Tag: pubmed

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255723. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255723. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to any behavior by either a current or ex-intimate partner or would-be rejected lover that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm. It is the most common form of violence in women’s lives. According to a World Health Organization report, about 1 in 3 women worldwide experience at least one form of IPV from an intimate partner at some point in her life. In the Gambia, about 62% of pregnant women experience at least one form of violence from an intimate partner. IPV has severe physical and mental health consequences on a woman ranging from minor bodily injury to death. It also increases the risk of low birth weight, premature delivery, and neonatal death.

METHODS: A health facility-based cross-sectional study design was carried out to assess the magnitude and factors associated with intimate partner violence among pregnant women seeking antenatal care in the rural Gambia. The study enrolled 373 pregnant women, and a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the study participants. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS Ver.22. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) was computed to determine the presence and strength of associated factors with IPV.

RESULT: The study reveals that the prevalence of IPV in The Gambia is 67%, with psychological violence (43%) being the most common form of IPV reported by the respondents. The multivariate logistic regression result reveals that being aged 35 years or older [AOR 5.1(95% CI 1.5-17.8)], the experience of parents quarreling during childhood [AOR 1.7(95% CI 1.0-2.75)], and having cigarette smoking partners [AOR 2.3 (95% CI 1.10-4.6)] were significantly associated with IPV during pregnancy.

CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that all forms of IPV in rural Gambia are frequent. Women older than 35 years, had experienced parents quarreling, had a partner who smoked, and a partner who fight with others were more likely report IPV compared to other pregnant women in the study. We recommend that IPV screening should be included as an integral part of routine antenatal care services in The Gambia. Community-based interventions that include indigenous leaders, religious leaders, and other key stakeholders are crucial to create awareness on all forms of IPV and address the risk factors found to influence the occurrence of IPV in rural Gambia.

PMID:34352019 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255723

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255808. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255808. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is very essential to achieve a great outcome of drugs via suppressing viral load, preventing multidrug resistance, and reducing mother to a child transmission rate of the Human Immune Virus.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT and associated factors among HIV Positive pregnant and lactating women in public health facilities of Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia, 2020 G.C.

METHODS: Institution-based cross-sectional study was done on 254 HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) follow-up. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. Data collected through a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire were cleaned and entered into Epi-data 3.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was done. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressions were done to measure the strength of association between independent and dependent variables using the odds ratio and 95% of confidence interval. A p-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

RESULT: The overall adherence level to option B+ was 224 (88.2%). Respondents in age group of ≤ 25 [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.42)], with no formal education [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.51)], experienced drug side effects [AOR = 0.11, 95% CI (0.04, 0.32)], have good knowledge of PMTCT [AOR = 3.6, 95% CI (1.16, 11.3)], and get support from partner/family [AOR = 4.5, 95% CI (1.62, 12.4)] were identified associated factors with adherence level.

CONCLUSION: The level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT was 88.2% which is suboptimal. Ages, educational level, knowledge on PMTCT, getting support from partner/family, and drug side effect were significantly associated with adherence. Therefore, educating and counseling on the service of PMTCT to improve their knowledge and encouraging partner/family involvement in care are mandatory to achieve the standard adherence level.

PMID:34352020 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255808

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255727. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255727. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Tuberculosis (TB) incidence and corresponding mortality rates in S. Korea are unusual and unique compared to other economically developed countries. Korea has the highest TB incidence rate in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. TB is known as a disease reflecting socio-economic and environmental conditions of a society. Besides, TB is an infectious disease spread through the air, naturally forming spatial dependence of its incidence. This study investigates TB incidences in Korea in socio-economic and environmental perspectives. Eigenvector spatial filtering applied accounts for spatial autocorrelation in the TB incidence, and Getis-Ord [Formula: see text] statistic tracks the changes of TB clusters at given time. The results show that population composition ratio, population growth rate, health insurance payment, and public health variables are significant throughout the study period. Environmental variables make minor effects on TB incidence. This study argues that unique demographic features of Korea are a potential threat to TB control in the future.

PMID:34352032 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255727

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255661. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255661. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, forensic authorship authentication plays a vital role in identifying the number of unknown authors as a result of the world’s rapidly rising internet use. This paper presents two-level learning techniques for authorship authentication. The learning technique is supplied with linguistic knowledge, statistical features, and vocabulary features to enhance its efficiency instead of learning only. The linguistic knowledge is represented through lexical analysis features such as part of speech. In this study, a two-level classifier has been presented to capture the best predictive performance for identifying authorship. The first classifier is based on vocabulary features that detect the frequency with which each author uses certain words. This classifier’s results are fed to the second one which is based on a learning technique. It depends on lexical, statistical and linguistic features. All of the three sets of features describe the author’s writing styles in numerical forms. Through this work, many new features are proposed for identifying the author’s writing style. Although, the proposed new methodology is tested for Arabic writings, it is general and can be applied to any language. According to the used machine learning models, the experiment carried out shows that the trained two-level classifier achieves an accuracy ranging from 94% to 96.16%.

PMID:34352003 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255661

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255855. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255855. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Reduced-port laparoscopic gastrectomy is currently widely performed for patients with gastric cancer. However, its safety in obese patients has not yet been verified. This is the first study on reduced-port laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (RpLDG) in obese patients with gastric cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term surgical outcomes and investigate the feasibility and safety of RpLDG in obese patients with gastric carcinoma.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 271 gastric cancer patients who underwent RpLDG at our institution were divided into two groups: non-obese [body mass index (BMI) <30 kg/m2, n = 251; NOG] and obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2, n = 20; OG). The mean age of the enrolled patients was 64.8 ± 11.4 years, with 72.0% being men and 28.0% women. Operative details and short-term surgical outcomes, including hospital course and postoperative complications, were compared by retrospectively reviewing the medical records.

RESULTS: No significant difference in operation time was found between the NOG and OG (205.9 ± 40.0 vs. 211.3 ± 37.3 minutes, P = 0.563). Other operative outcomes in the OG, including estimated blood loss (54.1 ± 86.1 vs. 54.0 ± 39.0 mL, P = 0.995) and retrieved lymph nodes (36.2 ± 16.4 vs. 35.5 ± 18.2, P = 0.875), were not inferior to those in the NOG. There were also no statistical differences in short-term surgical outcomes, including the incidence of surgical complications (13.9% vs. 10.0%, P = 1).

CONCLUSION: RpLDG can be performed safely in obese gastric cancer patients by an experienced surgeon. It should be considered a feasible alternative to conventional port distal gastrectomy.

PMID:34352015 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255855

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255641. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255641. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitic infections are closely associated with low household income, poor personal and environmental sanitation, and overcrowding, limited access to clean water, tropical climate and low altitude. Street dwellers and prisoners are forced to live in deprived situations characterized by inadequate facilities. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence and associated factors of intestinal parasitic infections among street dwellers and prison inmates.

METHOD: Study searches were carried out in Electronic data bases such as PubMed/Medline, HINARI, EMBASE, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library. Studies published only in English and have high quality Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) scores were included for analysis using Stata version 14 software. Random-effects meta-analysis model was used for analysis. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Cochrane’s Q test and I2 test statistics with its corresponding p-values. Moreover, subgroup, sensitivity analyses and publication bias were computed.

RESULT: Seventeen eligible studies consist of 4,544 study participants were included. Majority of the study participants were males (83.5%) and the mean age of the study participants was 25.7 years old. The pooled prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among street dwellers and prison inmates was 43.68% (95% CI 30.56, 56.79). Sub-group analysis showed that the overall pooled prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among prison inmates and street dwellers was 30.12% (95%CI: 19.61, 40.62) and 68.39% (95%CI: 57.30, 79.49), respectively. There was statistically significant association between untrimmed fingernail and intestinal parasitic infections (AOR: 1.09 (95%CI: 0.53, 2.23).

CONCLUSION: In this study, the pooled prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among street dwellers and prison inmates was relatively high. Fingernail status had statistically significant association with intestinal parasitic infection. The prevention and control strategy of intestinal parasitic infection should also target socially deprived segment of the population such as street dwellers and prison inmates.

PMID:34352000 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255641

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255608. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255608. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The diversity in the clinical course of COVID-19 has been related to differences in innate and adaptative immune response mechanisms. Natural killer (NK) lymphocytes are critical protagonists of human host defense against viral infections. It would seem that reduced circulating levels of these cells have an impact on COVID-19 progression and severity. Their activity is strongly regulated by killer-cell immuno-globulin-like receptors (KIRs) expressed on the NK cell surface. The present study’s focus was to investigate the impact of KIRs and their HLA Class I ligands on SARS-CoV-2 infection.

METHODS: KIR gene frequencies, KIR haplotypes, KIR ligands and combinations of KIRs and their HLA Class I ligands were investigated in 396 Sardinian patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Comparisons were made between 2 groups of patients divided according to disease severity: 240 patients were symptomatic or paucisymptomatic (Group A), 156 hospitalized patients had severe disease (Group S). The immunogenetic characteristics of patients were also compared to a population group of 400 individuals from the same geographical areas.

RESULTS: Substantial differences were obtained for KIR genes, KIR haplotypes and KIR-HLA ligand combinations when comparing patients of Group S to those of Group A. Patients in Group S had a statistically significant higher frequency of the KIR A/A haplotype compared to patients in Group A [34.6% vs 23.8%, OR = 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.6); P = 0.02, Pc = 0.04]. Moreover, the KIR2DS2/HLA C1 combination was poorly represented in the group of patients with severe symptoms compared to those of the asymptomatic-paucisymptomatic group [33.3% vs 50.0%, OR = 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.8), P = 0.001, Pc = 0.002]. Multivariate analysis confirmed that, regardless of the sex and age of the patients, the latter genetic variable correlated with a less severe disease course [ORM = 0.4 (95% CI 0.3-0.7), PM = 0.0005, PMC = 0.005].

CONCLUSIONS: The KIR2DS2/HLA C1 functional unit resulted to have a strong protective effect against the adverse outcomes of COVID-19. Combined to other well known factors such as advanced age, male sex and concomitant autoimmune diseases, this marker could prove to be highly informative of the disease course and thus enable the timely intervention needed to reduce the mortality associated with the severe forms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, larger studies in other populations as well as experimental functional studies will be needed to confirm our findings and further pursue the effect of KIR receptors on NK cell immune-mediated response to SARS-Cov-2 infection.

PMID:34352002 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255608

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255655. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255655. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The relationship between institutional liver transplantation (LT) case volume and clinical outcomes after liver re-transplantation is yet to be determined.

METHODS: Patients who underwent liver re-transplantation between 2007 and 2016 were selected from the Korean National Healthcare Insurance Service database. Liver transplant centers were categorized to either high-volume centers (≥ 64 LTs/year) or low-volume centers (< 64 LTs/year) according to the annual LT case volume. In-hospital and long-term mortality after liver re-transplantation were compared.

RESULTS: A total of 258 liver re-transplantations were performed during the study period: 175 liver re-transplantations were performed in 3 high-volume centers and 83 were performed in 21 low-volume centers. In-hospital mortality after liver re-transplantation in high and low-volume centers were 25% and 36% (P = 0.069), respectively. Adjusted in-hospital mortality was not different between low and high-volume centers. Adjusted 1-year mortality was significantly higher in low-volume centers (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.05-4.37, P = 0.037) compared to high-volume centers. Long-term survival for up to 9 years was also superior in high-volume centers (P = 0.005). Other risk factors of in-hospital mortality and 1-year mortality included female sex and higher Elixhauser comorbidity index.

CONCLUSION: Centers with higher case volume (≥ 64 LTs/year) showed lower in-hospital and overall mortality after liver re-transplantation compared to low-volume centers.

PMID:34351979 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255655

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255545. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: 2021 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) Reports recommends that patients with clinically significant symptoms and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) should escalate to triple therapy, a combined use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA) and long-acting b2-agonists (LABA)(ICS/LAMA/LABA). Triple therapy in fixed-dose combinations (FDCs), i.e., combining ICS, LABA with LAMA and administrating by a single inhalation device, has appeared in recent years. This study aims to compare the efficacy of triple therapy in FDCs in treating patients with moderate to severe COPD.

METHODS AND ANALYSES: Literature search will be conducted on PubMed, Embase and Web of science, according to pre-specified and corresponding search strategies, for relevant reports published since the inception dates of the databases. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) which compared the triple therapy in FDCs with other pharmacological therapies will be included. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool (RoB 2) will be used to assess the RCT quality. The outcomes will be analyzed as rate ratios and mean differences under a random-effects model in a frequentist network meta-analysis (NMA). Additional statistical analyses including subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and publication bias analysis will be performed to assess the evidential heterogeneity and robustness. The strength of evidence from the NMA will be evaluated with the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methods.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethics approval is required as this systematic review and network meta-analysis do not collect confidential personal data and do not carry out interventions in treating patients.

PROTOCOL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021240823.

PMID:34351996 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255545

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 5;16(8):e0255195. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255195. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Urinary excretion of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), iodine and fluoride is used to assess their statuses and/or the existence of metabolic abnormalities. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the urinary concentration of these minerals among children have not been documented.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study, including 593 subjects (232 boys and 361 girls), was conducted among healthy 6 to 11-year-old Emirati children living in Dubai. Non-fasting morning urine samples and anthropometrical measurements were collected and analyzed. Results were expressed as per mg of creatinine (Cr).

RESULTS: On average, estimated Cr excretion was 17.88±3.12 mg/kg/d. Mean urinary Ca/Cr, Mg/Cr and P/Cr excretions were 0.08±0.07 mg/mg, 0.09±0.04 mg/mg, and 0.57±0.26 mg/mg respectively. Urinary excretion of Ca, Mg and P were found to decrease as age increased. Urinary excretion and predicted intake of fluoride were lower than 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day. Surprisingly, more than 50% of the children were found to have urinary iodine excretion level above adequate.

CONCLUSION: The Emirati schoolchildren had comparable levels of urinary Ca, Mg and P excretion to other countries. The 95% percentile allows the use of the current data as a reference value for the detection of mineral abnormalities. Fluoride excretion implies that Emirati children are at low risk of fluorosis. The level of urinary iodine excretion is slightly higher than recommended and requires close monitoring of the process of salt iodization to avoid the harmful impact of iodine overconsumption.

PMID:34351961 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0255195