The positive mental health instrument: development and validation of a culturally relevant scale in a multi-ethnic asian population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Instruments to measure mental health and well-being are largely developed and often used within Western populations and this compromises their validity in other cultures. A previous qualitative study in Singapore demonstrated the relevance of spiritual and religious practices to mental health, a dimension currently not included in exiting multi-dimensional measures. The objective of this study was to develop a self-administered measure that covers all key and culturally appropriate domains of mental health, which can be applied to compare levels of mental health across different age, gender and ethnic groups. We present the item reduction and validation of the Positive Mental Health (PMH) instrument in a community-based adult sample in Singapore.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Surveys were conducted among adult (21-65 years) residents belonging to Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicities. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA, CFA) were conducted and items were reduced using item response theory tests (IRT). The final version of the PMH instrument was tested for internal consistency and criterion validity. Items were tested for differential item functioning (DIF) to check if items functioned in the same way across all subgroups. <b>Results: </b>EFA and CFA identified six first-order factor structure (General coping, Personal growth and autonomy, Spirituality, Interpersonal skills, Emotional support, and Global affect) under one higher-order dimension of Positive Mental Health (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.96). A 47-item self-administered multi-dimensional instrument with a six-point Likert response scale was constructed. The slope estimates and strength of the relation to the theta for all items in each six PMH subscales were high (range:1.39 to 5.69), suggesting good discrimination properties. The threshold estimates for the instrument ranged from -3.45 to 1.61 indicating that the instrument covers entire spectrums for the six dimensions. The instrument demonstrated high internal consistency and had significant and expected correlations with other well-being measures. Results confirmed absence of DIF.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The PMH instrument is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used to measure and compare level of mental health across different age, gender and ethnic groups in Singapore.</p

A systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the contribution of mr imaging to the diagnosis of foetal brain abnormalities In Utero.

OBJECTIVES: This systematic review was undertaken to define the diagnostic performance of in utero MR (iuMR) imaging when attempting to confirm, exclude or provide additional information compared with the information provided by prenatal ultrasound scans (USS) when there is a suspicion of foetal brain abnormality. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched as well as relevant journals and conference proceedings. Reference lists of applicable studies were also explored. Data extraction was conducted by two reviewers independently to identify relevant studies for inclusion in the review. Inclusion criteria were original research that reported the findings of prenatal USS and iuMR imaging and findings in terms of accuracy as judged by an outcome reference diagnosis for foetal brain abnormalities. RESULTS: 34 studies met the inclusion criteria which allowed diagnostic accuracy to be calculated in 959 cases, all of which had an outcome reference diagnosis determined by postnatal imaging, surgery or autopsy. iuMR imaging gave the correct diagnosis in 91 % which was an increase of 16 % above that achieved by USS alone. CONCLUSION: iuMR imaging makes a significant contribution to the diagnosis of foetal brain abnormalities, increasing the diagnostic accuracy achievable by USS alone. KEY POINTS: • Ultrasound is the primary modality for monitoring foetal brain development during pregnancy • iuMRI used together with ultrasound is more accurate for detecting foetal brain abnormalities • iuMR imaging is most helpful for detecting midline brain abnormalities • The moderate heterogeneity of reviewed studies may compromise findings

Histology of the Pharyngeal Constrictor Muscle in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome and Non-Syndromic Children with Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Plastic surgeons aim to correct velopharyngeal insufficiency manifest by hypernasal speech with a velopharyngoplasty. The functional outcome has been reported to be worse in patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome than in patients without the syndrome. A possible explanation is the hypotonia that is often present as part of the syndrome. To confirm a myogenic component of the etiology of velopharyngeal insufficiency in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, specimens of the pharyngeal constrictor muscle were taken from children with and without the syndrome. Histologic properties were compared between the groups. Specimens from the two groups did not differ regarding the presence of increased perimysial or endomysial space, fiber grouping by size or type, internalized nuclei, the percentage type I fibers, or the diameters of type I and type II fibers. In conclusion, a myogenic component of the etiology of velopharyngeal insufficiency in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome could not be confirmed

Cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors from 1980 to 2010: a comparative risk assessment

Background High blood pressure, blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and BMI are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and some of these factors also increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and diabetes. We estimated mortality from cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes that was attributable to these four cardiometabolic risk factors for all countries and regions from 1980 to 2010. Methods We used data for exposure to risk factors by country, age group, and sex from pooled analyses of populationbased health surveys. We obtained relative risks for the eff ects of risk factors on cause-specifi c mortality from metaanalyses of large prospective studies. We calculated the population attributable fractions for- each risk factor alone, and for the combination of all risk factors, accounting for multicausality and for mediation of the eff ects of BMI by the other three risks. We calculated attributable deaths by multiplying the cause-specifi c population attributable fractions by the number of disease-specifi c deaths. We obtained cause-specifi c mortality from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study. We propagated the uncertainties of all the inputs to the fi nal estimates. Findings In 2010, high blood pressure was the leading risk factor for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes in every region, causing more than 40% of worldwide deaths from these diseases; high BMI and glucose were each responsible for about 15% of deaths, and high cholesterol for more than 10%. After accounting for multicausality, 63% (10\ub78 million deaths, 95% CI 10\ub71\u201311\ub75) of deaths from these diseases in 2010 were attributable to the combined eff ect of these four metabolic risk factors, compared with 67% (7\ub71 million deaths, 6\ub76\u20137\ub76) in 1980. The mortality burden of high BMI and glucose nearly doubled from 1980 to 2010. At the country level, age-standardised death rates from these diseases attributable to the combined eff ects of these four risk factors surpassed 925 deaths per 100 000 for men in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, but were less than 130 deaths per 100 000 for women and less than 200 for men in some high-income countries including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and Spain. Interpretation The salient features of the cardiometabolic disease and risk factor epidemic at the beginning of the 21st century are high blood pressure and an increasing eff ect of obesity and diabetes. The mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors has shifted from high-income to low-income and middle-income countries. Lowering cardiometabolic risks through dietary, behavioural, and pharmacological interventions should be a part of the globalresponse to non-communicable diseases

The Influence of Control Choice and Partner’s Prior Transactional Experience on Partner’s Trust and Cooperativeness in New Collaborations

This study examines the effects on interfirm collaboration of management control systems providing information of varying precision when precision is a firm choice that may be interpreted by a transaction partner though a lens of prior experience. We use experimental methods to study whether the cooperativeness of prior collaboration experience affects a partner’s perception of another firm’s control choices with consequences for the partner’s goodwill trust in and collaboration with the firm. We distinguish between partners’ perception of the decision to adopt precise controls as an effort to (i) limit partner autonomy or (ii) reduce information asymmetry about partner actions. We predict that the partner’s prior collaboration experience determines which role is salient, with negative experiences favoring the former and positive experiences favoring the latter interpretation. We find that a partner with a cooperative prior experience is more cooperative in the new collaboration. Moreover, prior experience frames the partner’s perception of the new collaborator’s control choices. A partner with an uncooperative experience sees precise controls as an effort to limit autonomy and reciprocates with lower goodwill trust. In contrast, a partner with a cooperative experience sees precise controls as enabling collaboration through better information and reciprocates with higher goodwill trust. We do not find a moderating effect of partner’s prior experience on the association between control precision and partner cooperativeness. Instead, we find a moderated mediation effect where the mediating effect of the partner’s goodwill trust on the association between control precision and partner cooperation depends on the cooperativeness of the partner’s prior experience

Getting to Know You: Trust Formation in New Interfirm Relationships and the Consequences for Investments in Management Control and the Collaboration

Trust is often posited to substitute for management control in interfirm transactions. However, this raises questions of how trust arises in new relationships, and whether trust that is not based on prior experience transacting together is sufficient to persuade managers to forgo investments in management controls. We use an experiment to test whether two features of the early stage of an interfirm relationship influence a buyer's initial trust in a supplier and have consequences for subsequent investments in management controls and in the collaboration. These two features are the autonomy of the buyer's manager to choose a supplier (i.e., delegation of decision-making authority) and the supplier's willingness to share information with the buyer. We find that the buyer manager's initial trust in the supplier is associated positively with both the autonomy to choose the supplier and the supplier's willingness to share information. Information content and supplier characteristics are held constant, so these results are novel and distinct from prior studies of the antecedents of trust. We find that higher initial trust is associated with reduced expenditures for management controls and increased investments in the collaboration. Thus, we conclude that delegation of decision-making authority and supplier information-sharing behavior in the early stages of a relationship influence the formation of initial trust, which has real consequences for investments in management control and in the collaboration

Getting to Know You: Trust Formation in New Interfirm Relationships and the Consequences for Investments in Management Control and the Collaboration

Trust is often posited to substitute for management control in interfirm transactions. However, this raises questions of how trust arises in new relationships, and whether trust that is not based on prior experience transacting together is sufficient to persuade managers to forgo investments in management controls. We use an experiment to test whether two features of the early stage of an interfirm relationship influence a buyer's initial trust in a supplier and have consequences for subsequent investments in management controls and in the collaboration. These two features are the autonomy of the buyer's manager to choose a supplier (i.e., delegation of decision-making authority) and the supplier's willingness to share information with the buyer. We find that the buyer manager's initial trust in the supplier is associated positively with both the autonomy to choose the supplier and the supplier's willingness to share information. Information content and supplier characteristics are held constant, so these results are novel and distinct from prior studies of the antecedents of trust. We find that higher initial trust is associated with reduced expenditures for management controls and increased investments in the collaboration. Thus, we conclude that delegation of decision-making authority and supplier information-sharing behavior in the early stages of a relationship influence the formation of initial trust, which has real consequences for investments in management control and in the collaboration

Validating the Children's Depression Inventory-2: Results from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study

10.1371/journal.pone.0286197PLOS One185e028619

Nitro-deficient niclosamide confers reduced genotoxicity and retains mitochondrial uncoupling activity for cancer therapy

10.3390/ijms221910420International Journal of Molecular Sciences221910420-1042