52 research outputs found

    La defensa de la autorrecuperación

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    La mayoría de las familias que se recuperan de una catástrofe por culpa de un desastre reconstruyen sus propias casas. Esta práctica de autorrecuperación por parte de las comunidades no desplazadas puede servir también para las poblaciones desplazadas

    Childhood obesity prevention trials: A systematic review and meta‐analysis on trial design and the impact of type 1 error

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    Summary: Effect sizes from previously reported trials are often used to determine the meaningful change in weight in childhood obesity prevention interventions because information on clinically meaningful differences is lacking. Estimates from previous trials may be influenced by statistical significance; therefore, it is important that they have a low risk of type 1 error. A systematic review and meta‐analysis were conducted to report on the design of child obesity prevention randomized controlled trials and effectiveness according to risk of type 1 error. Eighty‐four randomized controlled trials were identified. A large range of assumptions were applied in the sample size calculations. The most common primary outcome was BMI, with detectable effect size differences used in sample size calculations ranging from 0.25 kg/m2 (followed up at 2 years) to 1.1 kg/m2 (at 9 months) and BMI z‐score ranging from 0.1 (at 4 years) to 0.67 (at 3 years). There was no consistent relationship between low risk of type 1 error and reports of higher or lower effectiveness. Further clarity of the size of a meaningful difference in weight in childhood obesity prevention trials is required to support evaluation design and decision‐making for intervention and policy. Type 1 error risk does not appear to impact effect sizes in a consistent direction

    The art of Patient and Public Involvement : Exploring ways to research and reduce air pollution through art-based community workshops - a reflective paper

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    In this reflective paper we outline and discuss our art-based Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) approach. This exercise held two broad objectives. Firstly, to assist policy makers in understanding the types of interventions communities will find acceptable to address the problem of poor air quality, and secondly, to ascertain community views about our research plans to explore the impact of the planned interventions on neighbourhoods. We reflect on both our approach and the emergent conversations from the PPI activity. Attendees contributed to the process and stressed the importance of not burdening poor neighbourhoods with costly charges as that would ameliorate one health problem but generate others as a consequence of additional financial burden. Equally, they stressed the need to conduct research on matters which they could connect with such as the impact of clean air plans on young children and how information about air pollution is disseminated in their neighbourhoods as and when research findings emerge. This paper offers a conceptual analysis of the art-based PPI method and uniquely draws a connection to the philosophical traditions of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Specifically, we demonstrate how art is conducive to creating a dialogue which is specifically helpful for PPI purposes for both researchers and implementers, and conversely, why traditional conversational approaches may have fallen short of the adequacy mark in this regard

    Effects of polygenic risk for suicide attempt and risky behavior on brain structure in young people with familial risk of bipolar disorder

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    Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with a 20–30-fold increased suicide risk compared to the general population. First-degree relatives of BD patients show inflated rates of psychopathology including suicidal behaviors. As reliable biomarkers of suicide attempts (SA) are lacking, we examined associations between suicide-related polygenic risk scores (PRSs)—a quantitative index of genomic risk—and variability in brain structures implicated in SA. Participants (n = 206; aged 12–30 years) were unrelated individuals of European ancestry and comprised three groups: 41 BD cases, 96 BD relatives (“high risk”), and 69 controls. Genotyping employed PsychArray, followed by imputation. Three PRSs were computed using genome-wide association data for SA in BD (SA-in-BD), SA in major depressive disorder (SA-in-MDD) (Mullins et al., 2019, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 176(8), 651–660), and risky behavior (Karlsson Linnér et al., 2019, Nature Genetics, 51(2), 245–257). Structural magnetic resonance imaging processing employed FreeSurfer v5.3.0. General linear models were constructed using 32 regions-of-interest identified from suicide neuroimaging literature, with false-discovery-rate correction. SA-in-MDD and SA-in-BD PRSs negatively predicted parahippocampal thickness, with the latter association modified by group membership. SA-in-BD and Risky Behavior PRSs inversely predicted rostral and caudal anterior cingulate structure, respectively, with the latter effect driven by the “high risk” group. SA-in-MDD and SA-in-BD PRSs positively predicted cuneus structure, irrespective of group. This study demonstrated associations between PRSs for suicide-related phenotypes and structural variability in brain regions implicated in SA. Future exploration of extended PRSs, in conjunction with a range of biological, phenotypic, environmental, and experiential data in high risk populations, may inform predictive models for suicidal behaviors.Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC); Lansdowne Foundation, Paul and Jenny Reid, Good Talk, and the Keith Pettigrew Family Bequest. DNA extraction was undertaken by Genetic Repositories Australia (GRA; www.neura.edu.au/GRA), Claudio Toma is a recipient of a “Ramón y Cajal” fellowship (RYC2018-024106-I) from the Spanish MINECO. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Governmen

    Contamination within trials of community based public health interventions : lessons from the HENRY feasibility study

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    Introduction Contamination occurs when participants allocated to trial control arms receive elements of the active intervention. Randomisation at cluster level, rather than individual level, may reduce or eliminate contamination, avoiding the dilution of intervention effectiveness that it may cause. However, cluster randomisation can result in selection bias and may not be feasible to deliver. We explored the extent of contamination in a qualitative study nested within a feasibility study of HENRY (Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young); a UK community-based child obesity prevention programme. We aimed to determine the nature and impact of contamination to inform a larger planned trial and other trials in community based public health settings. Method We invited participants to take part in the nested qualitative study who were already involved in the HENRY feasibility study. Semi-structured interviews/focus groups were conducted with children’s centre managers (n=7), children’s centre staff (n=15), and parents (n=29). Data were transcribed and analysed using an integrative approach. First, deductively organised using a framework guided by the topic guide and then organised using inductive thematic analysis. Results Potential for contamination between treatment arms was recognised by all stakeholder groups. Staff within the intervention centres presented the greatest risk of contamination, predominantly because they were often asked to work in other children centre’s (including control group centres). ‘Sharing of best practice’ by staff was reported to be a common and desirable phenomenon within community based settings. Parental sharing of HENRY messages was reported inconsistently; though some parents indicated a high degree of knowledge transfer within their immediate circles. Conclusions The extent of contamination identified has influenced the design of a future effectiveness trial of HENRY which will be clustered at the centre level (with geographically distinct clusters). The common practice of knowledge sharing amongst community teams means that this clustering approach is also likely to be most suitable for other trials based within these settings. We provide recommendations (e.g. cluster randomisation, training intervention facilitators on implications of contamination) to help reduce the impact of contamination in public health intervention trials with or without clustering, whilst enabling transfer of knowledge where appropriate. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03333733 registered 6th November 201

    Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

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    Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

    Polygenic scores and onset of major mood or psychotic disorders among offspring of affected parents

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    Objective: Family history is an established risk factor for mental illness. The authors sought to investigate whether polygenic scores (PGSs) can complement family history to improve identification of risk for major mood and psychotic disorders. Methods: Eight cohorts were combined to create a sample of 1,884 participants ages 2–36 years, including 1,339 offspring of parents with mood or psychotic disorders, who were prospectively assessed with diagnostic interviews over an average of 5.1 years. PGSs were constructed for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, neuroticism, subjective well-being, p factor, and height (as a negative control). Cox regression was used to test associations between PGSs, family history of major mental illness, and onsets of major mood and psychotic disorders. Results: There were 435 onsets of major mood and psychotic disorders across follow-up. PGSs for neuroticism (hazard ratio=1.23, 95% CI=1.12–1.36), schizophrenia (hazard ratio=1.15, 95% CI=1.04–1.26), depression (hazard ratio=1.11, 95% CI=1.01–1.22), ADHD (hazard ratio=1.10, 95% CI=1.00–1.21), subjective well-being (hazard ratio=0.90, 95% CI=0.82–0.99), and p factor (hazard ratio=1.14, 95% CI=1.04–1.26) were associated with onsets. After controlling for family history, neuroticism PGS remained significantly positively associated (hazard ratio=1.19, 95% CI=1.08–1.31) and subjective well-being PGS remained significantly negatively associated (hazard ratio=0.89, 95% CI=0.81–0.98) with onsets. Conclusions: Neuroticism and subjective well-being PGSs capture risk of major mood and psychotic disorders that is independent of family history, whereas PGSs for psychiatric illness provide limited predictive power when family history is known. Neuroticism and subjective well-being PGSs may complement family history in the early identification of persons at elevated risk
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