A fully liquid DTPw-HepB-Hib combination vaccine for booster vaccination of toddlers in El Salvador.

Objectives: To compare the safety and immunogenicity of a booster dose of a fully liquid diphtheria-tetanus-whole cell pertussis-hepatitis B-Haemophilus influenzae type b (DTPw-HepB-Hib) vaccine to the separate administration of commercially available DTPw and Hib vaccines in healthy toddlers.

Methods: An open-label, randomized, parallel-group, Phase III study conducted at six centers in San Salvador, El Salvador, during February-June 2006. Toddlers (15-24 months of age) were eligible to participate if they had received primary immunization at 2, 4, and 6 months of age with a commercial DTPw-HepB/Hib vaccine requiring reconstitution.

[Personal responsibility for health. An interdisciplinary discussion on obesity as an example].

Considering obesity as an example, the present study has developed an ethical, legal and psychological understanding of personal responsibility, which aims at enabling and activating health promoting behaviour. Enhancing individual capabilities and modifying social and political factors that have an effect on individual behaviour are highlighted as a promising, appropriate and ethically sound strategy of prevention.

Causal attributions of obese men and women in genetic testing: implications of genetic/biological attributions.

The present study sought to investigate genetic/biological attributions of obesity, their associations with a predisposition to obesity and their crossectional and longitudinal implications for weight regulation in obese individuals presenting for genetic testing and counselling. A total of 421 obese men and women underwent psychological and anthropometric assessment and a mutation screen of the melanocortin-4 receptor gene. At study entry, women revealed more genetic/biological attributions than men on the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire adapted to obesity (86.

Patients with medically unexplained symptoms and their significant others: illness attributions and behaviors as predictors of patient functioning over time.

Objective: Previous research suggests that medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are maintained in an interpersonal context. The current study examined MUS concurrently and prospectively by measuring specific interpersonal predictors of symptom severity and health care use.

Methods: A total of 127 patients with MUS and their significant others were recruited through primary care offices and assessed with self-report questionnaires and structured interviews about illness attributions, illness behavior and responses, relationship quality, symptom severity, and health care use at baseline and 6-month follow-up.

Eating behavior and familial interactions of children with loss of control eating: a laboratory test meal study.

Background: Loss of control (LOC) eating in children leads to excessive weight gain. However, few studies have investigated the eating behavior of children with LOC eating and psychological and familial factors that maintain the eating behavior.

Objective: This study sought to measure food intake in children with LOC eating and to examine maintenance through negative mood and parent-child mealtime interactions.

Obesity in print: an analysis of daily newspapers.

Background: Stigmatizing attitudes towards obese people are common in the public. Based on findings that portrayals of obesity in entertainment media foster weight-related stigmatization, the goal of the current study was to analyze media coverage of obesity in daily newspapers.

Methods: For the year 2006, all 1,563 issues of five high-circulation daily newspapers (two national newspapers, one tabloid newspaper, and two local newspapers) in Germany were systematically searched for obesity-related terms.

Macrosomia: a new formula for optimized fetal weight estimation.

Objectives: To develop and test a specific formula for estimating weight in the macrosomic fetus.

Methods: Ultrasound estimations of fetal weight were carried out within 1 week of delivery in 424 singleton fetuses with a birth weight of > or = 4000 g. Exclusion criteria were multiple pregnancy, intrauterine death and major structural or chromosomal anomalies.

The significance of overvaluation of shape and weight in binge eating disorder.

As publication of DSM-V draws near, research is needed to validate the diagnostic scheme for binge eating disorder (BED). Shape and weight overvaluation has stimulated considerable debate in this regard, given associations with psychosocial impairment and poor treatment outcome in BED. This study sought to further explore the convergent validity and diagnostic specificity of shape and weight overvaluation in BED.

Comprehensive interview assessment of eating behavior 18-35 months after gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity.

Background: Weight loss surgery induces a marked change in eating behavior. However, not much work has been done characterizing the eating behavior after weight loss surgery. We conducted a detailed analysis of patients' eating behavior 18-35 months after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, determined whether preoperative eating disorders might be associated with non-normative postoperative eating, and examined the association of such eating behaviors with weight loss and psychopathology.

Dose ranging of adjuvant and antigen in a cell culture H5N1 influenza vaccine: safety and immunogenicity of a phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Background: Dose-sparing strategies and new production technologies will be necessary to produce adequate supplies of vaccines for pandemic influenza. One approach is to include adjuvant, which can reduce the amount of antigen required for immunization and stimulate cross-reactive responses to drifted variants of novel viruses. Dose-sparing studies of adjuvant, itself a finite resource, have not previously been reported for H5N1 vaccine development.

Safety and immunogenicity of a novel influenza subunit vaccine produced in mammalian cell culture.

Background: Immunization remains the best prevention strategy for influenza, but production constraints for egg-based influenza vaccines have prompted the development of innovative cell culture manufacturing processes. Here, we describe a novel cell culture-derived influenza vaccine (CCIV) produced in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells.

Methods: This phase 3, observer-blind, randomized, multicenter study in Poland compared the immunogenicity of a CCIV and a conventional egg-based vaccine.

Pseudoparticle neutralization is a reliable assay to measure immunity and cross-reactivity to H5N1 influenza viruses.

The standard serological methods present limitations for the measurement of immunity against H5N1 influenza strains. The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay lacks sensitivity and requires standardization, while the viral micro-neutralization (MN) assay needs handling of live virus. We produced pseudoparticles expressing hemagglutinin from clades 1 or 2 H5N1 in order to measure neutralizing antibodies in human sera after prime-boost vaccination with plain or MF59-adjuvanted H5N1 clade 1 subunit vaccines.

Dietary restriction, cardiac autonomic regulation and stress reactivity in bulimic women.

Recent findings suggest sympathetic inhibition during dietary restriction as opposed to increased sympathetic activity during re-feeding. The present study investigated cardiac autonomic regulation and stress reactivity in relation to biochemical markers of dietary restriction status in women diagnosed with bulimia nervosa. We predicted that bulimic individuals (BN) with a biochemical profile indicating dietary restriction exhibit reduced cardiac sympathetic and/or increased vagal activity.

Adjuvanted H5N1 vaccine induces early CD4+ T cell response that predicts long-term persistence of protective antibody levels.

Immune responses to vaccination are tested in clinical trials. This process usually requires years especially when immune memory and persistence are analyzed. Markers able to quickly predict the immune response would be very useful, particularly when dealing with emerging diseases that require a rapid response, such as avian influenza.

MF59-adjuvanted H5N1 vaccine induces immunologic memory and heterotypic antibody responses in non-elderly and elderly adults.

Background: Pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) has the potential to cause a major global pandemic in humans. Safe and effective vaccines that induce immunologic memory and broad heterotypic response are needed.

Methods And Findings: Healthy adults aged 18-60 and > 60 years (n = 313 and n = 173, respectively) were randomized (1:1) to receive two primary and one booster injection of 7.

A new sonographic weight formula for fetuses

Purpose: Birth weight is an important predictive parameter for neonatal morbidity and mortality in the small fetus. Accurate estimation of fetal weight is therefore a valuable tool for determining the further obstetric management. The majority of studies presenting new formulas have included relatively small samples with a narrow range of birth weights, mostly term fetuses.

Emotion regulation and binge eating in children.

Objective: To examine the ability to regulate emotions in children with binge eating.

Method: A community sample of 60 children ages 8-13 with at least one episode of loss of control (LOC) eating during the past 3 months and a matched control group without LOC (n = 60) underwent a clinical interview (Eating Disorder Examination adapted for Children) and completed self-report questionnaires assessing emotion regulation strategies, eating pathology, and depressive symptoms.

Results: Children with LOC eating made a significantly higher use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies (p < .

Binge eating in primary school children: towards a definition of clinical significance.

Objective: This study investigated the diagnostic validity of the DSM-IV-TR criteria for binge eating disorder as well as proposed diagnostic criteria in younger children with and without loss of control (LOC) eating.

Method: A total of 60 children with at least one episode of loss of control over eating within the past 3 months and 60 matched children without LOC history were recruited from the community. Clinical interviews and self-report questionnaires were used to assess psychopathology.

Loss of control eating and psychological maintenance in children: an ecological momentary assessment study.

Objective: Recent research suggests that binge eating is a common experience in youth. However, it remains largely unknown how children's binge eating presents in everyday life and which psychological factors serve to maintain this binge eating.

Methods: Children aged 8-13 years with binge eating (n=59), defined as at least one episode of loss of control (LOC) over eating within the past three months, and 59 matched children without LOC history were recruited from the community.

Gender-specific weight estimation of fetuses between 2,501 and 3,999 g--new regression formulae.

Objective: To develop new gender-specific regression formulae to estimate fetal weight focusing on a particular weight range from 2,501 to 3,999 g.

Methods: 3,254 singleton pregnancies were included to generate new regression formulae for female and male fetuses, and to evaluate their accuracy.

Results: In comparison with commonly used formulae, the new gender-specific and weight-range-specific method of fetal weight estimation provided greater accuracy.

Weight loss maintenance in a population-based sample of German adults.

The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of weight loss maintenance in a population-based sample of the German adult population. German adults were recruited based on the random digital-dialing methodology. Using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, weight loss maintenance was assessed, defined as having intentionally lost at least 10% from maximum weight and having maintained it for at least 1 year at the time of the survey.

Stigmatizing attitudes toward obesity in a representative population-based sample.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine stigmatizing attitudes toward obesity in the population, and its related psychological and sociodemographic determinants.

Methods And Procedures: In a representative population-based survey (N=1,000), computer-assisted telephone interviewing was used to assess stigmatizing attitudes toward obesity, causal attributions of obesity, the labeling of obesity as an illness, perceptions about prevalence, severity, and chronicity of obesity, support of obesity prevention, and sociodemographic characteristics.

Results: Of the 1,000 participants, 23.

Specific weight formula for fetuses with abdominal wall defects.

Objectives: To develop and to evaluate a specific sonographic weight formula for fetuses with abdominal wall defects.

Methods: For formula finding, 380 preterm singleton pregnancies without fetal anomalies were included. Ultrasound examinations with complete biometric parameters were performed within 7 days before delivery.

Primary prevention of childhood obesity: an interdisciplinary analysis.

The primary prevention of childhood obesity requires combined efforts by stakeholders at various societal levels, based on the knowledge from multiple disciplines. The goal of the present study was therefore to analyze current preventive approaches and delineate implications for future prevention research and practice by integrating knowledge from genetics, law, economics, psychology, and social ethics. Inconclusive evidence on the etiology of obesity, a complex, multifactorial condition, likely complicates prevention, leading to a lack of specificity regarding target groups, focus, and techniques.