Somatic Symptoms Are Associated With Elevated Blood Pressure and Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies Among Shuar of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Introduction: This study tests the hypothesis that self-reported somatic symptoms are associated with biomarkers of stress, including elevated blood pressure and suppressed immune function, among Shuar adults living in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Methods: Research was conducted in three Shuar communities in the Upano Valley of the Ecuadorian Amazon and included the collection of biomarkers and a structured morbidity interview. Participants self-reported somatic symptoms such as headaches, body pain, fatigue, and other bodily symptoms.

Variation in diurnal cortisol patterns among the Indigenous Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Objectives: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary end product, the glucocorticoid cortisol, are major components of the evolved human stress response. However, most studies have examined these systems among populations in high-income settings, which differ from the high pathogen and limited resource contexts in which the HPA axis functioned for most of human evolution.

Methods: We investigated variability in diurnal salivary cortisol patterns among 298 Indigenous Shuar from Amazonian Ecuador (147 males, 151 females; age 2-86 years), focusing on the effects of age, biological sex, and body mass index (BMI) in shaping differences in diurnal cortisol production.

Age-related patterns of cytomegalovirus antibodies accompanying Epstein-Barr virus co-infection.

Objective: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with age-related chronic disease, and co-infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may compound disease risk. We aimed to assess the frequency of CMV infection and its relationship with age among EBV seropositive individuals in an Indigenous Amazonian population.

Methods: We report concentrations of CMV and EBV antibodies in dried blood spot samples collected from 157 EBV positive Shuar participants aged 15-86 years (60.

Low prevalence of anemia among Shuar communities of Amazonian Ecuador.

Objective: Anemia is an important global health challenge. We investigate anemia prevalence among Indigenous Shuar of Ecuador to expand our understanding of population-level variation, and to test hypotheses about how anemia variation is related to age, sex, and market integration.

Methods: Hemoglobin levels were measured in a total sample of 1650 Shuar participants (ages 6 months to 86 years) from 46 communities between 2008 and 2017 to compare anemia prevalence across regions characterized by different levels of market integration.

Pathogen disgust sensitivity protects against infection in a high pathogen environment.

Disgust is hypothesized to be an evolved emotion that functions to regulate the avoidance of pathogen-related stimuli and behaviors. Individuals with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity (PDS) are predicted to be exposed to and thus infected by fewer pathogens, though no studies have tested this directly. Furthermore, PDS is hypothesized to be locally calibrated to the types of pathogens normally encountered and the fitness-related costs and benefits of infection and avoidance.

Childhood Daily Energy Expenditure Does Not Decrease with Market Integration and Is Not Related to Adiposity in Amazonia.

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity (OW/OB) is increasingly centered in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as rural populations experience market integration and lifeway change. Most explanatory studies have relied on imprecise estimates of children's energy expenditure, restricting understanding of the relative effects of changes in diet and energy expenditure on the development of OW/OB in transitioning contexts.

Objectives: This study used gold-standard measurements of children's energy expenditure to investigate the changes that underlie OW/OB and the nutrition/epidemiologic transition.

Market integration and soil-transmitted helminth infection among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Background: Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections have many negative health outcomes (e.g., diarrhea, nutritional deficiencies) that can also exacerbate poverty.

Constraint and trade-offs regulate energy expenditure during childhood.

Children's metabolic energy expenditure is central to evolutionary and epidemiological frameworks for understanding variation in human phenotype and health. Nonetheless, the impact of a physically active lifestyle and heavy burden of infectious disease on child metabolism remains unclear. Using energetic, activity, and biomarker measures, we show that Shuar forager-horticulturalist children of Amazonian Ecuador are ~25% more physically active and, in association with immune activity, have ~20% greater resting energy expenditure than children from industrial populations.

Disparities in bone density across contemporary Amazonian forager-horticulturalists: Cross-population comparison of the Tsimane and Shuar.

Objectives: This study investigates bone density across the life course among Bolivian Tsimane and Ecuadorian Shuar of Amazonia. Both groups are rural, high-fertility forager-horticulturalists, with high lifetime physical activity levels. We test whether Tsimane and Shuar bone density patterns are different from each other, and if both groups are characterized by lower osteoporosis risk compared to U.

Soil-transmitted helminth infection and intestinal inflammation among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Objectives: Little research exists documenting levels of intestinal inflammation among indigenous populations where exposure to macroparasites, like soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), is common. Reduced STH exposure is hypothesized to contribute to increased prevalence of elevated intestinal inflammation in wealthy nations, likely due to coevolutionary histories between STHs and human immune systems that favored anti-inflammatory pathways. Here, we document levels of intestinal inflammation and test associations with STH infection among the Shuar of Ecuador, an indigenous population undergoing socioeconomic/lifestyle changes that influence their hygienic environment.

Tradeoffs between immune function and childhood growth among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists.

Immune function is an energetically costly physiological activity that potentially diverts calories away from less immediately essential life tasks. Among developing organisms, the allocation of energy toward immune function may lead to tradeoffs with physical growth, particularly in high-pathogen, low-resource environments. The present study tests this hypothesis across diverse timeframes, branches of immunity, and conditions of energy availability among humans.

Market Integration Predicts Human Gut Microbiome Attributes across a Gradient of Economic Development.

Economic development is marked by dramatic increases in the incidence of microbiome-associated diseases, such as autoimmune diseases and metabolic syndromes, but the lifestyle changes that drive alterations in the human microbiome are not known. We measured market integration as a proxy for economically related lifestyle attributes, such as ownership of specific market goods that index degree of market integration and components of traditional and nontraditional (more modern) house structure and infrastructure, and profiled the fecal microbiomes of 213 participants from a contiguous, indigenous Ecuadorian population. Despite relatively modest differences in lifestyle across the population, greater economic development correlated with significantly lower within-host diversity, higher between-host dissimilarity, and a decrease in the relative abundance of the bacterium .

Global variation in diurnal cortisol rhythms: evidence from Garisakang forager-horticulturalists of lowland Papua New Guinea.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis represents an important and evolutionarily ancient biological pathway linking physical and psychological stressors with human health. Despite considerable research exploring the physiological stress response among developed populations, few studies have examined HPA activity in non-industrialized contexts, restricting understanding of variation in human stress reactivity across global socio-ecological diversity. The present study addresses this shortcoming by investigating diurnal cortisol rhythms among Garisakang forager-horticulturalists of remote, lowland Papua New Guinea.

Food insecurity partially mediates associations between social disadvantage and body composition among older adults in india: Results from the study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE).

Objective: Our objective was to test whether food insecurity mediates cross-sectional associations between social disadvantage and body composition among older adults (aged 50+) in India (n = 6556).

Methods: Adjusting for key sociodemographic and dietary variables, we examined whether markers of social disadvantage (lower educational attainment, lower household wealth, belonging to a disadvantaged caste/tribe, and belonging to a minority religion) were associated with food insecurity. We then examined whether food insecurity, in turn, was associated with anthropometric measures of body composition, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC).

Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in 6 Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Findings From Wave 1 of the World Health Organization's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE).

In this paper, we examine patterns of self-reported diagnosis of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and prevalences of algorithm/measured test-based, undiagnosed, and untreated NCDs in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. Nationally representative samples of older adults aged ≥50 years were analyzed from wave 1 of the World Health Organization's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (2007-2010; n = 34,149). Analyses focused on 6 conditions: angina, arthritis, asthma, chronic lung disease, depression, and hypertension.

Regional variation in Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura infections by age cohort and sex: effects of market integration among the indigenous Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Background: Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection peaks during childhood and varies by sex. The impact of market integration (MI) (increasing production for and consumption from a market-based economy) on these infection patterns, however, is unclear. In this study, STH infection is examined by sex and age among indigenous Shuar inhabiting two regions of Amazonian Ecuador: (1) the modestly market-integrated Upano Valley (UV) and (2) the more traditional Cross-Cutucú (CC) region.

Perceived Income Adequacy and Well-being Among Older Adults in Six Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Objectives: Perceived income adequacy is positively associated with self-rated health (SRH) and quality of life (QOL) among adults in higher-income countries. Additionally, older individuals often report higher levels of income adequacy. However, it is unclear if these associations, documented primarily in high-income countries, are also evident across economically and culturally distinctive low- and middle-income countries.

Heterogeneous effects of market integration on sub-adult body size and nutritional status among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Background: Market integration (MI)-increasing production for and consumption from a market-based economy-is drastically altering traditional ways of life and environmental conditions among indigenous Amazonian peoples. The effects of MI on the biology and health of Amazonian children and adolescents, however, remain unclear.

Aim: This study examines the impact of MI on sub-adult body size and nutritional status at the population, regional and household levels among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

The application of knemometry to measure childhood short-term growth among the indigenous Shuar of Ecuador.

Objectives: Knemometry, the precise measurement of lower leg (LL) length, suggests that childhood short-term (e.g., weekly) growth is a dynamic, nonlinear process.

Accelerometer-measured physical activity among older adults in urban India: Results of a study on global AGEing and adult health substudy.

Objectives: Accelerometry provides researchers with a powerful tool to measure physical activity in population-based studies, yet this technology has been underutilized in cross-cultural studies of older adults. The present study was conducted among older adults in an urban setting in India with the following three objectives: (1) to compare average activity levels obtained through different durations of monitoring (1, 3, and 7 days); (2) to document differences in physical activity patterns by sex and age; and (3) to evaluate links between measures of physical activity and anthropometrics, as well as between activity parameters and measures of household size, work status, and social cohesion.

Methods: The present study uses data from a physical activity substudy of the World Health Organization's Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE-PA).

Does BMI generated by self-reported height and weight measure up in older adults from middle-income countries? Results from the study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE).

Background: Self-reported (SR) body mass index (BMI) values are often used to determine obesity prevalence. However, individuals frequently overestimate their height and underestimate their weight, resulting in artificially lower obesity prevalence rates. These patterns are especially apparent among older adults and overweight individuals.

Physical function and activity among older adults in Jodhpur, India.

Background: Physical activity impacts the ageing process; yet, few studies have examined relationships among physical activity, functional abilities and health among older adults in non-Western settings.

Aim: This study tests for associations among measures of physical activity, function and self-report health conditions among 200 older adults (49--50 years old) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

Methods: Seven consecutive days of accelerometry data were used in measures of physical activity (Total Daily Energy Expenditure [TDEE], Physical Activity Level [PAL], Daily Average Activity Count [AC] and Activity Energy Expenditure [AEE]).

The impact of multimorbidity on adult physical and mental health in low- and middle-income countries: what does the study on global ageing and adult health (SAGE) reveal?

Background: Chronic diseases contribute a large share of disease burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Chronic diseases have a tendency to occur simultaneously and where there are two or more such conditions, this is termed as 'multimorbidity'. Multimorbidity is associated with adverse health outcomes, but limited research has been undertaken in LMICs.

Physical growth of the shuar: Height, Weight, and BMI references for an indigenous amazonian population.

Objectives: Information concerning physical growth among small-scale populations remains limited, yet such data are critical to local health efforts and to foster basic understandings of human life history and variation in childhood development. Using a large dataset and robust modeling methods, this study aims to describe growth from birth to adulthood among the indigenous Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador.

Methods: Mixed-longitudinal measures of height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were collected from Shuar participants (n = 2,463; age: 0-29 years).