How to Assess Executive Functions in a Low-Educated and Multicultural Population Using a Switching Verbal Fluency Test (the TFA-93) in Neurodegenerative Diseases?

Few neuropsychological tests are available to assess executive dysfunction in low-educated and multicultural populations. To address this issue, the TFA-93, a switching verbal fluency test to assess cognitive flexibility, was administered to 70 healthy controls, 57 patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, and 21 with a clinical diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease associated with frontal disorders. Most of the participants were low-educated and nonnative French speakers.

The TMA-93: A New Memory Test for Alzheimer's Disease in Illiterate and Less Educated People.

The present study aimed at validating the Memory Associative Test of the district of Seine-Saint-Denis (TMA)-93, a new test of episodic memory. The TMA-93 was proposed to mostly less educated and multicultural elderly population composed of 376 healthy controls (HC) and 94 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The construct validity was checked by studying correlations with a widely used memory test (the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test [FCSRT]) in the subsample of literate patients.

TNI-93: A New Memory Test for Dementia Detection in Illiterate and Low-Educated Patients.

Objective: To validate the TNI-93 test in illiterate and low-educated subjects by setting cutoff scores to discriminate non-demented and demented subjects in a clinical setting (CESILL) and verifying the adequacy of these cutoff scores in a population-based study (AMI cohort).

Method: We used two study samples. First, a clinical setting (CESILL) comprising normal elderly participants and demented patients, mostly multicultural, low educated, or illiterate, was used to compute the cutoff scores of TNI-93 for the detection of dementia.

Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in HIV-infected children and young adults.

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency and HIV infection are both risk factors for chronic disorders, so it is important to consider vitamin D status in HIV-infected patients.

Methods: We prospectively investigated serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations, determined by radioimmunoassay, in 113 HIV-infected children (age≤24 years) and 54 healthy controls matched for age and phototype. We assessed the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency (VDD and VDI) defined as 25(OH)D titers of <10 ng/mL and between 10 and 30 ng/mL, respectively, and their predictive factors.

[Assessment of job stress after implementation of prevention measures in a pension fund].

Aim: Work stress and its impact on health have been widely studied. However, very few studies have examined the effect of implementing measures designed to reduce work stress, a risk factor for psychological health problems. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap.

Transient elastography as a screening tool for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in a community-based population aged over 45 years.

Background: Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) has been used to measure fibrosis in patients with various types of chronic liver diseases. However, its usefulness as a screening procedure in apparently healthy people had not been evaluated to date.

Methods: 1358 subjects >45 years old from a general population attending for a medical check-up were consecutively enrolled in the study.

Sociodemographic factors and attitudes toward food affordability and health are associated with fruit and vegetable consumption in a low-income French population.

Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption, including affordability and attitudes, have been poorly investigated, especially in European deprived populations. Our objective was to analyze various determinants of low consumption of fruits and vegetables in disadvantaged participants. Our participants were randomized into 2 groups, 1 which received nutritional advice alone and 1 that also received vouchers that were exchangeable for fruits and vegetables during a 12-mo period.

[Assessment of episodic memory in illiterate elderly].

Assessing cognitive functions in illiterate people is a difficult task because most of the neuropsychological tests exploring episodic memory have been validated in formally educated people, are based on verbal material and, therefore, require a good knowledge of language. Two episodic memory tests (TNI93 and TMA93) designed to be used for cognitive impairment screening in illiterate people have been designed, then validated in a multicultural low-educated population. Four hundred and thirty seven subjects aged 60 and over, living in the Seine-Saint-Denis district, received a medical check up offered by the National Health Service and their episodic memory performance was examined with these screening tests.

Subendocardial viability index is related to the diastolic/systolic time ratio and left ventricular filling pressure, not to aortic pressure: an invasive study in resting humans.

1. The myocardial perfusion relative to left ventricular (LV) workload may be estimated by the subendocardial viability index (SVI). The SVI is a pressure-time integral ratio: the numerator is the area between aortic and LV pressures during diastolic time (DT) and the denominator is the area under the LV pressure curve during systolic time (ST).

Subendocardial viability ratio estimated by arterial tonometry: a critical evaluation in elderly hypertensive patients with increased aortic stiffness.

1. Increased aortic stiffness predisposes to myocardial ischaemia by increasing the systolic tension-time index and by decreasing aortic pressure throughout diastole. The tonometric subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR) is a non-invasive estimate of myocardial perfusion relative to cardiac workload.

Liver stiffness values in apparently healthy subjects: influence of gender and metabolic syndrome.

Background/aims: Liver stiffness measurement by transient elastography is a very promising non-invasive method for the diagnosis of fibrosis in chronic liver diseases. However, studies on normal values of liver stiffness in healthy subjects are still lacking. The aim of the present study was to prospectively assess liver stiffness values in the general population and to determine potential factors, which may influence these values.

Association among individual deprivation, glycemic control, and diabetes complications: the EPICES score.

Objective: Previous studies have related poor glycemic control and/or some diabetes complications to low socioeconomic status. Some aspects of socioeconomic status have not been assessed in these studies. In the present study, we used an individual index of deprivation, the Evaluation de la Précarité et des Inégalités de santé dans les Centres d'Examens de Santé (Evaluation of Precarity and Inequalities in Health Examination Centers [EPICES]) score, to determine the relationship among glycemic control, diabetes complications, and individual conditions of deprivation.

[Psychosocial distress and stressful life antecedents associated with smoking. A survey of subjects consulting a preventive health center].

Background: The relationship between smoking and various socio-demographic or socio-economic factors, as well as the interactions between depressive mood and smoking are already known. However, the respective contribution of psychological factors and stressful life antecedents during childhood and adolescence warrants further specification.

Methods: 2315 consecutive subjects, aged 16 to 59, consulting for a free work-up in a preventive health centre, supported by the National French Health insurance system, were invited to fill out a series of questionnaires: the GHQ-28 and the LOT, respectively measuring psychosocial distress and dispositional optimism, as well as a questionnaire on socio-demographic, socio-economic and biographical data.

[Socioeconomic determinism of obesity in the Seine-Saint-Denis area].

Objective: Obesity is a complex multi-factorial disease. The role of socioeconomic factors is known but few studies have attempted to analyse separately the impact of the various participating factors: oncome, level of education, cultural and social status.

Method: These factors were analysed in 26,278 persons aging from 16 to 59 years, living in the district and having benefited from a medical check-up in the Seine-Saint-Denis health and social prevention centre, district particularly concerned by socio-economic insecurity.