Accurate First Impressions Leave a Lasting Impression: The Long-Term Effects of Distinctive Self-Other Agreement on Relationship Development

Above and beyond the benefits of biases such as positivity and assumed similarity, does the accuracy of our first impressions have immediate and long-term effects on relationship development? Assessing accuracy as distinctive self-other agreement, we found that more accurate personality impressions of new classmates were marginally associated with greater liking concurrently, and significantly predicted greater interaction throughout the semester and greater liking and interest in future interactions by the end of the semester. Importantly, greater distinctive self-other agreement continued to promote social interaction even after controlling for Time 1 liking, suggesting that these positive effects of accuracy operate independently of initial liking. Forming positively biased first impressions was a strong predictor of both initial and longer term relationship development, while assumed similarity showed strong initial but not long-term associations. In sum, independent of the benefits of biased impressions, forming accurate impressions has a positive impact on relationship development among new acquaintances

Prevalence and determinants of the use of self-tests by members of the public: a mixed methods study

Background Self-tests can be used by members of the public to diagnose conditions without involving a doctor, nurse or other health professional. As technologies to design and manufacture diagnostic tests have developed, a range of self-tests have become available to the public to buy over-the-counter and via the Internet. This study aims to describe how many people have used self-tests and identify factors associated with their use. Methods A postal questionnaire will elicit basic information, including sociodemographic characteristics, and whether the person has used or would use specified self-tests. Consent will be sought to recontact people who want to participate further in the study, and interviews and focus groups will be used to develop hypotheses about factors associated with self-test use. These hypotheses will be tested in a case-control study. An in-depth questionnaire will be developed incorporating the identified factors. This will be sent to: people who have used a self-test (cases); people who have not used a self-test but would use one in the future (controls); and people who have not used and would not use a self-test (controls). Logistic regression analysis will be used to establish which factors are associated with self-test use. Discussion Self-tests do have potential benefits, for example privacy and convenience, but also potential harms, for example delay seeking treatment after a true negative result when the symptoms are actually due to another condition. It is anticipated that the outcomes from this study will include recommendations about how to improve the appropriate use of self-tests and existing health services, as well as information to prepare health professionals for patients who have used self-tests

Chronic Opioid Use in Women Following Hysterectomy: Patterns and Predictors

Background: Most women are prescribed an opioid after hysterectomy. The goal of this study was to determine the association between initial opioid prescribing characteristics and chronic opioid use after hysterectomy. Methods: This study included women enrolled in a commercial health plan who had a hysterectomy between 1 July 2010 and 31 March 2015. We used trajectory models to define chronic opioid use as patients with the highest probability of having an opioid prescription filled during the 6 months post‐surgery. A multivariable logistic regression was applied to examine the association between initial opioid dispensing (amount prescribed and duration of treatment) and chronic opioid use after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: A total of 693 of 50 127 (1.38%) opioid‐naïve women met the criteria for chronic opioid use following hysterectomy. The baseline variables and initial opioid prescription characteristics predicted the pattern of long‐term opioid use with moderate discrimination (c statistic = 0.70). Significant predictors of chronic opioid use included initial opioid daily dose (≥60 MME vs \u3c40 MME, aOR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.14‐1.79) and days\u27 supply (4‐7 days vs 1‐3 days, aOR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.06‐1.54; ≥8 days vs 1‐3 days, aOR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.05‐1.89). Other significant baseline predictors included older age, abdominal or laparoscopic/robotic hysterectomy, tobacco use, psychiatric medication use, back pain, and headache. Conclusion: Initial opioid prescribing characteristics are associated with the risk of chronic opioid use after hysterectomy. Prescribing lower daily doses and shorter days\u27 supply of opioids to women after hysterectomy may result in lower risk of chronic opioid use

A search for quantitative trait loci controlling within-individual variation of physical activity traits in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that physical inactivity can predispose individuals to a host of health problems. While many studies have analyzed the effect of various environmental factors on activity, we know much less about the genetic control of physical activity. Some studies in mice have discovered quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing various physical activity traits, but mostly have analyzed inter-individual variation rather than variation in activity within individuals over time. We conducted a genome scan to identify QTLs controlling the distance, duration, and time run by mice over seven consecutive three-day intervals in an F₂population created by crossing two inbred strains (C57L/J and C3H/HeJ) that differed widely (average of nearly 300%) in their activity levels. Our objectives were (a) to see if we would find QTLs not originally discovered in a previous investigation that assessed these traits over the entire 21-day period and (b) to see if some of these QTLs discovered might affect the activity traits only in the early or in the late time intervals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This analysis uncovered 39 different QTLs, over half of which were new. Some QTLs affected the activity traits only in the early time intervals and typically exhibited significant dominance effects whereas others affected activity only in the later age intervals and exhibited less dominance. We also analyzed the regression slopes of the activity traits over the intervals, and found several QTLs affecting these traits that generally mapped to unique genomic locations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It was concluded that the genetic architecture of physical activity in mice is much more complicated than has previously been recognized, and may change considerably depending on the age at which various activity measures are assessed.</p

Determining significance of pairwise co-occurrences of events in bursty sequences

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Event sequences where different types of events often occur close together arise, e.g., when studying potential transcription factor binding sites (TFBS, events) of certain transcription factors (TF, types) in a DNA sequence. These events tend to occur in bursts: in some genomic regions there are more genes and therefore potentially more binding sites, while in some, possibly very long regions, hardly any events occur. Also some types of events may occur in the sequence more often than others.</p> <p>Tendencies of co-occurrence of binding sites of two or more TFs are interesting, as they may imply a co-operative role between the TFs in regulatory processes. Determining a numerical value to summarize the tendency for co-occurrence between two TFs can be done in a number of ways. However, testing for the significance of such values should be done with respect to a relevant null model that takes into account the global sequence structure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We extend the existing techniques that have been considered for determining the significance of co-occurrence patterns between a pair of event types under different null models. These models range from very simple ones to more complex models that take the burstiness of sequences into account. We evaluate the models and techniques on synthetic event sequences, and on real data consisting of potential transcription factor binding sites.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We show that simple null models are poorly suited for bursty data, and they yield many false positives. More sophisticated models give better results in our experiments. We also demonstrate the effect of the window size, i.e., maximum co-occurrence distance, on the significance results.</p

Development of a Patient-Report Measure of Psychotherapy for Depression

Despite clear indications of need to improve depression treatment, practical tools that efficiently measure psychotherapy are not available. We developed a patient-report measure of psychotherapy for depression that assesses Cognitive Behavioral (CBT), Interpersonal (IPT), and Psychodynamic therapies. 420 patients with depression from a large managed behavioral health care organization completed the measure. The three subscales measuring CBT, IPT, and Psychodynamic Therapy showed good internal consistency, appropriate item-total correlations, and were supported by a 3-factor structure. Our results suggest that a patient questionnaire is a promising approach for assessing psychotherapy in quality improvement interventions

Effect of the Mediterranean diet on blood pressure in the PREDIMED trial: results from a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundHypertension can be prevented by adopting healthy dietary patterns. Our aim was to assess the 4-year effect on blood pressure (BP) control of a randomized feeding trial promoting the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern.MethodsThe PREDIMED primary prevention trial is a randomized, single-blinded, controlled trial conducted in Spanish primary healthcare centers. We recruited 7,447 men (aged 55 to 80 years) and women (aged 60 to 80 years) who had high risk for cardiovascular disease. Participants were assigned to a control group or to one of two Mediterranean diets. The control group received education on following a low-fat diet, while the groups on Mediterranean diets received nutritional education and also free foods; either extra virgin olive oil, or nuts. Trained personnel measured participants’ BP at baseline and once yearly during a 4-year follow-up. We used generalized estimating equations to assess the differences between groups during the follow-up.ResultsThe percentage of participants with controlled BP increased in all three intervention groups (P-value for within-group changes: P<0.001). Participants allocated to either of the two Mediterranean diet groups had significantly lower diastolic BP than the participants in the control group (−1.53 mmHg (95% confidence interval (CI) −2.01 to −1.04) for the Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil, and −0.65 mmHg (95% CI -1.15 to −0.15) mmHg for the Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts). No between-group differences in changes of systolic BP were seen.ConclusionsBoth the traditional Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet exerted beneficial effects on BP and could be part of advice to patients for controlling BP. However, we found lower values of diastolic BP in the two groups promoting the Mediterranean diet with extra virgin olive oil or with nuts than in the control group.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN3573963

Factor analysis of the Zung self-rating depression scale in a large sample of patients with major depressive disorder in primary care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to examine the symptomatic dimensions of depression in a large sample of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in the primary care (PC) setting by means of a factor analysis of the Zung self-rating depression scale (ZSDS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A factor analysis was performed, based on the polychoric correlations matrix, between ZSDS items using promax oblique rotation in 1049 PC patients with a diagnosis of MDD (DSM-IV).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A clinical interpretable four-factor solution consisting of a <it>core depressive </it>factor (I); a <it>cognitive </it>factor (II); an <it>anxiety </it>factor (III) and a <it>somatic </it>factor (IV) was extracted. These factors accounted for 36.9% of the variance on the ZSDS. The 4-factor structure was validated and high coefficients of congruence were obtained (0.98, 0.95, 0.92 and 0.87 for factors I, II, III and IV, respectively). The model seemed to fit the data well with fit indexes within recommended ranges (GFI = 0.9330, AGFI = 0.9112 and RMR = 0.0843).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings suggest that depressive symptoms in patients with MDD in the PC setting cluster into four dimensions: <it>core depressive, cognitive, anxiety </it>and <it>somatic</it>, by means of a factor analysis of the ZSDS. Further research is needed to identify possible diagnostic, therapeutic or prognostic implications of the different depressive symptomatic profiles.</p