; mean age, 48 years; 66% female; 36% nonwhite). Height, weight, WC, BMI, blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) were systematically measured.

Usefulness of self-reported periodontal disease to identify individuals with elevated inflammatory markers at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Periodontal disease has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), and inflammation may represent a common pathophysiology. Oral health screening in the context of CVD risk assessment represents a potential opportunity to identify individuals at risk for CVD. The purposes of this study were to determine if self-reported oral health status is independently associated with inflammatory markers and if oral health assessment as part of CVD risk screening can identify at-risk individuals without traditional CVD risk factors.

Validation of the MEDFICTS dietary assessment questionnaire in a diverse population.

Background: The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) recommends MEDFICTS, a rapid screening instrument for dietary fat, to assess adherence to the Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet (score <40 points indicates intake of <7% of energy from saturated fat, <30% of energy from total fat, and <200 mg dietary cholesterol/day). MEDFICTS has only been validated in small, select populations and its utility in diverse clinical settings is unknown.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of MEDFICTS to identify individuals who are nonadherent to a TLC diet in an ethnically diverse population that includes both English- and Spanish-speakers.

Cardiovascular disease knowledge, medication adherence, and barriers to preventive action in a minority population.

Lack of knowledge and awareness of cardiovascular disease may contribute to disproportionately higher risk in minorities. The authors studied minorities in Harlem, New York (N=214), to evaluate knowledge and preventive behaviors. More than half of the participants did not know optimal blood pressure (BP) (52%) and cholesterol (60%) goals.

National study of women's awareness, preventive action, and barriers to cardiovascular health.

Background: There is growing awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as the leading cause of death in women, but whether this greater awareness is associated with increased action by women to lower their personal or family's risk is unknown.

Methods And Results: A nationally representative sample of 1008 women selected through random-digit dialing were given a standardized questionnaire about history of CVD/risk factors, awareness of leading cause of death, knowledge of healthy and personal levels of CVD risk factors, self-reported actions taken to reduce risk, and barriers to heart health. The rate of awareness of CVD as the leading cause of death has nearly doubled since 1997 (55% versus 30%) was significantly greater for whites compared with blacks and Hispanics (62% versus 38% and 34%, respectively) and was independently correlated with increased physical activity (odds ratio, 1.

Waist circumference predicts cardiometabolic and global Framingham risk among women screened during National Woman's Heart Day.

Purpose: To evaluate the cardiometabolic risk profiles of 6938 women (mean age 49.2 +/- 14.6 years) attending the 2005 Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation free public health standardized cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor screening events in 12 cities across the United States by race/ethnicity and waist circumference.

Ethnic differences in barriers and referral to cardiac rehabilitation among women hospitalized with coronary heart disease.

Important gender differences in cardiac rehabilitation utilization are well established, yet few studies have documented whether reported barriers and referrals vary by ethnicity. This is a cross-sectional study to determine whether barriers and referrals to participation in cardiac rehabilitation differed by race/ethnicity in 304 women (52% ethnic minorities) hospitalized with coronary heart disease. Nearly all subjects (92%) strongly agreed that physician referral was important to participation in rehab, but only 22% of subjects reported physician instruction to attend.

Coronary heart disease in ethnically diverse women: risk perception and communication.

Objectives: To assess perceived vs calculated risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), preferred methods of communicating risk, and the effect of brief educational intervention to improve accurate perceptions of personal risk.

Subjects And Methods: Of 1858 women who underwent screening mammography between April and September 2003 at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, NY, we assessed 125 women with no history of cardiovascular disease who participated in a risk factor screening and education program. Demographic variables were evaluated by interviewer-assisted standardized questionnaires.