Background: The practice of regular physical activity can alter the lipid profile in populations according to diverse demographic characteristics. Objective: To evaluate the association of physical inactivity with the lipid profile among vulnerable populations. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 349 vulnerable individuals from Tocantins state, northern Brazil. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire 7 Day short form was used to measure self-reported physical activity levels. Venous blood samples were drawn to evaluate lipid profile. Logistic regression adjusted by the socioeconomic variables was used to analyse the effects of physical inactivity on the lipidic profile. The level of significance was 5% and Stata® (StataCorp, LC) version 11 was used. Results: We observe an inverse relationship between physical inactivity and HDL-C—that is, those who were sedentary or below the WHO Recommendations for physical activity were at 2.6 greater odds (IC95% 1.21, 5.67; p = 0.015) of having a lower HDL compared with those meeting or exceeding WHO physical activity recommendations. Conclusion: On the vulnerable populations studied, the insufficiently active or sedentary individuals (called the physical inactivity individuals) have more risk of the altered HDL-C.

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of primary health care services through self-reports by caregivers of children and adolescents living in quilombola communities in Brazil. This is a cross-sectional study in accordance with the STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology). Exposure variables included sociodemographic characteristics; and outcome variable was the quality of primary health care offered to quilombola children and adolescents. A total of 68 individuals participated in the survey. Quilombolas have a low income, a lower level of education, do not work, and receive government benefits. Our results showed that the quality of primary health care, measured by the experience of caregivers of quilombola children and adolescents, generally presents satisfactory values. The quality of primary health care has generally satisfactory values. However, as these results differ from most studies, more research should be conducted.

Hypertension (AH) is an emerging disease that has rapidly increased in the last decades throughout the world. The increase in blood pressure (BP) is observed with growth and development and, although the manifestation of the disease is rare in childhood and adolescence, its occurrence is increasing and the causes are likely to be from different combinations of factors. Afrodescendants have been consistently observed in many populations, including Brazil, which has the largest population of Afrodescendants outside Africa; nevertheless, data is scarce on the disease in children and adolescents. In this study, we investigated BP disorders in children and adolescents of “Quilombola” populations of the state of Tocantins, northern Brazil, and determined the disease occurrence with some factors, namely food consumption, body composition, anthropometric measures, and biochemical data. We carried out a cross-sectional study with 67 children aged 10–17 years, comparing the variables studied between the normotensive and non-normotensive groups, using the Chi-square test for qualitative variables and the appropriate tests, according to data adherence to the Gaussian distribution for the quantitative variables. High blood pressure was defined as mean systolic or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 percentile for age, height, gender. The rate of adolescents with BP disorders was 19.4% (prehypertension 14.9% and hypertension 4.5%). There were no significant differences between the sexes for high blood pressure. In the Poisson regression analysis, the high fat percentage was associated with elevated blood pressure (p = 0.021) for adolescents. Similar associations were observed for non-HDL-c (p < 0.001) and low calcium intake (p = 0.015). Most children and adolescents in “Quilombola” communities had normal blood pressure. However, higher levels of dyslipidemia and low calcium intake are factors associated with prehypertension in the population studied with high BP.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to suggest a care protocol for foreign-body ingestion, address the clinical aspects, and identify the ingested object, severity, and professional conduct.METHODS: This is a qualitative study. We used books and original articles published in national and international journals (BIREME, SCIELO, LILACS, and MEDLINE/PubMed) in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.RESULTS: The ingestion of a radiolucent object should be evaluated radiographically and with endoscopy for cases with symptoms of impaction and radiolucent objects. Coins are the most commonly involved foreign bodies. In asymptomatic patients, it often requires only a conservative form of management. Ingestion of batteries, magnets, and sharp objects carries a high risk of serious clinical complications and should have an endoscopic or surgical approach. In view of this, each pediatric emergency service, based on these recommendations, has the possibility to develop an individual protocol to identify and remove the ingested foreign body. CONCLUSIONS: Protocol of care for foreign-body ingestion in children depends on the object ingested, time of ingestion, symptoms, and local epidemiological context. This study provides some suggestions for decision-making in the conduct of health professionals.

Introduction: The lifestyle of quilombola communities has changed due to extra community influence, thus affecting their environmental and behavioral factors related to the Metabolic Syndrome (MS). However, little is known about the influence of MS on the Quality of Life (QoL) of quilombola residents. Objective: We aimed to study the association between MS and QoL in quilombola communities in northern Tocantins, Brazil. Methods: The QoL of 147 adults from five quilombola communities from Tocantins was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. Blood pressure, abdominal perimeter, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol were measured, and the presence of MS was defined as the alteration of at least three of these clinical aspects. The association of the clinical components and the SM presence with the Quality of Life was evaluated by Student’s t-test for independent samples. Results: We observed that in the total population, an altered abdominal perimeter had an inverse association with both the Physical (15.2 vs. 14.0, p=0.002) and General QoL domains (14.4 vs. 14.0, p=0.045), and MS was inversely associated with the Physical domain (14.9 vs. 14.0, p=0.030). When stratified by sex, the altered abdominal perimeters in men were inversely associated with the Physical (16.5 vs. 14.4, p<0.001), Environmental (14.0 vs. 12.6, p=0.020) and General domains (15.5 vs. 14.0, p<0.001). MS had an inverse association with the Physical (15.8 vs. 14.4, p=0.026) and General domains (14.8 vs. 14.0 p= 0.042) in men. In women there was no association between any risk factor studied and QoL domain. Conclusions: The status of MS was negatively associated with the quality of life of the male population, highlighting the abdominal perimeter, which influences the Physical and General domains of QoL, but in the female population the MS does not interfere in the perception of QoL. Understanding the relationship between chronic diseases and QoL in quilombola communities is necessary to reduce health inequalities in historically vulnerable communities.

Most articles on gut microbiota argue the importance of body composition assessment in patients; however, body composition assessments are fragile (ie, with methodological limitations) in the most recent studies. To present two suggestions for further research using the human body composition assessment. The methods used in this study are based on a Pinto et al article published in Nutrition Reviews. On the basis of data obtained from the PubMed, SCOPUS, LILACS, and Web of Science databases, Pinto et al provided a current survey of intermittent fasting protocols and an understanding of the outcomes to date in terms of the profile of the intestinal microbiota in obese organisms. Of the 82 original articles identified from the databases, 35 were eliminated because of duplication and 32 were excluded for not meeting the inclusion criteria. Two additional articles found in a new search were added, yielding a total of 17 studies to be included in this review. Among the protocols, alternate-day fasting and time-restricted feeding were the most common, and they were shown to have different mechanisms of metabolic signaling. Time-restricted feeding influences body mass control and biochemical parameters by regulating the circadian system and improving satiety control systems by acting on leptin secretion. In contrast, alternate-day fasting leads to a reduction of ±75% of all energy consumption regardless of dietary composition, in addition to promoting hormonal adjustments that promote body mass control. Furthermore, both protocols could remodel the intestinal microbiota by changing the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio and increasing the abundance of strains such as Lactobacillus spp. and Akkermansia that have a protective effect on metabolism against the effects of body mass gain. Changes in adipose tissue (eg, body mass loss, control, gain) should be interpreted via the sum of skinfolds in absolute values, waist perimeter, and patients' body proportionality, because fat is just a fraction of the adipocyte (lipid).