Environmental change and cardiovascular disease: A new complexity

Anthropometric patterns in middle-aged and older rural Yucatec Maya women

BACKGROUND

Cross-cultural variation in body composition changes with age has not been fully investigated. Although studies involving anthropometric measurements of older people have been reported for some non-Westernized populations, little such research has been conducted in Latin America.

AIM

This study examines patterns associated with age in anthropometric indicators among a rural Maya population in Yucatán, México. Middle and older ages are included to promote a comprehensive age portrayal.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Stature, weight, and six trunk and limb circumferences were collected from 60 women aged 40.8-85.6 years. Several ratios and indices were also derived.

RESULTS

Age was strongly and negatively related to all body size and adiposity measures (beta from -0.422 to -0.603, p < 0.001). Associations between age and ratios/indices of adipose tissue distribution were positive and not as pronounced (beta from 0.280, p < 0.05 to 0.429, p < 0.001). Age had the largest negative influence on arm circumference, mid-thigh circumference, and weight (R2 = 0.36, p < 0.001) and the greatest positive impact on umbilicus/arm ratio (R2 = 0.18, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Three major anthropometric patterns are demonstrated: in successively older women, muscle mass is significantly lower, central adipose tissue predominance is significantly greater, and overall adiposity is significantly lower. In the first two patterns, Maya women conform to findings from Western settings; in the latter pattern, these women diverge from Western results, but corroborate findings from some non-Westernized groups.

Contemporary work characteristics, stress, and ill health

This study investigates the relationship between work and ill health resulting from stressors originating in the work environment. The association between work and health has been well-documented. Factors in the work environment leading to ill health have included generalized psychological stress and/or specific physical environmental characteristics. Data for this study come from a 1998 telephone survey, the Indiana Survey of Work in a Polarized Economy, under the auspices of the Center for Survey Research at Indiana University. The dependent variable is an index that measures ill health among workers; control variables include sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics of these workers as well as their job characteristics; and the four key independent variables are occupational status, organizational disruption, layoff experience, and educational discordance of the workers. Multiple regression analysis on the entire sample (n = 919) demonstrates that occupational status is negatively associated with ill health, while organizational disruption, layoff experience, and educational discordance are positively associated with it. Separate analyses for male (n = 474) and female (n = 445) respondents find significant sex differences in the effects of the key variables: for males, organizational disruption is positively related to ill health while for women occupational status is negatively related and layoff experience and educational discordance are positively related to ill health. The findings from the present research provide insight into the interrelationship of occupational environment and health within the framework of evolutionary medicine.

Modernisation and children's blood pressure: On and off the tourist trail in Nepal

Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were taken for 231 children between 11 and 14 years in the Annapurna area of Central Nepal, a popular tourist destination. Children from villages on the tourist trail, whose lifestyles were generally more modernised, were compared with children from nearby villages off the tourist trail. Indications of greater modernisation on the trail included the findings that fathers of children living on the trail were less likely to work as farmers than fathers of those off the trail (P = 0.003), and children living on the trail were much more likely to have seen television (P < 0.001). Children on the tourist trail were taller and heavier (P < 0.001), and had higher body mass indices (P = 0.003) and biceps skinfolds (P = 0.005). They also had higher diastolic blood pressure than children living off the trail (P = 0.02). The differences in weight appeared to account for the effect of living on the trail on diastolic blood pressure, since when weight was added to the model it showed a significant association with diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.02) and the effect of location became nonsignificant. For the biceps skinfold and systolic blood pressure, there was a significant sex difference in the effect of living on the trail (P = 0.04 and P = 0.05 respectively), such that among girls there were greater increases associated with living on the trail than there were among boys. The findings suggest that lifestyle changes linked to the development of tourism in Nepal are associated from an early age with potentially deleterious changes in cardiovascular characteristics and demonstrate that such socioeconomic changes can have quite local effects. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:478-486, 2000. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Nutritional characteristics of wild primate foods: do the diets of our closest living relatives have lessons for us?

The widespread prevalence of diet-related health problems, particularly in highly industrialized nations, suggests that many humans are not eating in a manner compatible with their biology. Anthropoids, including all great apes, take most of their diet from plants, and there is general consensus that humans come from a strongly herbivorous ancestry. Though gut proportions differ, overall gut anatomy and the pattern of digestive kinetics of extant apes and humans are very similar. Analysis of tropical forest leaves and fruits routinely consumed by wild primates shows that many of these foods are good sources of hexoses, cellulose, hemicellulose, pectic substances, vitamin C, minerals, essential fatty acids, and protein. In general, relative to body weight, the average wild monkey or ape appears to take in far higher levels of many essential nutrients each day than the average American and such nutrients (as well as other substances) are being consumed together in their natural chemical matrix. The recommendation that Americans consume more fresh fruits and vegetables in greater variety appears well supported by data on the diets of free-ranging monkeys and apes. Such data also suggest that greater attention to features of the diet and digestive physiology of non-human primates could direct attention to important areas for future research on features of human diet and health.