53 research outputs found
A Morbidity Survey of South African Primary Care
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.The original publication is available at www.plosone.org/BibliographyBackground: Recent studies have described the burden of disease in South Africa. However these studies do not tell us
which of these conditions commonly present to primary care providers, how these conditions may present and how
providers make sense of them in terms of their diagnoses. Clinical nurse practitioners are the main primary care providers
and need to be better prepared for this role. This study aimed to determine the range and prevalence of reasons for
encounter and diagnoses found among ambulatory patients attending public sector primary care facilities in South Africa.
Methodology/Principal Findings: The study was a multi-centre prospective cross-sectional survey of consultations in
primary care in four provinces of South Africa: Western Cape, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West. Consultations were
coded prior to analysis by using the International Classification of Primary Care-Version 2 in terms of reasons for encounter
(REF) and diagnoses. Altogether 18856 consultations were included in the survey and generated 31451 reasons for
encounter (RFE) and 24561 diagnoses. Women accounted for 12526 (66.6%) and men 6288 (33.4%). Nurses saw 16238
(86.1%) and doctors 2612 (13.9%) of patients. The top 80 RFE and top 25 diagnoses are reported and ongoing care for
hypertension was the commonest RFE and diagnosis. The 20 commonest RFE and diagnoses by age group are also
reported.
Conclusions/Significance: Ambulatory primary care is dominated by non-communicable chronic diseases. HIV/AIDS and TB
are common, but not to the extent predicted by the burden of disease. Pneumonia and gastroenteritis are commonly seen
especially in children. Womenâs health issues such as family planning and pregnancy related visits are also common. Injuries
are not as common as expected from the burden of disease. Primary care providers did not recognise mental health
problems. The results should guide the future training and assessment of primary care providers.Stellenbosch University Open Access FundPublishers' Versio
A Comparison of DSM-IV and DSM-5 Panel Members' Financial Associations with Industry: A Pernicious Problem Persists
Lisa Cosgrove and Sheldon Krimsky examine the new competing interest disclosure policy of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and report that DSM panel members still have considerable financial conflicts of interest
A meta-analytic review of stand-alone interventions to improve body image
Objective
Numerous stand-alone interventions to improve body image have been developed. The
present review used meta-analysis to estimate the effectiveness of such interventions, and
to identify the specific change techniques that lead to improvement in body image.
Methods
The inclusion criteria were that (a) the intervention was stand-alone (i.e., solely focused on
improving body image), (b) a control group was used, (c) participants were randomly
assigned to conditions, and (d) at least one pretest and one posttest measure of body
image was taken. Effect sizes were meta-analysed and moderator analyses were conducted.
A taxonomy of 48 change techniques used in interventions targeted at body image
was developed; all interventions were coded using this taxonomy.
Results
The literature search identified 62 tests of interventions (N = 3,846). Interventions produced
a small-to-medium improvement in body image (d+ = 0.38), a small-to-medium reduction in
beauty ideal internalisation (d+ = -0.37), and a large reduction in social comparison tendencies
(d+ = -0.72). However, the effect size for body image was inflated by bias both within
and across studies, and was reliable but of small magnitude once corrections for bias were
applied. Effect sizes for the other outcomes were no longer reliable once corrections for
bias were applied. Several features of the sample, intervention, and methodology moderated
intervention effects. Twelve change techniques were associated with improvements in
body image, and three techniques were contra-indicated.
Conclusions
The findings show that interventions engender only small improvements in body image, and
underline the need for large-scale, high-quality trials in this area. The review identifies effective
techniques that could be deployed in future interventions
Reporting of financial conflicts of interest in clinical practice guidelines: a case study analysis of guidelines from the Canadian Medical Association Infobase
The Bile Acid Synthesis Pathway Is Present and Functional in the Human Ovary
Background: Bile acids, end products of the pathway for cholesterol elimination, are required for dietary lipid and fat-soluble vitamin absorption and maintain the balance between cholesterol synthesis in the liver and cholesterol excretion. They are composed of a steroid structure and are primarily made in the liver by the oxidation of cholesterol. Cholesterol is also highly abundant in the human ovarian follicle, where it is used in the formation of the sex steroids. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we describe for the first time evidence that all aspects of the bile acid synthesis pathway are present in the human ovarian follicle, including the enzymes in both the classical and alternative pathways, the nuclear receptors known to regulate the pathway, and the end product bile acids. Furthermore, we provide functional evidence that bile acids are produced by the human follicular granulosa cells in response to cholesterol presence in the culture media. Conclusions/Significance: These findings establish a novel pathway present in the human ovarian follicle that has the capacity to compete directly with sex steroid synthesis
Rate after-effects fail to transfer cross-modally: evidence for distributed sensory timing mechanisms
Accurate time perception is critical for a number of human behaviours, such as understanding speech and the appreciation of music. However, it remains unresolved whether sensory time perception is mediated by a central timing component regulating all senses, or by a set of distributed mechanisms, each dedicated to a single sensory modality and operating in a largely independent manner. To address this issue, we conducted a range of unimodal and cross-modal rate adaptation experiments, in order to establish the degree of specificity of classical after- effects of sensory adaptation. Adapting to a fast rate of sensory stimulation typically makes a moderate rate appear slower (repulsive after-effect), and vice versa. A central timing hypothesis predicts general transfer of adaptation effects across modalities, whilst distributed mechanisms predict a high degree of sensory selectivity. Rate perception was quantified by a method of temporal reproduction across all combinations of visual, auditory and tactile senses. Robust repulsive after-effects were observed in all unimodal rate conditions, but were not observed for any cross-modal pairings. Our results show that sensory timing abilities are adaptable but, crucially, that this change is modality-specific - an outcome that is consistent with a distributed sensory timing hypothesis
Proceedings of the Virtual 3rd UK Implementation Science Research Conference : Virtual conference. 16 and 17 July 2020.
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