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Increased Body Mass (increased + body_mass)
Terms modified by Increased Body Mass Selected AbstractsBenzodiazepines and injury: a risk adjusted model,,PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, Issue 1 2005Dustin D. French MA Abstract Background Benzodiazepines (BZD) are one class of medications that are generally acknowledged to be a risk factor for injuries. Objective Our objective was to link outpatient prescription data with clinical data in order to develop a risk adjusted binary model that associates BZD usage with the risk for a healthcare encounter for an injury. Methods In total, 3 years of outpatient BZD prescription data, totaling 133,872 outpatient BZD prescriptions for 13,745 patients for a VA medical center, were combined with data from inpatient and outpatient administrative databases. The model incorporated Elixhauser comorbidity measures with 1-year look back period, along with hospital discharges, marital status, age, mean arterial pressure and body mass index. The model also included the dose of the drug, converted to valium equivalents and its duration. The model was analyzed using generalized estimation equations (GEE). Results Dose, duration, discharges and various comorbidities were associated with an increased risk for injury, while being married reduced the risk. Increased body mass was associated with increased injury risk. Increased mean arterial pressure was associated with decreased risk. Conclusions These findings offer guidance on how specific combinations of risk factors and potential protective effects may impact accidental injury risk. Clinicians prescribing or adjusting BZDs can use these results to more accurately tailor medication regimens for a patient. Our findings suggest that clinicians should also consider the nature of the social support system available to the patient in assessing total injury risk. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Belly up: Reduced crevice accessibility as a cost of reproduction caused by increased girth in a rock-using lizardAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010LIN SCHWARZKOPF Abstract Costs of reproduction are any aspect of current reproduction that has the potential to reduce survivorship or reproductive output, and may include physiological costs or increased risks. Females of many species experience increased body mass, and increased girth, when gravid. Increased body mass reduces running speed and increases the cost of locomotion during pregnancy, but few studies have examined the cost of increased girth. If increased girth of gravid females reduces access to shelter from predators or the elements, increased girth could constitute a cost of reproduction. In the laboratory, we experimentally tested whether access to crevices was limited in viviparous, saxicolous female lizards (Eulamprus brachysoma), which use crevices for shelter, by measuring access to artificial crevices of known widths, and body height during and after pregnancy. Gravid E. brachysoma had significantly greater body height (11.2% on average), and as a result were forced to use significantly wider crevices (18.4% wider on average) than post-parturition. Females with larger clutch sizes had wider mid-bodies and required larger crevices. Control females, which were not gravid at either time of testing, showed no significant change in the size of crevice they could enter over time. If access to narrow crevices provides advantages such as protection from predators, or is important for thermoregulation, then gravid females may suffer a cost of reproduction because their access to narrower crevices is limited. [source] Commentary on cellulite: skin mechanobiology and the waist-to-hip ratioJOURNAL OF COSMETIC DERMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2005Gérald E Piérard Summary Cellulite is a gender-related condition which is the clinical expression of conformational changes taking place in the fibrous strands partitioning the hypodermis. The affected skin areas are those where fat deposition is under the influence of estrogens. Some hypodermal fibrous strands become enlarged and others become loose and look similar to striae distensae. Cellulite is not a result of increased body mass, but its aspect may be influenced by the waist-to-hip ratio. [source] Correlates of body mass evolution in primatesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2006Christophe Soligo Abstract Body mass is undoubtedly central to the overall adaptive profile of any organism. Despite this, very little is known of what forces drive evolutionary changes in body mass and, consequently, shape patterns of body mass distribution exhibited by animal radiations. The search for factors that may influence evolutionary processes in general frequently focuses on environmental parameters such as climate change or interspecific competition. With respect to body mass, there is also the suggestion that evolutionary lineages may follow an inherent trend toward increased body mass, known as Cope's rule. The present paper investigates whether overall directional trends of body mass change, or correlations between patterns of body mass evolution and environmental factors have influenced the evolution of body mass in plesiadapiforms and primates. Analyses of the global fossil record of plesiadapiforms and primates suggest that the former did indeed follow an overall trend toward increased body mass compatible with the predictions of Cope's rule. In contrast, neither primates as a whole, nor a number of individual primate radiations (Adapiformes, Omomyiformes, and Anthropoidea), show any indication of overall directional patterns of body mass change. No correlations of primate body mass change with either the latitudinal distribution of fossil species, or with estimates of global temperature trends, were found. There is evidence, however, that direct competition between omomyiforms and adapiforms (the two main primate radiations known from the Paleogene) influenced processes of body mass evolution in omomyiforms. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] |