Background: Whether and to what extent outdoor activity and screen time are relevant to adiposity among rural adolescents remain largely unknown as most of relevant evidence was generated from high-income countries and urban areas. This study aimed to investigate associations of outdoor activity and screen time with adiposity among early adolescents living in rural southwest China. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, seventh graders (n = 2264) were recruited from 10 middle schools of a rural county. Overweight and obesity was assessed using adolescents’ body mass index and waist circumference. Adolescents’ outdoor activity and screen time were measured using self-reported daily time spending on outdoor activity, watching TV, playing video games, and computers on weekdays and weekends, respectively. Results: The prevalence of overweight/obesity and high waist circumferences were 8.0 and 4.9% and were higher among those from one-child families and with parents having high school or higher education and whose fathers were not farmers. Adolescents who did not have ≥1 h outdoor activity on weekdays were more likely to be overweight/obese (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.30, 2.66) and have high waist circumferences (OR: 2.22, 95%CI: 1.39, 3.57). Adolescents who had > 2 h screen time on weekends were more likely to have high waist circumferences (OR: 2.08, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.80). Lack of outdoor activity and excessive screen time also showed synergistic effects on overweight/obesity (OR: 1.93. 95% CI: 1.15, 3.24) and high waist circumferences (OR: 3.02, 95% CI: 1.54, 5.94). Conclusions: Lack of outdoor activity and excessive screen time were relevant to adiposity among rural Chinese adolescents even when the obesity prevalence was low. Efforts to promote active lifestyles may help prevent rural adolescents from losing their advantage in the era of the global obesity epidemic.
18 November 2024 in International Journal of Ophthalmology
Myopia is a huge health problem due to its high frequency, vision losses and public health cost. According to the World Health Organization, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment. Although myopia can be controlled at its early and middle stages, unfortunately, no cure can be achieved so far. Among the methods to control myopia, atropine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist, is the oldest but still the most effective for retardation of myopia progression. Despite such a fact, standard protocols have not been established for clinicians to use atropine for treatment of myopia. In this article, a concise and up to date summary of myopia epidemiology and pathogenesis and summarized therapeutic effects and side effects, possible mechanisms and application methods of atropine were provided in hope for clinical doctors to effectively control this problematic disease. At present, the protocol is recommend: use higher dose (1%) of atropine intermittently to effectively slowdown myopia progression in schoolchildren for 2y, and to significantly reduce side effects of atropine by decrease of atropine frequency for 1y and inhibit myopic rebound by withdrawal of topical atropine gradually for 1y. Application of a lower dose (0.05%) atropine regime should also be considered due to its effectiveness and application at regular basis.