Background: The purpose of this study was to explore risk factors, including age at menarche, body mass index (BMI), psychiatric stress and physical exercise on the menstrual cycle of healthy Taiwanese college nursing students. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional survey involving 1300 female college students in the nursing curriculum between December 2002 and March 2003. We provided a structured questionnaire for each student. Information on the women’s demographics, lifestyles and reproductive history related to menstrual cycle characteristics was requested. A total of 1095 healthy students were included in the analysis. A logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios for each of the menstrual cycle characteristics. Results: We found that age at menarche, BMI and psychiatric stress were associated with menstrual cycle characteristics in healthy college nursing students. In addition to menarche at the age of 14 years or later, obesity and psychological stress, menarche before 12 years of age was an important risk factor for menstrual dysfunction. Moreover, obese students had the highest risk of having a longer cycle and cycle irregularity. Conclusions: Early menarche might be related to menstrual dysfunction in addition to late menarche, obesity and psychological stress. Moreover, obese students are at the highest risks for longer cycles and cycle irregularity.
In 1979, approximately 2000 victims in central Taiwan accidentally ingested rice oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls/dibenzofurans (PCBs/PCDFs). In this study, we compared mortality between the exposed subjects and their neighbourhood referents 30 years after Yucheng accident.
Methods
We obtained age- and gender-matched referents from the 1979 neighbourhood of the exposed people. Cause-specific mortality (classified by ICD-9 codes) was compared between exposed subjects (N=1803) and their neighbourhood referents (N=5170). Age-modified indirect standardised mortality ratios (indirect-SMR) were calculated utilising the Yucheng subjects9 neighbourhood referents as reference group. Total person-years of Yucheng subjects and neighbourhood referents were 48 751 and 141 774, respectively.
Results
All-cause mortality was significantly elevated in Yucheng subjects (SMR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.3). Among Yucheng males, SMRs for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (2.5, 1.5 to 3.9), stomach cancer (3.5, 1.5 to 7.0) and lymphatic and haematopoietic cancer (3.0, 1.1 to 6.6) were increased. Among Yucheng females, SMRs for disease of the circulatory system (1.5, 1.0 to 2.1) and systemic lupus erythematosus were increased (5 in Yucheng females, 0 in neighbourhood referents).
Conclusions
This is a long-term follow-up study comparing the mortality experience in people highly exposed to PCBs and PCDFs 30 years ago to that in a socio-economically comparable referent group. We found an increase in overall mortality, as well as other organ systems and some malignancies.
To determine if both gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and maternal overweight/obesity are independently associated with delivery of large-for-gestational-age (LGA) babies in Taiwan.Anthropometric parameters were measured and 75-g oral glucose-tolerance tests were administered to a cohort of 1428 pregnant women at 24-28 weeks gestation at nine hospitals in Taiwan. GDM was diagnosed based on the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups criteria. Reported pre-pregnancy BMI and measured BMI during pregnancy were recorded at the late stage of the second trimester and the third trimester. Neonatal anthropometrics were measured at delivery. Primary outcome was LGA, defined in this study as having a birth weight ≥90th percentile for gestational age defined by WHO or a Chinese growth reference, taking into consideration the racial/ethnic and environmental differences in growth around the world. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine associations of GDM and maternal overweight/obesity with outcomes.Based on WHO growth reference definition of LGA, subjects with pre-pregnancy BMI ≥24 and pregnancy BMI >28.4 were found to be 2.46 times (0.76-7.97) and 3.28 times (1.01-10.60), respectively, more likely to deliver LGA babies than subjects with normal pre-pregnancy and pregnancy BMIs. Compared to those without GDM, subjects with GDM were 7.55 (1.62-35.25) times more likely to deliver LGA babies. The odds ratios for delivering a baby with a birth weight ≥90th percentile were 11.40 (1.65-78.75) for those with GDM alone, 4.10 (1.07-15.65) for those with overweight/obesity alone and 15.75 (1.30-190.40) for those with both GDM and overweight/obesity, compared to those with no GDM and no overweightness. Women with both pre-pregnancy and pregnancy overweightness/obesity were 3.64 (1.07-12.34) times more likely to deliver LGA. The above results remained similar when analyzing data based on Chinese growth reference definition of LGA.Maternal overweightness/obesity and GDM are independently associated with LGA. Their combination had a greater impact than either one alone.
A linear-response capacitive tactile sensor is presented in this work. The sensor was fabricated by the TSMC 0.35 μ m CMOS process and our self-developed MEMS post-process. The structure of the sensor consisted of one pair of parallel electrodes, with the central part of the membrane electrode hollowed out. A pillar with four beams at each side was set at the center to support the membrane electrode. This structure enhanced the uniformity of the deflection, and thus improved the linearity of the response. The wider dynamic range was also obtained because of the stiffer structure. In addition, the buckling of the membrane was lessened. The performance of this design was compared with the conventional parallel plate one. The measured linearity was 0.9728, and the dynamic range was 400mmHg, with the relieved buckling of 0.22 μm.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is rising globally, with genetics and environmental factors both playing crucial roles. Dietary habits during pregnancy are linked to children's allergic disease risk. However, limited studies have explored the association between maternal vegetarian diets during pregnancy and child AD. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between maternal vegetarian diets during pregnancy and the occurrence of AD in children.In this study, the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study (TBCS) database was used, comprising a representative national birth cohort of infants born in Taiwan in 2005. Of 24,200 mother-child pairs in the database, 20,172 completed face-to-face interviews at 6 and 18 months. Employing a 1:10 matching strategy based on maternal age, education level, and child sex, 408 mothers who followed a vegetarian diet during pregnancy were matched with 4080 nonvegetarian mothers. This resulted in a final dataset of 4488 subjects. Logistic regression was used to explore the association between maternal vegetarian diets during pregnancy and the occurrence of AD in children.Among the TBCS participants, there were 292 (1.8%) mothers who adhered to lacto-ovo vegetarianism and 116 (0.7%) mothers who adhered to veganism, totaling 408 (2.4%) vegetarians during pregnancy. Compared to children of nonvegetarian mothers, children of mothers who followed a vegetarian diet during pregnancy showed a lower risk of developing AD before 18 months of age (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.45-0.93, p = 0.018).This study suggests that a vegetarian diet during pregnancy may lower the risk of AD in children. It is essential to carry out long-term follow-up to fully understand the impact of a mother's diet on allergic conditions.
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