Category: Statistics

Eur J Clin Nutr. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41430-026-01732-3. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: India’s food consumption landscape has transformed over the past decade, with implications for nutrition security. This article quantifies changes in household expenditure, consumption patterns across major food groups, and dietary sources of selected micronutrients.

METHODS: Data from nationally representative Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) 2011-12 and 2023-24 were analysed. Food quantities were standardised to adult female equivalents, and micronutrient intake was derived by linking food acquisition data to Indian Food Composition Tables. Models were fitted using a generalised additive mixed model with random effects (bam function, mgcv package in R).

RESULTS: Monthly per capita expenditure has increased across rural and urban areas, while share of food in household expenditure has declined, signalling economic diversification. Within food budgets, share of cereals has fallen sharply, particularly among poorest quintiles, consistent with expansion of food security programmes providing subsidised cereals. Meanwhile, probability and quantity of consumption of nutrient-dense foods- dairy, fruits, and flesh products, has risen across income groups, with larger gains among poorest households. Seasonal and regional disparities in perishable food consumption persist but have narrowed. Despite greater dietary diversity, micronutrient intake remains suboptimal. Estimated daily intake of Iron, Zinc, Calcium, and B Vitamins fell below Estimated Average Requirements for non-lactating adult women, with median inadequacy exceeding 75% for several micronutrients.

CONCLUSION: India’s dietary transition shows progress but persistent gaps. HCES-based estimates provide valuable insights, underscoring need for integrated strategies aligning food policy, social protection, and nutrition-sensitive interventions to improve equitable access to nutrient-dense foods and reduce micronutrient inadequacy.

PMID:41946892 | DOI:10.1038/s41430-026-01732-3

Ann Biomed Eng. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1007/s10439-026-04130-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Thick-walled vascular models, including block models, are increasingly used for in vitro investigations of fluid dynamics and endovascular device testing, particularly fatigue testing at high frequencies, as valuable alternatives to thin-walled models due to their simpler fabrication. Physiologically compliant models provide more realistic insights into hemodynamics and implant deformation; however, no compact and experimentally validated closed-form equation exists to predict the volumetric compliance of thick-walled vessel models.

METHODS: A closed-form mathematical equation was derived to estimate the volumetric compliance of thick-walled cylindrical vessel models. The equation was experimentally validated through static compliance tests on cylindrical vascular models of varying wall thicknesses fabricated from two silicone elastomers and polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA-H) with four PVA concentrations (10, 12, 14, and 16 wt/vol.%). Dynamic compliance tests were performed at 1, 5, 10, and 30 Hz to assess the viscoelastic behavior of the materials. Finally, an applicability study was performed by fabricating block-form anatomical aneurysm models targeting physiological volumetric compliance based on the predicted equation.

RESULTS: Predicted and measured values showed strong agreement (R² > 0.95). PVA-H-10 exhibited volumetric compliance within the physiological range (0.4-1.1%/mmHg). Volumetric compliance decreased by over 50% at 30 Hz, confirming viscoelastic behavior with a maximum loss to storage volumetric compliance ratio of 0.14. Measured aneurysm model compliance matched predictions with an error below 7%.

CONCLUSION: This study provided a validated mathematical and experimental framework for fabricating thick-walled vascular models with physiologically relevant volumetric compliance and viscoelasticity for fluid dynamics and endovascular device testing.

PMID:41946863 | DOI:10.1007/s10439-026-04130-9

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.3758/s13415-026-01423-3. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Pupil dilation responses are reliable physiological markers of arousal in response to unexpected events. We investigated how these responses generalise across different sensory modalities by using transitions between regular and random sequences of visual dots and auditory tones. In Experiment 1, we investigated sequences of visual dots and found that (a) transitions from a regular sequence to a random sequence induced pupil dilations, (b) transitions from one regular sequence to another regular sequence also induced pupil dilations, and (c) transitions from a random sequence to a regular sequence did not reliably induce them. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings, confirming their reliability and thereby generalizing the literature from the auditory to the visual modality. In Experiment 3, we directly compared pupil dilations in visual and auditory modalities. We observed strong cross-modal similarity in pupil sizes, particularly for transitions between regular and random sequences. We also decomposed the pupil size time series to approximate phasic pupil dilation events. While the patterns of dilation events were quite similar, differences between modalities in dilation size (but not in rates) occurred during transitions from one regular to another regular sequence. Overall, our findings suggest that pupil-linked arousal reflects inference of statistical structure and its violations, exhibiting substantial (albeit not perfect) similarity across modalities.

PMID:41946847 | DOI:10.3758/s13415-026-01423-3

J Clin Sleep Med. 2026 Apr 7;22(1):44. doi: 10.1007/s44470-026-00066-y.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Examine associations between sleep patterns (duration, timing, and regularity) and weight status and explore moderating effects of parenting/family functioning among children with mild sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) from the Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy Trial for Snoring.

METHODS: Two age groups (3-5 and 6-12-year-olds) were examined separately with waist circumference (WCz) and body mass index (BMIz) z-scores as the primary and secondary endpoints, respectively.

RESULTS: Participants were 207 younger and 252 older children in a socio-demographically diverse sample. In adjusted models with older children, shorter sleep was associated with higher WCz, controlling for weekend mid-sleep timing (coefficient estimate beta = – 0.137, p = 0.027) with a similar finding for BMIz (beta = – 0.144, p = 0.041); later timing was related to higher WCz, controlling for sleep duration (beta = 0.122, p = 0.032). Shorter sleep duration was associated with higher WCz among the older children with greater parental distress (interaction p = 0.005), parent-child dysfunctional interactions (interaction p = 0.020), and less authoritative parenting (interaction p = 0.023) compared to those with more optimal parent-child relationships. There were no statistically significant associations or interactions among younger children.

CONCLUSIONS: In school-aged children, shorter sleep duration and later midpoint, but not social jet lag, tended to be associated with weight status. When mutually adjusting for duration and midpoint, a stronger statistically significant association was observed. Children subject to less optimal parenting practices were at the greatest risk of shorter sleep. Accounting for sleep timing and parenting factors that might further increase children’s biological propensity for obesity is recommended in future studies in this area.

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE/STUDY RATIONALE: Initial evidence suggests that shorter sleep duration and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) increase the risk of becoming overweight in later childhood. This study examined relationships of additional sleep patterns-timing and regularity-and possible moderating effects of parenting/family factors using a well-characterized cohort of children with mild SDB from the Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy Trial for Snoring.

STUDY IMPACT: This study demonstrates that both shorter sleep duration and later timing relate to higher waist circumference and body mass index z-scores among school-aged children. Parenting factors (i.e., stress, parent-child dysfunctional relationships, and less use of an authoritative parenting style) may moderate sleep pattern-weight status relationships and therefore identify children most vulnerable to obesity because of insufficient sleep.

PMID:41946844 | DOI:10.1007/s44470-026-00066-y

J Neurol. 2026 Apr 7;273(5):254. doi: 10.1007/s00415-026-13796-z.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Postictal aggression (PIA) is an under-researched phenomenon with potentially harmful consequences for patients and their environment. This study assessed the prevalence of PIA, its associated clinical variables, and its relationship with quality of life (QoL), anxiety, and depression.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, consecutive patients with epilepsy (≥ 1 seizure in the past 12 months; age ≥ 16 years) were surveyed using standardized questionnaires in a tertiary epilepsy center. Occurrence of PIA was retrospectively assessed over the preceding 12 months and defined by a score of ≥ 2 on the Overt aggression scale modified (OAS-M). Anxiety and depression were measured with the Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS-A, HADS-D) and the Neurological disorders depression inventory in epilepsy (NDDI-E).

RESULTS: A total of 201 patients were included (57% male; median age 47 years; 76% focal epilepsy, 14% idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), 10% unclassified). Twenty-four patients (12%) reported clinically relevant PIA. Patients with PIA had lower QoL (QOLIE-10 median 40 vs. 37, p = 0.031) and more frequent clinically relevant anxiety (HADS-A ≥ 8: 58% vs. 30%, p = 0.019). Depressive symptoms were more common in PIA (NDDI-E ≥ 16: 21% vs. 10%) without statistical significance (p = 0.309). IGE (OR 3.13, 95% CI 1.06-8.98) and anxiety (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.02-6.26) were independently associated with PIA. There were no associations with antiseizure medications or their dosage. Ten patients reported adverse consequences of PIA, most commonly shame and fear.

CONCLUSION: Almost one in eight patients experienced PIA. It was associated with reduced QoL and increased anxiety, highlighting the psychosocial burden.

PMID:41946837 | DOI:10.1007/s00415-026-13796-z

Mol Psychiatry. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41380-026-03553-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Biomarkers can potentially improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, PTSD biomarkers that are scalable and easily integrated into real-world clinical settings have not been identified. The analysis was conducted between June to November 2024 using genomic samples and laboratory test results recorded in the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Health System. The analysis included 23,743 European ancestry participants from the nested MGB Biobank study. The first exposure was polygenic risk score (PRS) for PTSD, calculated using the largest available European ancestry genome-wide association study (GWAS), employing a Bayesian polygenic scoring method. The second exposure was a clinical diagnosis of PTSD, determined by the presence of two or more instances of PTSD-related diagnostic codes in the longitudinal electronic health records (EHR). The primary outcomes were the inverse normal quantile transformed, median lab values of 241 laboratory traits with non-zero h²_SNP estimates. Sixteen unique laboratory traits across the cardiometabolic, hematologic, hepatic, and immune systems were implicated in both genomic and phenotypic lab-wide association scans (LabWAS). Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses provided evidence of potential unidirectional causal effects of PTSD liability on hepatic (decreased albumin and total bilirubin), cardiometabolic (decreased HDL cholesterol and increased VLDL cholesterol), and hematologic (decreased mean platelet volume) markers. These findings demonstrate the potential of a triangulation approach to uncover scalable and clinically relevant biomarkers for PTSD.

PMID:41946832 | DOI:10.1038/s41380-026-03553-z

J Hum Hypertens. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41371-026-01145-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

While mobile health shows potential in hypertension treatment, its effectiveness for middle-aged and older adults is unclear. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of mobile health interventions on blood pressure outcomes in this group of population; the secondary objective was to examine their impact on patients’ self-management and to identify potential influencing factors. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched until March 2025. The included studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the effects of mobile health interventions on blood pressure and self-management outcomes. Meta-analysis used Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 17.0, with quality assessed by Cochrane ROB2.0. Fourteen RCTs with 6292 patients were included. Compared with traditional care, mobile health interventions demonstrated significant advantages in improving systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, blood pressure control rates, treatment adherence, hypertension-related knowledge, and quality of life, while no statistically significant effect was observed on hypertension self-efficacy. Subgroup analyses indicated that, aside from a borderline between-subgroup difference in diastolic blood pressure stratified by intervention type (P = 0.05), the blood pressure-lowering effects of mobile health interventions were generally consistent across various age groups and intervention modalities. In summary, mobile health interventions can significantly improve clinical outcomes and self-management levels among patients aged ≥ 45 years with hypertension; however, their effects on hypertension self-efficacy remain limited. Further long-term, high-quality studies are needed.

PMID:41946822 | DOI:10.1038/s41371-026-01145-6

J Clin Sleep Med. 2026 Apr 7;22(1):46. doi: 10.1007/s44470-026-00070-2.

ABSTRACT

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) may be linked to poor physical performance and fall risk, yet this association remains underexplored. This study examined associations between OSA risk, balance, gait speed and handgrip strength (HGS) in community living adults across age-groups and sexes.

METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study were analysed. Probable OSA was estimated with an adapted STOP-Bang questionnaire. Poor balance was defined as the inability to hold a semi-tandem stance for 10 s; slow gait speed as walking < 0.8 m/s over 2.5 m; and weak HGS as HGS-to-body mass index ratio < 1.00 m² for males and < 0.56m² for females.

RESULTS: 6,918 participants (mean age 66 ± 11 years; 57% female) were included. Probable OSA was associated with higher odds of: (i) poor balance in the overall sample (OR:1.23, 95% bootstrapped confidence interval (BCI):1.07-1.39, p = 0.002), 50-64 years (OR: 1.41, BCI: 1.15- 1.72, p < 0.001) and females (OR: 1.30, BCI: 1.10-1.56, p = 0.004); (ii) slow gait speed in the overall sample (OR:1.29, BCI:1.07-1.57, p = 0.007), 80 + years (OR:1.61, BCI:1.07-2.42, p = 0.028) and females (OR:1.39, BCI:1.03-1.91, p = 0.024); and (iii) weak HGS in the overall sample (OR:2.22, BCI:1.90-2.63, p = 0.001), 50-64 years (OR:3.40, BCI: 2.58-4.61, p < 0.001), 65-79 years (OR: 1.93, BCI:1.52- 2.47, p < 0.001), males (OR = 1.87, BCI:1.49-2.35, p < 0.001) and females (OR = 2.67, BCI 2.15-3.33, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Poor balance, slow gait speed and weak HGS are common among older adults at high risk of OSA. Further research should evaluate causality and assess co-screening to potentially enable early detection of fall risk in older adults.

STUDY RATIONALE: OSA is a common but often undiagnosed condition that may contribute to accelerated age-related physical decline and increased fall risk. Despite known links between diagnosed OSA and motor deficits, little is known about how undiagnosed OSA relates to fall-related physical performance measures in large, community-based populations. Study Impact: This study suggests that individuals at high risk of OSA are more likely to have poor balance, slow gait speed, and weak handgrip strength, which are key predictors of fall risk. The observation of these associations in adults as young as 50 years of age warrants future research to evaluate causality and determine if co-screening of OSA and fall risk can help identify those most vulnerable.

PMID:41946820 | DOI:10.1007/s44470-026-00070-2

Sci Rep. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-47337-5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

To investigate the effect of perioperative temperature settings of an inflatable warming device on postoperative recovery quality in patients undergoing hysteroscopic myomectomy, this randomized controlled trial enrolled 258 patients receiving laryngeal mask general anesthesia at Xuzhou Central Hospital, China, between March 2022 and August 2024. Patients were allocated to perioperative temperature management with an inflatable warming device set to 38 °C (Group L, n = 129) or 43 °C (Group H, n = 129). A total of 211 patients were included in the final analysis after accounting for exclusions. At 24 h postoperatively, the QoR-40 score was significantly higher in Group H compared to Group L (P < 0.05). At baseline (T0), no significant differences in core body temperature, mean arterial pressure (MAP), or heart rate (HR) were observed between groups (P > 0.05). From T1 to T6, Group H exhibited higher and more stable core body temperature, MAP, and HR compared to Group L (P < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in QoR-40 scores at 48 h (P > 0.05) or in the incidence of postoperative restlessness, chills, and infection between the two groups. Compared to 38 °C, the perioperative application of a 43 °C inflatable warming device improved early postoperative recovery quality at 24 h in hysteroscopic myomectomy patients without increasing complication risks.

PMID:41946782 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-47337-5

Sci Rep. 2026 Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-46012-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The development of sustainable high-performance concrete has increasingly emphasized the incorporation of natural fibers to improve mechanical and impact resistance. This study presents a comprehensive and novel investigation of multiple natural fibers, coconut (0.5-1.5%), flax (0.1-0.5%), jute (0.15-0.55%), and bamboo, hemp, and kenaf (0.25-1.25%), evaluated in two concrete grades (M25 and M80). In addition to experimental assessment, probabilistic reliability modeling was integrated to characterize the stochastic nature of impact behavior in natural fiber-reinforced concrete (NFRC). Repeated impact testing in accordance with ACI 544-2R demonstrated that coconut fiber at 1-1.25% provided the highest impact resistance, increasing failure counts by 65% in M25 and 83% in M80 relative to the control concrete. Kenaf (0.75-1%) and bamboo (0.5-1%) exhibited moderate improvements of up to 20%, whereas jute, flax, and hemp produced comparatively modest gains of 5-10%. Despite substantial improvements in impact resistance, compressive strength remained comparable to that of the control concrete. Ductility indices and post-cracking ratios revealed distinct post-peak deformation mechanisms governed by fiber type, including pull-out, rupture, and interfacial slip. To further quantify performance differences, a grade-fiber synergy analysis was proposed to evaluate the interaction between concrete strength and fiber efficiency across grades. The probabilistic characterization of impact resistance was performed using Weibull statistics, supplemented by bootstrap resampling and Bayesian uncertainty analysis, enabling assessment of reliability and parameter stability. The results establish a reliability-based framework for optimizing NFRC formulations to improve structural resilience under dynamic loading.

PMID:41946761 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-46012-z