Childhood stress may make women gain
weight
New York: Childhood stress may have a
bigger influence on weight gain by women than stress during adulthood, says a
study.
Interestingly, the study that appeared
online in the journal Social Science & Medicine found that neither
childhood nor adult stress was associated with weight gain for men.
"These findings add to our
understanding of how childhood stress is a more important driver of long term
weight gain than adult stress, and how such processes differ for men and
women," said one of the researchers Hui Liu, associate professor of
sociology at Michigan State University in the US. The researchers analysed data
from a survey of 3,617 people (2,259 women and 1,358 men) who were interviewed
four times in a 15-year period.
Childhood stress was measured on a
range of family-related stressors that occurred at age 16 or younger such as
economic hardship, divorce, at least one parent with mental health problem and
never knowing one's father.
Adult stress included such factors as
job loss, death of a significant other and parental and care-provider stress.
The researchers found that women who experienced higher levels of childhood
stress gained weight more rapidly than women who experienced less childhood
stress.
"Change in body mass is a process
that unfolds throughout life and childhood may be a critical period for
establishing patterns that have a long term impact on women's weight over
time," Liu said.
"Men and women respond to stress differently. It may be
possible that women eat more to cope with stress, whereas men are more likely
to engage in less weight-related strategies such as withdrawing or drinking
alcohol," Liu added.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
09.07.2015
Poor sanitation responsible for unfavorable pregnancy
outcomes in India
Washington DC: It is poor sanitation
practices like open defecation, in pregnant women that leads to adverse
pregnancy outcomes in India, particularly two rural areas of Odisha state,
claims a new research.
Bijaya K Padhi from the Asian Institute
of Public Health, Bhubaneswar, and colleagues enrolled 670 women during the
first trimester of their pregnancy, recorded information about toilet access
and sanitation practices for each woman at enrollment, and followed them
through pregnancy until birth.
They observed that nearly two-thirds of
the women practiced open defecation, and a quarter experienced an adverse
pregnancy outcome, most commonly a preterm birth and/or having a baby with low
birth weight.
After adjustment for potential
confounding factors they found that, compared with women who used a latrine,
women who defecated in the open had a significantly greater risk of adverse
pregnancy outcomes overall and preterm birth, but not low birth weight.
Pinaki Panigrahi, senior author of this
paper at University of Nebraska said the study indicated that in the context of
maternal and child health prevention research, sanitation was an important
dimension of women's health and distinct from social class and caste.
The study is published in PLOS Medicine.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
09.07.2015
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