Nevin Manimala

Alcohol Alcohol. 2022 Apr 21:agac018. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agac018. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Many parents in contact with children’s social care services misuse alcohol however do not meet the threshold for specialist alcohol treatment, and typically do not receive appropriate support for their needs. Brief alcohol interventions have been found to be effective in healthcare settings, however, it is unknown whether the brief intervention structure delivered within health settings would transfer well into children’s social care. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of brief intervention for alcohol misusing parents which social care practitioners consider to be important and acceptable to implement in this sector.

METHODS: We assessed preferences for, and acceptability of, brief alcohol intervention with parents in contact with children’s social care using a discrete choice experiment. We recruited 205 children’s social care practitioners from London and the North East of England. Data were analysed using mixed logit which accounted for repeated responses.

FINDINGS: Six attributes showed statistically significant coefficients, suggesting that a brief intervention with these attributes would encourage implementation. These were: level of alcohol-related risk targeted; intervention recipient; timing of intervention; duration of sessions; number of sessions and intervention structure. The attribute of most importance identified based on the attribute with the largest coefficient in the conditional logit model was risk level.

CONCLUSIONS: Brief alcohol interventions delivered to parents in social care should focus on the impact upon children and the wider family, they should be a flexible part of on-going casework and should be more intensive and less structured.

PMID:35443044 | DOI:10.1093/alcalc/agac018

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2022 Apr 20:cebp.1446.2021. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-21-1446. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cancer mortality rates in the U.S. are higher in rural than urban areas, especially for colorectal cancer. Modifiable cancer risks (e.g. tobacco use, obesity) are more prevalent among U.S. rural than urban residents. Social network analyses are common, yet rural informal collaborative networks for cancer prevention and control and practitioner uses of network findings are less well understood.

METHODS: In five service areas in rural Missouri and Illinois, we conducted a network survey of informal multisector networks among agencies that address cancer risk (N = 152 individuals). The survey asked about contact, collaborative activities, and referrals. We calculated descriptive network statistics and disseminated network visualizations with rural agencies through infographics and interactive Network Navigator platforms. We also collected feedback on uses of network findings from agency staff (N = 14).

RESULTS: Service areas had more connections (average degree) for exchanging information than for more time-intensive collaborative activities of co-developing and sustaining ongoing services and programs, and co-developing and sharing resources. On average, collaborative activities were not dependent on just a few agencies to bridge gaps to hold networks together. Users found the network images and information useful for identifying gaps, planning which relationships to establish or enhance to strengthen certain collaborative activities and cross-referrals, and showing network strengths to current and potential funders.

CONCLUSIONS: Rural informal cancer prevention and control networks in this study are highly connected and largely decentralized.

IMPACT: Disseminating network findings help ensure usefulness to rural health and social service practitioners who address cancer risks.

PMID:35443033 | DOI:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-21-1446

PLoS Pathog. 2022 Apr 20;18(4):e1009925. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009925. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there was a high level of optimism based on observational studies and small controlled trials that treating hospitalized patients with convalescent plasma from COVID-19 survivors (CCP) would be an important immunotherapy. However, as more data from controlled trials became available, the results became disappointing, with at best moderate evidence of efficacy when CCP with high titers of neutralizing antibodies was used early in infection. To better understand the potential therapeutic efficacy of CCP, and to further validate SARS-CoV-2 infection of macaques as a reliable animal model for testing such strategies, we inoculated 12 adult rhesus macaques with SARS-CoV-2 by intratracheal and intranasal routes. One day later, 8 animals were infused with pooled human CCP with a high titer of neutralizing antibodies (RVPN NT50 value of 3,003), while 4 control animals received normal human plasma. Animals were monitored for 7 days. Animals treated with CCP had detectable but low levels of antiviral antibodies after infusion. In comparison to the control animals, CCP-treated animals had similar levels of viral RNA in upper and lower respiratory tract secretions, similar detection of viral RNA in lung tissues by in situ hybridization, but lower amounts of infectious virus in the lungs. CCP-treated animals had a moderate, but statistically significant reduction in interstitial pneumonia, as measured by comprehensive lung histology. Thus overall, therapeutic benefits of CCP were marginal and inferior to results obtained earlier with monoclonal antibodies in this animal model. By highlighting strengths and weaknesses, data of this study can help to further optimize nonhuman primate models to provide proof-of-concept of intervention strategies, and guide the future use of convalescent plasma against SARS-CoV-2 and potentially other newly emerging respiratory viruses.

PMID:35443018 | DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009925

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0267009. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267009. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

Sports facilities have been acknowledged as one of the crucial environmental factors for children’s physical education, physical fitness, and participation in physical activity. Finding a solution for the effective and objective evaluation of the condition of sports facilities in schools (SSFs) with the responding quantitative magnitude is an uncertain task. This paper describes the utilization of an unsupervised machine learning method to objectively evaluate the condition of sports facilities in primary school (PSSFC). The statistical data of 845 samples with nine PSSFC indicators (indoor and outdoor included) were collected from the Sixth National Sports Facility Census in mainland China (NSFC), an official nationwide quinquennial census. The Fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm was applied to cluster the samples in accordance with the similarity of PSSFC. The clustered data were visualized by using t-stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE). The statistics results showed that the application of t-SNE and FCM led to the acceptable performance of clustering SSFs data into three types with differences in PSSFC. The effects of school category, location factors, and the interaction on PSSFC were analyzed by two-way analysis of covariance, which indicated that regional PSSFC has geographical and typological characteristics: schools in the suburbs are superior to those in the inner city, schools with more grades of students are configured with better variety and larger size of sports facilities. In conclusion, we have developed a combinatorial machine learning clustering approach that is suitable for objective evaluation on PSSFC and indicates its characteristics.

PMID:35443011 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0267009

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0267001. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267001. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic increasingly threatens the public health security worldwide. We aimed to identify high-risk areas of COVID-19 and understand how socioeconomic factors are associated with the spatial distribution of COVID-19 in China, which may help other countries control the epidemic.

METHODS: We analyzed the data of COVID-19 cases from 30 provinces in mainland China (outside of Hubei) from 16 January 2020 to 31 March 2020, considering the data of demographic, economic, health, and transportation factors. Global autocorrelation analysis and Bayesian spatial models were used to present the spatial pattern of COVID-19 and explore the relationship between COVID-19 risk and various factors.

RESULTS: Global Moran’s I statistics of COVID-19 incidences was 0.31 (P<0.05). The areas with a high risk of COVID-19 were mainly located in the provinces around Hubei and the provinces with a high level of economic development. The relative risk of two socioeconomic factors, the per capita consumption expenditure of households and the proportion of the migrating population from Hubei, were 1.887 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.469~2.399] and 1.099 (95% CI: 1.053~1.148), respectively. The two factors explained up to 78.2% out of 99.7% of structured spatial variations.

CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that COVID-19 risk was positively associated with the level of economic development and population movements. Blocking population movement and reducing local exposures are effective in preventing the local transmission of COVID-19.

PMID:35443008 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0267001

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Apr 20;16(4):e0010381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010381. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Despite the ongoing intervention for schistosomiasis control among school-age children in the Lindi region of Tanzania, urogenital schistosomiasis continues to be a public health problem, presumably because other at-risk populations are not covered in praziquantel deworming campaigns. Evidence shows that under-fives become infected in their early life hence the need to understand the disease profile and the risk factors for exposure to infection so as to plan effective control strategies in this group. This study examined the prevalence and risk factors of urogenital schistosomiasis among under-fives in the Mtama district, Lindi region of Tanzania.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A quantitative community-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 770 participants (385 under-fives and their 385 parents/guardians) in the Mtama district to investigate the burden and the risk factors associated with S. haematobium infection. A single urine specimen was collected from the under-fives and tested for macro and microhaematuria, presence of S. haematobium ova, and intensity of infection. A structured questionnaire gathered on risk factors for S. haematobium exposure in under-fives from their parents/guardians. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and logistic regression. Prevalence of S. haematobium ova was 16.9%, and that of macro and microhaematuria was 6% and 17.9%, respectively. Of the 65 positive under-fives, 49 (75.4%) 95% CI 65.4-86.3 had a light infection intensity, and 16 (24.6%) 95% CI 13.7-35.5 had a heavy infection intensity. Among the assessed risk factors, the parents/guardians habit of visiting water bodies for domestic routines (AOR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.13-1.74), especially the river (AOR: 6.00, 95% CI: 1.20-35.12), was found to be a significant risk factor for infection of S. haematobium in under-fives.

CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: A moderate prevalence of S. haematobium was found among the under-fives conceivably with adverse health events. The infected under-fives could be a source of continuity for transmission in the community. An intervention that covers this group is necessary and should be complemented with regular screening, health education campaigns, and an adequate supply of safe water.

PMID:35442997 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010381

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0264092. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264092. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

By 13,000 BP human populations were present across North America, but the exact date of arrival to the continent, especially areas south of the continental ice sheets, remains unclear. Here we examine patterns in the stratigraphic integrity of early North American sites to gain insight into the timing of first colonization. We begin by modeling stratigraphic mixing of multicomponent archaeological sites to identify signatures of stratigraphic integrity in vertical artifact distributions. From those simulations, we develop a statistic we call the Apparent Stratigraphic Integrity Index (ASI), which we apply to pre- and post-13,000 BP archaeological sites north and south of the continental ice sheets. We find that multiple early Beringian sites dating between 13,000 and 14,200 BP show excellent stratigraphic integrity. Clear signs of discrete and minimally disturbed archaeological components do not appear south of the ice sheets until the Clovis period. These results provide support for a relatively late date of human arrival to the Americas.

PMID:35442993 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0264092

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0267159. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267159. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is continued to be a major public health problem in low-income countries and more importantly in Africa. For the last decade, access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and its impact in improving quality of life and reducing HIV-related morbidity and mortality has significantly been improved in Africa. Nevertheless, the emergency of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) has posed challenges in achieving optimal ART treatment outcomes and is alarmingly increasing globally in general and in Africa in particular. Comprehensive epidemiological data on the magnitude of HIVDR and HIVDR mutations, and predictors of HIVDR are, however, limited in Africa.

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this systematic review will be to estimate the pooled proportion of HIVDR and HIVDR mutations, and identify factors associated with HIVDR among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in Africa.

METHOD: Published Literature from 2000 until 30 October 2021 will be searched in PubMed/Medline Ovid, HINARI, SCOPUS, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Sciences, and Cochrane electronic databases. Initially, the literature will be screened based on title/abstract and followed by full-text appraisal for methodological quality using JBI critical appraisal tools. Data will be extracted from eligible articles after the full-text appraisal. Heterogeneity will be qualitatively assessed by a visual Funnel plot and quantitatively measured by an index of heterogeneity (I2 statistics). Random-effects model will be fitted to estimate the proportion of HIVDR and each HIVDR mutations. Sub-group and sensitivity analyses will be conducted to reduce heterogeneity. Meta-regression will be done by median year of sampling per study to observe the pattern of changes over time. Publication bias will be assessed by egger’s statistics. In case of publication bias, Trim and Fill analysis will be conducted to overcome small-study effect. Data analysis will be performed using Stata version 14.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As the data sources are published papers, the protocol will not require an ethical approval letter. The final report of the review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

PMID:35442975 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0267159

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0265594. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265594. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth remains the commonest cause of neonatal mortality, and morbidity representing one of the principal targets of neonatal health care. Ethiopia is one of the countries which shoulder the highest burden of preterm birth. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess factors associated with preterm birth at public hospitals in Sidama regional state.

METHODS: Facility-based case-control study was conducted at public hospitals in Sidama regional state, from 1st June to 1st September/2020. In this study, a total of 135 cases and 270 controls have participated. To recruit cases and controls consecutive sampling methods and simple random sampling techniques were used respectively. Data were collected using pretested structured interviewer-administered questionnaire, and checklist via chart review. Data were entered using EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Independent variables with P-value < 0.25 in the bivariate logistic regression were candidates for multivariable logistic regression analysis. Finally, statistical significance was declared at P-value < 0.05.

RESULTS: The response rate was 100%. Rural resident (AOR = 2.034; 95%CI: 1.242, 3.331), no antenatal care service utilization (AOR = 2.516; 95%CI: 1.406, 4.503), pregnancy-induced hypertension (AOR = 2.870; 95%CI: 1.519, 5.424), chronic medical problem during pregnancy (AOR = 2.507; 95%CI: 1.345, 4.676), urinary tract infections (AOR = 3.023; 95%CI: 1.657, 5.513), birth space less than 2 years (AOR = 3.029; 95%CI: 1.484, 6.179), and physical intimate violence (AOR = 2.876; 95%CI: 1.534, 5.393) were significantly associated with preterm birth.

CONCLUSION: Most of the risk factors of preterm birth were found to be modifiable. Community mobilization on physical violence during pregnancy and antenatal care follow-up are the ground for the prevention of preterm birth because attentive and critical antenatal care screening practice could early identify risk factors. Besides, information communication education about preterm birth prevention was recommended.

PMID:35442955 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265594

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 20;17(4):e0265509. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265509. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Opioid-related mortality continues to rise across North America, and mortality rates have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to provide an updated picture of trends of opioid-related mortality for Ontario, Canada between January 2003 and December 2020, in relation to age and sex.

METHODS: Using mortality data from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario, we applied Bayesian Poisson regression to model age/sex mortality per 100,000 person-years, including random walks to flexibly capture age and time effects. Models were also used to explore how trends might continue into 2022, considering both pre- and post-COVID-19 courses.

RESULTS: From 2003 to 2020, there were 11,633 opioid-related deaths in Ontario. A shift in the age distribution of mortality was observed, with the greatest mortality rates now among younger individuals. In 2003, mortality rates reached maximums at 5.5 deaths per 100,000 person-years (95% credible interval: 4.0-7.6) for males around age 44 and 2.2 deaths per 100,000 person-years (95% CI: 1.5-3.2) for females around age 51. As of 2020, rates have reached maximums at 67.2 deaths per 100,000 person-years (95% CI: 55.3-81.5) for males around age 35 and 16.8 deaths per 100,000 person-years (95% CI: 12.8-22.0) for females around age 37. Our models estimate that opioid-related mortality among the younger population will continue to grow, and that current conditions could lead to male mortality rates that are more than quadruple those of pre-pandemic estimations.

CONCLUSIONS: This analysis may inform a refocusing of public health strategy for reducing rising rates of opioid-related mortality, including effectively reaching both older and younger males, as well as young females, with health and social supports such as treatment and harm reduction measures.

PMID:35442953 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265509