Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background Increasing evidence supports an association between psychological well-being and overall health, however, much remains to be understood about this association. The current study addresses this issue by presenting a new perspective focusing on health perceptions. Additionally, it examines the impact of each of six dimensions of psychological well-being on health perception. Methods Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1,155 Portuguese adults in various settings. Findings reveal that psychological well-being dimensions' impact differently on prior, current, and health outlookperceptions. Furthermore, the dimension depressed mood influences current health perception; in turn, current health perception is the strongest predictor for psychological well-being. Our results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between health perception and psychological well-being.

Resumo em Inglês:

Objective The purpose of this study is to determine the relation between smart phone addiction and personality beliefs of university students. Methods A total of 1007 students, 637 females (63.3%) and 370 males (36.7%) participated in the study. “Smart phone addiction scale short form” was used to measure smart phone addiction and “personality beliefs scale” was used to identify personality beliefs. Results According to the performed multiple regression analysis, it was found out that dependent, antisocial, narcissist, histrionic, borderline, paranoid personality, schizoid personality, obsessive compulsive personality, passive-aggressive personality and avoidant personality beliefs predicted smart phone addiction at significant level (R = 0.38, R2 = 0.15, p < 0.001). The mentioned variables explain 15% of the variance. An examination of the t-test shows that dependent personality (t = 5.585, p < 0.001), passive-aggressive personality (t = -4.485, p < .001) and paranoid personality (t = 2.901, p < .01) belief among the mentioned variables are a significant predictor of smart phone addiction. Discussion The obtained results show that dependent, passive-aggressive and paranoid personality beliefs are a significant predictor of smart phone addiction. Research findings are discussed in the light of relevant literature.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background Antimicrobial peptides are components of the innate immune system. Cathelicidin LL-37 plays an important role in antimicrobial defense, exerts proinflammatory effect and strongly affects the immune system functioning. Our recent study revealed that serum concentration of LL-37 is increased in patients with bipolar disorder. Objectives The aim of this study is to re-evaluate serum LL-37 levels in patients with euthymic bipolar disorder and in healthy controls, matched for anthropometric and body composition parameters. Methods 36 adult patients with euthymic bipolar disorder and 68 non-depressed adults were included into the study. Concentration of LL-37 in serum was assessed using ELISA method. Detailed anthropometric measurements, body composition and biochemical analyses were performed. Results There was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.01) in serum LL-37 level between patients with bipolar disorder (4.97 ± 7.98 ng/mL) and control subjects (1.78 ± 2.69 ng/mL). Discussion Results of this study indicate that LL-37 serum level is increased in euthymic bipolar disorder patients. We found that this increase could not be attributed to analyzed anthropometric or body composition parameters.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Background Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a disorder in which the patient presents a cognitive decline, but without negative impact on the activities of daily living. Objective To carry out a systematic review of published studies that analyzed the prevalence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in older adults living in the community, and the criteria used for the diagnosis of this disorder. Methods A search was carried out in May 2017 using the descriptors: “epidemiology” or “prevalence”, “mild cognitive impairment”, and “community” in the PubMed, PsycInfo, SciELO, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Two independent researchers extracted and documented the data. We used a random effect model to calculate pooled prevalence of MCI for overall studies and for each subgroup divided by diagnostic criteria. Results We found initially 1996 articles, and we selected 35 studies. The prevalence of MCI in the selected studies ranged from 0.5% to 41.8%. The overall pooled prevalence of MCI was 17.3% (CI 95%, 13.8-20.8), with significant heterogeneity between estimates (I2 = 99.6%). Discussion The standardization of the diagnostic criteria for MCI, as well as the tests used in the cognitive evaluation, could allow the comparison between the studies and would be an important step in the researches of this area.