Tag: pubmed

J Integr Complement Med. 2023 Sep 6. doi: 10.1089/jicm.2023.0043. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Approximately 30% of children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the most prevalent mental health disorder in children worldwide, do not respond to conventional pharmaceutical treatments. Previous studies of homeopathic treatment for ADHD have been inconclusive. The objectives of this study were to determine if there (a) is an overall effect of homeopathic treatment (homeopathic medicines plus consultation) in the treatment of ADHD; (b) are any specific effects the homeopathic consultation alone in the treatment of ADHD; and (c) are any specific effects of homeopathic medicines in the treatment of ADHD. Design: The design was a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Setting/Location: Toronto, Canada. Subjects: Children aged 6-16 years diagnosed with ADHD. Interventions: Participants were randomized to one of three arms: Arm 1 (Remedy and Consultation); Arm 2 (Placebo and Consultation); or Arm 3 (Usual Care). Outcome Measures: Primary Outcome was the change of CGI-P T score between baseline and 28 weeks. Results: There was an improvement in ADHD symptoms as measured by the Conner 3 Global Index-Parent T-score in the two groups (Arms 1 and 2) that received consultations with a homeopathic practitioner when compared with the usual care control group (Arm 3). Parents of the children in the study who received homeopathic consultations (Arms 1 and 2) also reported greater coping efficacy compared with those receiving usual care (Arm 3). There was no difference in adverse events among the three study arms. Conclusions: In this study, homeopathic consultations provided over 8 months with the use of homeopathic remedy was associated with a decrease in ADHD symptoms in children aging 6-16 years when compared with usual treatment alone. Children treated with homeopathic consultations and placebo experienced a similar decrease in ADHD symptoms; however, this finding did not reach statistical significance when correcting for multiple comparisons. Homeopathic remedies in and of themselves were not associated with any change in ADHD symptoms. Clinical Trial Registration: This trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT02086864.

PMID:37672605 | DOI:10.1089/jicm.2023.0043

Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2023 Sep 6:zwad270. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwad270. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the association between habitual changes in heavy habitual drinkers and incident AF remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether absolute abstinence or reduced drinking decreases incident AF in heavy habitual drinkers.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Atrial fibrillation-free participants with heavy alcohol consumption registered in the Korean National Health Insurance Service database between 2005 and 2008 were enrolled. Habitual changes in alcohol consumption between 2009 and 2012 were classified as sustained heavy drinking, reduced drinking, and absolute abstinence. The primary outcome measure was new-onset AF during the follow-up. To minimize the effect of confounding variables on outcome events, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis was performed. Overall, 19 425 participants were evaluated. The absolute abstinence group showed a 63% lower incidence of AF (IPTW hazard ratio: 0.379, 95% confidence interval: 0.169-0.853) than did the sustained heavy drinking group. Subgroup analysis identified that abstinence significantly reduced incident AF in participants with normal body mass index and without hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney disease, or coronary artery disease (all P-value <0.05). There was no statistical difference in incident AF in participants with reduced drinking compared with sustained heavy alcohol group.

CONCLUSION: Absolute abstinence could reduce the incidence of AF in heavy alcohol drinkers. Comprehensive clinical measures and public health policies are warranted to motivate alcohol abstinence in heavy drinkers.

PMID:37672594 | DOI:10.1093/eurjpc/zwad270

Sci Adv. 2023 Sep 8;9(36):eadg1261. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg1261. Epub 2023 Sep 6.

ABSTRACT

Complex disordered matter is of central importance to a wide range of disciplines, from bacterial colonies and embryonic tissues in biology to foams and granular media in materials science to stellar configurations in astrophysics. Because of the vast differences in composition and scale, comparing structural features across such disparate systems remains challenging. Here, by using the statistical properties of Delaunay tessellations, we introduce a mathematical framework for measuring topological distances between general three-dimensional point clouds. The resulting system-agnostic metric reveals subtle structural differences between bacterial biofilms as well as between zebrafish brain regions, and it recovers temporal ordering of embryonic development. We apply the metric to construct a universal topological atlas encompassing bacterial biofilms, snowflake yeast, plant shoots, zebrafish brain matter, organoids, and embryonic tissues as well as foams, colloidal packings, glassy materials, and stellar configurations. Living systems localize within a bounded island-like region of the atlas, reflecting that biological growth mechanisms result in characteristic topological properties.

PMID:37672580 | DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adg1261

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2023 Sep 6;17(9):e0011580. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011580. eCollection 2023 Sep.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease of significant public health importance. Domestic dogs are the main reservoir and transmitter of this disease, particularly in developing countries. Community awareness about rabies is one of the key components of prevention. This study describes the knowledge, attitudes, and practices about rabies disease among dog owners at Kahama town council, Shinyanga Region, Tanzania.

METHODOLOGY: This was a cross sectional community-based study which was done in May 2021. Structured questionnaires were administered to collect the data among 422 dog owners. The information collected included demographic characteristics of the dog owners, as well as their knowledge, attitude and practice towards rabies. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 20.

RESULTS: Out of 422 respondents, 421 (99.76%) knew that rabies can be transmitted by dogs, 384 (91%) knew that rabies can be prevented by vaccination of dogs, 269 (63.74%) knew the symptoms and signs, and 379 (89.81%) believed that it was necessary to vaccinate all owned dogs, but 227 (53.79%) had not vaccinated their dogs. Education level (p = 0.006) and occupation (p = 0.002) were significantly associated with a positive attitude, whereby those with a higher level of education and farmers were more likely to have a positive attitude. Also there was statistically significant association between gender (p = 0.038), marital status (p < 0.001) occupation (p < 0.001), education level (p = 0.006) and the practices of the respondents in the community whereby majority of male, unmarried dog owner who are farmer with primary education level had lower practice score.

CONCLUSION: This study concludes that respondents had good knowledge, a relatively good attitude, and poor practice towards rabies prevention and control. Rabies awareness with an emphasis on the importance of vaccination as well as vaccination campaigns should, therefore, be intensified, especially among the least educated dog owners.

PMID:37672544 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0011580

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2023 Sep 6;17(9):e0011624. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011624. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

There has been a recent upsurge in human cases of leptospirosis in New Zealand, with wildlife a suspected emerging source, but up-to-date knowledge on this topic is lacking. We conducted a cross-sectional study in two farm environments to estimate Leptospira seroprevalence in wildlife and sympatric livestock, PCR/culture prevalence in wildlife, and compare seroprevalence and prevalence between species, sex, and age groups. Traps targeting house mice (Mus musculus), black rats (Rattus rattus), hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) and brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) were set for 10 trap-nights in March-April 2017 on a dairy (A) and a beef and sheep (B) farm. Trapped wild animals and an age-stratified random sample of domestic animals, namely cattle, sheep and working dogs were blood sampled. Sera were tested by microagglutination test for five serogroups and titres compared using a Proportional Similarity Index (PSI). Wildlife kidneys were sampled for culture and qPCR targeting the lipL32 gene. True prevalence in mice was assessed using occupancy modelling by collating different laboratory results. Infection profiles varied by species, age group and farm. At the MAT cut-point of ≥ 48, up to 78% of wildlife species, and 16-99% of domestic animals were seropositive. Five of nine hedgehogs, 23/105 mice and 1/14 black rat reacted to L. borgpetersenii sv Ballum. The sera of 4/18 possums and 4/9 hedgehogs reacted to L. borgpetersenii sv Hardjobovis whilst 1/18 possum and 1/9 hedgehog reacted to Tarassovi. In ruminants, seroprevalence for Hardjobovis and Pomona ranged 0-90% and 0-71% depending on the species and age group. Titres against Ballum, Tarassovi and Copenhageni were also observed in 4-20%, 0-25% and 0-21% of domestic species, respectively. The PSI indicated rodents and livestock had the most dissimilar serological responses. Three of nine hedgehogs, 31/105 mice and 2/14 rats were carrying leptospires (PCR and/or culture positive). True prevalence estimated by occupancy modelling in mice was 38% [95% Credible Interval 26, 51%] on Farm A and 22% [11, 40%] on Farm B. In the same environment, exposure to serovars found in wildlife species was commonly detected in livestock. Transmission pathways between and within species should be assessed to help in the development of efficient mitigation strategies against Leptospira.

PMID:37672535 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0011624

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2023 Sep 6;3(9):e0002117. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002117. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Anaemia is a significant public health issue, particularly affecting women in India. However, little is known about the burden of anaemia among adolescent women in India over time. This study aimed to analyse the change in the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent women in India from 2015 to 2021 and identify the factors associated with anaemia in this population. This study used information on 116,117 and 109,400 adolescent women (aged 15-19) from the fourth and fifth round of National Family Health Survey, respectively. Bivariate statistics and multivariable logistic regression were employed to identify the statistically significant predictors of anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia among adolescent women in India increased from 54.2% (99% CI: 53.6-54.8) to 58.9% (99% CI: 58.3-59.5) over the study period (2015-16 to 2019-21). Among the 28 Indian states, 21 reported an increase in the prevalence of anaemia. However, the levels of increase varied across the states. While Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Tripura showed a substantial rise of 15 percentage points, the states of Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh recorded a marginal increase of less than 5 percentage points. Notably, Uttarakhand and Kerala exhibited a decline in anaemia prevalence during the study period. Additionally, the number of states with anaemia prevalence exceeding 60%, doubled from 5 in 2015-16 to 11 in 2019-21. Several factors were found associated with anaemia, including having more than one child (AOR: 1.33, 99% CI: 1.16-1.51), having no education (AOR: 1.25, 99% CI: 1.16-1.34), belonging to Scheduled Tribes (AOR: 1.47, 99% CI: 1.40-1.53), being in the lowest wealth quintile (AOR: 1.17, 99% CI: 1.12-1.23), year of survey (AOR: 1.26, 99% CI: 1.23-1.29), and being underweight (AOR: 1.10, 99% CI: 1.07-1.12). In conclusion, the rise in anaemia prevalence among adolescent women in India suggests the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the burden of anaemia and enhance the overall health of this population.

PMID:37672528 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pgph.0002117

PLoS One. 2023 Sep 6;18(9):e0290695. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290695. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Complex systems with strong correlations and fat-tailed distribution functions have been argued to be incompatible with the Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy framework and alternatives, so-called generalised entropies, were proposed and studied. Here we show, that this perceived incompatibility is actually a misconception. For a broad class of processes, Boltzmann entropy -the log multiplicity- remains the valid entropy concept. However, for non-i.i.d. processes, Boltzmann entropy is not of Shannon form, -k∑ipi log pi, but takes the shape of generalised entropies. We derive this result for all processes that can be asymptotically mapped to adjoint representations reversibly where processes are i.i.d. In these representations the information production is given by the Shannon entropy. Over the original sampling space this yields functionals identical to generalised entropies. The problem of constructing adequate context-sensitive entropy functionals therefore can be translated into the much simpler problem of finding adjoint representations. The method provides a comprehensive framework for a statistical physics of strongly correlated systems and complex processes.

PMID:37672525 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0290695

PLoS One. 2023 Sep 6;18(9):e0290549. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290549. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Patients with chronic health conditions not responding to conventional treatment can access medicinal cannabis (MC) prescriptions from clinicians in Australia. We aimed to assess overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), pain, fatigue, sleep, anxiety, and depression in a large real-world sample of patients accessing prescribed medicinal cannabis. We hypothesized that all patient-reported outcomes (PROs) would improve from baseline to 3-months.

METHODS: The QUEST Initiative is a large prospective multicenter study of patients with any chronic health condition newly prescribed medicinal cannabis between November 2020 and December 2021. Eligible patients were identified by 120 clinicians at medical centers across six Australian states. Consenting participants completed the EuroQol Group EQ-5D-5L health status questionnaire; European Organization for Research & Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaire (QLQ-C30); Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Short Forms in Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) before starting therapy, at 2-weeks titration, then monthly for 3-months.

RESULTS: Of the 2762 consenting participants, 2327 completed baseline and at least one follow-up questionnaire. Ages ranged between 18-97 years (mean 51y; SD = 15.4), 62.8% were female. The most commonly treated conditions were chronic pain (n = 1598/2327; 68.7%), insomnia (n = 534/2327; 22.9%), generalized anxiety (n = 508/2327; 21.5%), and mixed anxiety and depression (n = 259/2327; 11%). Across the whole cohort both EQ-5D-5L utility scores and QLQ-C30 summary scores showed clinically meaningful improvement in HRQL from baseline to mean follow-up with d = 0.54 (95%CI:0.47 to 0.59) and d = 0.64 (95%CI:0.58 to 0.70) respectively; and clinically meaningful improvement in fatigue (d = 0.54; 95%CI:0.48 to 0.59). There was clinically meaningful reduction of pain for those with chronic pain (d = 0.65; 95%CI:0.57 to 0.72); significant improvements for those with moderate to extremely severe anxiety (X2 = 383; df = 4; p<0.001) and depression (X2 = 395; df = 4; p<0.001); and no changes in sleep disturbance.

CONCLUSIONS: We observed statistically significant, clinically meaningful improvements in overall HRQL and fatigue over the first 3-months in patients with chronic health conditions accessing prescribed medical cannabis. Anxiety, depression, and pain also improved over time, particularly for those with corresponding health conditions. The study continues to follow-up patients until 12-months to determine whether improvements in PROs are maintained long-term.

TRAIL REGISTRATION: Study registration – Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12621000063819. https://www.australianclinicaltrials.gov.au/anzctr/trial/ACTRN12621000063819.

PMID:37672515 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0290549

PLoS One. 2023 Sep 6;18(9):e0290888. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290888. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic value of preoperative neoadjuvant therapy (NT) compared to upfront surgery (US) in patients with resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer.

METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science were searched to collect randomized controlled trials on preoperative neoadjuvant therapy versus upfront surgery for resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer before April 7, 2023, and data were extracted after screening according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, and HRs were obtained indirectly using enguage software; Stata 12.0 software was used for data analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 8 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this study, comprising a total of 1058 cases, including 503 cases in the NT group and 555 cases in the US group. Using an intention-to-treat population (ITT) analysis, the results showed that neoadjuvant treatment improved the R0 resection rate (RR 2.71, 95% CI 1.59-4.62; P = 0.000; I2 = 46.20%) and overall survival (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.54-0.82; P = 0.000; I2 = 0.00%). In the subgroup of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer, the R0 resection rate in the NT group versus the US group (RR 1.14, 95% CI 0.93-1.39; P = 0.196; I2 = 0.00%) and overall survival (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.64-1.24; P = 0.489; I2 = 0.00%) were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative neoadjuvant treatment is of prognostic value in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer, as it increases the R0 resection rate and improves overall survival compared to upfront surgery.

PMID:37672511 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0290888

J Nurs Educ. 2023 Sep;62(9):532-533. doi: 10.3928/01484834-20230810-01. Epub 2023 Sep 1.

ABSTRACT

A cursory review of relevant research works published in the Journal of Nursing Education suggests that our community may unnecessarily rely on η² when reporting results of their ANOVA models. Although η² is convenient, the statistic possesses many limitations that warrant our community adopting a wider set of effect size statistics and practices to promote a valid science of nursing education. We specifically call attention in this article to ω². [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(9):532-533.].

PMID:37672494 | DOI:10.3928/01484834-20230810-01