Tag: pubmed

J Occup Health. 2021 Jan;63(1):e12233. doi: 10.1002/1348-9585.12233.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study compared differences in age-standardized suicide mortality rates, personal characteristics (demographics, employment conditions, and details of suicide), and work-related stress by gender and occupation among workers who had committed suicide in Korea.

METHODS: Data comprised 413 suicide death claims lodged with the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) from 2010 to 2018, which were coded. We calculated age-standardized suicide mortality rates by gender and occupation. The chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and t-test were conducted to examine gender differences. Frequency and percentage distribution by gender and occupation were calculated using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Regardless of gender, age-standardized suicide mortality rate was highest among “Managers.” Women who died by suicide were significantly younger and more likely to be unmarried, live alone, and have fewer years of continuous employment than men. “Managers,” “Professionals and Related Workers,” and “Clerks” experienced similar work-related stresses, including “Difficult work to achieve,” “Fail to achieve allocation workload,” and “Change of job contents or workload.” “Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers,” “Craft and Related Trades Workers,” and “Equipment, Machine Operating and Assembling Workers” had higher work-related stress related to “Severe disease/injury” or “Causing a serious accident” compared with other workers.

CONCLUSIONS: Work-related stress related to suicide deaths differed by gender and occupation. The gender gap of labor market participation in Korea may affect gender differences in terms of demographics and employment conditions among workers who died by suicide. Our study suggests that gender- and occupation-specific strategies and policies to reduce work-related stress can prevent suicide among workers.

PMID:33991042 | DOI:10.1002/1348-9585.12233

Int J Lab Hematol. 2021 May 15. doi: 10.1111/ijlh.13576. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Haematology laboratories are increasingly faced with requests for add-on coagulation testing. This study explores extending the specimen storage proposals by examining coagulation parameters on refrigerated citrated plasma retained on a cellular fraction over a 24-hour period.

METHODS: Sodium citrate (Sarstedt^® S-Monovette 3.2%) specimens from 206 patients in University Hospital Limerick, Ireland were refrigerated immediately post-analysis and re-analysed in the centrifuged primary container at 4, 8 and 24-hour intervals using the Diagnostica Stago coagulometer and reagent combination. Coagulation assays examined for statistically and clinically significant differences included PT, APTT, D-Dimer, fibrinogen and Protein C.

RESULTS: PT, APTT and Protein C values displayed statistical significance from 4 hours. Fibrinogen differences were statistically significant from 8 hours. D-Dimer differences were not statistically significant at any interval over the 24-hour period. The refrigerated storage limit for PT and APTT results was determined to be 4 hours. D-Dimer was the only test parameter to report a mean percentage variance >10%. However, result changes at the threshold region of 0.5 µg/mL FEU were found to be within assay precision limits and desirable bias up to 8 hours. Maximum mean differences for Protein C (-1.3%) and fibrinogen (2.3%) were within assay precision limits and desirable biases up to 24 hours.

CONCLUSION: PT and APTT results are stable in refrigerated citrated plasma maintained on a cellular fraction up to 4 hours post-phlebotomy. D-Dimers results are reliable up to 8 hours, while fibrinogen and Protein C results are stable for at least 24 hours.

PMID:33991057 | DOI:10.1111/ijlh.13576

Diagn Cytopathol. 2021 May 14. doi: 10.1002/dc.24774. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Liquid-based cytology (LBC) tests SurePath (SP) and ThinPrep (TP) have largely replaced conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) tests for cervical cytology screening due to higher sensitivity. However, comparison between SP and TP test sensitivity and efficacy in detecting squamous abnormalities is lacking. Our study aims to compare high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) reporting rates, human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity rates, and histologic outcome between these two LBC methods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective search of the period between January 2014 and June 2017, when both TP and SP were utilized at our institution, to identify HSIL cases and collect the HPV testing and histologic follow-up results for those cases.

RESULTS: One hundred twenty-five HSILs were identified from the 15 382 TP specimens (0.81%) and 93 HSILs were identified from the 25 105 SP specimens (0.37%), a statistically significant difference (P < .0001). The corresponding HPV positivity rates were 95.6% and 89.7% in TP-HSILs and SP-HSILs, respectively, a statistically non-significant difference. Histologic follow-up showed HSILs or carcinomas were identified in 78% (49/63) of TP-HSILs and 79% (45/57) of SP-HSILs, with no statistically significant difference.

CONCLUSION: TP demonstrated a higher HSIL detection rate than SP with no significant difference in follow-up HPV or histologic results.

PMID:33991062 | DOI:10.1002/dc.24774

J Med Virol. 2021 May 15. doi: 10.1002/jmv.27076. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become a global health issue which develops a broad range of illness from asymptomatic to fatal respiratory diseases. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with oxidative stress that triggers cytokine production, inflammation, and other pathophysiological processes. Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) is an important enzyme that catalyses the conjugation of glutathione (GSH) with electrophiles to protect the cell from oxidative damage and participates in the antioxidant defense mechanism in the lungs. Thus, in this study, we investigated the role of GSTM1 and GSTT1 gene polymorphism with COVID-19 susceptibility, as well as its outcome. The study included 269 RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients with mild (n=149) and severe (n=120) conditions. All subjects were genotyped for GSTM1 and GSTT1 by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) followed by statistical analysis. The frequency of GSTM1^-/- , GSTT1^-/- and GSTM1^-/- /GSTT1^-/- was higher in severe COVID-19 patients as compared to mild patients but did not observe significant association. In cox hazard model, death was significantly 2.28-fold higher in patients with GSTT1^-/- genotype (P = 0.047). In combination, patients having GSTM1^+/+ and GSTT1^-/- genotypes showed poor survival rate (P = 0.02). Our results suggested that COVID-19 patients with GSTT1^-/- genotype showed higher mortality. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:33990973 | DOI:10.1002/jmv.27076

J Comput Chem. 2021 May 14. doi: 10.1002/jcc.26556. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We explore how ideas and practices common in Bayesian modeling can be applied to help assess the quality of 3D protein structural models. The basic premise of our approach is that the evaluation of a Bayesian statistical model’s fit may reveal aspects of the quality of a structure when the fitted data is related to protein structural properties. Therefore, we fit a Bayesian hierarchical linear regression model to experimental and theoretical ¹³ C^α chemical shifts. Then, we propose two complementary approaches for the evaluation of such fitting: (a) in terms of the expected differences between experimental and posterior predicted values; (b) in terms of the leave-one-out cross-validation point-wise predictive accuracy. Finally, we present visualizations that can help interpret these evaluations. The analyses presented in this article are aimed to aid in detecting problematic residues in protein structures. The code developed for this work is available on: https://github.com/BIOS-IMASL/Hierarchical-Bayes-NMR-Validation.

PMID:33990982 | DOI:10.1002/jcc.26556

Stat Med. 2021 May 14. doi: 10.1002/sim.8999. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

It is difficult to estimate sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests when there is no gold standard. Latent class models have been proposed as a potential solution as they provide estimates without the need for a gold standard. Using a motivating example of the evaluation of point of care tests for leptospirosis in Tanzania, we show how a realistic violation of assumptions underpinning the latent class model can lead directly to substantial bias in the estimates of the parameters of interest. In particular, we consider the robustness of estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and prevalence, to the presence of additional latent states when fitting a two-state latent class model. The violation is minor in the sense that it cannot be routinely detected with goodness-of-fit procedures, but is major with regard to the resulting bias.

PMID:33990992 | DOI:10.1002/sim.8999

Transfusion. 2021 May 14. doi: 10.1111/trf.16451. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted healthcare services worldwide. However, little has been reported regarding the impact on blood utilization. We quantified the impact of COVID-19 on blood utilization and discards among facilities reporting to the National Healthcare Safety Network Hemovigilance Module.

METHODS: Facilities continuously reporting data, during January 2016-June 2020, on transfused and discarded blood components, stratified by component type (red blood cells [RBC], platelets and plasma), were included. Interrupted time-series analysis with generalized estimating equations, adjusting for facility surgical volume and seasonality, was used to quantify changes in blood utilization and discards relative to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notification delaying non-essential medical procedures (March 2020).

RESULTS: Seventy-two facilities included in the analyses, on average, transfused 44,548 and discarded 2202 blood components monthly. Following the March 2020 notification and after multivariable adjustment, RBC and platelet utilization declined, -14.8% (p < 0.001) and – 16.6% (p = 0.017) respectively. Discards increased for RBCs (49.0%, p = 0.013) and platelets (60.4%, p = 0.002). No statistically significant change in plasma was found. Following these abrupt changes, blood utilization and discards rebounded towards baseline with RBC use increasing by 5.7% (p < 0.001), and platelet and RBC discards decreasing -16.4% (<0.001) and – 12.7 (p = 0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSION: Following notification delaying elective surgical procedures, blood utilization declined substantially while blood discards increased, resulting in substantial wastage of blood products. Ongoing and future pandemic response efforts should consider the impact of interventions on blood supply and demand to ensure blood availability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:33990963 | DOI:10.1111/trf.16451

Health Econ Rev. 2021 May 14;11(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s13561-021-00314-2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Mendelian Randomization is a type of instrumental variable (IV) analysis that uses inherited genetic variants as instruments to estimate causal effects attributable to genetic factors. This study aims to estimate the impact of obesity on annual inpatient healthcare costs in the UK using linked data from the UK Biobank and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

METHODS: UK Biobank data for 482,127 subjects was linked with HES inpatient admission records, and costs were assigned to episodes of care. A two-stage least squares (TSLS) IV model and a TSLS two-part cost model were compared to a naïve regression of inpatient healthcare costs on body mass index (BMI).

RESULTS: The naïve analysis of annual cost on continuous BMI predicted an annual cost of £21.61 [95% CI £20.33 – £22.89] greater cost per unit increase in BMI. The TSLS IV model predicted an annual cost of £14.36 [95% CI £0.31 – £28.42] greater cost per unit increase in BMI. Modelled with a binary obesity variable, the naïve analysis predicted that obese subjects incurred £205.53 [95% CI £191.45 – £219.60] greater costs than non-obese subjects. The TSLS model predicted a cost £201.58 [95% CI £4.32 – £398.84] greater for obese subjects compared to non-obese subjects.

CONCLUSIONS: The IV models provide evidence for a causal relationship between obesity and higher inpatient healthcare costs. Compared to the naïve models, the binary IV model found a slightly smaller marginal effect of obesity, and the continuous IV model found a slightly smaller marginal effect of a single unit increase in BMI.

PMID:33990897 | DOI:10.1186/s13561-021-00314-2

J Cross Cult Gerontol. 2021 May 15. doi: 10.1007/s10823-021-09426-y. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Tobacco smoking is responsible for several health problems, including mouth diseases. The aim of the present study was to establish the association between smoking and dental status and self-perceived oral health in a large group of elderly Colombian adults. Analysis of 18,937 survey records of participants aged ≥ 60 years old was conducted. Information regarding age, sex, skin color, socioeconomic level, education, marital status, denture use, partial tooth loss or edentulism, Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) and tobacco smoking was retrieved from the database. A descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed. Half of the participants were edentulous in the maxilla while mandibular teeth were more frequently retained in more than 60% of the participants. After adjusting for sex and age, smoking consistently increased the odds of partial or complete edentulism in the maxilla (OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.02-1.09) and mandible (OR 1.04; 95% CI 1.00-1.08). Nonetheless, the increase in the odds in the mandible was not statistically significant. The habit of smoking was associated with increased tooth loss that in the long-term may result in poor oral health affecting the quality of life of elderly people.

PMID:33990901 | DOI:10.1007/s10823-021-09426-y

Headache. 2021 May 15. doi: 10.1111/head.14122. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of lasmiditan in Japanese adults with migraine.

BACKGROUND: Global clinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of lasmiditan in the acute treatment of migraine.

METHODS: This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study in Japan (NCT03962738), which enrolled adults with migraine with or without aura. Participants were randomized 7:3:7:6 to placebo, lasmiditan 50 mg, 100 mg, or 200 mg to be self-administered orally within 4 h of onset of a single moderate-to-severe migraine attack. Participants recorded their response to treatment prior to dosing and for 48 h postdose. The primary endpoint was headache pain freedom at 2 h postdose.

RESULTS: Participants (N = 846) were randomized and treated (N = 691, safety; N = 682, modified intent-to-treat). At 2 h postdose, a significantly higher proportion of participants were headache pain-free in the lasmiditan 200 mg (40.8%, 73/179; odds ratio 3.46 [95% confidence interval 2.17 to 5.54]; p < 0.001; primary objective) and 100 mg groups (32.4%, 67/207; odds ratio 2.41 [1.51 to 3.83]; p < 0.001) compared with the placebo group (16.6%, 35/211), whereas the lasmiditan 50 mg group had a numerically higher proportion of participants headache pain-free (23.5%, 20/85; odds ratio 1.55 [0.83 to 2.87]; p = 0.167) compared with placebo. A statistically significant linear dose-response relationship for pain freedom was achieved at 2 h by a Cochran-Armitage trend test (p < 0.001). Lasmiditan treatment was also associated with headache pain relief, most bothersome symptom freedom, and improvement on disability and Patient Global Impression of Change outcomes. The majority of treatment-emergent adverse events were mild and of short duration, the most common of which were dizziness (39.4%; 188/477), somnolence (19.3%; 92/477), and malaise (10.5%; 50/477) in all lasmiditan groups, with no serious adverse events reported.

CONCLUSIONS: Lasmiditan was well tolerated and effective for the acute treatment of Japanese patients with migraine, consistent with global phase 3 studies.

PMID:33990951 | DOI:10.1111/head.14122