Category: Statistics

Obes Rev. 2021 Jun 30:e13306. doi: 10.1111/obr.13306. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Establish whether digital self-monitoring of diet and physical activity is effective at supporting weight loss, increasing physical activity and improving eating behavior in adults with obesity or overweight, and determine the intervention components that might explain variations in its effectiveness. A systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Cinahl, and CENTRAL identified 4068 studies, of which 12 randomized controlled trials were eligible and included in the review. A random-effect meta-analysis evaluated intervention effectiveness and subgroup analyses tested for effective intervention content. Twelve studies were included in the review and meta-analysis. Digital self-monitoring of both diet and physical activity had a statistically significant effect at supporting weight loss (mean difference [MD] = -2.87 [95% CI -3.78, -1.96], P < 0.001, I² = 69%), improving moderate physical activity (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.44 [95% CI 0.26, 0.62], P < 0.001, I² = 0%), and reducing calorie intake (MD = -181.71 [95% CI -304.72, -58.70], P < 0.01, I² = 0%). Tailored interventions were significantly more effective than nontailored interventions (x² = 12.92, P < 0.001). Digital self-monitoring of physical activity and diet is an effective intervention to support weight loss in adults with obesity or overweight. This effect is significantly associated with tailored advice. Future studies should use rigorous designs to explore intervention effectiveness to support weight loss as an adjunct to weight management services.

PMID:34192411 | DOI:10.1111/obr.13306

Mol Ecol Resour. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13458. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Mapping the genes underlying ecologically relevant traits in natural populations is fundamental to develop a molecular understanding of species adaptation. Current sequencing technologies enable the characterisation of a species’ genetic diversity across the landscape or even over its whole range. The relevant capture of the genetic diversity across the landscape is critical for a successful genetic mapping of traits and there are no clear guidelines on how to achieve an optimal sampling and which sequencing strategy to implement. Here we determine through simulation, the sampling scheme that maximises the power to map the genetic basis of a complex trait in an outbreeding species across an idealised landscape and draw genomic predictions for the trait, comparing individual and pool sequencing strategies. Our results show that QTL detection power and prediction accuracy are higher when more populations over the landscape are sampled and this is more cost-effectively done with pool sequencing than with individual sequencing. Additionally, we recommend sampling populations from areas of high genetic diversity. As progress in sequencing enables the integration of trait-based functional ecology into landscape genomics studies, these findings will guide study designs allowing direct measures of genetic effects in natural populations across the environment.

PMID:34192415 | DOI:10.1111/1755-0998.13458

Hepatology. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.1002/hep.32034. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Breastfeeding has multiple effects on maternal health outcomes. However, the effect of breastfeeding on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in parous women remains unclear.

METHOD: A total of 6,893 Korean parous women aged 30 to 50 years who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were assessed for the association between breastfeeding and NAFLD. The duration of lactation was calculated by dividing the total lactation period by the number of breastfed children. NAFLD was defined by the hepatic steatosis index (HSI).

RESULTS: Of 6,893 women, 1,049 (15.2%) had NAFLD. The prevalence of NAFLD was 18.3%, 14.3%, 12.3%, 14.4%, and 15.8% in women with a breastfeeding period of < 1 month, ≥ 1 to < 3 months, ≥ 3 to < 6 months, ≥ 6 to < 12 months, and ≥ 12 months, respectively. In a fully-adjusted model, breastfeeding (≥ 1 month) was associated with reduced NAFLD prevalence [odds ratio (OR): 0.67, 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 0.51-0.89] after adjusting for metabolic, socioeconomic, and maternal risk factors. Fully-adjusted ORs (95% CIs) decreased with an increase of breastfeeding duration: 0.74 (0.49-1.11), 0.70 (0.47-1.05), 0.67 (0.48-0.94), and 0.64 (0.46-0.89) for women with ≥ 1 to < 3 months, ≥ 3 to < 6 months, ≥ 6 to < 12 months, and ≥ 12 months of breastfeeding duration, respectively, compared to women with < 1 month of breastfeeding duration. Such association was also observed in all pre-defined subgroups without interaction.

CONCLUSION: Breastfeeding showed a protective effect against NAFLD in later life of parous women, suggesting a maternal benefit of breastfeeding on NAFLD.

PMID:34192367 | DOI:10.1002/hep.32034

J Oral Rehabil. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.1111/joor.13221. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between waking-state oral behaviors and temporomandibular disorder (TMD) subgroups, and to develop new scoring methods for the Oral Behavior Checklist (OBC).

METHODS: Patients with any TMD diagnosis, according to the diagnostic criteria for TMD (DC/TMD), were divided into subgroups: “Dysfunctional-TMD” (n=70), only mechanical dysfunction; “Painful-TMD” (n=204), only myalgia, arthralgia, or both; and “Painful-Dysfunctional TMD” (n=95), combined pain and dysfunction. A group of individuals without TMD, “Non-TMD” (n=374), was used for testing associations. Participants completed the OBC. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis of the OBC responses, identified 2 major factors, named Non-Functional Activities (NFA) and Functional Activities (FA). Component total scores were computed. Differences among subgroups for OBC-MS (Mean Score) and NFA and FA factor scores were estimated using one-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests. Significance was set at P<0.05.

RESULTS: The OBC-MS in Non-TMD, Painful-TMD, and Painful-Dysfunctional TMD subgroups was higher than in the Dysfunctional-TMD subgroup (p≤0.001). NFA in Painful-TMD and Painful-Dysfunctional TMD subgroups were higher than in the Non-TMD group (p<0.05); NFA in the Dysfunctional-TMD subgroup were lower than in the Painful-TMD subgroup (p=0.034). In contrast, FA in Painful-TMD, Dysfunctional-TMD, and Painful-Dysfunctional TMD subgroups were lower than in the Non-TMD group (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: A new scoring method for the OBC results in item reduction and creation of meaningful subscales for functional and non-functional behaviors, which are differentially associated with painful and dysfunctional TMDs. This may help clinicians to better tailor treatment for the management of subtypes of TMD patients.

PMID:34192368 | DOI:10.1111/joor.13221

Glycobiology. 2021 Jun 29:cwab067. doi: 10.1093/glycob/cwab067. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

While glycans are crucial for biological processes, existing analysis modalities make it difficult for researchers with limited computational background to include these diverse carbohydrates into workflows. Here, we present glycowork, an open-source Python package designed for glycan-related data science and machine learning by end users. Glycowork includes functions to, for instance, automatically annotate glycan motifs and analyze their distributions via heatmaps and statistical enrichment. We also provide visualization methods, routines to interact with stored databases, trained machine learning models, and learned glycan representations. We envision that glycowork can extract further insights from glycan datasets and demonstrate this with workflows that analyze glycan motifs in various biological contexts. Glycowork can be freely accessed at https://github.com/BojarLab/glycowork/.

PMID:34192308 | DOI:10.1093/glycob/cwab067

Oper Dent. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.2341/20-157-L. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different polishing systems on the surface roughness of different nanocomposite resins using various analysis methods. Three types of nanocomposite resins were investigated in this study: supra-nanohybrid (Estelite Asteria), nanohybrid (GrandioSo), and nanoceramic composite resins (Ceram-X Spheretec One). Forty-eight disc-shaped specimens (4 mm in diameter, 2 mm in thickness) were fabricated using a Teflon mold and divided into four groups according to the different polishing systems (n=12). All specimens were processed with one of the following methods: Mylar strip (control), one-step polishers (Opti1step), two-step polishers (Clearfil TwistDia), or multistep polishers (Sof-Lex XT Pop-on). The surface roughness (Ra, μm) was measured by contact profilometry (Mahr, Marsurf PS1) (n=10) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Phenom XL) at 400× magnification (n=2). The data were statistically analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Bonferroni correction tests (p<0.05). In addition, the surface morphology and elemental content were examined by SEM and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses. Under SEM evaluation, in terms of the polishing systems, there were no significant differences in the surface roughness for supra-nanohybrid composite resin (p>0.05). The multistep polishers created lower surface roughness than the one-step polishers for nanohybrid and nanoceramic composites. In terms of the composite resins, supra-nanohybrid composite exhibited lower surface roughness than nanohybrid composite for all polishing systems (p<0.05). The SEM observations confirmed the surface roughness measurements related to the surface morphology. One-step and two-step polishers created porosity on the surface of nanohybrid and nanoceramic composites. EDS analysis indicated the elemental composition of the particles in the porous zones was quite close to diamond abrasives and glass fillers.

PMID:34192336 | DOI:10.2341/20-157-L

Exp Results. 2020 Aug 20;1:e41. doi: 10.1017/exp.2020.45. eCollection 2020.

ABSTRACT

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is of global concern and has recently emerged in the US. In this paper, we construct a stochastic variant of the SEIR model to estimate a quasi-worst-case scenario prediction of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US West and East Coast population regions by considering the different phases of response implemented by the US as well as transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in countries that were most affected. The model is then fitted to current data and implemented using Runge-Kutta methods. Our computation results predict that the number of new cases would peak around mid-April 2020 and begin to abate by July provided that appropriate COVID-19 measures are promptly implemented and followed, and that the number of cases of COVID-19 might be significantly mitigated by having greater numbers of functional testing kits available for screening. The model is also sensitive to assigned parameter values and reflects the importance of healthcare preparedness during pandemics.

PMID:34192225 | PMC:PMC7557233 | DOI:10.1017/exp.2020.45

Gen Psychiatr. 2020 Nov 5;33(6):e100294. doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100294. eCollection 2020.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:34192237 | PMC:PMC7646317 | DOI:10.1136/gpsych-2020-100294

Gen Psychiatr. 2021 Mar 19;34(2):e100368. doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100368. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Experiencing a pandemic can be very unsettling and may have a negative impact on the mental health of frontline healthcare workers (HCWs). This may have serious consequences for the overall well-being of HCWs, which in turn may adversely affect patient safety and the productivity of the institution.

AIMS: We designed a study to assess the prevalence of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), depression and work-related stress experienced by the National Health Service staff in a large tertiary London hospital treating patients with COVID-19 during the current active phase of the COVID-19 era.

METHODS: An anonymous survey was designed with demographic data and three questionnaires. The Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used to assess anxiety and depression, respectively. The Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool was used to assess work-related stress. Staff from multiple specialties embracing cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, respiratory medicine, endocrinology, oncology, imaging, anaesthesia and intensive care at our hospital were asked to complete the questionnaire between 25 May and 15 June 2020.

RESULTS: A total of 302 staff members (106 males and 196 females) completed the survey. The overall prevalence of GAD and depression was 41.4% and 42.7%, respectively. The prevalence of GAD and depression was significantly higher in females than in males and was statistically significant. Nurses were four times more likely to report moderate to severe levels of anxiety and depression as compared with doctors. Work-related stress was also observed to be prevalent in our surveyed population with the following standards: relationships, role, control and change showing a need for improvement.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study presents early evidence suggestive of a high prevalence of GAD, depression and work-related stress in HCWs. It is imperative that coherent strategies are implemented to improve the healthcare work environment during this pandemic and mitigate further injury to the mental health status of the healthcare population.

PMID:34192241 | PMC:PMC7987534 | DOI:10.1136/gpsych-2020-100368

S Afr J Physiother. 2021 May 10;77(1):1542. doi: 10.4102/sajp.v77i1.1542. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The limited data regarding dysphagia in high-level spinal cord injuries (SCIs) stem from economically developed countries. Dysphagia is prevalent in patients with cervical SCI; however, in a South African context, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are not seen as key when managing this population. This may result in patients not being screened or identified early, leading to possible complications. The literature could provide useful insight on how best to address this clinical gap.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of my study was to conduct a scoping review on the description of dysphagia, the risk factors for developing dysphagia post-SCI and the practice patterns of team members working with dysphagia in cervical SCIs.

METHODS: A five-step scoping review was undertaken. Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics as well as a thematic analysis by using a top-down approach.

RESULTS: Through the process of screening according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 25 articles were included. Primarily, the pharyngeal phase was affected, which can lead to an aspiration pneumonia. The key risk factors were the presence of a tracheostomy tube, the use of ventilation and anterior spinal cord surgery. There was little mention regarding specific practice patterns, but an interdisciplinary approach was suggested as the most efficient model.

CONCLUSIONS: Specific guidelines and management options need to be considered for a South African context, given the high incidence of trauma-related injuries. There needs to be locally produced research, providing suggestions on how different team members can screen and identify dysphagia within this population. Solutions need to be unique, and contextually responsive and appropriate.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The team members and the roles of these different team members need to be re-examined in order to ensure the early identification and management of cervical SCI patients who are at risk of developing a dysphagia.

PMID:34192210 | PMC:PMC8182465 | DOI:10.4102/sajp.v77i1.1542