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In public health research, the health issues of irregular and vulnerable migrant populations remain under-explored. In particular, while mainland China has become a new and popular job-seeking destination for Filipino domestic workers (FDWs), the health status of FDWs and their access to healthcare have been invisible to public and academic concerns. This paper fills this lacuna by conducting a qualitative study that investigates FDWs' self-reported health status and their healthcare-seeking behaviors. The results show that: (1) respondents do not report significant abusive and exploitative experience because the scarcity of FDWs in China in relation to the high demand enables them a certain degree of agency in labour market; (2) while FDWs do report some health problems, they tend to resort to self-medication and food-healing; (3) the main factors influencing health-seeking behavior include the fear of deportation, language gaps, the lack of knowledge of the local healthcare system and dependence on co-ethnic networks which serves as a double-edged sword; (4) these factors also lead to hesitation in health-seeking choice between public and private hospitals, which sometimes result in delayed treatment. This paper contributes to revealing the health conditions of FDWs in mainland China and calls for more inclusive health policy to enroll foreign domestic workers into the local health system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between dietary habits, physical activity and cognitive views and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Chinese women.DesignA cross-sectional study to explore the potential risk factors of GMD through the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, an FFQ and a self-designed structured questionnaire, respectively.SettingGuangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.SubjectsChinese pregnant women (n 571) who underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at their 24th to 28th gestational week.ResultsThirteen per cent of the investigated women were identified as having GDM, and an increased intake of local featured foods and lower physical activity were observed in the GDM-positive group v. the GDM-negative group. Women who regarded early-pregnancy morning sickness as relevant to fetal abnormalities and those with unlimited dietary intake after the ending of morning sickness both had an increased risk for GDM (P = 0·018 and P = 0·038, respectively). After multiple logistic regression analysis, cognitive views for unlimited food intake subsequent to morning sickness, increased consumption of energy-dense snack foods and high-glycaemic-index fruits were strongly associated with the risk of GDM (OR = 1·911, P = 0·032; OR = 1·050, P = 0·001; and OR = 1·002, P = 0·017, respectively).ConclusionsLocal featured foods and incorrect cognitive views on pregnancy-related health were closely related to the risk of GDM in Chinese women. Intensive health education about pregnancy physiology and reasonable dietary and physical exercise behaviours should be strengthened for the control of GDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzene is a recognized environmental leukemogen, however, the mechanisms for its carcinogenesis have not been fully elucidated. Recently, miR-221, a suggested oncogene involved in a number of malignancies, has been detected with elevated expression levels in blood cells of patients with leukemia. To explore whether benzene exposure has an effect on the expression of miR-221, a population based cross-sectional study was conducted in southern China, with 97 petrol station attendants as the exposure group and 103 general residents as the control group. Plasma benzene was analyzed by using GC∖MS. miR-221 in peripheral blood lymphocytes were measured by qRT-PCR and the ΔCt value for each sample was calculated by normalizing the Ct value for miR-221 with U6 RNA (i.e., ΔCt = Ct miR-221 − Ct U6 ). Potential confounding factors were taken into account. Pearson correlation, univariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed in statistical analysis. The results showed that the air concentrations of benzene were significantly higher in petrol stations than in control sites ( P < 0.05); The levels of benzene and miR-221 in exposure group were both significantly higher than in control group ( P < 0.05) and there was a significant positive correlation between the two indexes ( r = 0.851, P < 0.05); An association between benzene levels and the ΔCt values for miR-221 was identified by univariate and multivariate logistic analysis (OR 0.274; 95%CI 0.117, 0.396). Our investigation indicates that benzene exposure may be related to elevated miR-221 expression in human lymphocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead, are ubiquitously present as single substances and compounds in the environment. These substances have various and overlapping health effects. Consumption of contaminated foods is the main pathway of the human exposure, however, estimation of their dietary exposure in combination with health risk analysis, particularly at various endpoints, has rarely been reported. In this study, we integrated relative potency factor (RPF) analysis into the margin of exposure (MOE) model to evaluate the health risk of combined heavy metal (including cadmium, arsenic, lead, chromium, and nickel) exposure in the residents in Guangzhou, China, after quantifying the heavy metals in various food samples and estimating their dietary exposure. The results indicated that rice, rice products and leafy vegetables contributed primarily to the dietary exposure of all metals except arsenic, which exposed the population largely through consumption of sea-foods. With all the five metals contributing to nephro- and neurotoxicity, the 95% confidence limits of MOE for the residents were clearly below 1.0 in the 3∼6-year group, suggesting a recognizable risk to young children. This study provides substantial evidence for the non-negligible health risk in young children due to increased heavy metal exposure,at least on some toxicity targets., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cadmium (Cd) and its compounds are hazardous environmental pollutants with renal toxicity and human carcinogenicity, with ingestion of contaminated foods representing the major mode of exposure. There have been a number of reports evaluating the Cd content in various foods; however, regarding the actual risk posed by dietary cadmium exposure, only a few reports are available in which single point evaluation (less accurate than multiple point evaluation) was employed. In this study, we used a margin of exposure (MOE) model and @RISK software (for multiple evaluation) to evaluate Cd-related health risk in the local Guangzhou residents at varying ages, through a comparison between the estimated monthly exposures and the provisional tolerable monthly intake (0.025 mg/kg body weight (b.w.)), based on the Cd contents in various food categories available locally (a total of 3964 food samples were collected from each of the 13 districts of Guangzhou between 2015 and 2019), which were determined by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. In this study, Cd was detected in 69.6% of the samples (averaged 0.120 mg/kg), and rice and its products, leafy vegetables, bivalves, and shrimp and crabs contributed most to Cd exposure (8.63, 3.18, 2.79, and 1.48 ng/kg b.w./day, respectively). The MOE values demonstrated the following tendency: the younger age group, the lower MOE, and its 95% confidence range for the (youngest) 3~6 year old group started from 0.92, indicating a health risk of young children, while that for the other age groups were all above 1.0. Our preliminary findings warrant further clarification using biomarker assays in the relevant population.

Chloramphenicol has been used in veterinary medicine, where its residues can remain in food of animal origin, thus potentially causing adverse health effects. This facilitated the ban for its use in food-producing animals globally, but its residues have remained ubiquitous. In this study, food commodities possibly contaminated with chloramphenicol, including livestock meat, poultry, edible viscera, fish, shrimp and crab, molluscs, milk, and eggs, were collected from domestic retail shops in all the 11 districts of Guangzhou and tested for its residue. Probabilistic risk assessment model calculations for its dietary exposure, and the margin of exposure (displayed as mean values and 5th percentile to 95th percentile ranges) were performed by using @RISK software based on a Monte Carlo simulation with 10,000 iterations. The results indicated the detection of chloramphenicol in 248 out of 1454 samples (17.1%), which averaged to a level of 29.1 μg/kg. The highest average value was observed in molluscs (148.2 μg/kg, with the top value as 8196 μg/kg); meanwhile, based on the dietary structure of a typical Cantonese, pond fish, pork, and poultry meat contributed most (about 80%) to the residents' dietary exposure to chloramphenicol. The margin of exposure for dietary chloramphenicol exposure in Guangzhou residents was 2489, which was apparently below 5000 (the borderline for judging a health risk), particularly low in preschool children (2094, suggesting an increased risk). In conclusion, the study suggests that chloramphenicol exposure in Guangzhou residents is considerable, and its relevant health hazard, especially for preschool children, is worthy of further investigation., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is prevalent and may present major adverse impacts on mother and child health. According to previous studies, mostly from the western society, PPD may have complicated etiologies, such as genetic, social and psychological factors. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of some social and clinical factors, particularly those unique in Chinese, with significant PPD symptoms., Methods: A sample of 556 pregnant women in their 36th to 40th gestational week were randomly recruited in a cross-sectional study using a self-reported questionnaire, which collected maternal sociodemographic and clinical information. During their 2nd to 4th postpartum months, 522 participants responded to our screening of significant PPD symptoms, based on a score of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale ≥9., Results: A total of 90 (17.3%) participants were identified with significant PPD symptoms, and the following factors were observed more frequently in women with significant PPD symptoms (PPD + ) than with fewer symptoms (PPD - ): intensive involvement of parents-in-law in a participant's life (living together with her, taking care of her, or discriminating against a female baby), lack of support from husband, cesarean delivery, and breast milk insufficiency (supplemented with formula). After multiple logistic regression analysis, parents-in-law's preference to baby boy while devaluing baby girl, dissatisfaction with husband's support, cesarean delivery, and mixed feeding were strongly associated with significant PPD symptoms., Conclusion: The potential risk factors for significant PPD symptoms, i.e., "son preference" custom, cesarean delivery and mixed feeding, deserve confirmation in continued, especially clinical diagnosis-based longitudinal studies.