Articles

<b>Background:</b> Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 35.5 million US adults. Serum α1-acid glycoprotein (α1-AGP), an acute-phase protein, exhibits anti-inflammatory properties in animal models, but its association with CKD in younger women remains underexplored. This study investigated the relationship between serum α1-AGP and CKD risk in US women aged 20–49 years. <b>Methods:</b> This nationally representative cross-sectional study used data on female adults in the US aged 20–49 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015–2018 cycles. 2,137 individuals were included in the study after excluding individuals without serum α1-AGP, urine albumin, and creatinine data. Multivariate logistic regression models evaluated the association between serum α1-AGP and CKD. Moreover, we performed stratified and interaction analyses to see if the relationship was stable in different subgroups. <b>Results:</b> Among 2,137 participants (mean age 34.6 years, mean eGFR 111.7 mL/min/1.73 m²), CKD prevalence was 8.8% (n=188). Higher serum α1-AGP levels were associated with lower CKD risk in the fully adjusted model (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.16–0.84, P = 0.017), with a dose-response trend across quartiles (P = 0.041). The association was stronger in women aged 40–49 years (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.05–0.76) and Mexican Americans (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.01–0.56), though interaction terms were not significant (P > 0.05). <b>Conclusions:</b> Higher serum α1-AGP levels are associated with lower CKD prevalence in young women, suggesting a protective role. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm causality and explore α1-AGP as a biomarker for CKD risk stratification.

Online shopping is a growing phenomenon and social media namely Facebook has radically changed consumers online purchase behaviour; especially the interactive information system of consumers, peers, and vendors. Similar to other online purchasing products or services, e-cigarette marketing in Facebook has potential. This study aims to determine the association between individual’s online interaction and e-cigarette purchase intention from Facebook vape groups. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 214 respondents using the Facebook platform from September to December 2019. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. The Chi-square test was used for data analyses using SPSS (version 25.0). Most of the participants were male; the mean age of the respondents was 27.41 ± 2.1. Total 93.9% (201 of 214) and 56.1% (120 of 214) respondents were vaper and smoker respectively. Among the non-smokers, most of the respondents were vaper (84 of 94, 89.4%). Consumers smoking and vaping status were associated with each other (χ2 = 6.11, P=0.01). There was an association between vaping status and purchase intention of e-cigarettes from the Facebook vape group (χ2 = 5.06, P=0.02). Online interactions, namely like (χ2 = 5.88, P <0.01), post (χ2 = 7.16, P <0.01) and sharing (χ2 = 10.14, P <0.01) of the e-cigarette related information or advertisements in social media were associated with purchase intention of e-cigarettes from Facebook vape group. This study revealed individuals vaping and online interactions were associated with an online purchase the intention of e-cigarette in Facebook. Public health researchers and policymakers might contemplate the regulatory environment of online marketing of e-cigarettes to curtail the uptake of e-cigarettes among non-smokers.