Earticle

Recent studies emphasize that behavioral change is a key strategy in managing childhood obesity, stressing the importance of improving healthy behaviors rather than focusing solely on weight loss. This study aimed to analyze research trends in multimodal interventions targeting the improvement of health behaviors in obese upper elementary school children. A systematic literature review was conducted on studies pub-lished in Korean academic journals from 2005 to 2025. The analysis fo-cused on intervention components, delivery methods, and outcome variables. The results showed that multimodal interventions generally integrate nutrition education, physical activity, and behavioral strate-gies, which leads to improvements in self-efficacy and health behaviors, particularly dietary habits and physical activity. These interventions have been proven effective in improving health behaviors. Future research needs to develop more systematic intervention designs and compre-hensive evaluation frameworks to enhance long-term effectiveness.

This study compared the effects of ballet exercise and a weight-bear-ing exercise program on body composition, basic physical fitness, and isokinetic knee muscle function in obese women. Twenty-three partici-pants were randomly assigned to the control group (CG, n=7), ballet exercise group (BEG, n=10), and weight-bearing exercise group (WBEG, n=6). Both exercise groups performed 60-min sessions, 3 times a week, with progressively increased intensity. Body weight and percent body fat decreased significantly only in the BEG (P<0.05 and P<0.01), while no significant changes were observed in skeletal muscle mass across all groups. In the basic physical fitness, the BEG and WBEG showed significant improvements in back strength, flexibility, and left-side dy-namic balance, whereas sit-up performance and right-side balance im-proved significantly only in the BEG. For isokinetic knee muscle func-tion, the results were differentiated between muscle strength (60°/sec) and muscular endurance (240°/sec). At 60°/sec, both exercise groups showed significant improvements primarily in left knee extensor strength, including peak torque and relative peak torque. At 240°/sec, both groups demonstrated significant increases in extensor total work for both limbs, indicating enhanced muscular endurance. Additionally, the BEG showed improvements in right knee flexor total work and average power. These findings suggest that ballet exercise is associated with improvements in body composition, basic physical fitness, and lower-limb muscle func-tion in obese women. In particular, ballet exercise may provide compa-rable benefits to weight-bearing exercise in enhancing isokinetic mus-cle function, while offering additional advantages in core endurance and unilateral balance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effects of treadmill exercise and naringenin treatment on neuronal survival and corticospinal tract (CST) fibers sprouting following spinal cord injury (SCI). Forty male rats were randomly assigned to four groups (n=10 in each group): the normal group (Norm), the SCI+sedentary group (SCI+S), the SCI+naringenin group (SCI+Na), and the SCI+naringenin combined with exercise group (SCI+Na+Ex, n=10). All rats in the SCI were allowed to recover for 2 weeks after injury, and the exercise group subsequently underwent 4 weeks of low-intensity treadmill exercise. Histological and molecular analyses were performed to evaluate astrocyte activation in the dorsal region, neuronal survival in the ventral horn, and axonal elon-gation in the caudal CST fibers following SCI. As a result, in the dorsal region of the injury site, both treatment groups showed significantly in-creased glial fibrillary acidic protein expression compared to the SCI+S group, indicating enhanced astrocyte activation. In particular, the SCI+Na+Ex group demonstrated prominent astrocytic infiltration into the cavity. In the ventral horn of the injured spinal cord, the number of mo-tor neurons was significantly preserved in the SCI+Na+Ex group com-pared to the SCI+S group. In the caudal CST, the SCI+Na+Ex group ex-hibited significantly increased neurofilament-200 expression, suggest-ing enhanced axonal regeneration. Furthermore, regeneration-associ-ated proteins including growth-associated protein-43 and activating transcription factor-3 were significantly increased following the com-bined intervention. Combined treatment of treadmill exercise and narin-genin might be one of the rehabilitation strategies to promote neural re-covery after SCI.

As population aging accelerates globally, cognitive impairment has emerged as a major public health concern, particularly among older women. This study aimed to examine the independent and combined associations of depression, sarcopenia, frailty, and chronic diseases with cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older women in South Korea. A total of 1,065 women aged ≥65 years were recruited from 13 cities. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination for Dementia Screening. Depression, sarcopenia, and frail-ty were evaluated using the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, Strength, Assistance in walking, Rising from a chair, Climbing stairs and Falls questionnaire, and Fried frailty criteria. Information on physician- diagnosed chronic diseases (diabetes, arthritis, and hypertension) was also collected. Continuous variables were analyzed using independent t-tests, and categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square tests. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with cognitive impairment, adjusting for age group, depression, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, sarcopenia, and frailty. Participants with cognitive impairment exhibited significantly higher levels of depression, sarcopenia, frailty, and a greater prevalence of chronic diseases compared to those with normal cognition. In multivari-able analyses, depression, diabetes, arthritis, sarcopenia, and frailty re-mained significantly associated with cognitive impairment. These find-ings indicate that cognitive impairment in older women is associated with a complex interplay of psychological, physical, and metabolic fac-tors. Addressing modifiable conditions, particularly depression, sarco-penia, and frailty, may be important for reducing the burden of cognitive impairment.

Telomere length is a well-known biomarker indicating cellular aging and biological age. Shortening of telomere length is associated with an increased risk of age-related diseases, cellular aging, and reduced re-generative capacity. This study measured changes in peripheral blood telomere length following intravenous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) administration. Changes in telomere length (kb/cell) before and after in-travenous MSCs treatment were evaluated, and the consistency and extent of telomere elongation were assessed among subjects of vari-ous ages, sexes, and treatment durations. Peripheral blood deoxyribo-nucleic acid was extracted and telomere lengths were measured in kb/cell units for a retrospective analysis of 19 cases (18 subjects). Treat-ment durations ranged from 25 days to 14 months, and the ages of the subjects ranged from 34 to 78 years. Intravenous MSCs treatment was associated with a consistent and measurable increase in peripheral blood telomere length. These results support the hypothesis that telo-mere length can be used as an outcome biomarker and patient selec-tion criterion for MSCs-based antiaging therapy.