Tag: pubmed

J Periodontol. 2026 Apr 19. doi: 10.1002/jper.70136. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate whether healthcare expenditures (HCEs) differed depending on whether the patients left periodontal disease (PD) untreated, despite the need for treatment.

METHODS: This study used public PD screening data from a municipality in Japan to identify adults aged ≥ 40 years who were found to require treatment of PD by dentists at PD screening. The presence or absence of periodontal treatment was determined by a dental visit within 180 days after the date of PD screening based on medical claims data. Annual HCE were calculated from cumulative expenditures over 2 years from the date of the presence or absence of periodontal treatment. A generalized linear model with a gamma distribution and log link function was used to calculate the relative cost ratios (RCRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), and a two-part model was used to predict annual HCEs and the difference in predicted HCEs based on dental treatment.

RESULTS: Among 652 people (mean age: 62.6 years [1 SD = 9.0], 65.5% women), 9.0% were untreated. After adjusting for the covariates, the RCR for medical, pharmaceutical, and dental costs in the untreated group compared with the treated group were 1.56 (95% CI: 1.02-2.38), 0.95 (95% CI: 0.53-1.70), and 0.14 (95% CI: 0.10-0.19), respectively. The differences in predicted HCEs were $593.5 (95% CI: -280.6, 1467.6) higher for medical, $79.9 (95% CI: -363.6, 523.4) higher for pharmaceutical, and $323.9 (95% CI: -397.3, -250.6) lower for dental.

CONCLUSION: Leaving PD untreated was associated with increased HCEs, particularly medical expenditures.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: This study looked at whether people who were told by a dentist that they needed care for periodontal disease actually received treatment, and how this affected their healthcare costs. The research followed more than 600 adults in Japan for 2 years, comparing the cumulative healthcare costs of those who received dental care with those who did not. The results showed that people who did not treat their periodontal disease ended up spending more on medical care, even though they spent less on dental care. On average, untreated individuals had medical expenses that were around $600 higher than those who received treatment. This suggests that avoiding dental care for periodontal disease might lead to more serious health problems down the line, which can increase overall healthcare costs. Although skipping dental visits may seem like a way to save money, it could actually lead to higher medical bills in the future. These findings highlight the importance of early dental treatment not just for oral health, but also for managing overall healthcare costs and preventing other health complications.

PMID:42001258 | DOI:10.1002/jper.70136

J Health Psychol. 2026 May;31(6):2183-2202. doi: 10.1177/13591053251371792. Epub 2025 Oct 14.

ABSTRACT

The Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) measures attentiveness to normal body processes and is widely used with both healthy and patient samples. Meta-analysis of 10 articles involving 15 studies (4078 participants) examined BAQ reliability. Random-effects models pooled Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest coefficients. Heterogeneity was assessed via I² statistic; publication bias via funnel plots, Egger’s and Begg’s tests, and trim-and-fill method. Pooled Cronbach’s alpha was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.81-0.87), indicating high internal consistency despite substantial heterogeneity (I² = 92.20%). Pooled test-retest reliability was strong at 0.84 (95% CI: 0.78-0.89), though with significant heterogeneity (I² = 95.42%). Egger’s test suggested potential publication bias. Despite heterogeneity and potential bias issues, findings support BAQ’s cross-population applicability.

PMID:42001257 | DOI:10.1177/13591053251371792

J Periodontol. 2026 Apr 18. doi: 10.1002/jper.70121. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Periodontal disease (PD) is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), while periodontal treatment (PT) improves glycemic control in T2DM patients. Leptin and adiponectin belong to the adipokines family and have almost antagonistic functions in inflammatory processes and insulin sensitivity modulation. Hence, these hormones have been linked with both PD severity and glycemic control. This systematic review aims to assess the effect of PT on serum levels of leptin and adiponectin in patients with T2DM.

METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases and ClinicalTrials.gov website were searched up to January 5th, 2025. Randomized and non-randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs and CCTs) including patients with T2DM and PD who underwent PT and evaluated serum levels of leptin and adiponectin were included. Assessments of risk of bias and of certainty of evidence were performed.

RESULTS: Seven trials were eligible for qualitative synthesis. A statistically significant increase in serum adiponectin levels was observed across most studies, while no such consistency was observed for leptin. The overall level of certainty of evidence was judged low in the RCTs and very low in the CCTs. Meta-analysis could not be performed due to significant methodological heterogeneity.

CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings suggest a potential increase in adiponectin levels in T2DM patients, with possible implications for glycemic control. However, these results should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of studies and important methodological limitations. Well-designed studies with larger sample sizes and adequate adjustment for confounders are necessary to verify this observation.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: People with type 2 diabetes often also have periodontitis, an inflammatory gum disease, which may affect their overall health. The aim of this study was to investigate whether treating periodontitis could help improve certain substances in the blood-called adiponectin and leptin-that are linked to blood sugar control and inflammation. Several studies that tested this in people with both diabetes and periodontitis were included and most of them showed that, after periodontal treatment, levels of adiponectin (which helps reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity) increased. However, results for leptin were less clear. This suggests that taking care of gum health might support better diabetes management. The overall strength of evidence was low due to methodological limitations and heterogeneity among studies. Current findings should be interpreted cautiously, as available data remain preliminary. Still, more high-quality research is needed to fully understand how treating periodontitis may benefit people with diabetes.

PMID:42001255 | DOI:10.1002/jper.70121

JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2026 Apr 18. doi: 10.1002/jpen.70091. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:42001253 | DOI:10.1002/jpen.70091

Nurs Open. 2026 Apr;13(4):e70554. doi: 10.1002/nop2.70554.

ABSTRACT

AIM: This study aimed to examine the relationship between nurses’ levels of spiritual well-being and their status of observing patient privacy.

DESIGN: A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted.

METHODS AND DATA SOURCE: The sample comprised 199 nurses working in a university hospital. The study data were collected between 1 January and 28 February 2022, using a Descriptive Characteristics Form, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Patient Privacy Scale in Nursing. Ethics committee approval was obtained from a state university’s Scientific Research Ethics Committee.

RESULTS: It was determined that the nurses’ spiritual well-being levels were above the medium level, and the patient’s privacy was high. A statistically significant positive relationship exists between the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and Patient Privacy Scale in Nursing scores. The regression model for the total scale showed an R² of 29.3%. A point increase in the Spiritual Well-Being Scale score causes an increase of 0.424 units in the Patient Privacy Scale in Nursing score.

CONCLUSION: It has been determined that as nurses’ spiritual well-being increases, they pay more attention to patient privacy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE NURSING PROFESSION AND PATIENT CARE: This study contributes to the nurses’ understanding of the importance of spiritual values in patient privacy and to pay attention to this issue in patient care.

IMPACT: In this study addressing patient privacy, it was found that nurses’ spiritual well-being is related to patient privacy. The conclusions impact future patients, nurses and managers.

REPORTING METHOD: The study was compliant with the STROBE checklist.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

PMID:42001227 | DOI:10.1002/nop2.70554

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2026 Apr 17:keag208. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keag208. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:42001219 | DOI:10.1093/rheumatology/keag208

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2026 Apr 17:djag073. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djag073. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of cancer-associated genetic variants, the specific biological contexts where these variants exert their effects remain largely unknown. We aimed to prioritize context-specific genetic risk mechanisms for 11 solid cancers at both genome-wide and single-variant resolutions.

METHODS: We integrated cancer GWAS summary statistics from European ancestry samples (avg. n cases = 47,856) with 1,473 context-specific annotations representing candidate cis-regulatory elements. For genome-wide analysis, we applied CT-FM, a method that jointly models heritability enrichments across annotations to select likely disease-relevant biological contexts. Following functionally informed fine-mapping to identify high-confidence (PIP ≥ 0.5) causal SNPs, we used CT-FM-SNP to identify relevant contexts for individual variants. A combined SNP-to-gene framework was applied to construct putative {regulatory SNP-context-gene-cancer} quadruplets.

RESULTS: Stratified LD score regression analysis identified 141 annotations showing significant heritability enrichment (FDR q ≤ 0.05). CT-FM prioritized four high-confidence (PIP ≥ 0.5) biological contexts mammary luminal epithelial cells for overall and estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, a prostate cancer epithelial cell line (VCaP) for prostate cancer, and bulk tumor tissue contexts for colorectal and renal cancers. Variant-level analysis of hundreds of putatively causal SNPs aligned with these findings and identified additional high-confidence contexts for ER-negative breast, endometrial, lung, and bladder cancers. A total of 489 putative regulatory quadruplets were constructed, proposing specific molecular hypotheses underlying the observed GWAS signals.

CONCLUSION: These findings advance our understanding of genetic susceptibility to different cancers. Future work in larger, more diverse GWAS, coupled with more comprehensive annotation atlases, is essential to expand upon and validate our results.

PMID:42001218 | DOI:10.1093/jnci/djag073

Mem Cognit. 2026 Apr 18. doi: 10.3758/s13421-026-01882-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the effects of emotional valence-specifically, negative, positive, and neutral affective content-on visual working memory performance under conditions of sustained cognitive demand. Participants (N = 127), all university students from Saudi Arabia, completed a culturally adapted version of the 3-back task in which images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) were categorized by emotional valence and presented in homogeneous blocks. The primary aim was to examine whether emotional content modulates core aspects of working memory, including accuracy, reaction time, perceptual sensitivity (d’), and decision bias (criterion c), particularly when continuous updating is required. Results indicated a significant advantage for negative stimuli in terms of accuracy, with participants demonstrating higher performance in this condition relative to both neutral and positive blocks. Conversely, reaction times were fastest in the positive condition, though no evidence of a speed-accuracy trade-off was observed. Sensitivity, as indexed by d’, remained statistically equivalent across conditions; however, criterion c analyses revealed a more conservative response tendency in the positive condition. Age was negatively correlated with accuracy in the negative condition, suggesting early-emerging shifts in emotion-cognition dynamics. These findings are discussed in relation to cultural context and signal detection theory, with implications for models of affective modulation in visual working memory.

PMID:42000974 | DOI:10.3758/s13421-026-01882-6

Eur Radiol. 2026 Apr 18. doi: 10.1007/s00330-026-12495-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: In the study, we utilized soma and neurite density imaging (SANDI) to investigate stroke-free patients with unilateral middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion, with the goal of analyzing gray matter damage in both affected and contralateral hemispheres.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study involved 59 patients with unilateral MCA occlusion and 35 control subjects. All participants underwent three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging and SANDI examination. Model fitting of SANDI data generated maps of the following parameters: soma signal fraction (f_Soma), neurite signal fraction (f_Neurite), extracellular space signal fraction (f_Extra), and apparent soma size (R_Soma). A comprehensive voxel-based analysis was conducted, employing a voxel-wise general linear model, to compare whole-brain R_Soma, f_Soma, f_Extra and f_Neurite between patients with unilateral MCA occlusion and the controls.

RESULTS: Patients with unilateral MCA occlusion demonstrate significantly reduced f_Soma and f_Neurite, and increased f_Extra in some regions of bilateral hemispheres compared to the controls. Right-sided MCA occlusion was associated with widespread bilateral microstructural damage involving the frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and limbic cortices, subcortical regions, as well as the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus. In contrast, left-sided MCA occlusion was characterized by left hemisphere-predominant damage, with more focal involvement of frontal, parietal, and contralateral occipital regions.

CONCLUSION: In unilateral MCA occlusion patients with identified abnormalities, the affected brain regions encompass the sensorimotor integration system, language system, limbic-emotional and memory system, subcortical gray matter, and visual processing system. Importantly, the right-sided MCA occlusion patients often have damage to the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, leading to cognitive deficits.

KEY POINTS: Question For asymptomatic stroke-free patients with chronic unilateral MCA occlusion, is microstructural neuronal damage present and detectable by soma and neurite density imaging? Findings Soma and neurite density imaging detect reduced f_Soma/f_Neurite and elevated f_Extra in MCA occlusion regions, with worse damage in right-sided cases. Clinical relevance This study enables early detection of invisible neuronal damage, alerts to cognitive risks (especially in right MCA occlusion), and provides a basis for targeted clinical interventions.

PMID:42000948 | DOI:10.1007/s00330-026-12495-7

Environ Monit Assess. 2026 Apr 18;198(5):476. doi: 10.1007/s10661-026-15283-4.

ABSTRACT

This study presents a spatially explicit, seasonally resolved analysis of the intra-urban thermal heterogeneity in Chennai, a rapidly urbanizing tropical megacity along India’s southeast coast. Leveraging mobile environmental surveys across 81 georeferenced sites spanning six land-use zones, data on temperature, humidity, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, CO₂, and formaldehyde were collected during nighttime in summer and winter seasons. Thermal comfort was assessed using the thermal humidity index (THI), while spatial variability was visualized using GIS-based heat maps and inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation. Results revealed a pronounced summer intra-urban thermal contrast, with air temperatures in urban cores exceeding 32.5 °C compared to 31 °C or lower in vegetated suburban zones. In winter, central hotspots remained elevated at ~ 28.9 °C relative to peripheral regions (~ 25-26 °C). PM_2.5 concentrations were significantly higher in summer (p = 0.00082), reflecting enhanced photochemical activity and dust resuspension under drier conditions. CO₂ showed a moderate positive correlation with temperature (R² = 0.096, p = 0.0052), suggesting a potential climate-pollution feedback linked to anthropogenic heat emissions and increased energy demand. Analysis of thermal comfort revealed that 63% of surveyed sites were in the “torrid” discomfort category during summer, while the remaining 37% were “very hot.” Even in winter, 98% of sites were classified as “hot,” indicating persistent nocturnal thermal stress across the city. PCA indicated that temperature and pollution gradients jointly shaped the spatial clustering of intra-urban thermal hotspots, particularly in industrial and commercial zones. The study emphasizes the compounded impact of heat and pollution in shaping Chennai’s urban microclimates and highlights the need for climate-sensitive planning, urban greening, and adaptive infrastructure for tropical coastal Indian cities.

PMID:42000947 | DOI:10.1007/s10661-026-15283-4