Tag: statistics

R I Med J (2013). 2023 May 1;106(4):35-39.

ABSTRACT

Hospital-associated delirium is common in older adults, especially those with dementia, and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. We performed a feasibility study in the emergency department (ED) to examine the effect of light and/or music on the incidence of hospital- associated delirium. Patients aged ≥ 65 who presented to the ED and tested positive for cognitive impairment were enrolled in the study (n = 133). Patients were randomized to one of four treatment arms: music, light, music and light, and usual care. They received the intervention during their ED stay. In the control group, 7/32 patients developed delirium, while in the music-only group, 2/33 patients developed delirium (RR 0.27, 95% CI 0.06-1.23), and in the light-only group (RR 0.41, 95% CI 0.12-1.46), 3/33 patients developed delirium. In the music + light group, 8/35 patients developed delirium (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.42–2.55). Providing music therapy and bright light therapy to ED patients was shown to be feasible. Although this small pilot study did not reach statistical significance, there was a trend towards less delirium in the music-only and light-only groups. This study lays the groundwork for future investigation into the efficacy of these interventions.

PMID:37098145

J Appl Gerontol. 2023 Apr 25:7334648231169130. doi: 10.1177/07334648231169130. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Neighborhood support can improve aging in place for older adults, but research on the role of public housing staff in supporting older tenants is lacking. Twenty-nine participants (janitors, n = 11; maintenance staff, n = 18) collected data about critical situations among older tenants residing in apartments in Sweden. Modifying the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) and applying a mixed-methods design, quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, integrated through narrative. We found that older tenants asked staff for help with daily tasks. The staff identified CI management dilemmas in meeting older tenants’ support needs while following the housing company’s regulations, maintaining professional responsibilities, respecting individual work attitudes and preferences, and experienced a lack of competencies in some situations. Staff members were responsive to offering support in simple, practical, and emotional situations and in addressing matters they perceived as deficits in social and health services.

PMID:37098132 | DOI:10.1177/07334648231169130

Cornea. 2023 Apr 25. doi: 10.1097/ICO.0000000000003293. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the barriers to accessing the crosslinking service in Auckland, New Zealand.

METHODS: This was a prospective 1-year study of patients at Auckland District Health Board. Studied parameters included age, sex, body mass index, ethnicity, New Zealand Deprivation (NZDep; an area-based measure of socioeconomic status, 1 = low deprivation-10 = high deprivation) score of residence, disease severity (maximum keratometry and thinnest corneal thickness), attendance, distance travelled, car ownership, employment status, and visual outcomes. Statistical analysis was performed using independent t tests, Pearson correlation, independent samples ANOVA, MANCOVA, and binomial logistic regression.

RESULTS: Four hundred fifty-four patients with keratoconus were analyzed and had a mean age of 24.1 ± 0.8 years, mean body mass index of 33.0 ± 9.7 kg/m2, and 43% were female. Pacific Peoples consisted 40.2% of the population; Māori 27.2%; Europeans 21.2%; Asian 9.9%; and Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African (MELAA) 1.3%. The mean distance travelled was 12.5 ± 9.5 km, NZDep score was 6.8 ± 2.6, and attendance was 69.0 ± 42.5%. The lowest attendance was observed in Pacific Peoples (58.9%) and the highest was in Asians (90%) (P = 0.019). The mean worst-eye visual acuity at attendance was 0.75 ± 0.47 logMAR (6/35). Unemployment was associated with worse best-eye visual acuity at FSA (P = 0.01) and follow-up (P < 0.05). Māori and Pacific Peoples had the highest NZDep (P < 0.001), were younger at presentation (P = 0.019), had higher disease severity (P < 0.001), and worse visual acuity (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Poor attendance was seen in this cohort. Pacific Peoples and Māori presented younger with worse disease severity and visual acuity but also had the highest nonattendance. These results suggest that deprivation, factors associated with ethnicity, and unemployment are potential barriers to attendance.

PMID:37098115 | DOI:10.1097/ICO.0000000000003293

J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2023 Apr 25. doi: 10.1097/MPG.0000000000003808. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This school-based, cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate whether hypohydration is related to functional constipation and physical activity in school-aged children. The study included 452 students aged 6-12 years. Hypohydration, defined as urinary osmolality >800 mOsm/kg, was more prevalent (p=0.002) in boys (72.1%) than in girls (57.5%). The difference in the prevalence of functional constipation according to sex (20.1% in boys and 23.8% in girls) was not statistically significant (p=0.81). In bivariate analysis, functional constipation was associated with hypohydration in girls (odds ratio [OR]=1.93, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-3.49), and multiple logistic regression did not reach statistical significance (p=0.082). Low proportions of active commuting to school in both sexes were associated with hypohydration. However, there were no associations between functional constipation, active commuting to school, and physical activity scores. In conclusion, multiple logistic regression did not demonstrate an association between hypohydration and functional constipation in school-aged children.

PMID:37098098 | DOI:10.1097/MPG.0000000000003808

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 25;18(4):e0285078. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285078. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Contextual factors are essential for understanding long-term adjustment to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study investigated changes in mental health outcomes and subjective pandemic-related experiences over time and across countries. The main objective was to explore how psychological responses vary in relation to individual and environmental factors.

METHODS: The sample consisted of N = 1070 participants from the general population of Austria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, and Portugal. We applied a longitudinal mixed-methods approach, with baseline assessment in summer and autumn 2020 (T1) and follow-up assessment 12 months later (T2). Qualitative content analysis by Mayring was used to analyse open-ended questions about stressful events, positive and negative aspects of the pandemic, and recommendations on how to cope. Mental health outcomes were assessed with the Adjustment Disorder-New Module 8 (ADNM-8), the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5), the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). The analyses were performed with SPSS Statistics Version 26 and MAXQDA 2022.

RESULTS: The mental health outcomes significantly differed over time and across countries, with e.g. Greek participants showing decrease in adjustment disorder symptoms (p = .007) between T1 and T2. Compared with other countries, we found better mental health outcomes in the Austrian and the Croatian sample at both timepoints (p < .05). Regarding qualitative data, some themes were equally represented at both timepoints (e.g. Restrictions and changes in daily life), while others were more prominent at T1 (e.g. Work and finances) or T2 (e.g. Vaccination issues).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that people’s reactions to the pandemic are largely shaped by the shifting context of the pandemic, country-specific factors, and individual characteristics and circumstances. Resource-oriented interventions focusing on psychological flexibility might promote resilience and mental health amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises.

PMID:37098092 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0285078

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 25;18(4):e0284695. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284695. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

The accelerated progress in artificial intelligence encourages sophisticated deep learning methods in predicting stock prices. In the meantime, easy accessibility of the stock market in the palm of one’s hand has made its behavior more fuzzy, volatile, and complex than ever. The world is looking at an accurate and reliable model that uses text and numerical data which better represents the market’s highly volatile and non-linear behavior in a broader spectrum. A research gap exists in accurately predicting a target stock’s closing price utilizing the combined numerical and text data. This study uses long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) to predict the stock price using stock features alone and incorporating financial news data in conjunction with stock features. The comparative study carried out under identical conditions dispassionately evaluates the importance of incorporating financial news in stock price prediction. Our experiment concludes that incorporating financial news data produces better prediction accuracy than using the stock fundamental features alone. The performances of the model architecture are compared using the standard assessment metrics -Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Correlation Coefficient (R). Furthermore, statistical tests are conducted to further verify the models’ robustness and reliability.

PMID:37098089 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0284695

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 25;18(4):e0284977. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284977. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: To assess the effect of cognitive function, performance of activities of daily living (ADLs), degree of depression, and fear of infection among geriatric patients hospitalized in internal medicine wards for COVID-19 on the duration of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality.

METHODS: This observational survey study was conducted during the second, third, and fourth waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included elderly patients of both sexes, aged ≥ 65 years, hospitalized for COVID-19 in internal medicine wards. The following survey tools were used: AMTS, FCV-19S, Lawton IADL, Katz ADL, and GDS15. The duration of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality were also assessed.

RESULTS: A total of 219 patients were included in the study. The results showed that impaired cognitive function in geriatric patients (AMTS) was associated with higher in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients. There was no statistical significance between fear of infection (FCV-19S) and risk of death. The impaired ability to perform complex ADLs (Lawton IADL) before the onset of the disease was not associated with higher in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients. The diminished ability to perform basic ADLs (Katz ADL) before the onset of the disease was not associated with higher in-hospital mortality in COVID-19. The degree of depression (GDS15) was not associated with higher in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. Statistically, significantly better survival was observed for patients with normal cognitive function (p = 0.005). No statistically significant differences in survival were observed in relation to the degree of depression or independence in performing ADLs. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed a statistically significant effect of age on mortality (p = 0.004, HR 1.07).

CONCLUSION: In this study, we observe that cognitive function impairments and the older age of patients treated for COVID-19 in the medical ward increase the in-hospital risk of death.

PMID:37098083 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0284977

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 25;18(4):e0284842. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284842. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Cannabis flower odour is an important aspect of product quality as it impacts the sensory experience when administered, which can affect therapeutic outcomes in paediatric patient populations who may reject unpalatable products. However, the cannabis industry has a reputation for having products with inconsistent odour descriptions and misattributed strain names due to the costly and laborious nature of sensory testing. Herein, we evaluate the potential of using odour vector modelling for predicting the odour intensity of cannabis products. Odour vector modelling is proposed as a process for transforming routinely produced volatile profiles into odour intensity (OI) profiles which are hypothesised to be more informative to the overall product odour (sensory descriptor; SD). However, the calculation of OI requires compound odour detection thresholds (ODT), which are not available for many of the compounds present in natural volatile profiles. Accordingly, to apply the odour vector modelling process to cannabis, a QSPR statistical model was first produced to predict ODT from physicochemical properties. The model presented herein was produced by polynomial regression with 10-fold cross-validation from 1,274 median ODT values to produce a model with R2 = 0.6892 and a 10-fold R2 = 0.6484. This model was then applied to terpenes which lacked experimentally determined ODT values to facilitate vector modelling of cannabis OI profiles. Logistic regression and k-means unsupervised cluster analysis was applied to both the raw terpene data and the transformed OI profiles to predict the SD of 265 cannabis samples and the accuracy of the predictions across the two datasets was compared. Out of the 13 SD categories modelled, OI profiles performed equally well or better than the volatile profiles for 11 of the SD, and across all SD the OI data was on average 21.9% more accurate (p = 0.031). The work herein is the first example of the application of odour vector modelling to complex volatile profiles of natural products and demonstrates the utility of OI profiles for the prediction of cannabis odour. These findings advance both the understanding of the odour modelling process which has previously only been applied to simple mixtures, and the cannabis industry which can utilise this process for more accurate prediction of cannabis odour and thereby reduce unpleasant patient experiences.

PMID:37098051 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0284842

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 25;18(4):e0284839. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284839. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Studies show especially for the UK and the US that physicians experience more occupational stress than nurses. It has also been shown that a higher status within the medical and nursing hierarchy is associated with less occupational stress. Our study’s aim is to examine whether these results also can be found in the context of the German university hospital sector. Thus, we test the stress of higher status hypothesis in and between the occupational groups of nurses and physicians at a German university hospital. Based on two cross-section surveys in the years of 2016 and 2019 this paper compares the perceived level of occupational stress between physicians (n = 588) and nurses (n = 735). Perceived levels of occupational stress-measured via the effort-reward imbalance model and the job demand-control model-are differentiated by status positions within and between both occupational groups. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test) are used to test the stress of higher status hypothesis. Contrary to the stress of higher status hypothesis, our main result is that physicians and nurses perceive similar levels of occupational stress. Furthermore, within each hierarchy the perceived degree of work stress decreases with increasing status for both groups. Our main conclusion is that the stress of higher status hypothesis must be rejected in the German university hospital context and the competing resources of higher status hypothesis must be assumed. The findings can be explained by the unique relationship between physicians and nurses and the role of New Public Management in the German hospital sector.

PMID:37098045 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0284839

Clin Chem Lab Med. 2023 Apr 25. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2023-0139. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study assesses the clinical relevance of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) membrane exopeptidase as a biomarker of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). A spike-and-recovery approach of DPP4 in fecal samples was used to compare two different methods for protein extraction, followed by a stability assessment.

METHODS: Fecal samples of healthy volunteers spiked with known concentrations of recombinant DPP4 were processed using a standard manual extraction protocol and the CALEX^® protocol. The two methods were compared by quantification of fecal DPP4 by ELISA, followed by Bland-Altman analysis. For the stability assays DPP4 was extracted from fecal samples and stored under different conditions of temperature and time after collection.

RESULTS: In general, the levels of spiked DPP4 in stool samples were lower with the manual protocol than in those obtained with the CALEX^® method; this trend was corroborated by Bland-Altman analysis. Nonetheless, variability was within the acceptable limits for both protocols. In the stability assessment, no statistically significant differences were found between the results obtained under the different storage conditions.

CONCLUSIONS: Both manual and CALEX^® protocols provided equal extraction ability of DPP4 from stool samples. In addition, DPP4 provided flexibility in terms of sample storage enabling the accurate assessment of samples delivered up to a week before analysis.

PMID:37098041 | DOI:10.1515/cclm-2023-0139