Tag: pubmed

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Jun 23;54:103109. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.103109. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Fatigue is one of the most prevalent and impactful symptoms for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Yet, fatigue is less understood in progressive forms of MS, and few studies have explored the extent to which MS disease course is associated with fatigue. The current study aimed to (1) describe fatigue severity and fatigue interference (the extent to which fatigue interferes with individuals’ physical, mental, and social activities) in people with progressive MS (primary progressive MS and secondary progressive MS); (2) compare fatigue severity and fatigue interference in people with progressive forms of MS to people with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS); and (3) identify factors associated with fatigue severity and fatigue interference in people with progressive forms of MS and RRMS.

METHODS: Secondary analysis of baseline data from participants with MS (N = 573; progressive forms of MS n = 142; RRMS n = 431) in a survey-based longitudinal study on healthy aging in people with a physical disability. Primary outcomes were average fatigue severity (0-10 Numerical Rating Scale), and fatigue interference (PROMIS Fatigue Short Form). Correlates were variables across the demographic and biopsychosocial domains, collected with validated self-reported measures. Statistical methods included t-test and chi-square analyses to compare fatigue severity and fatigue interference in people with progressive MS to those with RRMS, and multiple regression analyses to examine the association of variables with fatigue severity and fatigue interference.

RESULTS: Participants with progressive forms of MS reported moderate to severe levels of average fatigue severity (5.9 ± 2.8) and elevated levels of fatigue interference (T-Score of 58.2 ± 7.9). There were no group differences between people with progressive MS and RRMS in average fatigue severity or fatigue interference. Common factors associated with greater fatigue severity were lower income, being unemployed, shorter disease duration, greater disability, and greater sleep disturbance. Common factors associated with fatigue interference were younger age, lower income, being unemployed, greater disability, lower alcohol consumption, being a smoker, and greater sleep disturbance. For those with progressive forms of MS, longer MS disease duration was associated with lower average fatigue severity (b = -0.08, t(532) = -3.69, p < .001) and having a college degree or higher was associated with higher fatigue interference (b = 2.84, t(520) = 2.23, p = .026).

CONCLUSION: In this sample, fatigue severity and fatigue interference were similar for progressive forms of MS and RRMS. Future research should consider if interventions that work for fatigue management in people with relapsing forms of MS work similarly for people with progressive forms of MS.

PMID:34237561 | DOI:10.1016/j.msard.2021.103109

J Environ Radioact. 2021 Jul 5;237:106692. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2021.106692. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The use of nuclear power as an environmentally friendly, and sustainable means for energy production is heavily under discussion. Despite this recently several countries with a predominantly arid climate have sought to develop or deploy nuclear energy production systems. However, there is little information on how radionuclides behave in different, especially arid, climates. Members of the IUR task group for arid environment and of the IAEA MODARIA II working group 4 contributed to such a supplement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Report Series No. 472 (IAEA, 2010) Handbook of Parameter Values for the Prediction of Radionuclides Transfer in Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments under the IAEA Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA II) programme (2016-2019) to close this knowledge gap. Data on concentration ratios for plant and soil (CR) in arid environments following the Köppen-Geiger classification of climates were collated, summarised and quality assured. The combination of this data with transfer parameter data for root uptake of radionuclides by food crops in tropical environments (this issue) aimed to compare all data with those in TRS 472 recommended for use in dose assessment models. Therefore, a databank has been started based on an intensive literature research on published concentration ratio (CR) data in selected arid environments. After quality check data have been formatted to comply with TRS 472 and with the tropical data base criteria. Due to the scarcity of published information and the high uncertainty of the estimated mean values for individual plant and soil groups in arid environments no statistically relevant conclusions could be drawn, although some differences were notable. Nevertheless, despite its limitations and high uncertainties, this work presents the first reported comprehensive data collation on CR soil-plant values in arid environments.

PMID:34237508 | DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2021.106692

Nurse Educ Today. 2021 Jun 17;105:105016. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105016. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Health professionals have limited knowledge of advanced directives or living wills, which may hamper understandings among the general population. This could impact on the current low registration rates for advanced directives.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a single-group educational intervention to improve the knowledge and attitudes concerning advanced directives in the short and medium term among health professionals working in nursing homes for older adults.

DESIGN: An educational intervention was carried out.

SETTINGS: Fourteen nursing homes in Cantabria, Spain.

PARTICIPANTS: 201 healthcare professionals.

METHODS: A theoretical presentation, questions and debates took place between November 2018 and May 2019. Baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up measurements were made to evaluate knowledge and attitudes towards advanced directives. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed using the Student’s t-test and the one-factor ANOVA.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: This study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Cantabria.

FINDINGS: No statistically significant differences were found for any of the socio-demographic variables at baseline, post-intervention, or follow-up. In relation to the baseline questionnaire, knowledge and attitudes increased after the intervention (p = .000 for both blocks of questions) as well as in the follow-up questionnaire (p = .000 for both blocks).

DISCUSSION: A single-group educational intervention increases knowledge and improves attitudes towards advanced directives. Educated professionals can become health agents in this area, which can lead to an increase in the registration of advanced directives.

CONCLUSIONS: Educational interventions represent a cost-effective measure that may provide benefits at the end of life for patients and their families, as well as for the healthcare team.

PMID:34237513 | DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105016

Nurs Open. 2021 Jul 8. doi: 10.1002/nop2.986. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The aim was to investigate same-sex mothers’ self-assessed experiences of forming a family, and the association between heteronormative information, parental support and parenting stress.

DESIGN: A quantitative, cross-sectional study.

METHODS: In a web survey conducted in Sweden in 2019, same-sex mothers (N = 146) with a child aged 1-3 years answered questions about their experiences of forming a family through assisted reproduction and questions about parenting stress. Descriptive statistics describes the process of forming a family. Pearson’s correlation analyses and independent sample t tests were used to test hypotheses about heteronormative information, parental support and parenting stress.

RESULTS: Same-sex mothers experienced going through assisted reproduction treatment as stressful, and parental groups as not being supportive. Heteronormative information correlated with both lower perceived parental support and higher perceived parenting stress. Non-birth mothers experienced less acknowledgement and support than birthmothers.

PMID:34237202 | DOI:10.1002/nop2.986

J Intern Med. 2021 Jul 8. doi: 10.1111/joim.13339. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Plasma levels of angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT2) and angiopoietin-like 4 protein (ANGPTL4) reflect different pathophysiological aspects of cardiovascular disease. We evaluated their association with outcome in a hospitalized Norwegian patient cohort (n = 871) with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and validated our results in a similar Argentinean cohort (n = 982).

METHODS: A cox regression model, adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, was fitted for ANGPT2 and ANGPTL4, respectively, with all-cause mortality and cardiac death within 24 months and all-cause mortality within 60 months as the dependent variables.

RESULTS: At 24 months follow-up, 138 (15.8%) of the Norwegian and 119 (12.1%) of the Argentinian cohort had died, of which 86 and 66 deaths, respectively, were classified as cardiac. At 60 months, a total of 259 (29.7%) and 173 (17.6%) patients, respectively, had died. ANGPT2 was independently associated with all-cause mortality in both cohorts at 24 months [hazard ratio (HR) 1.27 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08-1.50) for Norway, and HR 1.57 (95% CI, 1.27-1.95) for Argentina], with similar results at 60 months [HR 1.19 (95% CI, 1.05-1.35) (Norway), and HR 1.56 (95% CI, 1.30-1.88) (Argentina)], and was also significantly associated with cardiac death [HR 1.51 (95% CI, 1.14-2.00)], in the Argentinean population. ANGPTL4 was significantly associated with all-cause mortality in the Argentinean cohort at 24 months [HR 1.39 (95% CI, 1.15-1.68)] and at 60 months [HR 1.43 (95% CI, 1.23-1.67)], enforcing trends in the Norwegian population.

CONCLUSIONS: ANGPT2 and ANGPTL4 were significantly associated with outcome in similar ACS patient cohorts recruited on two continents.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00521976. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01377402.

PMID:34237166 | DOI:10.1111/joim.13339

J Intern Med. 2021 Jul 8. doi: 10.1111/joim.13364. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:34237183 | DOI:10.1111/joim.13364

Bioinformatics. 2021 Apr 29:btab242. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btab242. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

MOTIVATION: Predicting early in treatment whether a tumor is likely to respond to treatment is one of the most difficult yet important tasks in providing personalized cancer care. Most oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) patients receive standard cancer therapy. However, the treatment outcomes vary significantly and are difficult to predict. Multiple studies indicate that microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising cancer biomarkers for the prognosis of oropharyngeal cancer. The reliable and efficient use of miRNAs for patient stratification and treatment outcome prognosis is still a very challenging task, mainly due to the relatively high dimensionality of miRNAs compared to the small number of observation sets; the redundancy, irrelevancy and uncertainty in the large amount of miRNAs; and the imbalanced observation patient samples.

RESULTS: In this study, a new machine learning-based prognosis model was proposed to stratify subsets of OPSCC patients with low and high risks for treatment failure. The model cascaded a two-stage prognostic biomarker selection method and an evidential K-nearest neighbors (EK-NN) classifier to address the challenges and improve the accuracy of patient stratification. The model has been evaluated on miRNA expression profiling of 150 oropharyngeal tumors by use of overall survival and disease-specific survival as the end points of disease treatment outcomes, respectively. The proposed method showed superior performance compared to other advanced machine-learning methods in terms of common performance quantification metrics. The proposed prognosis model can be employed as a supporting tool to identify patients who are likely to fail standard therapy and potentially benefit from alternative targeted treatments.

PMID:34237137 | DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btab242

Cancer. 2021 Jul 8. doi: 10.1002/cncr.33762. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the health-related quality of life of sexual minority survivors in comparison with heterosexual survivors.

METHODS: Four hundred eighty eligible survivors participated in a telephone survey that measured survivors’ outcomes, which consisted of physical and mental quality of life and self-rated fair or poor health. These survivors were diagnosed with stage I, II, or III colorectal cancer an average of 3 years before the survey and were recruited from 4 cancer registries. Using forward selection with generalized linear models or logistic regression models, the authors considered 4 domains-personal factors, environmental factors, health condition characteristics, and body function and structure-as correlates for each survivorship outcome.

RESULTS: The authors found that unadjusted physical quality of life and self-rated fair/poor health were similar for all survivors. Sexual minority survivors had poorer unadjusted mental quality of life in comparison with heterosexual survivors. After adjustments for covariates, this difference was no longer statistically significant. Three domains (personal factors, health condition characteristics, and body function and structure) explained colorectal cancer survivors’ fair/poor health and 46% of the variance in physical quality of life, whereas 56% of the variance in mental quality of life was explained by personal factors, body function and structure, and environmental factors.

CONCLUSIONS: This study has identified modifiable factors that can be used to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life and are, therefore, relevant to ongoing efforts to improve the survivorship experience.

PMID:34237147 | DOI:10.1002/cncr.33762

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 8;16(7):e0251730. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251730. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is a common comorbidity in chronic kidney disease patients which augments the progression of the disease to an end-stage renal disease, renal dysfunction and related morbidity and mortality. However, in Ethiopia, there is a dearth of research evidence in this regard. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of undernutrition and its associated factors among adult chronic kidney disease patients.

METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in selected hospitals of Addis Ababa from May to August 2018. Data were collected by structured and pretested questionnaires. Patients’ charts were reviewed from their medical profiles. Body mass index was calculated from anthropometric measurements using calibrated instruments. Serum albumin level was determined by reference laboratory standard procedure. Data were entered into Epi- data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were calculated and presented by tables, graphs and texts. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were computed and the level of statistical significance was declared at p-value <0.05.

RESULTS: From the total sample size of 403 participants, 371 were involved in the study. The prevalence of undernutrition (BMI<18.5) among adult chronic kidney disease patients was 43.1% (95% CI: 38%-48%). Undernutrition (BMI<18.5) was significantly higher among patients with diabetic nephropathy [AOR = 2.00, 95% CI, 1.09-2.66], serum albumin value less than 3.8g/dl [AOR = 4.21: CI, 2.07-5.07], recently diagnosed with diabetes mellitus [AOR = 2.36, 95% CI, 1.03-3.14] and stage V chronic kidney disease [AOR = 3.25:95% CI, 1.00-3.87].

CONCLUSION: Undernutrition in chronic kidney disease patients was significantly higher among patients with diabetic nephropathy, patients on stage V chronic kidney disease, recently diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and serum albumin value less than 3.8g/dl.

PMID:34237068 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0251730

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 8;16(7):e0254112. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254112. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Multiple Imputation (MI) is always challenging in high dimensional settings. The imputation model with some selected number of predictors can be incompatible with the analysis model leading to inconsistent and biased estimates. Although compatibility in such cases may not be achieved, but one can obtain consistent and unbiased estimates using a semi-compatible imputation model. We propose to relax the lasso penalty for selecting a large set of variables (at most n). The substantive model that also uses some formal variable selection procedure in high-dimensional structures is then expected to be nested in this imputation model. The resulting imputation model will be semi-compatible with high probability. The likelihood estimates can be unstable and can face the convergence issues as the number of variables becomes nearly as large as the sample size. To address these issues, we further propose to use a ridge penalty for obtaining the posterior distribution of the parameters based on the observed data. The proposed technique is compared with the standard MI software and MI techniques available for high-dimensional data in simulation studies and a real life dataset. Our results exhibit the superiority of the proposed approach to the existing MI approaches while addressing the compatibility issue.

PMID:34237092 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0254112