Identifying Distinct Risk Profiles to Predict Adverse Events among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Preventing adverse events among chronically ill older adults living in the community is a national health priority. The purpose of this study was to generate distinct risk profiles and compare these profiles in time to: hospitalization, emergency department (ED) visit or death in 371 community-dwelling older adults enrolled in a Medicare demonstration project. Guided by the Behavioral Model of Health Service Use, a secondary analysis was conducted using Latent Class Analysis to generate the risk profiles with Kaplan Meier methodology and log rank statistics to compare risk profiles. The Vuong-Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test demonstrated optimal fit for three risk profiles (High, Medium, and Low Risk). The High Risk profile had significantly shorter time to hospitalization, ED visit, and death (p \u3c 0.001 for each). These findings provide a road map for generating risk profiles that could enable more effective targeting of interventions and be instrumental in reducing health care costs for subgroups of chronically ill community-dwelling older adults

Design of a Multi-Vehicle Control System: System Design and User Interaction

Over the past decade, the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in the armed services has grown markedly. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are used for surveillance, reconnaissance

Anxiety and type 1 diabetes management: guardian and child report in a pediatric endocrinology clinic

Background: Childhood anxiety prevents optimal diabetes management yet may be underrecognized by guardians. Objective: We aimed to investigate associations among anxiety, diabetes treatment adherence, and diabetes symptom control through child and guardian report. Methods: Cross-sectional pilot study surveying a convenience sample of children (ages 2–21) in a pediatric endocrinology clinic. Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition 2, Self-Care Inventory Report, and Pediatric Quality of Life measured anxiety, diabetes treatment adherence, and diabetes symptom control. Analyses were performed with Spearman correlations. Results: Prevalence of anxiety and related behaviors was higher when reported by children (13% and 24%) vs. guardians (5% and 13%). Child-reported anxiety was associated with worse symptom control in all ages (Pediatric Quality of Life [r = −0.55, P 12 (rho = 0.686, P = 0.003)—although not significantly for children ≤ 12 (rho = 0.201, P = 0.473). Conclusion: Anxiety in children with type 1 diabetes varies with the domain of diabetes management (treatment adherence vs. symptom control) and reporting source (child vs. guardian). Children aged ≤12 exhibited a stronger relationship between higher anxiety and worse diabetes management with worse treatment adherence and symptom control in the presence of higher anxiety. Guardians of younger children were less effective at recognizing symptoms. Challenges identifying anxiety and its detrimental effects on diabetes management suggest routine screening of anxiety in pediatric endocrinology clinics is especially salient

New creatinine- and cystatin C-based equations to estimate GFR without race

Background: Current equations for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) that use serum creatinine or cystatin C incorporate age, sex, and race to estimate measured GFR. However, race in eGFR equations is a social and not a biologic construct.Methods: We developed new eGFR equations without race using data from two development data sets: 10 studies (8254 participants, 31.5% Black) for serum creatinine and 13 studies (5352 participants, 39.7% Black) for both serum creatinine and cystatin C. In a validation data set of 12 studies (4050 participants, 14.3% Black), we compared the accuracy of new eGFR equations to measured GFR. We projected the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and GFR stages in a sample of U.S. adults, using current and new equations.Results: In the validation data set, the current creatinine equation that uses age, sex, and race overestimated measured GFR in Blacks (median, 3.7 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8 to 5.4) and to a lesser degree in non-Blacks (median, 0.5 ml per minute per 1.73 m2; 95% CI, 0.0 to 0.9). When the adjustment for Black race was omitted from the current eGFR equation, measured GFR in Blacks was underestimated (median, 7.1 ml per minute per 1.73 m2; 95% CI, 5.9 to 8.8). A new equation using age and sex and omitting race underestimated measured GFR in Blacks (median, 3.6 ml per minute per 1.73 m2; 95% CI, 1.8 to 5.5) and overestimated measured GFR in non-Blacks (median, 3.9 ml per minute per 1.73 m2; 95% CI, 3.4 to 4.4). For all equations, 85% or more of the eGFRs for Blacks and non-Blacks were within 30% of measured GFR. New creatinine-cystatin C equations without race were more accurate than new creatinine equations, with smaller differences between race groups. As compared with the current creatinine equation, the new creatinine equations, but not the new creatinine-cystatin C equations, increased population estimates of CKD prevalence among Blacks and yielded similar or lower prevalence among non-Blacks.Conclusions: New eGFR equations that incorporate creatinine and cystatin C but omit race are more accurate and led to smaller differences between Black participants and non-Black participants than new equations without race with either creatinine or cystatin C alone