Browsing by Subject "Anthropometrics"
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Item Associations between dietary factors in early life and childhood growth(2014-05) Zhu, Yeyi; Forman, Michele R.Early life factors play important roles in disease susceptibility in later life. However, the relationship between dietary factors in early life on childhood growth, especially linear growth, remains unclear. This research aimed to improve our understanding of the associations between dietary factors in early life (i.e., infant feeding practices and age of introduction of solid foods) and childhood growth, especially using ulnar length as a surrogate measure of length/height, in a cross-sectional study of 1634 mother-child dyads across eight study centers in the National Children's Study Formative Research in Anthropometry in the United States from 2011-2012 (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 described the data acquisition and preprocessing procedures used in this research and provide practical guidelines of data quality control. In Chapter 3, predictive models for exclusive breastfeeding (XBR) initiation and duration was developed. Discriminant analysis revealed maternal sociodemographic factors had greater discriminating abilities to predict XBR initiation and XBR for 6 months, compared to child birth characteristics and maternal perinatal factors. Chapter 4 demonstrated that ulnar length can serve as an accurate and reliable surrogate measure of recumbent length in healthy infants/children aged 0-1.9 years and of height in healthy children aged 2-5.9 years, respectively. Bland-Altman plots and mixed-effects linear regression analyses showed that the three simple and portable tools (i.e., caliper, ruler, and grid) used to measure ulnar length could be used interchangeably in terms of prediction accuracy. Chapter 5 focused on assessing the interplay among gestational weight gain (GWG), birthweight, infant feeding practices, and childhood anthropometrics. Longer duration of breastfeeding reduced the positive associations of GWG and birthweight with weight-for-age z-scores, weight-for-height/length z-scores, and body mass index-for age z-scores in non-Hispanic Whites. These findings underscore the importance of promoting breastfeeding among women with excessive GWG to mitigate childhood obesity. Longer breastfeeding and a later age at introduction of solid foods had positive effects on ulnar length, a linear growth parameter of upper extremity, in Hispanics. Future prospective research aiming to investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive ethnic variation in these associations between early life dietary factors and childhood growth is warranted (Chapter 6).Item Exercise training and sleep quality in young adults from the training interventions and genetics of exercise response (TIGER) study(2014-12) Harp, Celina Jeanne; Bray, Molly S.Study Objectives. Sleep is regulated by internal mechanisms that respond to environmental cues. Physical activity is one external cue that can affect sleep. It has been suggested that exercise affects sleep in a variety of ways, including influencing neurotransmitter levels and altering circadian rhythms. The purpose of this study was to examine self-reported sleep quality both before and after a well- defined exercise protocol. Design, Setting, and Participants. The TIGER study involves a 15-week aerobic exercise intervention conducted in young adults (n=2,027, mean age 21.8 ± 5 y). Participants were required to engage in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at 65-85% maximal heart rate reserve three times/week. Multivariate regression was used to identify factors associated with sleep quality and duration. Measurements and Results. Multiple measures of body size/composition, heart rate (HR), and blood pressure (BP) were obtained on all participants. Sleep quality and duration were accessed via a condensed sleep quality profile (SQP). Prior to exercise, age (p<0.001), gender (p<0.008) and overweight/obesity status (p<0.001), but not race/ethnicity, were all significantly associated with SQP score. Age (p<0.002), and race/ethnicity (p<0.05) were significantly associated with sleep duration, with African Americans and Hispanics having significantly shorter sleep times compared to non-Hispanic whites. SQP score was not significantly different following chronic exercise training. Conclusions. Although overweight/obesity groups had significantly different sleep quality scores before and after exercise, sleep quality did not change for subjects after 15 weeks of aerobic exercise intervention.Item The effects of sweetened beverage consumption on body mass index, waist circumference, and percent body fat in west Texas children(2009-05) Madrid, Clarice; Reed, Debra; Feng, Du; Boylan, Lee M.The trend of obesity in the United States and throughout the world has increased among adults and children. Several studies have highlighted the increased prevalence of overweight and obesity among minorities, especially Hispanics. Contributors identified to this overall growth are genetic and socioeconomic factors, dietary habits, the decline in physical activity, and the increased portion sizes of society today. The excessive consumption of sugar sweetened beverages has been associated with higher calorie intakes, displacement of more nutrient-dense beverages, and increased dental caries among children. Sugar sweetened beverages are the biggest contributing source of added sugar; however at this time, there is no amount agreed upon that will significantly increase odds of being overweight. This study is one of the first to use and compare body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and percent body fat measurements among predominantly Hispanic young children. The sample group consisted of approximately 597 children in kindergarten to second grade (ages 4 four to nine years) from selected elementary schools in East Lubbock and El Paso. Approximately 315 completed self-reported surveys were returned by the parents of these children, with over 70% of eligible students participating in the study. Statistical analyses were conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). Only baseline values collected at the launch of the study were included in the statistical analyses. Means and standard deviations were calculated on all data. The children were divided into groups based on BMI percentile, grade level, and amount of consumption of sweetened beverages.Independent samples t-tests were performed to compare the amount of sweetened beverages consumed among BMI percentile groups. Pearson’s correlations were calculated between derived BMI, derived BMI percentile, weight, WC, percent body fat, and mean daily ounces of sweetened beverages. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if group means for sweetened beverage consumption were significantly different when students were divided into quartile groups based on reported amount of sweetened beverage intake and grade level. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean daily ounces of sweetened beverages consumed between children below the 85th BMI percentile and children at the 85th BMI percentile or higher (p < 0.05). Oneway ANOVA omnibus testing revealed there were significant differences in mean waist circumferences between the mean daily ounces of sweetened beverage quartiles (p < 0.05). This study also found that the children in this sample group consumed a large percentage of sweetened beverages in the form of fruit flavored drinks. In addition to these results, this study also provided additional insights into the relationship of sweetened beverage consumption and body composition. Valuable anthropometric information also was gathered about the sample group of young West Texas children.