Do social relations buffer the effect of neighborhood deprivation on health-related quality of life? Results from the LifeLines Cohort Study

We investigated whether social relations buffer the effect of neighborhood deprivation on mental and physical health-related quality of life. Baseline data from the LifeLines Cohort Study (N=68,111) and a neighborhood deprivation index were used to perform mixed effect linear regression analyses. Results showed that fewer personal contacts (b, 95%CI: 0.88(-1.08;-0.67)) and lower social need fulfillment (-4.52(-4.67;-4.36)) are associated with lower mental health-related quality of life. Higher neighborhood deprivation was also associated with lower mental health related quality of life (-0.18(-0.24;-0.11)), but only for those with few personal contacts or low social need fulfillment. Our results suggest that social relations buffer the effect of neighborhood deprivation on mental health-related quality of life

Absolute and Relative Socioeconomic Health Inequalities across Age Groups

BackgroundThe magnitude of socioeconomic health inequalities differs across age groups. It is less clear whether socioeconomic health inequalities differ across age groups by other factors that are known to affect the relation between socioeconomic position and health, like the indicator of socioeconomic position, the health outcome, gender, and as to whether socioeconomic health inequalities are measured in absolute or in relative terms. The aim is to investigate whether absolute and relative socioeconomic health inequalities differ across age groups by indicator of socioeconomic position, health outcome and gender.MethodsThe study sample was derived from the baseline measurement of the LifeLines Cohort Study and consisted of 95,432 participants. Socioeconomic position was measured as educational level and household income. Physical and mental health were measured with the RAND-36. Age concerned eleven 5-years age groups. Absolute inequalities were examined by comparing means. Relative inequalities were examined by comparing Gini-coefficients. Analyses were performed for both health outcomes by both educational level and household income. Analyses were performed for all age groups, and stratified by gender.ResultsAbsolute and relative socioeconomic health inequalities differed across age groups by indicator of socioeconomic position, health outcome, and gender. Absolute inequalities were most pronounced for mental health by household income. They were larger in younger than older age groups. Relative inequalities were most pronounced for physical health by educational level. Gini-coefficients were largest in young age groups and smallest in older age groups.ConclusionsAbsolute and relative socioeconomic health inequalities differed cross-sectionally across age groups by indicator of socioeconomic position, health outcome and gender. Researchers should critically consider the implications of choosing a specific age group, in addition to the indicator of socioeconomic position and health outcome, as findings on socioeconomic health inequalities may differ between them.</p

Latent Constructs in Psychosocial Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease: An Examination by Race and Sex

This study examines race and sex differences in the latent structure of 10 psychosocial measures and the association of identified factors with self-reported history of coronary heart disease (CHD). Participants were 4,128 older adults from the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with oblique geomin rotation was used to identify latent factors among the psychosocial measures. Multi-group comparisons of the EFA model were conducted using exploratory structural equation modeling to test for measurement invariance across race and sex subgroups. A factor-based scale score was created for invariant factor(s). Logistic regression was used to test the relationship between the factor score(s) and CHD adjusting for relevant confounders. Effect modification of the relationship by race–sex subgroup was tested. A two-factor model fit the data well (comparative fit index = 0.986; Tucker–Lewis index = 0.969; root mean square error of approximation = 0.039). Depressive symptoms, neuroticism, perceived stress, and low life satisfaction loaded on Factor I. Social engagement, spirituality, social networks, and extraversion loaded on Factor II. Only Factor I, re-named distress, showed measurement invariance across subgroups. Distress was associated with a 37% increased odds of self-reported CHD (odds ratio: 1.37; 95% confidence intervals: 1.25, 1.50; p-value < 0.0001). This effect did not differ by race or sex (interaction p-value = 0.43). This study identified two underlying latent constructs among a large range of psychosocial variables; only one, distress, was validly measured across race–sex subgroups. This construct was robustly related to prevalent CHD, highlighting the potential importance of latent constructs as predictors of cardiovascular disease

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

The Relationship Between Hostility, Smoking, and Alcohol Consumption in Mexican Americans

We examined the effect of hostility on smoking and alcohol consumption using data from a three-generation study of Mexican Americans. The irritability subscale of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory was used as the measure of hostility. Moderate associations were found between alcohol consumption and irritability scores among middle- and younger-generation females, with generally weaker or nonsignificant associations found in males. Smoking was moderately associated with irritability in middle- and younger-generation females and in younger-generation males. Differences in results by generation and gender are discussed as well as implications for future research

Association of Leptin Levels With Radiographic Knee Osteoarthritis Among a Cohort of Midlife Women

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98391/1/acr21922.pd