Abstract

Abstract
Aims: Cardiovascular (CV) events are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), including those patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD). Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) has been associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and mortality in patients with CKD. However, the role of FGF23 in uremic vasculopathy remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to assess the relationship between FGF23 and LVH, endothelial dysfunction, vascular calcification, and arterial stiffness in 48 stable PD patients. Methods: Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was assessed using 2-D echocardiography. Intact FGF23 blood levels were evaluated using an ELISA kit (Immutopics, Inc., San Clemente, CA, USA). Reactive hyperemia index (RHI) is a surrogate marker of endothelial dysfunction and the augmentation index (AI) is a surrogate marker of arterial stiffness. Both were assessed using peripheral arterial tonometry (EndoPAT 2000). Vascular calcification (VC) was assessed using the Adragao score. Results: In unadjusted analysis; FGF23 was positively correlated with serum Pi (r = 0.487, p < 0.001), serum urea (r = 0.351, p = 0.015), serum creatinine (r = 0.535, p < 0.001), dialysis vintage (r = 0.309, p = 0.033), and LVMI (r = 0.369, p = 0.027) and was negatively correlated with age (r = -0.343, p = 0.017), residual renal function (r = -0.359, p < 0.012), and AI (r = -0.304, p = 0.038). In multivariate adjusted analysis, FGF23 was associated with LVMI (beta = 0.298, p = 0.041), serum Pi (beta = 0.345, p = 0.018), and age (beta = -0.372, p = 0.007) independent of dialysis vintage, gender, residual renal function (RRF), albumin, C-reactive protein and systolic blood pressure. There were no associations found between FGF23 and RHI, AI, or VC in multivariable-adjusted models. Conclusions: Our results show that FGF23 is associated with LVH but not with endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness, or vascular calcification in PD patients.

Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to relate social desirability with eating behavior dimensions among higher education students in Portugal, and to assess the effect of social desirability on the association between pairs of eating behavior dimensions. Methods: Data from 266 higher education students (62.8% women) aged between 18 and 27 y were evaluated. Social desirability and several eating behavior dimensions (emotional and external eating, flexible and rigid restraint, binge eating, and eating self-efficacy) were assessed. Results: In both women and men, social desirability showed negative associations with emotional, external, and binge eating, and positive associations with eating self-efficacy. For the majority of the correlations, the control for social desirability led to a decrease in the strength of the association: Social desirability showed a greater effect on the associations between external and binge eating, external eating and eating self-efficacy, binge eating and eating self-efficacy, and emotional and external eating. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that social desirability should be considered when assessing the dimensions of eating behavior, namely eating self-efficacy and dimensions related to overeating.

Abstract

Abstract
Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs in the ability to organise and implement the action plans needed to achieve a certain result and the feeling of control over the behaviours and environment. It determines the initiation, maintenance and cessation of strategies or behaviours, being a good predictor of eating behaviour. Despite its potential in terms of research, prognosis and evaluation of interventions, we are unaware of instruments to assess global features of food self-efficacy validated for the Portuguese population. The aim of this work is to develop and validate a scale to assess general features of food self-efficacy ("Escala de Auto-Eficácia Alimentar Global"). We evaluated a sample of 276 higher education students, and the analysis was performed separately for the subsamples of females and males. The items were created through the adaptation of the six items of the self-efficacy subscale of the "Inventário Clínico de Auto-Conceito" (Serra, 1986). The analysis led to the maintenance of five of the six items initially considered. The scale shows an unifactorial structure, and the proportion of total variance explained by the principal components extracted is higher than 64%. It also shows good internal consistency, with values of Cronbach's alpha above 0.85. The study of relations with other measures showed evidence of its convergent and discriminant validities. The "Escala de Auto-Eficácia Alimentar Global" may prove to be an useful tool for the prognosis and the evaluation of interventions related to the change in eating habits.

Abstract
Gathering knowledge about food and nutritional habits of a population is of the utmost importance since dietary intervention positively impacts health outcomes across the life span. With this transversal epidemiologic study representative of the adult Portuguese population (data from SPCNA), we tried to know the nutritional intake pattern (energy and macronutrients) of the Portuguese population. In an domiciliary individualized interview sociodemographic data were registered and food intake was evaluated by the 24-hour recall method. Portuguese energy intake, is on average, 2056 kcal/day, distributed by 19.1% of protein, 45.8% of carbohydrates and 31.3% of total fat, and 3.8% of ethanol. These data will be important to Portuguese public health interventions. © 2016 The Authors