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Biomedical subjects

A Kouris-Blazos

Publications and source records attributed to A Kouris-Blazos.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Wellness management through Web-based programmes.

We established a Web-based programme called the 'Wellness Online Program' or WOLP. The programme runs for six weeks. It aims to help individuals manage their own wellness regardless of geographical location. WOLP is based on a holistic approach to health and consists of six wellness dimensions: physical (exercise and diet), emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual and occupational. A total of 150 volunteers from the general public were recruited online for this study and data were collected at three intervals: at the beginning of the programme (week 1), mid-programme (week 3) and at the end of the programme (week 6). Ninety of the participants (60%) completed the six-week programme. Acceptance of WOLP, measured by the frequency of individual usage, increased from the start to the end of the programme. Overall personal wellness management improved after six weeks on the wellness programme (5-10%). The study shows that personal wellness management, which had been demonstrated in the narrower confines of the corporate sector, is also possible in the public domain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Age-fitness. How achievable with food?

To be fit as we age could be described as "Age fitness". Increasing evidence points to opportunities for greater wellness, health maintenance and reduction of the burden of disease in later life for a growing proportion of the community than previously envisaged. The scope of "age fitness" is social, mental, physiological and physical. We know a great deal about food cultures associated with successful aging--Greek, Okinawan, and Scandinavian, for example. Within these cultures, we are beginning to account for variances in health and survival by integrative scores of food intake and their validation.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2001

Skin wrinkling: can food make a difference?

OBJECTIVES: This study addressed whether food and nutrient intakes were correlated with skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site. METHODS: 177 Greek-born subjects living in Melbourne (GRM), 69 Greek subjects living in rural Greece (GRG), 48 Anglo-Celtic Australian (ACA) elderly living in Melbourne and 159 Swedish subjects living in Sweden (SWE) participating in the International Union of Nutritional Sciences IUNS "Food Habits in Later Life" study had their dietary intakes measured and their skin assessed. Food and nutrient intakes were assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Skin wrinkling was measured using a cutaneous microtopographic method. RESULTS: SWE elderly had the least skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site, followed by GRM, GRG and ACA. Correlation analyses on the pooled data and using the major food groups suggested that there may be less actinic skin damage with a higher intake of vegetables (r(s)=-0.31, p<0.0001), olive oil (r(s)=-0.29, p<0.0001), fish (r(s)=-0.24, p<0.0001) and legumes (r(s)=-0.16, p<0.0001), and lower intakes of butter (r(s)=0.46, p<0.0001) and margarine (r(s)=0.24, p<0.001), milk products (r(s)=0.16, p<0.01) and sugar products (r(s)=0.12, p<0.01). Similar findings were obtained using regression analyses, except fish was no longer significant; 32% of the variance for actinic skin damage was predicted by six out of the ten major food groups. In particular, a high intake of vegetables, legumes and olive oil appeared to be protective against cutaneous actinic damage (collectively explaining 20% of the variance); a high intake of meat, dairy and butter appeared to be adverse (explaining <5% of the variance). Prunes, apples and tea explained 34% of variance amongst ACA. CONCLUSION: This study illustrates that skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site in older people of various ethnic backgrounds may be influenced by the types of foods consumed.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Can skin wrinkling in a site that has received limited sun exposure be used as a marker of health status and biological age?

OBJECTIVES: to determine if skin wrinkling in a site that had received limited sun exposure may be a marker of health status and biological age. DESIGN: population-based, cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: we evaluated the health status of representative samples of elderly Greek-born people living in Melbourne, Greeks living in rural Greece, Anglo-Celtic Australians living in Melbourne and Swedes living in Sweden. We carried out microtopographic assessment of their skin and measured plasma dehydroepiandrosterone concentrations. METHODS: we derived activities of daily living, well-being, memory and general health status scores from a cross-cultural questionnaire. We measured skin wrinkling using cutaneous microtopographic methods and plasma dehydroepiandrosterone by enzyme immuno-assay. RESULTS: skin wrinkling was positively correlated with age (r(s)=0.27, P<0.0001) and negatively with body mass index (r(s)=-0.19, P<0.0001). Therefore, all analyses were controlled for these variables. Plasma dehydroepiandrosterone was higher in smokers than non-smokers (2.86 vs 2.08; P<0.001) and men had significantly higher plasma dehydroepiandrosterone than women (2.74 vs 1.69; P<0.0001). In the pooled data, skin wrinkling was negatively associated with general health score (r(s)=-0.13, P<0.01) and activities of daily living score (r(s)=-0.14, P<0.05) after controlling for age, body mass index and smoking. These associations were more pronounced in women. Finally, those with the least skin wrinkling had the highest dehydroepiandrosterone level (r(s)=-0.12, P=0.06) after adjusting for age, smoking and sex. CONCLUSION: skin wrinkling in a site with limited sun exposure might be used as a marker of health status and, to some extent, biological age--particularly for women.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

Are the advantages of the Mediterranean diet transferable to other populations? A cohort study in Melbourne, Australia.

A prospective cohort study, involving 141 Anglo-Celts and 189 Greek-Australians of both sexes aged 70 years or more, was undertaken in Melbourne, Australia. The objective was to evaluate whether adherence to the principles of the Mediterranean diet affects survival of elderly people in developed non-Mediterranean countries. Diet was assessed using an extensive validated questionnaire on food intake. A one unit increase in a diet score, devised a priori on the basis of eight key features of the traditional common diet in the Mediterranean region, was associated with a 17% reduction in overall mortality (two-tailed P value 0.07). Mortality reduction with increasing diet score was at least as evident among Anglo-Celts as among Greek-Australians. We conclude that a diet that adheres to the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet is associated with longer survival among Australians of either Greek or Anglo-Celtic origin.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Aging, food, culture and health.

International comparison of food intake and health studies amongst the aged is providing new insight into the importance of food culture in social context for healthy aging. At same time the possible variance in eating behavior compatible with good health requires consideration. The IUNS (International Union of Nutritional Sciences) FHILL (Food Habits in Later Life) Project, comprises (1) a morbidity study on about 2,000 elderly in 13 communities (now available on CD Rom) and (2) a mortality follow-up study. In the morbidity study, a total health assessment score or Later Life Status Score (LLSS) has been considered in relation to non-nutritional and nutritional factors. The elderly Greek cohorts aged 70+ in Melbourne. Australia (M = 94, F = 95) and Spata, Greece (M = 51, F = 53) have been used as a model for multivariate analyses to determine separately the importance of non-nutritional (well-being, memory, general health, medication-use, activities of daily living, exercise, social activity and social networks scores) and nutritional variables (intake of food groups g/day, food group variety scores, nutrients) in accounting for LLSS. A mortality follow-up study on the elderly cohort in Spata, Greece has also been completed and published. The findings from these preliminary analyses on the Greek cohorts will be reviewed as an example of how food culture may be influencing both quality of life and survival in Greek elderly. The most important non-nutritional determinants of LLSS in Greeks included: mobility and independence (exercise and activities of daily living), well-being and memory (collectively explained 80% of the variation of LLSS). For nutritional variables, a high intake and variety of plant foods (in particular vegetables, legumes and fruit); a high intake and variety of seafood and a low intake of meat emerged with statistical and biological significance. Results from the mortality study also agree with findings from the morbidity study--particularly the importance of the overall traditional greek food culture, with its emphasis on plant derived food of various kinds, as opposed to individual food categories, in protecting against premature death. Strategies are advanced which may optimise nutritionally related health problems amongst the aged around the globe.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Health and nutritional status of elderly Greek migrants to Melbourne, Australia.

The health (self-reported health conditions) and nutritional status (food and nutrient intake, nutritional biochemistry, anthropometry) of 189 elderly Greeks living in Melbourne, Australia were described and compared with 104 elderly Greeks living in a rural town in Greece (Spata) using a validated health and food frequency questionnaire. Spata was chosen because the traditional diet is maintained by the community and may act as a 'surrogate' measure of diets prevalent in Greece prior to the Melbourne sample's migration to Australia in the 1960s. This enabled identification of dietary trends that may be contributing to the deteriorating health of elderly migrant Greeks. Compared with Spata Greeks, Melbourne Greeks had significantly greater intakes of animal foods (meat), legumes, protein, margarine, polyunsaturated fats, beer and lower intakes of cereals, carbohydrates, wine and olive oil. The contribution of these dietary differences, as well as the influence of high storage-iron levels, impaired immunity and greater prevalence of obesity and abdominal fatness, to the increasing prevalence of heart disease and cancer (especially amongst women) requires further study.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1995

Diet and overall survival in elderly people.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of a specific dietary pattern on overall survival. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: Three rural Greek villages, the data from which were collected as part of an international cross cultural study of food habits in later life. SUBJECTS: 182 elderly residents of the three villages. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Overall mortality. RESULTS: Diet was assessed with a validated extensive semiquantitative questionnaire on food intake. A one unit increase in diet score, devised a priori on the basis of eight component characteristics of the traditional common diet in the Mediterranean region, was associated with a significant 17% reduction in overall mortality (95% confidence interval 1% to 31%). CONCLUSION: A diet meeting currently understood health criteria does predict survival among people.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Diet and survival of elderly Greeks: a link to the past.

In 1988 and 1989, we investigated in three Greek villages the dietary patterns of 182 men and women aged > 70 y by using a validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire and compared these dietary patterns with the traditional Greek diet as ascertained in the late 1950s by Keys and his colleagues. As in the traditional diet, olive oil dominated fat intake, total fat exceeded 35% of total energy intake, average daily consumption of fruits and vegetables exceeded 500 g, and average ethanol intake for men corresponded to two to three glasses of wine per day. In contrast, consumption of meat and meat products has substantially increased and intake of bread and other cereals has apparently declined. We observed no differences between the two periods with respect to consumption of legumes, eggs and egg products, and sugar confectionery. We have also attempted to assess whether a gradient of adherence to the traditional Greek diet can be identified in the diets of the study subjects, and whether it can subsequently predict total mortality. During a follow-up period of approximately 5 y, 53 deaths were observed. The risk of death was apparently higher among the minority of study subjects whose diet deviated substantially from the traditional Greek pattern, compared with the majority whose diet adhered closely to the traditional pattern.

Aged↗