This study tested the hypothesis that within older Barbadian adults, sex, education, and occupation type lessen age-related cognitive decline. The analyses used a cross-sectional data set from 1325 people collected in the 2006 SABE Study (Health, Well-being, and Aging). Cognition was assessed as scores in each subdomain of the Mini-Mental State Exam. The loss of a single point in each subdomain was predicted by sex, years of education, job type, and their interactions with age. Results demonstrated that age and protective factors affect each cognitive domain differently. High education combined with mentally complex employment helped maintain cognitive performance in later life. Beneficial lifetime exposures are additive, providing combined benefits. Findings provide insight into public policy aiming to minimize the number of adults with cognitive decline and dementia in Barbados and the Caribbean.

The depth distribution of illite/smectite (I/S) compositions was investigated for a well drilled to a depth of 3462 m on Barbados Island, the only subaerial exposure of the Barbados accretionary complex. The classical pattern of increasing percentage of illite interlayers in the mixed-layer clay with increasing burial depth was not observed. Rather, the data describe an irregular, zig-zag trend with depth. This trend is probably the result of reverse faulting in the section. I/S data were also used to infer several kilometers of uplift and subsequent erosion of the section. This study shows that irregular patterns of clay diagenesis with depth can be anticipated for sequences that have undergone complicated tectonism and deformation. Combined with other geologic information, these patterns can help to determine the tectonic history of the sedimentary sequence.

Sediments from depths to 670 m in the Barbados accretionary complex and transecting the décollement zone have been studied by transmission and analytical electron microscopy (TEM/AEM). The sediments consist of claystone and mudstone intercalated with layers of volcanic ash. Smectite comprises the bulk of the noncalcareous sediments and forms a continuous matrix enveloping sparse, irregular, large grains of illite, chlorite, kaolinite and mixed-layer illite/chlorite of detrital origin at all depths. The detrital origin of illite is implied by illite-smectite textural relations, well-ordered 2M polytypism, and a muscovite-like composition. K is the dominant interlayer cation in smectite at all depths, in contrast to the Na and Ca that are normally present in similar rocks.

Deeper samples associated with the décollement zone contain small (up to 100 Å thick) illite packets included within still-dominant subparallel layers of contiguous smectite. AEM analyses of these packets imply illite-like compositions. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns show that this illite is the 1Md polytype. Packets display step-like terminations like those seen in illite of hydrothermal origin. The data collectively demonstrate that smectite transforms progressively to illite via a dissolution-recrystallization process within a depleting matrix of smectite, and not by a mechanism of layer replacement. This illite seems to form at depths as shallow as 500 m and temperatures of 20°-30°C, which is in marked contrast to the much higher temperature conditions normally assumed for this transformation. This implies that the high water/rock ratios associated with the décollement zone are significant in promoting reaction.

This article explores how women in England, using a range of economic and legal tools and methods, managed wealth and property in Barbados during the seventeenth century. Being distant from the colony had implications for how English women managed their property in Barbados, as direct oversight was impossible. Instead, women were forced to broker arrangements with overseers and agents who could act on their behalf. We can make sense of how they established these connections through the lens of women's intimate networks, as they appointed trusted friends, family, and associates to manage their affairs. Women's intimate networks are a lens through which we can explain not just how women acquired property, but also their continued investment in plantation economies and slavery during the first decades of English colonisation in Barbados.

Our objective was to describe, for the first time in an English-speaking Caribbean country, the contribution of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to nutrients linked to non-communicable disease. Using a cross-sectional study design, dietary data were collected from two non-consecutive 24-h dietary recalls. Recorded food items were then classified according to their degree of processing by the NOVA system. The present study took place in Barbados (2012–13). A representative population-based sample of 364 adult Barbadians (161 males and 203 females) aged 25–64 years participated in the study. UPFs represented 40⋅5 % (838 kcal/d; 95 % CI 791, 885) of mean energy intake. Sugar-sweetened beverages made the largest contribution to energy within the UPF category. Younger persons (25–44 years) consumed a significantly higher proportion of calories from UPF (NOVA group 4) compared with older persons (45–64 years). The mean energy shares of UPF ranged from 22⋅0 to 58⋅9 % for those in the lowest tertile to highest tertile. Within each tertile, the energy contribution was significantly higher in the younger age group (25–44 years) compared with the older (45–64 years). One-quarter of persons consume ≥50 % of their daily calories from UPF, this being significantly higher in younger persons. The ultra-processed diet fraction contained about six times the mean of free sugars and about 0⋅8 times the dietary fibre of the non-ultra-processed fraction (NOVA groups 1–3). Targeted interventions to decrease the consumption of UPF especially in younger persons is thus of high priority to improve the diet quality of Barbadians.

Using the dengue surveillance program, we prospectively collected data on all the suspected and confirmed cases of dengue in Barbados from 2006 to 2015. Data were analysed for demographic, seasonal and temporal dynamics of this disease in this country. The overall mean annual incidence rate of suspected and confirmed dengue over the study period was 0.49% (range 0.15%–0.99%) and 0.16% (range 0.05%−0.48%), respectively. There was a significant correlation between the mean monthly number of confirmed cases, the mean monthly rainfall and the mean monthly relative humidity percentage. Dengue in this population is predominantly an infection affecting children and young adults. The median age of the patients with both, suspected and confirmed dengue was 25 years and the highest proportion of cases was seen in the age group 0–15 years. The annual incidence rates of both the suspected and the confirmed cases showed an upward trend during the study period and this upward trend was more pronounced among children.

Although uranium series (U-series) ages of growth-position fossil corals are important to Quaternary sea-level history, coral clast reworking from storms can yield ages on a terrace dating to more than one high-sea stand, confounding interpretations of sea-level history. On northern Barbados, U-series ages corals from a thick storm deposit are not always younger with successively higher stratigraphic positions, but all date to the last interglacial period (~127 ka to ~112 ka), Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 5.5. The storm deposit ages are consistent with the ages of growth-position corals found at the base of the section and at landward localities on this terrace. Thus, in this case, analysis of only a few corals would not have led to an error in interpreting sea-level history. In contrast, a notch cut into older Pleistocene limestone below the MIS 5.5 terrace contains corals that date to both MIS 5.5 (~125 ka) and MIS 5.3 (~108 ka). We infer that the notch formed during MIS 5.3 and the MIS 5.5 corals are reworked. Similar multiple ages of corals on terraces have been reported elsewhere on Barbados. Thus, care must be taken in interpreting U-series ages of corals that are reported without consideration of taphonomy.

A new species of eurysquilloid stomatopod, Eurysquilla petronioi sp. nov., is described from the tropical western Atlantic. Eurysquilla petronioi sp. nov. is the fourteenth species of the genus to be recognized worldwide, the fifth species from the western Atlantic and the second from Brazilian waters. It is most closely related to E. maiaguesensis from Puerto Rico, but differs chiefly in having an unarmed versus apically spinous rostral plate and 6 or 7 rather than 8–10 teeth on dactylus of raptorial claw. A key to the species of the genus is provided.

This study assesses the probability that an older person in Bridgetown, Barbados receives financial, functional and/or material support from their adult children according to the proximity of their nearest child, adjusting for demographic and socio-economic factors. As in many countries of the developing world, older Barbadians receive much of their support from adult children. Population ageing, smaller family sizes and high rates of out-migration may be placing stress on systems of formal and informal support within the country. Yet, very little research has examined determinants of support within the Caribbean let alone Barbados, one of the most rapidly ageing countries in the region. Data (N = 1,248) come from the 2000 Pan American Health Organization Survey on Health, Well-being and Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean (SABE). Multivariate logistic regression analyses highlight the overwhelming importance of co-residence in the receipt of informal support transfers. Although there is a lower probability of receiving support as distance to nearest child increases, several indicators of vulnerability, such as having a disability, increases support probabilities among those whose nearest children live outside the neighbourhood. The results have implications for current and future cohorts of older adults in the region given the combination of declining fertility, persistent migration and population ageing within a broader context of social protection systems across the region.

Barbados has been experiencing increasing rates of obesity and chronic non-communicable diseases characteristic of a country in nutrition transition. However, few studies have been carried out on how precisely the diet has changed in recent decades. Our aim was to analyse the FAO food balance sheets for Barbados from 1961 to 2003 in order to characterise the changes that have taken place in the macronutrient supply of the country during that period. Annual food balance sheets were downloaded from the FAOSTAT database, and per capita supply for twelve commodity groupings was analysed for energy and macronutrient levels using WISP dietary analysis software (Tinuviel Software, Llanfechell, Anglesey, UK). The food supply in 2003 provided over 2500 kJ (about 600 kcal) more energy per capita per d than it did in 1961. Energy from carbohydrate as a percentage of total energy has fallen from 70 % in 1961 to 57 % in 2003 and is now at the lower end of WHO recommendations. Energy from fat as a percentage of total energy increased from 19 % to 28 % and now lies at the upper end of WHO recommendations. Sugars, at over 17 % of dietary energy, are well above the upper limit set by the WHO. Despite having methodological limitations associated with the use of food balance statistics, our data suggest that these imbalances need to be addressed as a matter of priority in order to try to reverse the incidence of nutrition-related chronic diseases that are projected to cause increasing disability and premature death in the country in the coming years.

Common bird species were screened during May and June 2007 on Barbados for haemosporidian parasites (Haemosporida) of the genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium to determine whether the low parasite diversity reported in previous studies might have reflected limited sampling. PCR screening and DNA sequencing revealed a single predominant lineage of Haemoproteus identified as H. coatneyi. Sixty-two out of 257 birds were infected with Haemoproteus spp. on Barbados in 2007. Fifty-nine of the infections were identified as H. coatneyi (lineage HC), the only lineage recovered in the previous study in 1993. Two of the infections recovered from the bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) were identified as Haemoproteus spp. (lineage HD), which is the prevalent haemosporidian parasite in C. flaveola on Grenada. We discuss the possibility of infrequent colonization events and absence of vectors as explanations for Barbados's low avian haemosporidian diversity. In our study, the parasites were absent from the southeast of the island, whereas they were abundant in several host species in the northwest. Accordingly, environmental and host population genetic differences were also investigated between the areas with and without parasites. No host genetic differences were found between the parasite-free and the parasite-afflicted regions. However, the parasite-free region is slightly warmer and drier, and it supports less vegetation than the parasite-afflicted region. The influence that this harsher environment may have on vector survival is discussed.