Research highlights for May 2021

The association between food insecurity and sarcopenia among adults aged ≥65 years in six low- and middle-income countries was investigated in Smith et al. (1). The prevalence of sarcopenia among those with no food insecurity was 13.0%, which increased to 24.4% among those with severe food insecurity.

Kolarik et al. (2) investigated how room-size estimates were affected by stimulus type, level, and reverberation. The results showed that when level and reverberation cues are present, reverberation increases judged room size. Even relatively weak reverberation cues provide room-size information, which could potentially be used by blind or visually impaired individuals encountering novel rooms.

Smith et al. (3) investigated the association between food insecurity and fall-related injury among older adults from six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Severe food insecurity was associated with higher odds for injurious falls among older adults in LMICs, and a large proportion of this association may be explained by mental health complications.

The associations between physical inactivity and obesity in Spanish adults with vision and hearing difficulties was examined by Pardhan et al. (4). They found that the association between physical inactivity and obesity was stronger in those with difficulty hearing compared with difficulty seeing, with gender-stratified analyses showing significant associations between physical inactivity and obesity in men who reported difficulty hearing and difficulty seeing, but not in women.

Bullimore et al. (5) analysed whether the potential benefits of slowing myopia progression by 1 diopter (D) justify the potential risks associated with treatments. They found the potential benefits of myopia control outweigh the risks: the number needed to treat to prevent 5 years of visual impairment was between 4.1 and 6.8, whereas fewer than 1 in 38 would experience a loss of vision as a result of myopia control.

References

1. Smith, L., Jacob, L., Barnett, Y., Butler, L. T., Shin, J. I., López-Sánchez, G. F., Soysal, P., Veronese, N., Haro, J. M., Koyanagi, A. 2021. Association between Food Insecurity and Sarcopenia among Adults Aged ≥65 Years in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Nutrients, 13(6), 1879. doi: 10.3390/nu13061879

2. Kolarik, A. J., Moore, B. C. J., Cirstea, S., Aggius-Vella, E., Gori, M., Campus, C., Pardhan, S. 2021. Factors Affecting Auditory Estimates of Virtual Room Size: Effects of Stimulus, Level, and Reverberation. Perception. doi: 10.1177/03010066211020598

3. Smith, L., Shin, J. I., López-Sánchez, G. F., Veronese, N., Soysal, P., Oh, H., Grabovac, I., Barnett, Y., Jacob, L., Koyanagi, A., 2021. Association between food insecurity and fall-related injury among adults aged ≥65 years in low- and middle-income countries: The role of mental health conditions. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 96, 104438. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2021.104438

4. Pardhan, S., Smith, L., Davis, A., Bourne, R., Barnett, Y., Jacob, L., Koyanagi, A., Radzimiński, Ł, Skalska, M., Jastrzębska, J., Jastrzębski, Z., López-Sánchez, G. F., 2021. Gender differences in the association between physical activity and obesity in adults with vision and hearing losses. European Journal of Public Health. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckab077

5. Bullimore, M. A., Ritchey, E. R., Shah, S., Leveziel, N., Bourne, R. R. A., Flitcroft, D. I., 2021. The Risks and Benefits of Myopia Control. Ophthalmology. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2021.04.032