Category: Statistics

Int Wound J. 2024 Feb;21(2):e14689. doi: 10.1111/iwj.14689.

ABSTRACT

This study systematically evaluates the effect of body mass index on the occurrence of wound infections and complications in patients undergoing liver cancer surgery through a meta-analysis. A computerized search was conducted, from database inception to October 2023, in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang databases for studies related to the impact of body mass index on patients undergoing liver cancer surgery. Two researchers independently selected studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the quality. Data analysis was performed using Stata 17.0 software. A total of 8 studies, encompassing 21 030 liver cancer surgery patients, were included. The analysis revealed that patients with a higher body mass index had a significantly higher incidence of wound infection (odds ratio [OR] = 2.36, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21-4.60, p = 0.012) and complications (OR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.11-2.24, p = 0.011) compared to the control group. Additionally, the hospital stay for higher body mass index patients was longer than that for the control group (standard mean difference [SMD] = -1.09, 95% CI: -4.71 to 2.53, p = 0.556), although this difference was not statistically significant. The study indicates that liver cancer surgery patients with higher body mass index were at an increased risk of postoperative wound infection and complications. This finding highlights the importance of considering body mass index as a factor in the management and care of patients undergoing liver cancer surgery.

PMID:42052914 | DOI:10.1111/iwj.14689

Int Wound J. 2024 Feb;21(2):e14653. doi: 10.1111/iwj.14653.

ABSTRACT

The topical application of the vancomycin in spine surgery is an effective method of reducing the incidence of postsurgical infections. However, there are differences in the prophylactic strategies used for various spinal surgeries. Therefore, the primary aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the intra-wound vancomycin during spine surgery. For this purpose, 100 studies were identified through different databases and search engines with various search terms such as ‘intrawound vancomycin in surgery’, ‘intrawound applications of vancomycin’, ‘vancomycin in surgery’, ‘intraoperative vancomycin’, ‘vancomycin spinal surgeries’, ‘treating surgical site infections in spinal surgeries using vancomycin’, ‘spinal surgery’, ‘vancomycin in spinal surgery’, ‘spine surgery’, ‘topical vancomycin’ and ‘local vancomycin’. Furthermore, the identified studies were reviewed thoroughly and finally, 19 studies were selected for meta-analysis. The selected studies were included based on the inclusion criteria and data was extracted from the selected studies. The pool of the statistically significant studies was further analysed using the ‘meta’ package of R version 4.3.2. The analysed data resulted in statistically significant results with a p-value <0.001 and the heterogeneity at 50% suggesting that the meta-analysis results may be significant in supporting the application of vancomycin at surgical sites to reduce the surgical site infections and eventually improve the postoperative conditions by reducing the long hospital stays.

PMID:42052912 | DOI:10.1111/iwj.14653

Int Wound J. 2024 Feb;21(2):e14561. doi: 10.1111/iwj.14561.

ABSTRACT

A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (TSV) over 20 G vitrectomy on wound healing, as well as the requirements for closing the wound in order to treat vitreoretinal diseases. Among the 500 cases who had been treated with vitrectomy to September 2023, 250 were treated by transconjunctiva without vitrectomy and 250 were treated with 20 G vitrectomy. The odds ratio (OR) and mean difference (MD) of 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed to evaluate the influence of wound opening and closing on vitrectomy diseases. The evaluation of vitreoretinal diseases was performed with either a random-or fixed-effect model, which involved TSV compared to 20 G vitrectomy. Compared to 20 G vitrectomy, the opening time of the wound in TSV was less (MD, -2.03; 95% CI, -2.87, -1.19; p < 0.0001); Compared to 20 G vitrectomy, the closing time of the wound was less (MD, -4.84; 95% CI, -6.38, -3.03; p < 0.0001); Nevertheless, there were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of vitreous haemorrhage after TSV surgery compared with 20 G vitrectomy (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.25, 2.18; p = 0.59). TSV vitrectomy can shorten the duration of the operation and speed up the healing of the wound. It is suggested that additional studies be carried out with a larger sample size in order to verify this conclusion.

PMID:42052905 | DOI:10.1111/iwj.14561

Mol Biol Evol. 2026 Apr 29:msag113. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msag113. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Positive and balancing selection on pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) is widely thought to target ligand-binding domains and affect the specificity of recognition of different pathogens. Alternatively, positive/balancing selection on PRRs could affect general responsiveness by targeting for example signaling domains or cis-regulatory variation. Studies of a wild rodent (the bank vole, Clethrionomys glareolus) have shown that Tlr2-a lipoprotein-binding PRR-is highly polymorphic with divergent haplotypes and signatures of balancing selection, and that Tlr2 genotype is associated with susceptibility to Borrelia afzelii infection in the wild. To investigate what aspect of Tlr2 function has been under selection, we here perform integrated population genetic and functional analyses. Ex vivo infection experiments show that the protective Tlr2 haplotype produces a stronger proinflammatory response to B. afzelii compared to the haplotype associated with susceptibility. Tlr2 genotype has a similar, albeit not statistically significant, effect on responsiveness to the phylogenetically distant pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes. We find that the strongest signature of balancing selection is 4.6 kb upstream of the Tlr2 coding sequence, near a putative enhancer, and that Tlr2 exhibits allele-specific expression such that the protective haplotype is more expressed. Collectively these results indicate that balancing selection has primarily acted on cis-regulatory variation affecting the general responsiveness via Tlr2-signaling rather than on polymorphisms affecting Tlr2 ligand-binding specificity.

PMID:42052896 | DOI:10.1093/molbev/msag113

Int Wound J. 2024 Feb;21(2):e14695. doi: 10.1111/iwj.14695.

ABSTRACT

This meta-analysis systematically evaluates the impact of negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) on surgical-site wound infection after vascular surgery. A comprehensive computerized search was conducted, from database inception to November 2023, in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the application of NPWT in vascular surgery. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and conducted quality assessments based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. A total of 11 RCTs involving 1597 vascular surgery patients were included. The analysis revealed that the application of NPWT in vascular surgery significantly reduced the incidence of wound infections (OR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.32-0.58, p < 0.001) and complications (OR = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.27-0.58, p < 0.001). Additionally, NPWT was found to decrease the occurrence of both superficial wound infections (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.36-1.12, p = 0.12) and deep wound infections (OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.19-1.16, p = 0.10), although these differences were not statistically significant. This study indicates that NPWT, compared with conventional treatment methods, has significant advantages in preventing postoperative wound infections and complications in vascular surgery patients and is therefore worthy of widespread clinical adoption.

PMID:42052881 | DOI:10.1111/iwj.14695

Int Wound J. 2024 Feb;21(2):e14579. doi: 10.1111/iwj.14579.

ABSTRACT

Whether prophylactic abdominal drainage tube is routinely placed in patients after hepatobiliary surgery remains controversial. To evaluate the effect of prophylactic abdominal drainage tube placement after hepatobiliary surgery on postoperative infection. Randomized controlled trials on the placement of prophylactic abdominal drainage tube after hepatobiliary surgery were collected through a computerized search of PubMed, Embase, Conchrane Library and Web of Science databases, with a time range from the establishment of the database to August 2023. After two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted information, and evaluated the quality of the included studies. Finally, 13 studies were included, including 3620 patients, and the results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative infection rate between the drainage group (1840 patients and the non-drainage group [1783 patients] [relative risk, RR = 1.17, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.94-1.47, p = 0.16]. Compared with the drainage group, the incidence of infectious abdominal fluid in the non-drainage group was lower (RR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.57-2.80, p < 0.00001), and the incidence of postoperative bile leakage was lower (RR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.27-2.47, p < 0.001) and shorter hospital stays after surgery (mean difference = 1.27, 95% CI: 0.32-2.22, p = 0.009). In conclusion, placing a prophylactic abdominal drainage tube after hepatobiliary surgery does not reduce postoperative infection rates compared with no drainage.

PMID:42052879 | DOI:10.1111/iwj.14579

J Child Lang. 2026 Apr 29:1-27. doi: 10.1017/S0305000926100646. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study investigates whether child-directed speech (CDS) exhibits enhanced segmentability compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) and explores how specific linguistic properties of each register influence computational word segmentation performance in Korean. Employing a speaker-matched corpus of naturalistic Korean CDS and ADS, we observed that Korean CDS features shorter utterances and words, lower lexical diversity, fewer hapax legomena and interjections, a greater proportion of onomatopoeia and word play, a higher frequency of one-word utterances, and lower lexical ambiguity than ADS. Computational algorithms revealed significantly higher word segmentation F-scores for CDS than ADS, suggesting that child-oriented linguistic adaptations in CDS facilitate segmentation. This observation is further supported by statistical modelling, which indicates that the enhanced segmentability in CDS is modulated by the linguistic properties of the register. We discuss the nuanced roles of these properties in shaping the performance of segmentation algorithms.

PMID:42052816 | DOI:10.1017/S0305000926100646

Int J Eat Disord. 2026 Apr 29. doi: 10.1002/eat.70113. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To explore sex differences in social, health and lifestyle characteristics associated with binge-eating behaviors in a large population-based study.

METHOD: This study included 84,995 participants (women 52.1%) aged ≥ 15 years from the French national random population-based EpiCov cohort. We assessed binge-eating (BE) behaviors (No BE; BE without compensatory behavior [BE-]; BE with a compensatory behavior [BE+]) using the Patient Health Questionnaire Eating Disorder module in 2021. After testing interactions between exposures (self-reported social, health and lifestyle characteristics) and sex for BE behaviors, weighted multinomial logistic regressions were performed to explore the associations between exposures and BE behaviors stratified by sex.

RESULT: The prevalence of BE- and BE+ was higher among women (3.4 [3.2-3.7]% and 1.2 [1.1-1.3]%, respectively) than among men (2.1 [1.9-2.3]% and 0.7 [0.6-0.8]%, respectively). Sex modified the associations that were observed between BE- and poor perceived health status (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI]: men 2.43 [1.90-3.09], women 1.53 [1.29-1.80], interaction p = 0.008), and between BE+ and obesity (vs. normal weight; men 6.15 [3.92-9.64], women 2.15 [1.54-3.01], interaction p = 0.002). No other effect modification of sex was observed.

DISCUSSION: In this large study based on a national random sample from the French general population, the prevalence of binge eating was higher in women than in men. However, the associations between BE- and perceived health status, and between BE+ and obesity, were greater in men than women. The results highlight the need for targeted prevention strategies for BE accounting for sex differences.

PMID:42052807 | DOI:10.1002/eat.70113

Rev Med Virol. 2026 May;36(3):e70158. doi: 10.1002/rmv.70158.

ABSTRACT

This updated systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IV) versus standard-dose (SD-IV) in adults ≥ 65 years for key clinical outcomes, including hospitalisations and mortality. Conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for randomised controlled trials. Primary outcomes were pneumonia and influenza (P&I) hospitalisation, all-cause hospitalisation, and all-cause mortality, while secondary outcomes included hospitalisation for cardiorespiratory disease, influenza-related hospitalisation, laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalisation, and serious adverse events (SAEs). Pooled risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using fixed-effect models. Across 586,188 participants, HD-IV reduced P&I hospitalisation (rVE 12.0%), increasing to 22.0% in sensitivity analysis. For all-cause hospitalisation (∼600,000 participants), rVE was 4.0%, while no significant reduction was observed for all-cause mortality (rVE = 2.0%). Subgroup analyses suggested greater benefits in individuals without cardiovascular disease and those aged 65-79 years. HD-IV also showed strong protection against influenza-specific outcomes (rVE 39% for influenza hospitalisation; 32% for laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalisation), with no significant difference in SAEs between groups. Overall, HD-IV provides superior protection compared with SD-IV against P&I and all-cause hospitalisation in older adults, with the greatest benefits among younger seniors and those without cardiovascular disease. These findings support prioritising HD-IV to reduce influenza burden in the elderly, although benefits appear limited in adults aged > 80 years.

PMID:42052799 | DOI:10.1002/rmv.70158

J Rural Health. 2026 Mar;42(2):e70153. doi: 10.1111/jrh.70153.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Military Veterans and rural residents are at greater risk of firearm injury than non-Veterans and urban residents. This retrospective cohort study used administrative data and electronic health record (EHR) reviews to compare the characteristics of firearm injuries between rural and urban Veterans who presented to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system.

METHODS: A national, stratified random sample of 600 Veterans (300 rural, 300 urban) with firearm injury-related healthcare visits was identified using VA administrative data. Eligible injuries were caused by a firearm and occurred after military separation and between 2010 and 2019. Details about Veterans and firearm injuries were ascertained from administrative data and through EHR reviews. Analyses compared characteristics of firearm injuries by Veterans’ rurality.

FINDINGS: N = 340 firearm injuries were eligible (178 rural, 162 urban). Most were nonfatal (94.7%). Injury intent differed by rurality, where unintentional injuries comprised a higher proportion of firearm injuries for rural Veterans (55.0% rural, 34.6% urban) and assault-related injuries comprised a higher proportion for urban Veterans (16.3% rural, 37.0% urban). Initial treatment was mostly delivered at facilities outside the VA (82.8%), while follow-up care was mostly at VA facilities (75.8%). Firearm safety counseling was rarely documented (8.3%).

CONCLUSIONS: This study describes firearm injuries to inform healthcare-based prevention efforts for rural and urban VA facilities. Differences by rurality in Veterans’ injuries suggested that intent-focused tailoring of prevention efforts is critical. Findings highlight opportunities for VA providers to deliver firearm safety counseling. Future research should examine the potential effectiveness of prevention tailored by rurality.

PMID:42052794 | DOI:10.1111/jrh.70153