Measurement invariance and latent mean differences of the Chinese version physical activity self-efficacy scale across gender and education levels

Background: Self-efficacy has been identified as an important determinant of youth's behavior change including physical activity(PA) participation. However, the dimensionality check of a PA self-efficacy scale has rarely been conducted in China. The current study aims to examine(1) the unidimensionality of a shortened Chinese version of PA self-efficacy scale(S-PASESC);(2) the measurement invariance of S-PASESC across gender and levels of education;(3) the latent factor mean difference between gender and levels of education;(4) the direct effects of self-efficacy on PA by different gender and education levels; and(5) the comparisons of the direct effects of self-efficacy on PA across gender and education levels.Methods: The participants were 5 th through 11 th grade public school students recruited from 7 cities located in different geographic regions of China. The final data include a total of 3003 participants(49.7% boys) who have completed the scales.Results: Confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) test supported the unidimensionality of S-PASESC. The S-PASESC is invariant across gender and 3 levels of education at both configural, full metric, and full scalar levels. Findings from latent mean comparisons showed that boys reported higher PA self-efficacy than girls. Students' perceived PA self-efficacy tend to decrease from elementary to high school. Finally, self-efficacy positively related to PA by groups of different gender and education levels and the relationship between self-efficacy and PA is stronger among middle school boys than girls.Conclusion: Findings suggest S-PASESC is a valid scale for measuring Chinese students' PA self-efficacy.

Age and Gender Dependent Deposition of Crude Nutrients and Energy in Fast Growing Meat-Type Chickens

Two consecutive growth studies were conducted to investigate the age-dependent nutrient and energy deposition in male and female meat-type chickens (Ross 308) based on feather and feather-free body fraction data determined according to the comparative slaughter technique. Birds were reared under standardized housing conditions (15 floor pens per gender, 5 birds per pen). Both the starter (day 1 to 22) and grower diets (day 22 to 36) were based on corn, wheat, soybean meal, soybean protein concentrate and crystalline feed amino acids. Diets were formulated to ensure an equal feed protein quality close to the ideal amino acid ratio by adjusting a constant mixture of the feed proteins. Individual body weight (BW) and feed intake per pen were recorded weekly. At the start (day 1) as well as on a weekly basis until the end of the 5th week, 15 birds per gender (each 3 pens of 5 birds) were selected and euthanized following 24 h feed deprivation. Subsequently, the feathers were manually removed and quantified. Crude nutrient analysed in representative samples of both feather and feather-free body fractions. The nutrient and energy deposition in the bodies of both genders were significantly increased with increasing age (p . Male birds deposited significantly higher body protein (p and female birds significantly more fat and energy in the whole body (p during the entire growth period. In contrast, no differences were found in protein contents of the BW gain between genders dependent on age (p > 0.05). However, the protein partitioning in the gain of both analyzed body fractions provided oppositional results. Accordingly, male birds yielded relatively more protein in the feather-free body fraction (p and females relatively more feather protein (p as related to the whole body protein gain.

Author Gender Prediction in an Email Stream Using Neural Networks

With the rapid growth of the Internet in recent years, the ability to analyze and identify its users has become increasingly important. Authorship analysis provides a means to glean information about the author of a document originating from the internet or elsewhere, including but not limited to the author’s gender. There are well-known linguistic differences between the writing of men and women, and these differences can be effectively used to predict the gender of a document’s author. Capitalizing on these linguistic nuances, this study uses a set of stylometric features and a set of word count features to facilitate automatic gender discrimination on emails from the popular Enron email dataset. These features are used in conjunction with the Modified Balanced Winnow Neural Network proposed by Carvalho and Cohen, an improvement on the original Balanced Winnow created by Littlestone. Experiments with the Modified Balanced Winnow show that it is effectively able to discriminate gender using both stylometric and word count features, with the word count features providing superior results.

Female gender in the setting of liver transplantation

The evolution of liver diseases to end-stage liver disease or to acute hepatic failure, the evaluation process for liver transplantation, the organ allocation decisionmaking, as well as the post-transplant outcomes are different between female and male genders. Women's access to liver transplantation is hampered by the use of model for end-stage liver disease(MELD) score, in which creatinine values exert a systematic bias against women due to their lower values even in the presence of variable degrees of renal dysfunction. Furthermore, even when correcting MELD score for gender-appropriate creatinine determination, a quantifiable uneven access to transplant prevails, demonstrating that other factors are also involved. While some of the differences can be explained from the epidemiological point of view, hormonal status plays an important role. Moreover, the pre-menopausal and post-menopausal stages imply profound differences in a woman's physiology, including not only the passage from the fertile age to the non-fertile stage, but also the loss of estrogens and their potentially protective role in delaying liver fibrosis progression, amongst others. With menopause, the tendency to gain weight may contribute to the development of or worsening of pre-existing metabolic syndrome. As an increasing number of patients are transplanted for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, and as the average age at transplant increases, clinicians must be prepared for the management of this particular condition, especially in post-menopausal women, who are at particular risk of developing metabolic complications after menopause.

Metabolic syndrome and its individual components among people with type 2 diabetes: Prevalence, gender differences and its association with ischemic heart disease

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is common among people with type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this study was to assess the proportion of MS and its individual components among type 2 diabetic adults, to stratify these by gender and to determine their association with ischemic heart disease (IHD). Method: A cross-sectional multicentre study was conducted in public and private sector clinics in Karachi, Pakistan. A pretested structured questionnaire and medical records were used to collect information from 889 people with type 2 diabetes after informed consent. Chi-square test and odds ratios with 95% CI were used to assess the association of MS, its components and IHD. Adjusted odds ratios were used to evaluate the differences of MS and its components by gender. Results: In all, 70% of the participants had MS. The likelihood of having IHD among those with MS was higher (OR = 3.21;95%CI = 2.22 - 4.65). Of the individual MS components, obesity conferred the strongest association with IHD (OR = 2.57;95%CI = 1.91 - 3.43). Multivariate analysis showed an increased proportion of MS among women (AOR = 1.63;95%CI = 1.18 - 2.24). Of the individual MS components, women had a higher prevalence of obesity (AOR = 4.70;95%CI = 3.30 - 6.70). Conclusion: A very high burden of MS among type 2 diabetics has been identified in this study. Dedicated interventions are needed to prevent/delay the onset of MS and the associated morbidity and mortality.

A Descriptive Longitudinal Study of Chronic Pain Outcomes and Gender Differences in a Multidisciplinary Pain Management Centre

Background: The long-term outcomes of patients with chronic pain treated in a multidisciplinary pain management center remain variable. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the changes in outcomes of patient’s self-reported pain, psychosocial status, health related quality of life and gender differences following treatment in amultidisciplinary pain management centre. Design: A prospective longitudinal cross-sectional study uses questionnaires. Treatment Setting: A pragmatic and individualized patient centered approach in a tertiary level multidisciplinary pain management center. Subjects: Patients with chronic pain referred to the centre from 2004-2010. Outcome Measures: Pain Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Pain Temporal Description (1 - 6), Pain Self- Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and Short Form-36 (SF- 36). Follow-up questionnaires were sent at 6 and 12 months after initial assessment. Results: Mean duration of baseline chronic pain was 8.1 years and 61% of chronic pains were involving the musculoskeletal system. At 6 and 12 month follow-ups, 273 and 180 participants had been surveyed respectively. At 6-month follow-up, there were significant improvements on pain intensity (Cohen’s d = 0.8), pain self-efficacy (Cohen’s d = 0.47), depression and stress scores (Cohen’s d = 0.16) and six out of eight domains of SF-36 (Cohen’s d = 0.2 - 0.4). At 12-month follow-up, improvements were maintained on pain intensity, self-efficacy and three out of eight domains of SF-36. There were distinctive pre- and post-treatment gender differences in these outcomes and overall females showed better short- and long-term outcomes than males. Conclusion: Multidisciplinary pain management using an individualized patient centered approach remains an effective treatment for chronic pain in both the short- (6 month) and long-term (12 month). The distinctive pre- and post-treatment gender differences particularly in the psychological outcomes, suggest that it may be beneficial to further delineate and better manage vulnerable patient subgroups.

Peculiarities of gender disambiguation and ordering of non-English authors’names for Economic papers beyond core databases

Purpose:To supplement the quantitative portrait of Ukrainian Economics discipline with the results of gender and author ordering analysis at the level of individual authors,special methods of working with bibliographic data with a predominant share of non-English authors are used.The properties of gender mixing,the likelihood of male and female authors occupying the first position in the authorship list,as well as the arrangements of names are studied.Design/methodology/approach:A data set containing bibliographic records related to Ukrainian journal publications in the field of Economics is constructed using Crossref metadata.Partial semi-automatic disambiguation of authors’names is performed.First names,along with gender-specific ethnic surnames,are used for gender disambiguation required for further comparative gender analysis.Random reshuffling of data is used to determine the impact of gender correlations.To assess the level of alphabetization for our data set,both Latin and Cyrillic versions of names are taken into account.Findings:The lack of well-structured metadata and the poor use of digital identifiers lead to numerous problems with automatization of bibliographic data pre-processing,especially in the case of publications by non-Western authors.The described stages for working with such specific data help to work at the level of authors and analyse,in particular,gender issues.Despite the larger number of female authors,gender equality is more likely to be reported at the individual level for the discipline of Ukrainian Economics.The tendencies towards collaborative or solo-publications and gender mixing patterns are found to be dependent on the journal:the differences for publications indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science databases are found.It has also been found that Ukrainian Economics research is characterized by rather a non-alphabetical order of authors.Research limitations:Only partial authors’name disambiguation is performed in a semi-automatic way.Gender labels can be derived only for authors declared by full First names or gender-specific Last names.Practical implications:The typical features of Ukrainian Economic discipline can be used to perform a comparison with other countries and disciplines,to develop an informed-based assessment procedure at the national level.The proposed way of processing publication data can be borrowed to enrich metadata about other research disciplines,especially for non-English speaking countries.Originality/value:To our knowledge,this is the first large-scale quantitative study of Ukrainian Economic discipline.The results obtained are valuable not only at the national level,but also contribute to general knowledge about Economic research,gender issues,and authors’names ordering.An example of the use of Crossref data is provided,while this data source is still less used due to a number of drawbacks.Here,for the first time,attention is drawn to the explicit use of the features of the Slavic authors’names.

First normative reference of standing long jump indicates gender difference in lower muscular strength of Macedonian school children

Background: This is the first study to publish the normative reference values for assessment of the level of muscular strength through the “standing long jump” test carried out on a large sample of Macedonian school children. The normative values encompass a wide span of years (6 - 18). Methods: The research was realized in a large sample of 12618 school children at the age of 6 to 18 years from Macedonia. The sample was divided in 14 groups, according to chronological age and each age group was divided into two subgroups according to the criteria of gender. For estimation of the morphologic characteristics, the following anthropometric measures have been applied: body height in standing position (cm), body weight (kg), as well as the body mass index (BMI). Children aged 6 or above were invited to take a standing long jump test. Results: Boys show statistically better results in all age categories in the standing long jump test than girls, and these differences become bigger with the increase of age, especially after the 14th year

Social and gender biases in HIV /AIDS care in India

To understand the socio-psychological aspects of HIV transmission and gender and caste based AIDS care in India, 100 HIV positive patients and their spouses or sexual partners were included in this study.The individuals were interviewed for their pre-or extramarital sexual exposure with suspected HIV positive persons.They were also interviewed about the barriers,if any,they used,and change in their sexual behaviour with their spouses after they were tested HIV positive.All except three were males who were first detected HIV positive,while 3 women were found HIV positive first and subsequendy dieir male partners were included in the study.Eighty of 97(82.4%) males admittedly acquired HIV through heterosexual route.Of the 80 males,60(75%) acquired HIV infection from organised CSWs and 20 from casual sex partners.Many of these acquired the infection just before their marriages.More than half of these males were infected during only one or two sexual encounters. Sixty out of 75(80%) married males continued to have sex even after knowing their HIV positive status.One male and six female spouses did not get infected even after multiple insertive unprotected sex.The average life span after the diagnosis of HIV infection in Indian males without specific treatment was 4.5±3. 5 yr while in women it was 3.5±2.0 yr,indicating fast progression of AIDS in females,most probably due to gender bias in access to treatment,nutrition,care and also due to hormonal differences.Pulmonary tuberculosis was most common and first clinical presentation of HIV associated opportunistic infection.The study also showed that due to ignorance majority of husbands do not share their HIV positive status with their wives and continue to have unsafe sex.

Gender and environment: general and monthly gender distribution of newborns and cosmophysical parameters

Recent publications have described a relationship between fluctuations in environmental physical activity and several aspects of fetal development. This study explored the possible effects of cosmophysical parameters on newborn gender, overall and by maternal age. The gender distribution of 123,368 infants born over a 189-month period (November 1993–July 2009) was analyzed against levels of solar, geomagnetic, and cosmic ray activity at the time of conception. The cohort was then divided into three groups by maternal age ( 35 years) for further analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients and their probabilities were calculated, and chi-square test was applied, as necessary. The physical data were derived from space science centers in the USA, Russia, and Finland. The results showed that the male/female ratio for the whole cohort over the study period was 1.06. However, on monthly analysis, there was a significant male predominance in most months, with a male/female ratio of up to 4. Younger mothers (< 28 years) gave birth to significantly more boys than older mothers. The gender distribution in the three maternal age groups was partially linked to the different physical factors. These findings suggest that environmental physical activity in the month of conception may play a role in newborn gender. Further study is needed to determine the mechanism underlying this effect.

A time to look within curricula—Nursing students’ perception on sexuality and gender issues

Nursing students could be viewed as dynamic change agents given the knowledge and skills they would be equipped with. Amongst all areas to be addressed in their clientele of the hospital or community setting, one key area that a nurse could focus on is sexuality. This however is often neglected for simple reasons such as lack of knowledge, embarrassment, fear of intrusion on privacy, or it is perceived as an un-important concern of the patient. Focus groups discussions combined with self report were conducted on 84 nursing students selected by the faculty from three institutions of nursing to assess their perceptions related to sexuality and gender issues, and thus extrapolate on their learning needs within the curriculum. Student expressed discomfort in caring for patients who had sexual expressions and relationships different from the accepted cultural norm;perceived sexuality primarily as heterosexual relationship;helplessness when faced with sexual harassment in the health care field and gaps in their present curricula in relation to contextualization of sexuality and gender issues.

Disclosure and Use of Privacy Settings in Facebook^TMProfiles: Evaluating the Impact of Media Context and Gender

The present study examined disclosure and use of privacy settings in online social networking profiles as a function of the media context (i.e., online versus hard copy (paper and pencil) FacebookTM profiles). Gender was also examined. Overall, participants disclosed more information when constructing a profile for another person when using a hard copy paper and pencil format than an online context. Gender differences were not uniform across media contexts, however, in contrast to traditional disclosure theory, females censored their disclosures more so than males but only for some topics. Only 20% of the sample increased their use of privacy settings. Consistent with patterns of disclosure, descriptive comparison suggests that more settings were employed in the paper and pencil than online context and more privacy settings were employed by females.

The Relationship between AIDS High Risk Behaviors and Childhood Status, Perception of Gender Orientation and Rare Experiences/Psychology among Chinese Gays

Objectives : To probe some more important factors affecting the HIV epidemic by surveying the relationship between AIDS high risk behaviors and childhood status,attitude/perception to gender of male/sex orientation andrare experiences/Psy-chology among Chinese gays. Methods: Data were collected from 240 Chinese gays whowere attracted by their same gender. Results: The extent of sex among China's Mainland gays issimilar to that of industrialized countries, and behaviors that exacerbate the HIV epidemic are universal.Perceptions “being a girl is better”, “ Dislike toys likeswords or pistols in early childhood were predictors topassive anal intercourse in adulthood. Those gay men whobegan sexual intercourse younger than 16 years old tendedto have more sex partners and suffered more pain. Thosedisliked gender of male or self-regarded as female tended tohave more passive anal intercourse and related to childhood cross-gender experience/psychology while those were raised as girls by their parentsdid not take on the above characters. Individuals who experienced sex coercion and drug abuse were the twosubgroups with the greatest high-risk behaviors. Individualswho had sex with females had the greatest number of malesex partners and were more prone to group sex. Individualswith pedophilia or gerontophilia had more casual sexpartners. Psychological problems encountered by Chinesegays related to suicide attempts and commitment. Conclusions : The prospect of an extensive AIDSepidemic among Chinese gays does exist and somesubgroups of gays play more important roles in theepidemic. Some high risk behaviors among adult gays canbe foreseen explicitly by the predictors taking on inchildhood, and closely relate to attitude/perception, togender of male, to some rare experience/psychology.

Donor-to-recipient gender match in liver transplantation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on donor-to-recipient gender mismatch as a risk factor for post-transplant graft loss. METHODS A systematic literature search was performed using PubM ed, Cochrane Library database and EMBASE. The primary outcome was graft loss after liver transplantation. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to compare the pooled data between groups with different donor-to-recipient gender matches. Three analyses were done considering(1) gender mismatches(F-M and M-F) vs matches(M-M and F-F);(2) Femaleto-Male mismatch vs other matches; and(3) Male-toFemale mismatch vs other matches.RESULTS A total of 7 articles were analysed. Gender mismatch(M-F and F-M) was associated with a significant increase of graft loss respect to match(M-M and F-F)(OR: 1.30; 95%CI: 1.13-1.50; P < 0.001). When F-M mismatch was specifically investigated, it confirmed its detrimental role in terms of graft survival(OR: 1.83; 95%CI: 1.20-2.80; P = 0.005). M-F mismatch failed to present a significant role(OR: 1.09; 95%CI: 0.73-1.62; P = 0.68).CONCLUSION Gender mismatch is a risk factor for poor graft survival after liver transplantation. Female-to-male mismatch represents the worst combination. More studies are needed with the intent to better clarify the reasons for these results.

Gastric ghrelin in relation to gender,stomach topography and Helicobacter pylori in dyspeptic patients

AIM:To investigate the level of gastric ghrelin in stomach mucosa of dyspeptic patients in relation to Helicobacter pylori(H pylori)infection,bacterial cytotoxicity,topography and gender. METHODS:The study comprised 40 premenopausal women(19 H pylori positive)and 48 men(17 H pylori positive)with functional dyspepsia.All gastric biopsy specimens revealed normal mucosa or non-atrophic gastritis.Gastric ghrelin concentration was determined by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.The cagA and vacA strains of bacterial DNA were identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS:In general,infection with H pylori causedan increase in gastric ghrelin level regardless of gender and stomach topography.Significantly more hormone was present in both,noninfected and H pylori positive female samples,as compared to males.The distribution of bacterial strains showed cagA(+)vacA s1m1 and cagA(-)vacA s2m2 genotypes as the most common infections in the studied population.A tendency to higher ghrelin levels was observed in less cytotoxic (cagA negative)strain-containing specimens from the antrum and corpus of both gender groups(without statistical significance). CONCLUSION:An increase in gastric ghrelin levels at the stage of non-atrophic gastritis in H pylori positive patients,especially in those infected with cagA(-) strains,can exert a gastroprotective effect.

Decision Tree Algorithm in Identifying Specific Interventions for Gender and Development Issues

The State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines have established a model of Gender and Development (GAD) tools. They have different activities but lack of organized data sources with particular data needed for gender analysis like the sex-disaggregated data. GAD data is very important in gender analysis to enable the GAD Focal Point System to have the basis for gender issues and concerns. In this paper, the authors present information technology-based solution where the GAD Focal Point System has basis for gender analysis and proposed undertakings using a classification system like decision tree algorithm. The approach is better for discovering relevant solutions in improving university programs and activities to achieve the goal of gender equality.

A Rare Case of 83-Year-Old Transgender Female: Can Thyroid Hormone Deficiency Be Involved in Transgenderism and Gender Dysphoria?

In the current report, we describe an 83-year-old biological male who self- identified as a female by legally changing his first and middle names to female ones and whose death certificate states his sex as a female. The medical history of this individual indicated complete penectomy without further specification. Postmortem physical examination revealed an absence of penis with a large scrotum, transposed urethral orifice, and small testes. The histological analysis of the testes identified abnormal epithelium in the seminiferous tubules that lacked germ and Sertoli cells as well as the interstitium without Leydig cells present. The exome sequencing of the individual’s DNA using the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Illumina platform revealed no genetic variants associated with either penile or urethral cancer that could have explained the complete penectomy, but pointed toward a potentially impaired production of T3 and T4 thyroid hormones which could account for the observed testicular malformation. Overall, the data obtained raise an important question as to whether the thyroid hormone axis could be an important part of the hormonal architecture supporting male sexual behavior.

Is there a gender difference in antidiuretic response to desmopressin in children?

Women with nocturia are more sensitive to desmopressin, a synthetic arginine vasopressin (AVP) analogue, with significant antidiuretic responses to desmopressin orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) 25 μg, compared with men who require 58 μg to achieve similar responses. In children the current desmopressin dose recommendation to treat primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is the same for boys and girls. This post hoc analysis of data from a randomised, doubleblind single-dose study of 84 children with PNE aged 6 - 12 years explored gender differences in sensitivity to desmopressin in children. Following water loading to suppress endogenous AVP, placebo or desmopres-sin 30, 60, 120, 240, 360 or 480 μg was administered when urinary production reached >0.13 mL/min/kg. The endpoints of urinary osmolality and duration of urinary-concentrating action (DOA) (above three thresholds: 125, 200 and 400 mOsm/kg) were analysed to compare efficacy in boys and girls, in each treatment group. The DOA and urinary osmolality were similar in both genders in the desmopressin 120 - 480 μg groups. Boys receiving desmopressin ODT 30 - 60 μg tended to increased urinary osmolality and experienced 1 - 2 hours longer DOA than girls. The same pattern of higher values in boys compared with girls was seen for all measures of urinary osmolality. Conclusion: In a limited sample of pre-pubertal children the antidiuretic response to desmopressin was largely similar between genders, in contrast to findings in adults.

Experience of, and Perception on Gender Based Violence (GBV) by Pregnant Women in South Eastern Nigeria

Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) is a common women’s sexual and reproductive right violation. Pregnancy could be associated with an increased risk of GBV. Objective: To determine the experience of, and perception on GBV by pregnant Nigerian women. Methodology: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study involving 250 pregnant women from six selected health facilities in Anambra, Southeastern Nigeria was conducted to elicit their experience of, and perceptions on gender based violence. Data analysis employed statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Statistical comparison of variables employed Chi-square test, with significance levels comprising of p Results: Only 80 (32.0%) of the respondents were aware of GBV while 17 (6.8%) and 20 (8.0%) had experienced it in the index and previous pregnancies respectively. Physical violence was the most commonly experienced 18 (58.1%), while marital quarrel and drunkenness were the most commonly perceived causes, 21 (26.3%) apiece. Up to 33.7% of the respondents would report GBV to the law enforcement agencies;22.5% would seek medical attention and only 2.5% would do nothing. The most common source of information on GBV was public lecture (32.5%) followed by media (26.3%). As high as 49 (61.3%) of the respondents that are aware of GBV (N = 80), thought that GBV could be prevented while up to 53 (66.3%) were aware of the strategies for its prevention. Conclusion: Awareness of GBV in this study is low (32.0%) while experience is even lower at 6.8%, and 8.0% for the index and previous pregnancies respectively. Information on prevention strategies for GBV is also low. The need to develop comprehensive reproductive health (RH) policy that incorporates GBV and its management, to be taught in educational institutions is highlighted. The importance of public health lectures and the employment of various media platforms as reproductive right enlightenment modalities, towards creating awareness on the prevention and combat of GBV are also highlighted.

Impact of body mass index and gender on quality of life in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease

AIM:To investigate the symptom presentation and quality of life in obese Chinese patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD).METHODS:Data from patients diagnosed with GERD according to the Montreal definition,were collected between January 2009 to March 2010.The enrolled patients were assigned to the normal [body mass index(BMI) < 25 kg/m 2 ],overweight(25-30 kg/m 2),and obese(BMI > 30 kg/m 2) groups.General demographic data,endoscopic findings,and quality of life of the three groups of patients were analyzed and compared.RESULTS:Among the 173 enrolled patients,102,56 and 15 patients were classified in the normal,overweight,and obese,respectively.There was significantly more erosive esophagitis(73.3% vs 64.3% vs 39.2%,P = 0.002),hiatal hernia(60% vs 33.9% vs 16.7%,P = 0.001),and males(73.3% vs 73.2% vs 32.4%,P = 0.001) in the obese cases.The severity and frequency of heartburn,not acid regurgitation,was positively correlated with BMI,with a significant association in men,but not in women.Obese patients were prone to have low quality of life scores,with obese women having the lowest scores for mental health.CONCLUSION:In patients with GERD,obese men had the most severe endoscopic and clinical presentation.Obese women had the poorest mental health.