A Pentecostal Expression of Holistic Reflection in the Improvement of Pastoral Leadership Practices

This dissertation is an action research self-study undertaken with the aim of transforming my pastoral leadership practices with the extended application of assisting other leaders to do the same. The research question asks in what ways action research methodology with its inherent reflective methods contributes to pastoral leadership transformation. The primary outcome is a framework of holistic reflection that consistently and systematically works to transform my leadership practices. Through the action research methodology of constant iteration, I evaluated the effects of my leadership, reflected on the disconnect between my core values and my behavior and searched for a means to align my behavior and my values. In the process I developed a method of spiritual reflection, consisting of spiritual disciplines as a means of non-rational knowledge creation associated with my experience of and engagement with the Holy Spirit. This method of spiritual reflection is in keeping with my pneumatological Pentecostal worldview and serves to extend the fundamental reflective thinking and critical reflection so useful in generating knowledge of a rational and affective kind. Traditionally these methods of reflection are common in action research as well as other inquiring approaches, including theological reflection. The application of holistic reflection in Christian praxis, explained in this dissertation, is applied to transforming pastoral leadership practices. Of note regarding the outcome of engaging with the process of action research is the identification of the internal processes and outward behavioral evidence as indicators of transformed leadership practices. The literature in the dissertation serves as a theoretical basis for an understanding of transformation and grounding for the holistic framework presented, representing a whole person approach to reflective practice as it is applied in action research

Acute Delta Hepatitis in Italy spanning three decades (1991–2019): Evidence for the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination campaign

Updated incidence data of acute Delta virus hepatitis (HDV) are lacking worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate incidence of and risk factors for acute HDV in Italy after the introduction of the compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 1991. Data were obtained from the National Surveillance System of acute viral hepatitis (SEIEVA). Independent predictors of HDV were assessed by logistic-regression analysis. The incidence of acute HDV per 1-million population declined from 3.2 cases in 1987 to 0.04 in 2019, parallel to that of acute HBV per 100,000 from 10.0 to 0.39 cases during the same period. The median age of cases increased from 27 years in the decade 1991-1999 to 44 years in the decade 2010-2019 (p < .001). Over the same period, the male/female ratio decreased from 3.8 to 2.1, the proportion of coinfections increased from 55% to 75% (p = .003) and that of HBsAg positive acute hepatitis tested for by IgM anti-HDV linearly decreased from 50.1% to 34.1% (p < .001). People born abroad accounted for 24.6% of cases in 2004-2010 and 32.1% in 2011-2019. In the period 2010-2019, risky sexual behaviour (O.R. 4.2; 95%CI: 1.4-12.8) was the sole independent predictor of acute HDV; conversely intravenous drug use was no longer associated (O.R. 1.25; 95%CI: 0.15-10.22) with this. In conclusion, HBV vaccination was an effective measure to control acute HDV. Intravenous drug use is no longer an efficient mode of HDV spread. Testing for IgM-anti HDV is a grey area requiring alert. Acute HDV in foreigners should be monitored in the years to come

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Features associated with epilepsy in the antiphospholipid syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of epilepsy in primary and secondary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS); to analyze the clinical and laboratory features characterizing those with epilepsy in a cohort of 538 patients with APS; and to find associated features that would suggest risk factors for epilepsy in APS. METHODS: We analyzed the clinical features of patients with APS who had epilepsy and compared them to the clinical features of non-epileptic APS patients. RESULTS: Of 538 APS patients, 46 (8.6%) had epilepsy. Epilepsy was more prevalent among APS secondary to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared to primary APS (13.7% vs 6%; p < 0.05). The patients with epilepsy had a higher prevalence of central nervous system (CNS) manifestations including focal ischemic events (strokes or transient ischemic events, 54.3% vs 24.6%; p < 0.0001) and amaurosis fugax (15.2% vs 4.9%; p < 0.05). APS patients with epilepsy had a higher frequency of valvular pathology (30.4% vs 14.6%; p < 0.01), thrombocytopenia (43.5% vs 25%; p < 0.05), and livedo reticularis (26.1% vs 11.5%; p < 0.01). The multivariate logistic regression analysis found CNS thromboembolic events as the most significant factor associated with epilepsy, with an odds ratio (OR) of 4.05 (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.05-8), followed by SLE (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2-4.7), and valvular vegetations (OR 2.87, 95% CI 1-8.27). CONCLUSION: Epilepsy is common in APS and most of the risk seems to be linked to vascular disease as manifested by extensive CNS involvement, valvulopathy, and livedo reticularis and to the presence of SLE. These factors, however, explain only part of the increased occurrence of epilepsy in APS and other causes such as direct immune interaction in the brain should be investigated

U-BIOPRED clinical adult asthma clusters linked to a subset of sputum omics

Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease in which there is a differential response to asthma treatments. This heterogeneity needs to be evaluated so that a personalized management approach can be provided. Objectives: We stratified patients with moderate-to-severe asthma based on clinicophysiologic parameters and performed an omics analysis of sputum. Methods: Partition-around-medoids clustering was applied to a training set of 266 asthmatic participants from the European Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Diseases Outcomes (U-BIOPRED) adult cohort using 8 prespecified clinic-physiologic variables. This was repeated in a separate validation set of 152 asthmatic patients. The clusters were compared based on sputum proteomics and transcriptomics data. Results: Four reproducible and stable clusters of asthmatic patients were identified. The training set cluster T1 consists of patients with well-controlled moderate-to-severe asthma, whereas cluster T2 is a group of patients with late-onset severe asthma with a history of smoking and chronic airflow obstruction. Cluster T3 is similar to cluster T2 in terms of chronic airflow obstruction but is composed of nonsmokers. Cluster T4 is predominantly composed of obese female patients with uncontrolled severe asthma with increased exacerbations but with normal lung function. The validation set exhibited similar clusters, demonstrating reproducibility of the classification. There were significant differences in sputum proteomics and transcriptomics between the clusters. The severe asthma clusters (T2, T3, and T4) had higher sputum eosinophilia than cluster T1, with no differences in sputum neutrophil counts and exhaled nitric oxide and serum IgE levels. Conclusion: Clustering based on clinicophysiologic parameters yielded 4 stable and reproducible clusters that associate with different pathobiological pathways