Tag: statistics

Adicciones. 2022 Oct 1;0(0):1783. doi: 10.20882/adicciones.1783. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The Covid19 pandemic has led to many publications about its influence on the treatment and evolution of individuals with a substance use disorder, leading to contradictory results. In this study, the adherence and abstinence rates of patients who started treatment in an Addictive Behavior Unit during the pandemic are analyzed, compared with others who attended the previous year and comparing those who were attended in person or by phone. The results indicate that during the Covid19 period, patients had greater adherence to treatment after one month of follow up and when attended to by phone. At 3 and 12 months, greater adherence was maintained, although it was not statistically significant. Regarding abstinence, the small sample size made it difficult to obtain significant differences. The conclusion is that, despite a quantitative decrease in the number of patients beginning drug treatment, in qualitative terms the pandemic led to greater adherence in the short and medium term. Telephone attention can play an important and positive role at this point, complementary to other resources and interventions.

PMID:36200234 | DOI:10.20882/adicciones.1783

Adicciones. 2022 Oct 1;0(0):1778. doi: 10.20882/adicciones.1778. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

One of the factors that increase the likelihood of adolescents starting to exhibit and consolidate anti-social behavior is drug use, with a consistent pattern of consumption of different substance found in young offenders (Aebi, Bessler & Steinhausen, 2021). A cognitive-behavioral group treatment program inspired by the positive psychology approach was developed and applied to drug use in minors deprived of liberty (experimental group); the results were compared to those of a group of adolescents with the same type of drug use in the same center (active control group) at two points in time: during and after incarceration. The fall in the rate of problems associated with drug use after incarceration in the experimental group was statistically significant compared to the control group, and the effect size of the experimental condition was large (ῆ^2 = 0.55), much higher than the control group (ῆ^2 = 0.16). The treatment program has proven to be an effective tool for reducing problems associated with drug use and is especially effective in reducing alcohol and cannabis consumption.

PMID:36200233 | DOI:10.20882/adicciones.1778

Adicciones. 2022 Oct 1;0(0):1754. doi: 10.20882/adicciones.1754. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Problematic Gambling or Gambling Disorder (GD) can act by initiating and maintaining the problem of substance addiction. Despite this, there are no rapid screening tools validated in Spanish. The Brief Problem Gambling Screen (BPGS) has proven to be one of the most sensitive tools for detecting GD and populations at risk. This study aims to validate the Spanish version of the original five-item BPGS. A sample of 100 Spanish-speaking adults with substance use disorder were recruited from an addiction treatment center. The participants were administered the Spanish version of BPGS. It showed strong item reliability properties (Ω = 0.93). Sensitivity and specificity values were excellent (0.93 each), also positive (0.7) and negative (0.99) predictive values suggest high discriminant power when compared to non-GD subjects. Statistically significant strong correlation with a gold-standard measure (Problem Gambling Severity Index) was found (r = 0.8, p < 0.01). Similar psychometric properties were found in at-risk gambler patients. In conclusion, the BPGS seems to be an adequate screening instrument in Spanish-speaking clinical population, and also identifies at-risk of GD subjects.

PMID:36200231 | DOI:10.20882/adicciones.1754

Adicciones. 2022 Sep 30;0(0):1709. doi: 10.20882/adicciones.1709. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the rejection towards smokers when considering a stable relationship. The sample included 445 participants who were recruited using the snowball method. A questionnaire created ad hoc was answered online by each participant. The effect of tobacco use was evaluated in choosing a stable partner, a stable partner to live with, and a stable partner to live with and have children. The results showed a significant rejection towards smokers for the different types of relationships. Statistically significant differences were found depending on the participants’ educational background and tobacco use, and their partner’s tobacco use. A higher level of rejection towards smokers was found in participants with university studies, in non-smokers, and those with a non-smoker partner. The main reasons for rejection were related to hygiene, health, and household economy. In conclusion, tobacco use can interfere with the establishment of a stable relationship. This argument could be added to the list of drawbacks associated with tobacco use for prevention and treatment.

PMID:36200226 | DOI:10.20882/adicciones.1709

Adicciones. 2022 Sep 30;0(0):1705. doi: 10.20882/adicciones.1705. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to identify the environmental factors that influence alcohol consumption, according to university students, and assess the relative importance and the frequency attributed to each factor. A study using Concept Mapping methodology was performed with a sample of nursing students, who participated in two face-to-face data collection sessions. In session 1, a consensus about the environmental aspects that influence their alcohol consumption was obtained. In session 2, the statements obtained were rated according to their relative importance and frequency in alcohol use (1 = minimum; 5 = maximum). Subsequently, all data were analyzed with the RCMAP of the statistical package R 3.6.1.Approximately 60 students participated in each session. Most were women aged 20 to 24. In session 1, a total of 55 statements were obtained and classified into 7 different clusters: Advertising (9 statements); Family environment (4 statements); Social pressure (12 statements); Responsibilities/norms (4 statements); Holidays and leisure time (7 statements); Emotional situations (8 statements); Accessibility (11 statements). Factors related to social pressure, holidays and leisure time, and alcohol accessibility were considered the most important and frequent in alcohol consumption. In contrast, alcohol advertising was considered the least important (mean 2.6 out of 5) and frequent (mean 2.1 out 5) factor. In conclusion, the factors considered most relevant among nursing students match those having more resources allocated for prevention and health promotion, except for alcohol advertising, which was perceived as less important and frequent compared with the other factors.

PMID:36200225 | DOI:10.20882/adicciones.1705

J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2022 Oct 5:e13737. doi: 10.1002/acm2.13737. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Cone-beam CT (CBCT)-based synthetic CT (sCT) dose calculation has the potential to make the adaptive radiotherapy (ART) pathway more efficient while removing subjectivity. This study assessed four sCT generation methods using 15 head-and-neck rescanned ART patients. Each patient’s planning CT (pCT), rescan CT (rCT), and CBCT post-rCT was acquired with the CBCT deformably registered to the rCT (dCBCT).

METHODS: The four methods investigated were as follows: method 1-deformably registering the pCT to the dCBCT. Method 2-assigning six mass density values to the dCBCT. Method 3-iteratively removing artifacts and correcting the dCBCT Hounsfield units (HU). Method 4-using a cycle general adversarial network machine learning model (trained with 45 paired pCT and CBCT). Treatment plans were created on the rCT and recalculated on each sCT. Planning target volume (PTV) and organ-at-risk (OAR) structures were contoured by clinicians on the rCT (high-dose PTV, low-dose PTV, spinal canal, larynx, brainstem, and parotids) to allow the assessment of dose-volume histogram statistics at clinically relevant points.

RESULTS: The HU mean absolute error (MAE) and minimum dose gamma index pass rate (2%/2 mm) were calculated, and the generation time was measured for 15 patients using the rCT as the comparator. For methods 1-4 the MAE, gamma index analysis, and generation time were as follows: 59.7 HU, 100.0%, and 143 s; 164.2 HU, 95.2%, and 232 s; 75.7 HU, 99.9%, and 153 s; and 79.4 HU, 99.8%, and 112 s, respectively. Dose differences for PTVs and OARs were all <0.3 Gy except for method 2 (<0.5 Gy).

CONCLUSION: All methods were considered clinically viable. The machine learning method was found to be most suitable for clinical implementation due to its high dosimetric accuracy and short generation time. Further investigation is required for larger anatomical changes between the CBCT and pCT and for other anatomical sites.

PMID:36200179 | DOI:10.1002/acm2.13737

Microrna. 2022 Oct 5. doi: 10.2174/2211536611666221005091351. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Diabetic complications have been studied extensively in recent years. There are very few biomarkers in body fluids that can pinpoint a distinct diabetic complication due to insufficient known specific biomarkers for ischemia.

OBJECTIVE: Identifying Micro RNA in animal models for each complication could enable early diagnosis of a given complication if verified in humans. Micro RNA (miRNA) profiling has been done in rodent models for number of diabetic complications like diabetic glomerular injury, atherosclerosis, cognitive impairment, diabetic wound healing, angiopathy and other complications. Due to multiple differences between rodents and humans, the changes in rabbit skin considered closer to humans than even pigs, may better simulate human diabetic complication of ischemia.

METHODS: To study the miRNA profile of rabbits in which diabetes was induced or ischemia was surgically generated, we studied whether diabetes or ischemia induced specific miRNA could be detected. Micro RNA from blood of diabetic rabbits and rabbits with local ischemia was collected in PAXgene Blood RNA tubes specifically designed for miRNA isolation and extracted using the PAX gene miRNA extraction Kit. The isolated RNA was quality controlled using RNA analyzer and further using RNA seq technology was analyzed for distinct miRNAs that were detected in diabetic and non-diabetic rabbits induced with ischemia.

RESULTS: A miRNA found to be expressed in diabetic rabbits and ischemic rabbits but not expressed in untreated rabbits is miRNA-183. Several miRNAs were differentially expressed across comparison groups, and several upregulated miRNAs were identified that are unique to each comparison. In rabbits with a potential diabetic complication of a long-term ischemic model there was one distinct microRNA which was highly significantly upregulated in ischemia rabbit (miRNA-133-3p). One miRNA that was highly significantly upregulated in diabetic rabbit but not in ischemic rabbits was miRNA-3074-5p. Only statistically significant results are considered and analyzed.

CONCLUSION: These findings could lead to a precise and timely diagnosis of a potential single diabetic complication without invasive tissue biopsies and could be a novel tool in the management of diabetic patients developing complications due to progression of diabetes.

PMID:36200149 | DOI:10.2174/2211536611666221005091351

Res Synth Methods. 2022 Oct 5. doi: 10.1002/jrsm.1606. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

A common problem in the analysis of multiple data sources, including individual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA), is the misclassification of binary variables. Misclassification may lead to biased estimators of model parameters, even when the misclassification is entirely random. We aimed to develop statistical methods that facilitate unbiased estimation of adjusted and unadjusted exposure-outcome associations and between-study heterogeneity in IPD-MA, where the extent and nature of exposure misclassification may vary across studies. We present Bayesian methods that allow misclassification of binary exposure variables to depend on study- and participant-level characteristics. In an example of the differential diagnosis of dengue using two variables, where the gold standard measurement for the exposure variable was unavailable for some studies which only measured a surrogate prone to misclassification, our methods yielded more accurate estimates than analyses naive with regard to misclassification or based on gold standard measurements alone. In a simulation study, the evaluated misclassification model yielded valid estimates of the exposure-outcome association, and was more accurate than analyses restricted to gold standard measurements. Our proposed framework can appropriately account for the presence of binary exposure misclassification in IPD-MA. It requires that some studies supply IPD for the surrogate and gold standard exposure, and allows misclassification to follow a random effects distribution across studies conditional on observed covariates (and outcome). The proposed methods are most beneficial when few large studies that measured the gold standard are available, and when misclassification is frequent. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:36200133 | DOI:10.1002/jrsm.1606

Physiol Rep. 2022 Oct;10(19):e15412. doi: 10.14814/phy2.15412.

ABSTRACT

Amygdala activity in context of the splenocardiac model has not been investigated in healthy, young adults and has not been compared between nonsmokers, electronic cigarette users, and smokers. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computer tomography (FDG PET/CT) scans would demonstrate positively correlated metabolic activity in the amygdala, bone marrow, spleen, and aorta, elucidating activation of the splenocardiac axis in otherwise healthy young people who use tobacco products compared to nonusers. Moreover, the study was conducted to evaluate whether electronic cigarette users and tobacco smokers have similar levels of inflammation compared to nonusers. In 45 healthy adults (mean age = 25 years), including nonsmoker (n = 15), electronic cigarette user (n = 16), and smoker (n = 14) groups, metabolic activity in the amygdala, spleen, aorta, bone marrow of thoracic vertebrae, and adjacent erector spinae skeletal muscle was quantified through visualization of radioactive glucose (¹⁸ FDG) uptake by FDG-PET/CT. The maximum standardized uptake value for each region was calculated for correlation analyses and comparisons between groups. In correlation analyses, metabolic activity of the amygdala correlated with metabolic activity in the aorta (r = 0.757), bone marrow (r = 0.750), and spleen (r = 0.665), respectively. Metabolic activity in the aorta correlated with ¹⁸ FDG uptake in the thoracic vertebrae (r = 0.703) and spleen (r = 0.594), respectively. Metabolic activity in the spleen also correlated with ¹⁸ FDG uptake in the bone marrow (r = 0.620). Metabolic activity in the adjacent erector spinae skeletal muscle (our control tissue) was not positively correlated with any other region of interest. Finally, there were no statistically significant mean differences in metabolic activity between the three groups: nonsmokers, electronic cigarette users, and smokers in any target tissue. Amygdala metabolic activity, as measured by ¹⁸ FDG uptake in FDG-PET/CT scans, positively correlated with inflammation in the splenocardiac tissues, including: the aorta, bone marrow, and spleen, underscoring the existence of a neural-hematopoietic-inflammatory axis in healthy, young adults.

PMID:36200129 | DOI:10.14814/phy2.15412

Med Arch. 2022 Jun;76(3):190-197. doi: 10.5455/medarh.2022.76.190-197.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot is the leading cause of hospitalization among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Nurses have a significant role in helping diabetic foot patients by educating them about their condition. Therefore, assessing the knowledge of diabetic foot among nurses will help provide better healthcare services to these patients.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the knowledge of diabetic foot care among the nursing staff at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from March to May 2020. A total of 172 nurses from different departments of the hospital were randomly selected. A validated questionnaire including 68 yes-or-no questions about diabetic foot management was used for the assessment.

RESULTS: The average total score of the entire questionnaire was 59 (standard deviation, ±7). During our study, the nursing school curriculum was found to be the major source of knowledge for nurses. Statistical significance (p=0.031) was found for the association between educational background and answers to the risk factor questions. According to our results, most nurses indicated that they believed that reporting any changes to the feet and toes and signs of infection to the physician was the best way to prevent the development of DM foot.

CONCLUSION: Specialized training programs beyond basic nursing education will reinforce knowledge and skills, resulting in an expected lower risk of amputation for DM patients.

PMID:36200121 | PMC:PMC9478813 | DOI:10.5455/medarh.2022.76.190-197