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Background: The relationship between sleep duration and physical fitness is one aspect of sleep health. Potential factors associated with sleep duration interfere with physical fitness performance, but the impact trends on physical fitness indicators remain unclear.Methods: This study examined associations between sleep duration and physical fitness among young to middle-aged adults in Taiwan. A total of 42,781 Taiwanese adults aged 23-45 participated in the National Physical Fitness Examination Survey 2013 (NPFES-2013) in Taiwan between October 2013 and March 2014. A standardized structural questionnaire was used to record participants' sleep duration, which was stratified as short (< 6 h/day (h/d)), moderate (6-7 h/d; 7-8 h/d; 8-9 h), and long (≥ 9 h/d) sleep duration groups. Physical fitness was assessed based on four components: body composition (body mass index [BMI], waist-to-height ratio [WHtR], and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]), muscle strength and endurance (1-min bent-leg sit-up test [BS]), flexibility (sit-and-reach test [SR]), and cardiorespiratory endurance index (3-min step test [CEI]).Results: By using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), after sex grouping and age adjustment, we observed that sleep duration was significantly associated with obesity, functional fitness, and self-perception of health. The sleep duration for low obesity-related values (BMI, WHtR, and WHR) for men was 7-9 h/d, and that for women was 7-8 h/d. Sleeping more than 8 h/d showed poor functional fitness performances (BS and SR). For both sexes, sleep duration of 8-9 h/d was the optimal sleep duration for self-perceptions of health.Conclusions: Our research found that there were wide and different associations of sleep duration with physical fitness and self-perception of health among Taiwanese adults aged 23-45, and there were differences in these associated manifestations between men and women. This study could be of great importance in regional public health management in Taiwan, and provide inspirations for clinical research on physical fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is widely used for prophylaxis and treatment of neutropenia in cancer patients and also for peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) mobilization. The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible changes of platelet surface antigens after G-CSF injection in PBSC donors compared with healthy control.Methods: Between January 1st and December 31st, 2014, 48 healthy voluntary PBSC donors were eligible for this study. Donors received G-CSF (Filgrastim) subcutaneously for five days, and then their whole blood was collected for complete blood count. Analysis of platelet antigens was performed by flow cytometry. Sixteen healthy controls were also included for comparison.Results: Lower platelet counts were found in PBSC donors after G-CSF use and in comparison with health controls. The platelet size evaluated by forward scattering (FSC) showed smaller platelets in PBSC donors after G-CSF use compared with healthy controls (39.3 vs 46.7 mean fluorescence intensity, P = 0.015). CD31 were higher in PBSC donor (203.2 vs. 120.7, P < 0.001). Except CD31, other platelet surface antigens were not different between PBSC donors and healthy controls. After adjusting by FSC data, the mean antigen intensity/FSC of CD31, CD41a, CD42a, CD42b and CD61 showed 5.45 vs 2.78 (P < 0.001), 4.35 vs 3.47 (P = 0.007), 3.87 vs 3.17 (P = 0.015), 20.45 vs 16.94 (P = 0.045), and 5.98 vs 4.88 (P = 0.018) respectively.Conclusion: We noted higher density of platelet surface antigens, lower platelet count and smaller platelet size after G-CSF injection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety and health of homeless people are important social issues. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a sub-health-risk phenomenon that has been severely aggravated worldwide in recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of MetS among the homeless in Taipei City, Taiwan. In this study, a convenience sampling was conducted at homeless counseling agencies in Taipei City from April 2018 to September 2018. A total of 297 homeless participants were recruited, from whom clinical indicators and questionnaire information were collected. Through statistical verification, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression, we found the following main conclusions for homeless adults in Taipei: (1) The prevalence of MetS was estimated to be 53%, with 50% meeting four or more diagnostic conditions. (2) Dyslipidemia (high-density lipoprotein (HDL) deficiency and elevated triglyceride (TG)) showed the strongest association with the prevalence of MetS; more than 83% of people with HDL deficiency or hypertriglyceridemia had MetS. For the patient groups meeting more MetS diagnostic conditions, the values of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), TG, and total cholesterol (TC) increased significantly. (3) The deterioration of MetS was significantly related to the high prevalence of hyperlipidemia (HL). (4) The homeless who were divorced, separated or widowed were more likely to suffer from MetS., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Physical fitness is a powerful indicator of health. Sleep condition plays an essential role in maintaining quality of life and is an important marker that predicts physical fitness. This study aimed to determine the relationship between sleep conditions (sleep quality, sleep duration, bedtime) and multiple physical fitness indicators (body mass index (BMI), flexibility, abdominal muscle strength and endurance, cardiopulmonary endurance) in a well-characterized population of Taiwanese adults aged 23 to 65. The applied data were obtained from the National Physical Fitness Examination Survey 2014 conducted in Taiwan. We assessed the association of the sleep conditions with physical fitness performances in Taiwanese adults by using the multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) method with a total of 69,559 samples. The results show that sleep duration, sleep quality, and bedtime were statistically significant influence factors on physical fitness performances with different degrees. Gender was an important factor that affects the effects of daily sleep conditions on performances of physical fitness. Sleep duration was the most important factor as it was simultaneously correlated with BMI, sit-ups, and sit-and-reach indicators in both genders. Bedtime and sleep quality were only associated with sit-ups performance in both genders.