Detection and treatment of HIV and hepatitis virus infections in Swiss correctional facilities

Summary: Objectives:: The aim of the study was to obtain an overview on diagnostic and therapeutic activities concerning hepatitis A, B, C virus and HIV in Swiss prisons. Methods:: A standardized questionnaire was sent to 91 prisons in the German and Italian speaking parts in October 2004; 41 institutions (45%) answered the questionnaire. Results:: In almost all prisons serological examinations were not done routinely, but were provided when demanded by inmates or recommended by the medical service. Vaccination against hepatitis A or B infection and initiation of antiviral therapy was possible in most institutions. Conclusions:: Most of the prisons investigated offered diagnostic and antiviral treatment for hepatitis virus and HIV infections. A reported problem was the discontinuation of ongoing treatments or vaccination cycles after discharge. In some cases deficient funding was an obstacl

Using surveys to calculate disability-adjusted life-year

Mapping a certain disease into a system of disabling attributes allows researchers to compare diseases within a common framework. To quantify the total burden of morbidity (e.g., morbidity attributable to alcohol use), so-called disability weights (DWs) must be generated. General-population surveys can be used to derive DWs from health valuation tasks. This article describes the application of three psychometric methods (i.e., pairwise comparisons, ranking tasks, and visual analog scales) in general-population surveys and outlines their strengths and weaknesses. A recently proposed health valuation framework also is presented, which highlights the underlying cognitive processes from a social-judgment perspective and presents a structured data-collection procedure that seems promising in deriving DWs from general-population surveys

Jung, psychisch krank und invalidisiert

Die Zahl der jungen psychisch kranken IV-Rentnerinnen und -Rentner hat in den letzten 20 Jahren stetig zugenommen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung weist auf Mängel im Bildungs-, Behandlungs- und IV-System hin und wirft die Frage auf, ob eine relevante Minderheit von jungen Menschen nicht zu früh berentet wurde

A Mobile Assessment Tool for Collecting Data in Large-Scale Educational Studies

Abstract Conducting scientific studies is an often frustrating and tedious task. To minimize the usual problems, such as lack of concentration or willingness to participate, and instead promote interest in the study, a smart mobile device assessment tool was developed. The tablet-based assessment tool offers a wide range of visual tasks that can be employed when conducting studies utilizing the European Framework of Visual Literacy (ENViL). Furthermore, the assessment tool is highly configurable in the field using a centralized server and spreadsheet-based configuration files, thereby ensuring that no programming language is required to adapt the tasks on the mobile devices participating in the study. Finally, the presented framework and architecture are completely cross-platform and cross-device and can be re-used and extended for any number of similar studies and tasks

Exploring the Usability of the German COVID-19 Contact Tracing App in a Combined Eye Tracking and Retrospective Think Aloud Study

In the course of the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic, many digital solutions for mobile devices (e.g., apps) were presented in order to provide additional resources supporting the control of the pandemic. Contact tracing apps (i.e., identify persons who may have been in contact with a COVID-19 infected) constitute one of the most popular as well as promising solutions. However, as a prerequisite for an effective application, such apps highly depend on being used by large numbers of the population. Consequently, it is important that these apps offer a high usability for everyone. We therefore conducted an exploratory study to learn more about the usability of the German COVID-19 contact tracing app Corona-Warn-App (CWA). More specifically, N = 15 participants assessed the CWA, relying on a combined eye tracking and retrospective think aloud approach. The results indicate, on the one hand, that the CWA leaves a promising impression for pandemic control, as essential functions are easily recognized. However, on the other hand, issues were revealed (e.g., privacy policy) that could be addressed in future updates more properly

Detection and treatment of HIV and hepatitis virus infections in Swiss correctional facilities

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to obtain an overview on diagnostic and therapeutic activities concerning hepatitis A, B, C virus and HIV in Swiss prisons.METHODS: A standardized questionnaire was sent to 91 prisons in the German and Italian speaking parts in October 2004; 41 institutions (45%) answered the questionnaire.RESULTS: In almost all prisons serological examinations were not done routinely, but were provided when demanded by inmates or recommended by the medical service. Vaccination against hepatitis A or B infection and initiation of antiviral therapy was possible in most institutions.CONCLUSIONS: Most of the prisons investigated offered diagnostic and antiviral treatment for hepatitis virus and HIV infections. A reported problem was the discontinuation of ongoing treatments or vaccination cycles after discharge. In some cases deficient funding was an obstacle

Effect of Developmentally Adapted Cognitive Processing Therapy for Youth With Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After Childhood Sexual and Physical Abuse

Importance: Despite the high prevalence, evidence-based treatments for abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adolescents have rarely been studied. Objective: To examine whether developmentally adapted cognitive processing therapy (D-CPT) is more effective than a wait-list condition with treatment advice (WL/TA) among adolescents with PTSD related to childhood abuse. Design, Setting, and Participants: This rater-blinded, multicenter, randomized clinical trial (stratified by center) enrolled treatment-seeking adolescents and young adults (aged 14-21 years) with childhood abuse-related PTSD at 3 university outpatient clinics in Germany from July 2013 to June 2015, with the last follow-up interview conducted by May 2016. Of 194 patients, 88 were eligible for randomization. Interventions: Participants received D-CPT or WL/TA. Cognitive processing therapy was enhanced by a motivational and alliance-building phase, by including emotion regulation and consideration of typical developmental tasks, and by higher session frequency in the trauma-focused core CPT phase. In WL/TA, participants received treatment advice with respective recommendations of clinicians and were offered D-CPT after 7 months. Main Outcomes and Measures: All outcomes were assessed before treatment (baseline), approximately 8 weeks after the start of treatment, after the end of treatment (posttreatment), and at the 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome, PTSD symptom severity, was assessed in clinical interview (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents for DSM-IV [CAPS-CA]). Secondary outcomes were self-reported PTSD severity, depression, borderline symptoms, behavior problems, and dissociation. Results: The 88 participants (75 [85%] female) had a mean age of 18.1 years (95% CI, 17.6-18.6 years). In the intention-to-treat analysis, the 44 participants receiving D-CPT (39 [89%] female) demonstrated greater improvement than the 44 WL/TA participants (36 [82%] female) in terms of PTSD severity (mean CAPS-CA scores, 24.7 [95% CI, 16.6-32.7] vs 47.5 [95% CI, 37.9-57.1]; Hedges g = 0.90). This difference was maintained through the follow-up (mean CAPS-CA scores, 25.9 [95% CI, 16.2-35.6] vs 47.3 [95% CI, 37.8-56.8]; Hedges g = 0.80). Treatment success was greatest during the trauma-focused core phase. The D-CPT participants also showed greater and stable improvement in all secondary outcomes, with between-groups effect sizes ranging from 0.65 to 1.08 at the posttreatment assessment (eg, for borderline symptoms, 14.1 [95% CI, 8.0-20.2] vs 32.0 [95% CI, 23.8-40.2]; Hedges g = 0.91). Conclusions and Relevance: Adolescents and young adults with abuse-related PTSD benefited more from D-CPT than from WL/TA. Treatment success was stable at the follow-up and generalized to borderline symptoms and other comorbidities

Differnet patterns of hearing loss among tinnitus patients: a latent class analysis of a large sample

Background: The heterogeneity of tinnitus is a major challenge for tinnitus research. Even if a complex interaction of many factors is involved in the etiology of tinnitus, hearing loss (HL) has been identified as the most relevant etiologic factor. Here, we used a data-driven approach to identify patterns of hearing function in a large sample of tinnitus patients presenting in a tinnitus clinic. Methods: Data from 2,838 patients presenting at the Tinnitus Center of the University Regensburg between 2007 and 2014 have been analyzed. Standard audiometric data were frequency-wise categorized in four categories [a: normal hearing (0-20 dB HL); b: moderate HL (25-50 dB HL; representing outer hair cell loss); c: severe HL (> 50 dB HL; representing outer and inner hair cell loss); d: no data available] and entered in a latent class analysis, a statistical method to find subtypes of cases in multivariate categorical data. To validate the clinical relevance of the identified latent classes, they were compared with respect to clinical and demographic characteristics of their members. Results: The classification algorithm identified eight distinct latent classes with an excellent separation. Patient classes differed with respect to demographic (e.g., age, gender) and clinical characteristics (e.g., tinnitus location, tinnitus severity, gradual, or abrupt onset, etc.). Discussion: Our results demonstrate that data-driven categorization of hearing function seems to be a promising approach for profiling tinnitus patients, as it revealed distinct subtypes that reflect prototypic forms of HL and that differ in several relevant clinical characteristics