Category: Statistics

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0262407. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262407. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Prior research has suggested that a set of unique characteristics may be associated with adult cigarette smokers who are able to quit smoking using e-cigarettes (vaping). In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to identify and rank the importance of these characteristics using machine learning. During July and August 2019, an online survey was administered to a convenience sample of 889 adult smokers (age ≥ 20) in Ontario, Canada who tried vaping to quit smoking in the past 12 months. Fifty-one person-level characteristics, including a Vaping Experiences Score, were assessed in a gradient boosting machine model to classify the status of perceived success in vaping-assisted smoking cessation. This model was trained using cross-validation and tested using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The top five most important predictors were identified using a score between 0% and 100% that represented the relative importance of each variable in model training. About 20% of participants (N = 174, 19.6%) reported success in vaping-assisted smoking cessation. The model achieved relatively high performance with an area under the ROC curve of 0.865 and classification accuracy of 0.831 (95% CI [confidence interval] 0.780 to 0.874). The top five most important predictors of perceived success in vaping-assisted smoking cessation were more positive experiences measured by the Vaping Experiences Score (100%), less previously failed quit attempts by vaping (39.0%), younger age (21.9%), having vaped 100 times (16.8%), and vaping shortly after waking up (15.8%). Our findings provide strong statistical evidence that shows better vaping experiences are associated with greater perceived success in smoking cessation by vaping. Furthermore, our study confirmed the strength of machine learning techniques in vaping-related outcomes research based on observational data.

PMID:35030208 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0262407

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0262431. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262431. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Modern contraceptive method is a product or medical procedure that interferes with reproduction from acts of sexual intercourse. Globally in 2019, 44% of women of reproductive age were using a modern method of contraception but it was 29% in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, the main aim of this analysis was to assess the prevalence of modern contraceptive utilization and associated factors among married women in Ethiopia.

METHOD: The current study used the 2019 Ethiopia mini demographic and health survey dataset. Both descriptive and multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression analysis were done using STATA version 14. A p-value of less than 0.05 and an adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval were used to report statistically significant factors with modern contraceptive utilization.

RESULT: The overall modern contraceptive utilization among married women in Ethiopia was 38.7% (95% CI: 37.3% to 40.0%). Among the modern contraceptive methods, injectables were the most widely utilized modern contraceptive method (22.82%) followed by implants (9.65%) and pills (2.71%). Maternal age, educational level, wealth index, number of living children, number of births in the last three years, number of under 5 children in the household, religion, and geographic region were independent predictors of modern contraceptive utilization.

CONCLUSION: In the current study only four out of ten married non-pregnant women of reproductive age utilized modern contraceptive methods. Furthermore, the study has identified both individual and community-level factors that can affect the utilization of modern contraceptive methods by married women in the country. Therefore, concerned bodies need to improve access to reproductive health services, empower women through community-based approaches, and minimize region wise discrepancy to optimize the utilization.

PMID:35030213 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0262431

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0262308. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262308. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Food-borne diseases related to the consumption of meat and its products had public health importance worldwide. The problem became worst in Ethiopia as the result of the tradition of eating raw cattle meat. Salmonella species and Escherichia coli are important food-borne pathogens associated with meat contamination. Hence the current study aimed to assess the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella species and Extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing Escherichia coli from raw cattle meat at butcher houses in Hawassa city, Sidama regional state, Ethiopia.

METHOD: A cross-sectional study was done on the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Salmonella species and Extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing E.coli from raw cattle meat at butcher houses in Hawassa city from September to December 2020. Socio-demographic data were collected using a structured questionnaire and raw cattle meat and swab samples were collected from meat cutting equipment. The collected samples transported using icebox to Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences Microbiology Laboratory for identification. Samples were grown on different culture media and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were determined by using Kirby disc diffusion method. Data were entered and analyzed into SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics were done and P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

RESULT: The overall prevalence of salmonella and ESBL producing E.coli among 556 samples collected from 278 butcher houses was 36 (6.47%) (95% CI: 1.68-1.79) of which 13 (2.3%) were ESBL producing E.coli and 23(4.1%) were salmonella species. Poor hand washing practice (AOR = 2.208; 95% CI: 1.249-3.904) and touching birr while selling meat (AOR = 0.75; 95% CI: (0.433-1.299) were found to be significantly associated with the prevalence of salmonella species and E.coli on cattle meat. The isolates showed moderate levels of resistance (60-70%) against Amoxicillin/ clavulanic acid and high susceptibility (85-100%) against gentamicin, cotrimoxazole, ceftazidime, and tetracycline and the overall multidrug resistance was 33.3%.

CONCLUSION: This study revealed moderately high prevalence of salmonella and E.coli due to poor hygiene and sanitation practices in the butcher shops. Furthermore, the existence of ESBL producing E.coli isolates clearly indicate the possible threat to public health. Therefore, inspection by the right agencies must be implemented in order to prevent food-borne outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance.

PMID:35030183 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0262308

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 14;17(1):e0261835. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261835. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the reaction of stock markets to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (GFC) and compares their influence in terms of risk exposures. The empirical investigation is conducted using the modified ICSS test, DCC-GARCH, and Diebold-Yilmaz connectedness analysis to examine financial contagion and volatility spillovers. To further reveal the impact of these two crises, the statistical features of tranquil and crisis periods under different time intervals are also compared. The test results show that although the outbreak’s origin was in China, the US stock market is the source of financial contagion and volatility spillovers during the pandemic, just as it was during the GFC. The propagation of shocks is considerably higher between developed economies compared to emerging markets. Additionally, the results show that the COVID-19 pandemic induced a more severe contagious effect and risk transmission than the GFC. The study provides an extensive examination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the GFC in terms of financial contagion and volatility spillovers. The results suggest the presence of strong co-movements of world stock markets with the US equity market, especially in periods of financial turmoil.

PMID:35030202 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0261835

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Jan 14;16(1):e0010136. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010136. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: As China is moving onto schistosomiasis elimination/eradication, diagnostic methods with both high sensitivity and specificity for Schistosoma japonicum infections in humans are urgently needed. Microscopic identification of eggs in stool is proven to have poor sensitivity in low endemic regions, and antibody tests are unable to distinguish between current and previous infections. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies for the detection of parasite DNA have been theoretically assumed to show high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. However, the reported performance of PCR for detecting S. japonicum infection varied greatly among studies. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the overall diagnostic performance of variable-temperature PCR technologies, based on stool or blood, for detecting S. japonicum infections in humans from endemic areas.

METHODS: We searched literatures in eight electronic databases, published up to 20 January 2021. The heterogeneity and publication bias of included studies were assessed statistically. The risk of bias and applicability of each eligible study were assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool (QUADAS-2). The bivariate mixed-effects model was applied to obtain the summary estimates of diagnostic performance. The hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) curve was applied to visually display the results. Subgroup analyses and multivariate regression were performed to explore the source of heterogeneity. This research was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines and was registered prospectively in PROSPERO (CRD42021233165).

RESULTS: A total of 2791 papers were retrieved. After assessing for duplications and eligilibity a total of thirteen publications were retained for inclusion. These included eligible data from 4268 participants across sixteen studies. High heterogeneity existed among studies, but no publication bias was found. The pooled analyses of PCR data from all included studies resulted in a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI: 0.83 to 0.96), specificity of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.65 to 0.94), positive likelihood ratio of 5.90 (95% CI: 2.40 to 14.60), negative likelihood ratio of 0.10 (95% CI: 0.05 to 0.20) and a diagnostics odds ratio of 58 (95% CI: 19 to 179). Case-control studies showed significantly better performances for PCR diagnostics than cross-sectional studies. This was further evidenced by multivariate analyses. The four types of PCR approaches identified (convention PCR, qPCR, Digital droplet PCR and nested PCR) differed significantly, with nested PCRs showing the best performance.

CONCLUSIONS: Variable-temperature PCR has a satisfactory performance for diagnosing S. japonicum infections in humans in endemic areas. More high quality studies on S. japonicum diagnostic techniques, especially in low endemic areas and for the detection of dual-sex and single-sex infections are required. These will likely need to optimise a nested PCR alongside a highly sensitive gene target. They will contribute to successfully monitoring endemic areas as they move towards the WHO 2030 targets, as well as ultimately helping areas to achieve these goals.

PMID:35030167 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010136

Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg. 2022 Jan 13. doi: 10.1097/IOP.0000000000002120. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To characterize chronic orbital pain in patients who benefitted from peripheral trigeminal nerve blocks and to explore the relationship between pain etiologies and phenotypes, injection attributes, and positive response to treatment.

METHODS: In this single-center retrospective descriptive study, patients who underwent peripheral trigeminal nerve blocks for chronic orbital pain from November 2016 to May 2021 were selected. Data reviewed included inciting factors, neuropathic symptoms of orbital pain, injection composition (anesthetic alone versus anesthetic + dexamethasone), and corneal epitheliopathy grades. Primary outcomes assessed were response to injection, duration of injection effectiveness, and overall treatment efficacy. Associations between subgroups of chronic orbital pain, injection attributes, and treatment outcomes were examined.

RESULTS: Nineteen patients who underwent a total of 94 peripheral trigeminal nerve blocks for chronic orbital pain were included. During a mean follow-up period of 2.4 years after initial injection (range 7 days-4.6 years), 16 (84.2%) patients achieved either partial or complete improvement. Ocular versus nonocular origin of orbital pain or the presence of neuropathic sensory characteristics was not associated with a treatment outcome. Injections containing dexamethasone had a lower positive efficacy (relative risk, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.97) and no statistically significant association with prolonged effect. Twenty-nine (50.9%) of the 57 injections for which effect duration was recorded produced a response lasting greater than 6 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS: Modulation of trigeminal afferent nerve activity with peripheral trigeminal nerve blocks containing anesthetic with or without dexamethasone may be a promising treatment strategy for chronic orbital pain of diverse etiologies and phenotypes.

PMID:35030151 | DOI:10.1097/IOP.0000000000002120

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Jan 14;18(1):e1009733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009733. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The rates of cell growth, division, and carbon loss of microbial populations are key parameters for understanding how organisms interact with their environment and how they contribute to the carbon cycle. However, the invasive nature of current analytical methods has hindered efforts to reliably quantify these parameters. In recent years, size-structured matrix population models (MPMs) have gained popularity for estimating division rates of microbial populations by mechanistically describing changes in microbial cell size distributions over time. Motivated by the mechanistic structure of these models, we employ a Bayesian approach to extend size-structured MPMs to capture additional biological processes describing the dynamics of a marine phytoplankton population over the day-night cycle. Our Bayesian framework is able to take prior scientific knowledge into account and generate biologically interpretable results. Using data from an exponentially growing laboratory culture of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, we isolate respiratory and exudative carbon losses as critical parameters for the modeling of their population dynamics. The results suggest that this modeling framework can provide deeper insights into microbial population dynamics provided by size distribution time-series data.

PMID:35030163 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009733

J Nurses Prof Dev. 2022 Jan 13. doi: 10.1097/NND.0000000000000844. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Perceived knowledge deficits in disaster preparedness are widespread among hospital-based nurses and healthcare professionals. Experiential learning programs provide enhanced disaster preparedness familiarity among hospital-based healthcare staff. A disaster preparedness education class was offered at a midwestern suburban hospital to promote increased knowledge perception. The Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire was administered to assess disaster preparedness familiarity. The posttest scores after the experiential learning yielded statistically significant results (t = 46.90, p < .001) for increased disaster preparedness familiarity.

PMID:35030112 | DOI:10.1097/NND.0000000000000844

Retina. 2022 Jan 10. doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000003407. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To analyze the retino-choroidal vascular characteristics of patients affected by pigmented paravenous chorio-retinal atrophy (PPCRA) by means of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

METHODS: The study was designed as an observational, cross-sectional case series. Multimodal imaging included fundus autofluorescence (FAF), structural optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA). The quantitative OCTA analyses included the calculation of the vessel density (VD) and choriocapillaris porosity.

RESULTS: Overall, 12 patients (24 eyes) affected by PPCRA were recruited. Structural OCT of the areas involved by PPCRA as visualized on FAF showed a complete EZ and ELM absence, with thinning of ganglion cell complex (GCC), outer nuclear layer (ONL), and outer plexiform layer, but associated with the optical partial preservation of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). OCTA quantitative assessment of the retinal regions affected by PPRCA, as visualized by FAF, were characterized by normal VD at the level of superficial capillary plexus, but significantly altered VD of deep capillary plexus (DCP) and choriocapillaris, with higher choriocapillaris porosity.The presence of macular atrophy was significantly correlated with worse DCP and choriocapillaris VD values. Furthermore, a statistically significant correlation between the FAF patterns and the retinal vascular status was found.

CONCLUSIONS: OCTA quantitative analyses in PPCRA demonstrate a specific impairment at the level of the DCP, which could in turn bring about a thinning of GCC and ONL. The alterations at the level of the choriocapillaris and the choroid in general, could then represent a secondary effect.

PMID:35030147 | DOI:10.1097/IAE.0000000000003407

Wound Manag Prev. 2021 Nov;67(11):26-32.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Medical devices can cause pressure injuries.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with medical device-related pressure injury (MDRPI) in an intensive care unit (ICU).

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed among adult patients (at least 18 years of age) admitted to an ICU in a referral hospital in Brazil between December 2019 and February 2020. The skin of patients who consented to participate was assessed for the presence of an MDRPI, and the use of all medical devices was noted. Other independent variables (sociodemographic variables, medical history, pressure injury risk factors, medications, and length of hospitalization) were abstracted from the medical records. Bivariate data analysis included Pearson’s chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test; odds ratio and a confidence interval of 95% also were established. Correlation among independent variables and MDRPI was determined using the ρ Spearman correlation test, and a hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis was performed using statistically significant variables from the bivariate analysis. P < .05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The 125 study participants ranged in age from 15 to 97 years (mean, 63.02 ± 19.2), 76 (60.8%) were men, and 76 (60.8%) were White. Of the 125 participants, 43 (34%) experienced MDRPI; the total number of MDRPIs was 58 (3 patients had 3 injuries, and 7 patients had 2 injuries). Of those 58 MDRPIs, 46 were stage 1, and 12 were stage 2. Polypharmacy (> 4 medications) was a significant risk factor for MDRPI. Use of a nasal catheter, cord for orotracheal tube fixation, oximeter, intra-abdominal pressure equipment, and indwelling urinary catheter was significantly associated with the presence of MDRPI. Renal and respiratory diseases and the presence of infection were positively related to the presence of MDRPI.

CONCLUSION: Medical device-related pressure injury was prevalent in this patient population. Most of these injuries were stage 1, which suggests that frequent monitoring and device repositioning (when possible) may help prevent more serious injuries. Additional research involving other hospitals in Brazil is needed to increase the understanding of the prevalence and risk factors of MDRPIs in patients in the ICU.

PMID:35030095