Deriving prevalence estimates of depressive symptoms throughout middle and old age in those living in the community

BACKGROUND: There is considerable debate about the prevalence of depression in old age. Epidemiological surveys and clinical studies indicate mixed evidence for the association between depression and increasing age. We examined the prevalence of probable depression in the middle aged to the oldest old in a project designed specifically to investigate the aging process. METHODS: Community-living participants were drawn from several Australian longitudinal studies of aging that contributed to the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) project. Different depression scales from the contributing studies were harmonized to create a binary variable that reflected "probable depression" based on existing cut-points for each harmonized scale. Weighted prevalence was benchmarked to the Australian population which could be compared with findings from the 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being (NSMHWB). RESULTS: In the DYNOPTA project, females were more likely to report probable depression. This was consistent across age levels. Both NSMHWB surveys and DYNOPTA did not report a decline in the likelihood of reporting probable depression for the oldest old in comparison with mid-life. CONCLUSIONS: Inconsistency in the reports of late-life depression prevalence in previous epidemiological studies may be explained by either the exclusion and/or limited sampling of the oldest old. DYNOPTA addresses these limitations and the results indicated no change in the likelihood of reporting depression with increasing age. Further research should extend these findings to examine within-person change in a longitudinal context and control for health covariates.NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia

A Proteomic Approach to Analyze the Aspirin-mediated Lysine Acetylome

This work is supported by Cancer Research UK Grant C434/A13067 (M.H.T & R.T.H) and Wellcome Trust Grant 098391/Z/12/7 (R.T.H.).Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid is widely used to control pain, inflammation and fever. Important to this function is its ability to irreversibly acetylate cyclooxygenases at active site serines. Aspirin has the potential to acetylate other amino-acid side-chains, leading to the possibility that aspirin-mediated lysine acetylation could explain some of its as-yet unexplained drug actions or side-effects. Using isotopically labeled aspirin-d3, in combination with acetylated lysine purification and LC-MS/MS, we identified over 12000 sites of lysine acetylation from cultured human cells. Although aspirin amplifies endogenous acetylation signals at the majority of detectable endogenous sites, cells tolerate aspirin mediated acetylation very well unless cellular deacetylases are inhibited. Although most endogenous acetylations are amplified by orders of magnitude, lysine acetylation site occupancies remain very low even after high doses of aspirin. This work shows that while aspirin has enormous potential to alter protein function, in the majority of cases aspirin-mediated acetylations do not accumulate to levels likely to elicit biological effects. These findings are consistent with an emerging model for cellular acetylation whereby stoichiometry correlates with biological relevance, and deacetylases act to minimize the biological consequences non-specific chemical acetylations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Attitudes of Ghanaian women toward genetic testing for sickle cell trait

ObjectiveTo explore the attitudes of Ghanaian women toward genetic testing for the sickle cell trait and to investigate key factors that promote or impede the decision to pursue knowledge of the carrier status.MethodsA survey, administered in person to Ghanaian women, collected demographic information and information on the participants’ knowledge about their carrier status, their attitudes toward genetic testing, and their perceptions of the implications of being a carrier. The results for women who had previously undergone testing and those who had not were compared.ResultsOf 124 participants, 75 had been tested for the sickle cell trait and 49 had not. Some 53% of the women who had been tested did not know their carrier status. Most women agreed that getting a prenatal genetic test was important. However, nontested women were more likely to lack the financial resources to undergo testing, to think that testing is futile because sickle cell disease is not curable, and to believe that the outcome of their child’s health is determined by God.ConclusionThe women tended to have favorable attitudes toward genetic testing, but numerous barriers remained that precluded knowledge of their carrier status or the pursuit of this knowledge.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135529/1/ijgo264.pd

Medical nutrition therapy for gestational diabetes mellitus in Australia : what has changed in 10 years and how does current practice compare with best practice?

Background: The present study aimed to report Australian dietetic practice regarding management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to make comparisons with the findings from a 2009 survey of dietitians and with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Evidence-Based Nutrition Practice Guidelines (NPG). Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2019 and 2009 of dietitians providing medical nutrition therapy (MNT) to women with GDM in Australia. The present study compares responses on demographics, dietetic assessment and interventions, and guideline use in 2019 vs. 2009. Results: In total, 149 dietitians (2019) and 220 (2009) met survey inclusion criteria. In both surveys >60% of respondents reported dietary interventions aiming for >45% energy from carbohydrate, 15%–25% energy from protein and 15%–30% energy from fat. Many variations in MNT found in 2009 continued to be evident in 2019, including the percentage of energy from carbohydrate aimed for (30%–65% in 2019 vs. 20%–75% in 2009) and the wide range in the recommended minimum daily carbohydrate intake (40–220 and 60–300 g). Few dietitians reported aiming for the NPG minimum of 175 g of carbohydrate daily in both surveys (32% in 2019 vs. 26% in 2009). There were, however, some significant increases in MNT consistent with NPG recommendations in 2019 vs. 2009, including the minimum frequency of visits provided (49%, n = 61 vs. 33%, n = 69; p < 0.001) and provision of gestational weight gain advice (59%, n = 95 vs. 40%, n = 195; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Although many dietitians continue to provide MNT consistent with existing NPG, there is a need to support greater uptake, especially for recommendations regarding carbohydrate intake

Effect of increasing fruit and vegetable intake by dietary intervention on nutritional biomarkers and attitudes to dietary change : a randomised trial

This work was funded by The Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Sciences Division (RESAS) and supported by the Rank Prize Funds.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Genome‐wide linkage analysis and whole‐exome sequencing identifies an ITGA2B mutation in a family with thrombocytopenia

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150531/1/bjh15961_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150531/2/bjh15961.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150531/3/bjh15961-sup-0001-DataS1.pd

Head and neck cancer in the UK: what was the stage before COVID-19? UK cancer registries analysis (2011-2018)

Introduction: People who present with more advanced stage head and neck cancer (HNC) are associated with poorer outcomes and survival. The burden and trends of advanced stage HNC are not fully known at the population level. The UK national cancer registries routinely collect data on HNC diagnoses. Aims: To describe trends in stage of diagnosis of HNCs across the UK before the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Aggregated HNC incidence data were requested from the national cancer registries of the four UK countries for the ten most recent years of available data by subsite and American Joint Commission on Cancer stage at diagnosis classification. Additionally, data for Scotland were available by age group, sex and area-based socioeconomic deprivation category. Results: Across the UK, rates of advanced stage HNC had increased, with 59% of patients having advanced disease at diagnosis from 2016-2018. England had a lower proportion of advanced disease (58%) than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (65-69%) where stage data were available. The completeness of stage data had improved over recent years (87% by 2018). Conclusion: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, diagnoses of HNC at an advanced stage comprised the majority of HNCs in the UK, representing the major challenge for the cancer healthcare system

Impaired Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Energetics Following Anthracycline Therapy for Breast Cancer

Acknowledgments The fellow (Dr Gamble) recruited participants, scheduled, coordinated, and performed all clinical imaging investigations, patients skeletal muscle biopsies and venesection, conducted mitochondrial copy number analysis of muscle biopsies under supervision, analyzed all data, performed statistical analyses under supervision, and drafted this article. H. Khan and A. Rudd helped with the investigations and reviewed and contributed to this article. S. Baliga provided the healthy volunteer skeletal muscle biopsies. Dr Ross designed and developed the protocol for cardiac and skeletal muscle spectroscopy. L. Cheyne supervised muscle biopsy analyses. Drs Unger and Linke performed the skeletal muscle transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy investigations. Dr Horgan is the study statistician. Drs Urquhart, Masannat, Elsberger, Fuller, Mustafa, and Sharma identified and recruited participants and reviewed and contributed to this article. Drs Hannah, Sharma, and Saunders contributed to the design of the study. D. Dawson (PI) designed the study, obtained funding (together with Drs Sharma and Masannat) and regulatory approvals, supervised the unfolding of the study, its analyses and revised the article drafts. Sources of Funding Tenovus Scotland G18.01, D. Dawson and Dr Sharma, Friends of Anchor 2019, Grampian National Health Service-Endowments (Drs Sharma and Masannat), British Health Foundation PG/18/35/33786 to D. Dawson funded DG salary and BHF FS/RTF/20/30009 to D. Dawson funded AR salary.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on the management of functional dyspepsia

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common disorder of gut-brain interaction, affecting approximately 7% of individuals in the community, with most patients managed in primary care. The last British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) guideline for the management of dyspepsia was published in 1996. In the interim, substantial advances have been made in understanding the complex pathophysiology of FD, and there has been a considerable amount of new evidence published concerning its diagnosis and classification, with the advent of the Rome IV criteria, and management. The primary aim of this guideline, commissioned by the BSG, is to review and summarise the current evidence to inform and guide clinical practice, by providing a practical framework for evidence-based diagnosis and treatment of patients. The approach to investigating the patient presenting with dyspepsia is discussed, and efficacy of drugs in FD summarised based on evidence derived from a comprehensive search of the medical literature, which was used to inform an update of a series of pairwise and network meta-Analyses. Specific recommendations have been made according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. These provide both the strength of the recommendations and the overall quality of evidence. Finally, in this guideline, we consider novel treatments that are in development, as well as highlighting areas of unmet need and priorities for future research