Biomedical subjects

Robert D Abbott

Publications and source records attributed to Robert D Abbott.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Favorable effects of non-instrumental resistance training on fat distribution and metabolic profiles in healthy elderly people.

This study examined the effect of a 12-week non-instrumental resistance training program using body weight as a load (RT-BW) on body composition, fat distribution and metabolic profiles in elderly males and females. Healthy, non-diabetic, elderly volunteers (22 males and 30 females) aged 65-82 years were non-randomly divided into RT-BW (12 males and 20 females) and control (10 males and 10 females) groups. The RT-BW subjects were trained three times per week for 12 weeks according to a specified protocol involving a combination of upper and lower body weight and rubber tubing exercises. We evaluated body composition and fat distribution using anthropometry, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and ultrasonography, and measured serum lipid levels and HbA(1c) at baseline and after 12 weeks of training. Changes over 12 weeks were significantly greater in the RT-BW group compared with the control group, with a decrease in waist circumference, pre-peritoneal (visceral) fat thickness and thigh fat thickness, and an increase in thigh muscle thickness. On the other hand, the changes in body weight, fat mass and fat free mass were no different between the groups. Further, there were significantly greater changes of metabolic profiles in the RT-BW group with an increase in HDL cholesterol and a decrease in triglyceride and HbA(1c). There was a significant between-group difference in diastolic blood pressure. Relatively short-term, non-instrumental resistance training using body weight as a load was effective in improving fat distribution and metabolic profiles in healthy elderly people without weight loss.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Association of olfactory dysfunction with incidental Lewy bodies.

Olfactory dysfunction is found in early Parkinson's disease (PD) and in asymptomatic relatives of PD patients. Incidental Lewy bodies (ILB), the presence of Lewy bodies in the brains of deceased individuals without a history of PD or dementia during life, are thought to represent a presymptomatic stage of PD. If olfactory dysfunction were associated with the presence of ILB, this would suggest that olfactory deficits may precede clinical PD. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of olfactory dysfunction during late life with ILB in the substantia nigra or locus ceruleus. Olfaction was assessed during the 1991-1994 and 1994-1996 examinations of elderly Japanese-American men participating in the longitudinal Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Among those who later died and underwent a standardized postmortem examination, brains were examined for Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra and the locus ceruleus with hematoxylin and eosin stain. Lewy bodies in the brains of individuals without clinical PD or dementia were classified as ILB. There were 164 autopsied men without clinical PD or dementia who had olfaction testing during one of the examinations. Seventeen had ILB. The age-adjusted percent of brains with ILB increased from 1.8% in the highest tertile of odor identification to 11.9% in the mid-tertile to 17.4% in the lowest tertile (P = 0.019 in test for trend). Age-adjusted relative odds of ILB for the lowest versus the highest tertile was 11.0 (P = 0.02). Olfactory dysfunction is associated with ILB. If incidental Lewy bodies represent presymptomatic stage of PD, olfactory testing may be a useful screening tool to identify those at high risk for developing PD.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Raising healthy children: examining the impact of promoting healthy driving behavior within a social development intervention.

This study evaluated the impact of two targeted family sessions focused on driving issues delivered within the context of the Raising Healthy Children project. The Raising Healthy Children project began in the fall of 1993, drawing students in the 1st or 2nd grades from 10 schools. Schools were assigned to an intervention or control condition, and the school-wide, family- and student-focused preventive intervention to address developmentally salient risk and protective factors was delivered during elementary and middle school. The family driving sessions were administered to families in the intervention condition prior to and after teenagers received their driver's license. The first session consisted of a home visit with families designed to help parents and their children improve decision-making skills concerning driving and to develop clear standards and expectations regarding driving-related behavior. A second session, at the time of licensure, was designed to help parents and teens develop a written contract that stated family expectations, a plan for monitoring compliance with these expectations, and consequences for compliance or non-compliance. Consistent with the study's group-randomized design, intervention effects were assessed with multi-level logistic regression models in which students were grouped by their original school assignment. These models assessed specific effects of the driving sessions by adjusting for control variables measured when students were in 8th grade, prior to the driving sessions. Results indicated that students in the intervention group were more likely than students in the control group to report that they had a written driving contract (p = .003, OR = 4.98), and had participated in making the driving rules in the family (p = .025, OR = 1.70). Further, students in the intervention group reported significantly fewer risky behaviors including driving under the influence of alcohol (p = .021, OR = .45) and driving with someone who had been drinking (p = .038, OR = .56).

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2006

Examining equivalence of concepts and measures in diverse samples.

While there is growing awareness for the need to examine the etiology of problem behaviors across cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and gender groups, much research tends to assume that constructs are equivalent and that the measures developed within one group equally assess constructs across groups. The meaning of constructs, however, may differ across groups or, if similar in meaning, measures developed for a given construct in one particular group may not be assessing the same construct or may not be assessing the construct in the same manner in other groups. The aims of this paper were to demonstrate a process of testing several forms of equivalence including conceptual, functional, item, and scalar using different methods. Data were from the Cross-Cultural Families Project, a study examining factors that promote the healthy development and adjustment of children among immigrant Cambodian and Vietnamese families. The process described in this paper can be implemented in other prevention studies interested in diverse groups. Demonstrating equivalence of constructs and measures prior to group comparisons is necessary in order to lend support of our interpretation of issues such as ethnic group differences and similarities.

Asian People↗

PubMed2006

Effects of prior attention training on child dyslexics' response to composition instruction.

Twenty children (Grades 4 to 6) who met research criteria for dyslexia were randomly assigned to a treatment (attention training) or contact control (reading fluency training) group during their regular language arts block at a school that had emphasized multisensory, structured language treatment for reading disability. A university team provided either individual attention training (sustained, selective, alternating, and divided attention) or reading fluency training during the first 10 sessions and group composition instruction during the next 10 sessions. Analysis of variance evaluated the significance of Treatment x Session interactions from pretest to midtest (before composition instruction began) and midtest to posttest (when compositon instruction ends). Treatment x Time interactions were not significant between pretest and midtest, but the Treatment x Time interactions were significant from midtest to posttest for Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition Written Composition and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Verbal Fluency (attention treatment group improved more over time). Individual children showed the same pattern as group results. For child dyslexics in upper elementary school, attention training did not transfer directly to improved composition but prior attention training led to faster improvement in composing and oral verbal fluency once composition instruction was introduced. Effective instruction for dyslexia may depend on the sequencing as well as the nature of instructional components and require specialized instruction for writing as well as reading.

Achievement↗

PubMed2006

Early development of language by hand: composing, reading, listening, and speaking connections; three letter-writing modes; and fast mapping in spelling.

The first findings from a 5-year, overlapping-cohorts longitudinal study of typical language development are reported for (a) the interrelationships among Language by Ear (listening), Mouth (speaking), Eye (reading), and Hand (writing) in Cohort 1 in 1st and 3rd grade and Cohort 2 in 3rd and 5th grade; (b) the interrelationships among three modes of Language by Hand (writing manuscript letters with pen and keyboard and cursive letters with pen) in each cohort in the same grade levels as (a); and (c) the ability of the 1st graders in Cohort 1 and the 3rd graders in Cohort 2 to apply fast mapping in learning to spell pseudowords. Results showed that individual differences in Listening Comprehension, Oral Expression, Reading Comprehension, and Written Expression are stable developmentally, but each functional language system is only moderately correlated with the others. Likewise, manuscript writing, cursive writing, and keyboarding are only moderately correlated, and each has a different set of unique neuropsychological predictors depending on outcome measure and grade level. Results support the use of the following neuropsychological measures in assessing handwriting modes: orthographic coding, rapid automatic naming, finger succession (grapho-motor planning for sequential finger movements), inhibition, inhibition/switching, and phonemes skills (which may facilitate transfer of abstract letter identities across letter formats and modes of production). Both 1st and 3rd graders showed evidence of fast mapping of novel spoken word forms onto written word forms over 3 brief sessions (2 of which involved teaching) embedded in the assessment battery; and this fast mapping explained unique variance in their spelling achievement over and beyond their orthographic and phonological coding abilities and correlated significantly with current and next-year spelling achievement.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2006

Executive functions in becoming writing readers and reading writers: note taking and report writing in third and fifth graders.

Results are reported for a study of 2 separate processes of report writing-taking notes while reading source material and composing a report from those notes-and related individual differences in executive functions involved in integrating reading and writing during these writing activities. Third graders (n = 122) and 5th graders (n = 106; overall, 127 girls and 114 boys) completed two reading-writing tasks-read paragraph (mock science text)-write notes and use notes to generate written report, a reading comprehension test, a written expression test, four tests of executive functions (inhibition, verbal fluency, planning, switching attention), and a working memory test. For the read-take notes task, the same combination of variables was best (explained the most variance and each variable added unique variance) for 3rd graders and 5th graders: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II) Reading Comprehension, Process Assessment of the Learner Test for Reading and Writing (PAL) Copy Task B, WIAT-II Written Expression, and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Inhibition. For the use notes to write report task, the best combinations of variables depended on grade level: For 3rd graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, WIAT-II Written Expression, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, and Tower of Hanoi; for 5th graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, WIAT-II Written Expression, and PAL Alphabet Task. These results add to prior research findings that executive functions contribute to the writing development of elementary-grade students and additionally support the hypothesis that executive functions play a role in developing reading-writing connections.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2006

Converging evidence for triple word form theory in children with dyslexia.

This article has 3 parts. The 1st part provides an overview of the family genetics, brain imaging, and treatment research in the University of Washington Multidisciplinary Learning Disabilities Center (UWLDC) over the past decade that points to a probable genetic basis for the unusual difficulty that individuals with dyslexia encounter in learning to read and spell. Phenotyping studies have found evidence that phonological, orthographic, and morphological word forms and their parts may contribute uniquely to this difficulty. At the same time, reviews of treatment studies in the UWLDC (which focused on children in Grades 4 to 6) and other research centers provide evidence for the plasticity of the brain in individuals with dyslexia. The 2nd part reports 4 sets of results that extend previously published findings based on group analyses to those based on analyses of individual brains and that support triple word form awareness and mapping theory: (a) distinct brain signatures for the phonological, morphological, and orthographic word forms; (b) crossover effects between phonological and morphological treatments and functional magentic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks in response to instruction, suggestive of cross-word form computational and mapping processes; (c) crossover effects between behavioral measures of phonology or morphology and changes in fMRI activation following treatment; and (d) change in the relationship between structural MRI and functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) lactate activation in right and left inferior frontal gyri following treatment emphasizing the phonological, morphological, and orthographic word forms. In the 3rd part we discuss the next steps in this programmatic research to move beyond word form alone.

Brain Mapping↗

PubMed2006

Increases in alcohol and marijuana use during the transition out of high school into emerging adulthood: The effects of leaving home, going to college, and high school protective factors.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effects of leaving home and going to college on changes in the frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, and marijuana use shortly after leaving high school. We also examined how protective factors in late adolescence predict post-high school substance use and moderate the effects of leaving home and going to college. METHOD: Data came from subjects (N = 319; 53% male) interviewed at the end of 12th grade and again approximately 6 months later, as part of the Raising Healthy Children project. RESULTS: Leaving home and going to college were significantly related to increases in the frequency of alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking from high school to emerging adulthood but not to changes in marijuana use. Having fewer friends who used each substance protected against increases in the frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, and marijuana use. Higher religiosity protected against increases in alcohol-and marijuana-use frequency. Higher parental monitoring protected against increases in heavy episodic drinking and moderated the effect of going to college on marijuana use. Lower sensation seeking lessened the effect of going to college on increases in alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking. CONCLUSIONS: To prevent increases in substance use in emerging adulthood, interventions should concentrate on strengthening prosocial involvement and parental monitoring during high school. In addition, youths with high sensation seeking might be targeted for added intervention.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Relation of habitual snoring with components of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults.

AIMS: To examine the association between habitual snoring and components of the metabolic syndrome in Korean adults. Whether these associations are independent of obesity was also explored. METHODS: Four thousand five hundred and six men and 5041 women aged 40-69 years from the Korean Health and Genome Study were examined. Information of snoring frequency was obtained by a questionnaire and components of the metabolic syndrome were measured. RESULTS: There was a clear dose-response relationship between the increasing frequency of snoring and the higher prevalence of each component of the metabolic syndrome (P<0.001). After adjustment for age, abdominal obesity, and the other metabolic components, hypertension was significantly associated with a 1.2-fold excess of habitual snoring in both men (P<0.05) and women (P<0.05). The association of habitual snoring with hypertension was unaltered by obesity. Regardless of the presence or absence of abdominal obesity, there was an increase in the prevalence of habitual snoring as the number of metabolic abnormalities increased. CONCLUSIONS: Habitual snoring is associated with hypertension independent of obesity. While the relationship between habitual snoring and obesity is well recognized, characterization of the role of the other components of the metabolic syndrome as a cause or result of habitual snoring warrants a further study.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Promoting positive adult functioning through social development intervention in childhood: long-term effects from the Seattle Social Development Project.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the long-term effects of the Seattle Social Development Project intervention in promoting positive adult functioning and preventing mental health problems, crime, and substance use (including tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs) at 21 years of age. DESIGN: This nonrandomized controlled trial followed up participants to 21 years of age, 9 years after the intervention ended. We compared the following 3 intervention conditions: a full 6-year intervention (grades 1 through 6); a late 2-year intervention (grades 5 and 6 only); and a no-treatment control condition. SETTING: Eighteen public elementary schools serving diverse neighborhoods, including high-crime neighborhoods, of Seattle, Wash. PARTICIPANTS: A sex-balanced, multiethnic sample of 605 participants across the 3 conditions who completed interviews at 21 years of age (94% of the original sample in these conditions). INTERVENTIONS: Teacher training in classroom instruction and management, child social and emotional skill development, and parent training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reports of functioning in school and work, emotional and mental health, and crime and substance use at 21 years of age and official court records. RESULTS: Broad significant effects on functioning in school and work and on emotional and mental health were found. Fewer significant effects on crime and substance use were found at 21 years of age. Most outcomes had a consistent dose effect, with the strongest effects in subjects in the full-intervention group and effects in the late-intervention group between those in the full-intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: A theory-guided preventive intervention that strengthened teaching and parenting practices and taught children interpersonal skills during the elementary grades had wide-ranging beneficial effects on functioning in early adulthood.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

AD lesions and infarcts in demented and non-demented Japanese-American men.

Neocortical neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are hallmark neuropathological lesions of dementia. Concomitant cerebrovascular lesions increase dementia severity in patients meeting neuropathological criteria for Alzheimer's disease and contribute to cognitive impairment in persons with mild entorhinal Alzheimer lesions. This study investigates whether individuals with sparse neocortical neuritic plaques experience increased odds of crossing the threshold to clinical dementia when they have coexistent cerebrovascular lesions. Dementia examinations were given to 3,734 men during the 1991-1993 Honolulu-Asia Aging Study examination and to 2,603 men during the 1994-1996 examination. Lesion quantification was done without clinical data. Among 333 autopsied men, 120 had dementia, 115 had marginal results, and 98 had normal cognition. In men with neurofibrillary tangles, dementia frequency increased with increasing neuritic plaque density, and increased further in the presence of cerebrovascular lesions. The association was strongest in men with sparse neuritic plaques (1-3/mm(2)) where dementia frequency more than doubled with coexistent cerebrovascular lesions (45 vs 20%). Among all dementia cases, 24% were linked to cerebrovascular lesions. Findings suggest cerebrovascular lesions are associated with a marked excess of dementia in cases with low neuritic plaque frequency. Prevention of cerebrovascular lesions may be critically important in preserving late-life cognitive function.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Mediator effects in the social development model: an examination of constituent theories.

BACKGROUND: The social development model (SDM) provides an explanatory framework for the progression of antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents. Although previous research has assessed the predictive validity of the model, alternative associations based on the SDM's constituent theories have not been examined. METHOD: Using structural equation modelling, a series of direct paths was examined for mediation by SDM constructs. Data for the study consisted of teacher-, parent- and self-report of 1016 fourth- and fifth-grade students from the Raising Healthy Children project, a longitudinal etiological study with an embedded preventive intervention. RESULTS: Four of the seven paths examined were partially or totally mediated by SDM constructs. Specifically, the relationship between prosocial bonding and adolescent antisocial behaviour, as hypothesized by social control theory, was fully mediated by prosocial beliefs. As hypothesized by social learning theory, students' socioemotional and cognitive skills significantly predicted antisocial behaviour, independent of partial mediation through rewards, bonding and beliefs. As hypothesized by differential association theory, involvement with both prosocial and antisocial persons was directly associated with respective prosocial and antisocial beliefs, independent of partial mediation through rewards and bonding. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest additional associations that are not currently specified in the SDM and underscore the importance of re-examining hypotheses from constituent theories when integrating developmental models of antisocial behaviour.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

PubMed2005

Measures of positive adult behavior and their relationship to crime and substance use.

Drawing on diverse approaches to the study of youth development and adult functioning, as well as social capital and citizenship, this investigation identifies measures of positive adult behavior. Although prevention researchers study protective factors, as well as risk factors, for problem behaviors and other negative outcomes, less attention is given to positive behavior outcomes and there is little understanding of the relationships between positive and negative outcomes. Analyses included 765 participants from the Seattle Social Development Project interviewed at age 21. Seven measures of positive adult behavior were identified: volunteerism, group involvement, neighborliness, interpersonal connection, constructive engagement, financial responsibility, and honesty. Measures related to distal social relationships (group involvement and neighborliness) had relatively weak associations with crime and substance use. In contrast, the measures of constructive engagement, financial responsibility, and honesty had significant negative associations with multiple measures of crime and substance use. Results indicate that the seven measures provide relatively independent variables useful for assessing positive adult behavior. These measures can be used to assess positive outcomes in adulthood of intervention studies, or to assess the prevalence of positive adult behavior in different populations or groups.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Family influences on the risk of daily smoking initiation.

PURPOSE: To examine developmental patterns and family influences on the risk of daily smoking initiation from adolescence to young adulthood. METHOD: A gender-balanced, ethnically diverse urban sample of 808 children aged 10-11 years was surveyed in 1985 and followed prospectively to age 21 in 1996. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to assess the hazard of initiation of daily smoking during this time period, as well as the effects of family factors on the risk of daily smoking initiation. RESULTS: Less parental smoking, more strict family monitoring and rules, and stronger family bonding predicted a significantly lower risk of daily smoking initiation controlling for socio-demographic background. The decline in the impact of family bonding over time was marginally significant; however, none of the interactions between family factors and time were significant, indicating generally consistent family influences on daily smoking from age 10 to 21. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings indicate that parent smoking contributes to the onset of daily smoking in their teenagers even if parents practice good family management, hold norms against teen tobacco use, and do not involve their children in their own tobacco use. Smoking prevention programs should include components focused on parents of adolescents. To reduce risks for daily smoking among adolescents, it is important to encourage parents to stop or reduce their own smoking. In addition, these data indicate that parents can reduce their children's risk of daily smoking initiation by reducing family conflict, by maintaining strong bonds with their children, by setting clear rules, and by closely monitoring their children's behaviors.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Adolescent substance use outcomes in the Raising Healthy Children project: a two-part latent growth curve analysis.

Raising Healthy Children (RHC) is a preventive intervention designed to promote positive youth development by targeting developmentally appropriate risk and protective factors. In this study, the authors tested the efficacy of the RHC intervention on reducing adolescent alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use. Ten public schools, which comprised 959 1st- and 2nd-grade students (54% male students, 18% minority, 28% low socioeconomic status), were matched and assigned randomly to either intervention or control conditions. A 2-part latent growth modeling strategy was used to examine change in both use-versus-nonuse and frequency-of-use outcomes while students were in Grades 6-10. Results indicated significant (p < .05) intervention effects in growth trajectories for frequency of alcohol and marijuana use but not for use versus nonuse. These findings provide support for preventive interventions that take a social development perspective in targeting empirically supported risk and protective factors and demonstrate the use of 2-part models in adolescent substance use research.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Recent clinical-pathologic research on the causes of dementia in late life: update from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study.

In this study, we compare neuropathological findings at autopsy with clinical dementia diagnoses, such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Participants consisted of 363 aged Japanese-American men from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Results indicated that the correspondence between clinical and neuropathologic diagnosis was not great, with 56% of patients diagnosed with probable or possible Alzheimer's disease during life but with only 19% having neuritic plaques and/or neurofibrillary tangles as the sole or dominant dementia-related lesions in the brain at autopsy. Although 16% of cases were attributed to mixed causes during life, almost 40% were found to have significant mixtures of dementia-related lesions at autopsy. Finally, both Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic lesions contributed independently to the explanation of variance on a test of overall cognitive performance. The results suggest that clinical diagnosis of dementia made during life may fail to reflect the pathogenic complexity of this condition in very elderly persons.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Walking and dementia in physically capable elderly men.

CONTEXT: Evidence suggests that physical activity may be related to the clinical expression of dementia. Whether the association includes low-intensity activity such as walking is not known. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between walking and future risk of dementia in older men. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Distance walked per day was assessed from 1991 to 1993 in 2257 physically capable men aged 71 to 93 years in the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Follow-up for incident dementia was based on neurological assessment at 2 repeat examinations (1994-1996 and 1997-1999). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Overall dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia. RESULTS: During the course of follow-up, 158 cases of dementia were identified (15.6/1000 person-years). After adjusting for age, men who walked the least (<0.25 mile/d) experienced a 1.8-fold excess risk of dementia compared with those who walked more than 2 mile/d (17.8 vs 10.3/1000 person-years; relative hazard [RH], 1.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-3.01). Compared with men who walked the most (>2 mile/d), an excess risk of dementia was also observed in those who walked 0.25 to 1 mile/d (17.6 vs 10.3/1000 person-years; RH, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.02-2.86). These associations persisted after accounting for other factors, including the possibility that limited amounts of walking could be the result of a decline in physical function due to preclinical dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that walking is associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Promoting active lifestyles in physically capable men could help late-life cognitive function.

Aged↗