Tag: statistics

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):159-161. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a6963.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to determine the probable places of coronavirus transmission in association with the work.

METHODS: The work analysed data from the Information System of Infectious Diseases managed by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic in the period March-December 2020.

RESULTS: 732,202 COVID-19 cases were officially confirmed, from them 64,587 (9%) represented work-related disease, 184,384 cases (25%) work-related contact, and 483,231 cases (66%) out-of-work contact. There were identified 13 occupations with the highest incidence of COVID-19 in the observed period (22,515 cases), in descending order nurse, paramedic, teacher, machinist, clerk, social worker, physician, worker/agency worker, craftsman, policeman, manager, food worker, and miner; 150 cases of COVID-19 were recognized as an occupational disease in 2020, from them 148 cases in the health and social care economic activity sector.

CONCLUSION: The available data show probable exposures to an infectious agent (without proof of specific contact with the source of the infection), of which at least one third are related to work, so different relevant anti-epidemic measures in the workplace have considerable practical importance for epidemic control.

PMID:34245557 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a6963

Genet Epidemiol. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/gepi.22424. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Recently polygenetic risk score (PRS) has been successfully used in the risk prediction of complex human diseases. Many studies incorporated internal information, such as effect size distribution, or external information, such as linkage disequilibrium, functional annotation, and pleiotropy among multiple diseases, to optimize the performance of PRS. To leverage on multiomics datasets, we developed a novel flexible transcriptional risk score (TRS), in which messenger RNA expression levels were imputed and weighted for risk prediction. In simulation studies, we demonstrated that single-tissue TRS has greater prediction power than LDpred, especially when there is a large effect of gene expression on the phenotype. Multitissue TRS improves prediction accuracy when there are multiple tissues with independent contributions to disease risk. We applied our method to complex traits, including Crohn’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and so on. The single-tissue TRS method outperformed LDpred and AnnoPred across the tested traits. The performance of multitissue TRS is trait-dependent. Moreover, our method can easily incorporate information from epigenomic and proteomic data upon the availability of reference datasets.

PMID:34245595 | DOI:10.1002/gepi.22424

Neurourol Urodyn. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/nau.24743. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: The cellular functions of bladder urothelial cells in interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) have not been well revealed and understood. Thus, the study aims to identify key genes and significant pathways in urothelium corresponding to IC/BPS in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cystitis model and provide novel clues related to diagnosis and treatment of IC/BPS.

METHODS: Human urothelial cells (HUCs) were incubated with LPS (50 μg/ml for 24 h). Microarray was applied to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HUCs under LPS treatment and the control group. DEGs in the two groups were identified and then used for enrichment analysis. Subsequently, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network based on DEGs was constructed. Lastly, the top five key genes were identified through the Cytoscape (version 3.7.2) using the “Clustering Coefficient” algorithm.

RESULTS: One hundred and seventy-one DEGs (96 upregulated genes and 75 downregulated genes) were identified between the LPS treatment and control group. The established PPI network was composed of 169 nodes and 678 edges. Moreover, C19orf33, TRIM31, MUC21, ELF3, and IFI27 were identified as hub genes in the PPI network. Subsequently, a statistically increased expression level of TRIM31 and ELF3 was validated by real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry in bladder tissues from 20 patients with IC/BPS.

CONCLUSIONS: TRIM31 and ELF3 may be the two hub genes in urothelium corresponding to IC/BPS. More studies are warranted to further validate the findings. The identified marker genes may be useful targets for further studies to develop diagnostic tools and more effective therapies for a broader group of women with IC/PBS.

PMID:34245600 | DOI:10.1002/nau.24743

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):83-89. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5922.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Globally, child mortality from external causes is in decline, but it is still among the leading causes of child deaths. The aim of this first national study was to determine trends of mortality rates from external causes among children aged 1-14 years in Serbia.

METHODS: Mortality data were collected from the database of the Statistical Office of Serbia. Joinpoint analysis was used to assess the average annual percentage change (APC) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) in mortality from 1997 to 2016.

RESULTS: In the 1997-2016 period, there were 1,388 child deaths from external causes. They contributed to 29.4% of child mortality in total, from 34.8% in 1997 to 21.8% in 2016. Mortality rate was two times higher among boys (8.1 per 100,000) than girls (4.1 per 100,000). Transport accidents (37.6%), followed by drowning and submersion (18.2%), represented more than half of all deaths due to external causes. Since 1997, mortality rate showed a significant downward trend in boys by -5.4% (95% CI -6.8 to -3.9) yearly for unintentional injuries and significantly by -10% (95% CI -19.0 to 0.1) yearly for intentional injuries. Among girls, death rate for unintentional injuries decreased significantly by -7.1% (95% CI -9.0 to -5.1) yearly and decreased insignificantly for intentional injuries by -2.1% (95% CI -15.3 to 13.1) yearly.

CONCLUSIONS: The external causes of death, despite the substantial decline in mortality, are still present among children aged 1-14 years in Serbia. Therefore, implementation of nationwide programmes for prevention of external causes of death is urgent.

PMID:34245546 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a5922

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):96-101. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a6124.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Despite advancing technology, national TB surveillance systems are still inadequate in terms of patient detection around the world. It was aimed to investigate suspicious cases detected by active surveillance method in pathology laboratories and to evaluate the effectiveness of this method in terms of finding new TB cases.

METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. It was administrated in Samsun, Turkey, between January 2012-December 2017. Within the scope of active surveillance, pathology laboratories were regularly visited and reported cases with granulomatous inflammation were assessed. The obtained patient list was compared with the records of the Electronic Tuberculosis Management System (ETMS). Patients who were not included in these records were invited to the dispensary and evaluated for TB. They were also referred to the relevant hospitals for diagnosis if necessary. Frequency values and descriptive statistics were calculated using SPSS method.

RESULTS: It was found that 35.6% of 703 patients with the diagnosis of granulomatous inflammation were previously diagnosed, treated or currently undergoing treatment in the ETMS registry. As a result of the assessment of remaining 453 cases, 46 patients (10.1%) were newly diagnosed with TB. Newly diagnosed TB patients were reported, and their treatment started.

CONCLUSION: As a result, active surveillance method conducted in pathology laboratories are used to detect unknown or late reported TB cases and allows to start treatment without further delay.

PMID:34245548 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a6124

Cent Eur J Public Health. 2021 Jun;29(2):143-152. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5538.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This article deals with the comparison of excise tax revenues from alcoholic beverages and tobacco products with public spending that are spent on treating diseases occurring in consumers of these commodities.

METHODS: Based on available data, the study estimates direct public expenditures on the treatment of tobacco-related diseases and very frequent alcohol consumption-related diseases in the Czech Republic. These partial results are evaluated in the context of tax revenues from consumption of the mentioned commodities. The analysis works with the data from 1998-2017, which was obtained from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, the National Institute of Public Health, the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, and the Czech Statistical Office.

RESULTS: Medical treatment costs of smoking-related diseases were 18.35-48.19 billion CZK per year in the analysed period. These expenditures in the period 1998-2011 exceeded the annual revenues from the tax on tobacco products (in 2002 by 12.08 billion CZK). Since 2012, the balance has been positive in favour of public spending. Expenditures on the treatment of alcohol-related diseases amounted to 9.66-25.36 billion CZK per year in the given period, the expenditures, except the year 1998, exceeded the revenues from alcoholic beverages taxes (by 14.63 billion CZK in 2009).

CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that the excise tax revenues for tobacco products do not reach the level of healthcare spending for tobacco-related disease in the most of the analysed period, and this difference increases with the length of consumption, which can be interpreted in such a way that current excise tax revenues potentially mean public healthcare expenditures, which cumulatively exceed revenues from the relevant excise duties.

PMID:34245555 | DOI:10.21101/cejph.a5538

Nutr Clin Pract. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1002/ncp.10735. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Prevention of extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) in preterm neonates is one of the biggest challenges to neonatologists. Lack of uniformity and inconsistency in nutrition practices are the most common causes. We started a quality improvement (QI) initiative with an intention to decrease the proportion of EUGR.

METHODS: We performed prospective nonrandomized QI from May 2018 to July 2019. Ninety-six neonates (born at <32 weeks and/or <1.2 kg) were compared with 111 historical controls. A continuous feedback loop was maintained, and changes were analyzed as plan-do-study-actcycle.

RESULTS: Although EUGR was lower after the intervention (93.7% vs 87.5%), this change was not statistically significant. However, other measures of in-hospital neonatal growth showed improvement, including median discharge weight percentile from 1% to 3% (P = .003). Median difference in the z-score for weight from birth to discharge also improved significantly from -1.84 to -1.65 (P = .04). Babies in the intervention group regained birth weight earlier (P = .005) and had better growth velocity (P = .0005). The feeding was started early (P < .0001), and these babies reached full feeds (P < .0001) earlier than the control cohort.

CONCLUSION: Although our QI initiative failed to achieve a significant reduction in EUGR, it did achieve a significant improvement in discharge weight percentile and difference in the z-score for weight at birth and during discharge from hospital. There was a significant improvement in growth velocity and an early regaining of birth weight. The implementation of written nutrition practice guidelines facilitated improved outcomes.

PMID:34245467 | DOI:10.1002/ncp.10735

Adv Gerontol. 2021;34(2):272-276.

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to study the frequency and features of albuminuria in patients with chronic bronchoobstructive lung diseases. The prospective study involved 219 patients with COPD (GOLD 1-4) and 201 patients with persistent bronchial asthma (BA) of varying severity, who were examined in 2018-2019. The control group consisted of 48 volunteers, comparable in age and gender. In addition to General clinical studies, all patients were calculated BMI and visceral obesity detection based on the waist-hip ratio (WHR), and the Smoking index (HCI) was calculated. Albuminuria was determined based on the calculation of the albumin / creatinine ratio in a single morning portion of urine. The frequency of optimal / slightly elevated AU (A1) was 28,7% (63) among COPD patients and 9% (18) of BA patients. The number of COPD patients with clinically significant AU (A2, A3) was 24,2% (53) of patients, which is statistically significantly higher than among BA patients (5,5% of patients; χ2=22,3, p=0,01). The factors that make a statistically significant contribution to the development of AU in patients with COPD were the frequency of exacerbations over the previous 12 months, ICP, fibrinogen and CRP levels, FEV1; in BA patients – WHR, ICP. Smoking contributes to the development and potentiation of renal dysfunction in patients with bronchial obstructive diseases. The issue of considering BA as a risk factor for renal dysfunction remains controversial, given the diversity of BA both in terms of disease phenotypes, severity, and variety of therapeutic approaches.

PMID:34245511

J Relig Health. 2021 Jul 10. doi: 10.1007/s10943-021-01336-0. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between international students’ health perceptions and their healthy lifestyle behaviors. This descriptive and relational study was conducted with 216 international students studying at a university in Turkey. Study data were collected using the descriptive information form, the Perception of Health Scale (PHS) and the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). Data were evaluated using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. It was determined that the health perception and healthy lifestyle behaviors of the international students involved in this study were moderately positive. The study found a weak and positive relationship between PHS and the physical activity, nutrition and stress management subdimensions of HPLP, while a moderate positive relationship was identified between PHS and the spiritual growth and interpersonal relations subdimensions of HPLP. No relationship was observed between PHS and the health responsibility subdimension of HPLP. The fact that students have a positive perception of health reflects positively on their healthy lifestyle behaviors. It is important to disseminate education programs aimed at improving the health perception and healthy lifestyle behaviors of international students within the university.

PMID:34245435 | DOI:10.1007/s10943-021-01336-0

J Patient Rep Outcomes. 2021 Jul 10;5(1):55. doi: 10.1186/s41687-021-00324-y.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To reduce the burden of completing Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), PROMIS® Computerized Adaptive Tests (CATs) are being implemented in pediatric clinical practice. We aimed to develop recommendations for visual feedback options for PROMIS CATs on individual item and domain score level as an evidence-based feedback recommendation for PROMIS CATs is lacking.

METHODS: Focus groups were held with clinicians who use the KLIK PROM portal. Literature-based feedback options were provided to initiate group discussion. Data was analyzed using thematic coding method. Additionally, a questionnaire was sent out to assess patients’ (12-18y) and parents’ (child 0-18y) preference for individual item feedback. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Six focus groups were held (N = 28 clinicians). Regarding individual item feedback, showing the complete item bank, with only responses to administered items in traffic light colors was preferred. For domain scores, line graphs were preferred, including numerical (T-)scores, reference and cut-off lines, and traffic light colors. Separate graphs per domain, ranked in order of importance and harmonization of directionality (‘higher = better’) were considered important. Questionnaire results (N = 31 patients/N = 131 parents) showed that viewing their own item responses was preferred above receiving no item feedback by 58.1% of the patients and 77.1% of the parents.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on the outcomes and after discussion with the Dutch-Flemish PROMIS National Center, recommendations for PROMIS CAT feedback options were developed. PROMIS CATs can now be used in clinical practice to help clinicians monitor patient outcomes, while reducing the burden of completing PROMs for patients significantly.

PMID:34245390 | DOI:10.1186/s41687-021-00324-y