Data-driven analytics to identify school absenteeism associated risk and protective factors for secondary school students

Chronic absenteeism (CA), defined as missing at least 15 school days/year, is recognized as a national problem in the U.S. with devastating long-term impacts for students. Previous studies have been guided by a mixture of diverse CA definitions and measurements which could potentially harm the applicability of findings. Despite the number of CA-associated factors identified, studies utilizing a unified theoretical system to a wide range of risk and protective factors has been scarce

Rising Educational Levels Contribute to Compression of Morbidity. A Multi-State Life Table Analysis of the Netherlands 1995-2015

Objective: This paper assesses whether the future rise in educational levels of theelderly may not only increase life expectancy (LE) but also at the same timecontribute to a reduction in life expectancy with disability (LED).Methods: For each educational level, LE and LED were estimated from multi-statelife tables with a disabled and non-disabled state. Basic transition rates wereestimated from regression analysis of data of a Dutch longitudinal study. The resultsper educational level were aggregated to the total population for the years 1995,2005 and 2015.Results: In 1995, men in the highest educational level had a 0.9 years longerLE and a 5.4 years shorter LED than men in the lowest level. Differences amongwomen were larger (2.0 and 8.3 years). Due to rising educational levels between1995 and 2015, LE for the total male population would increase by 0.2 years whileLED would decrease by 0.5 years. A larger effect was observed for women(0.2 and 1.5 years).Conclusion: Rising educational levels of the elderly are likely to contribute to acompression of morbidity over the next decades, especially among women

Health Seeking Behaviour and Utilization of Health Facilities for Schistosomiasis-Related Symptoms in Ghana

The World Health Organization recommends that long-term benefit of schistosomiasis control should include treatment in local health facilities. This means that patients should visit a hospital or clinic with their complaints. However, little is known about whether they do so. We conducted a study in three regions of Ghana and interviewed two thousand people about whether they recently had schistosomiasis-related symptoms such as blood in urine or blood in faeces, and what they had done about it. We included fever (mostly caused by malaria) for comparison. We found that 40% of patients with urinary symptoms sought care compared to 70% of those with intestinal symptoms and 90% with fever. Overall, only 20% of all schistosomiasis-related symptoms were reported to a hospital or clinic, compared to 30% for fever. Self-medication with allopathic (i.e., orthodox) medicines was the main alternative. Our study showed that the most important determinant for seeking health care or visiting a health facility is perceived severity of the symptom. Factors such as age, sex, socio-economic status and geographic region showed no impact or a clear pattern. We conclude that many schistosomiasis patients do not visit a health facility, the only place with effective drugs, necessitating additional control measures

Health-related quality of life of infants from ethnic minority groups: the Generation R Study

PURPOSE: To assess whether the health-related quality of life of infants from ethnic minority groups differs from the health-related quality of life of native Dutch infants and to evaluate whether infant health and family characteristics explain the potential differences. METHODS: We included 4,506 infants participating in the Generation R Study, a longitudinal birth cohort. When the child was 12 months, parents completed the Infant Toddler Quality of Life Questionnaire (ITQOL); ITQOL scale scores in each ethnic subgroup were compared with scores in the Dutch reference population. Influence of infant health and family characteristics on ITQOL scale scores were evaluated using multivariate regression models. RESULTS: Infants from ethnic minority groups presented significantly lower ITQOL scale scores compared to the Dutch subgroup (e.g., Temperament and Moods scale: median score of Turkish subgroup, 70.8 (IQR, 15.3); median score of Dutch subgroup, 80.6 (IQR, 13.9; P < 0.001)). Infant health and family characteristics mediated an important part of the association between the ethnic minority status and infant health-related quality of life. However, these factors could not fully explain all the differences in the ITQOL scale scores. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-reported health-related quality of life is lower in infants from ethnic minority groups compared to native Dutch infants, which could partly be explained by infant health and by family characteristics

DC-SCRIPT deficiency delays mouse mammary gland development and branching morphogenesis

Mammary glands are unique organs in which major adaptive changes occur in morphogenesis and development after birth. Breast cancer is the most common cancer and a major cause of mortality in females worldwide. We have previously identified the loss of expression of the transcription regulator DC-SCRIPT (Zfp366) as a prominent prognostic event in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer patients. DC-SCRIPT affects multiple transcriptional events in breast cancer cells, including estrogen and progesterone receptor-mediated transcription, and promotes CDKN2B-related cell cycle arrest. As loss of DC-SCRIPT expression appears an early event in breast cancer development, we here investigated the role of DC-SCRIPT in mammary gland development using wild-type and DC-SCRIPT knockout mice. Mice lacking DC-SCRIPT exhibited severe breeding problems and showed significant growth delay relative to littermate wild-type mice. Subsequent analysis revealed that DC-SCRIPT was expressed in mouse mammary epithelium and that DC-SCRIPT deficiency delayed mammary gland morphogenesis in vivo. Finally, analysis of 3D mammary gland organoid cultures confirmed that loss of DC-SCRIPT dramatically delayed mammary organoid branching in vitro. The study shows for the first time that DC-SCRIPT deficiency delays mammary gland morphogenesis in vivo and in vitro. These data define DC-SCRIPT as a novel modulator of mammary gland development

High Incidence of Pulmonary Tuberculosis a Decade after Immigration, Netherlands

Incidence rates of pulmonary tuberculosis among immigrants from high incidence countries remain high for at least a decade after immigration into the Netherlands. Possible explanations are reactivation of old infections and infection transmitted after immigration. Control policies should be determined on the basis of the as-yet unknown main causes of the persistent high incidence

Adaptability and learning Intraprofessional collaboration of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic

CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic created a worldwide public health emergency, in which hospitals created new COVID departments and doctors from different disciplines had to work together. In the Netherlands, a large proportion of doctors in these departments were residents. With knowledge of the disease developing only gradually, the influx of COVID-19 patients called for adaptability, innovative work behavior, and intraprofessional collaboration (intraPC) between residents and between residents and medical specialists. RESEARCH GOAL: This study investigates how the delivery of COVID-19 care in hospital settings altered the way residents develop their sense of adaptability and intraPC during their training. METHODS: Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with residents and medical specialists from various disciplines who worked at a COVID department or Intensive Care Unit (ICU) during the COVID pandemic in the Netherlands, focusing on adaptability and intraPC learning. Transcripts were analyzed using (thematic) template analysis. RESULTS: Four themes that influenced learning during COVID care were identified: collective uncertainty, social cohesion and a sense of safety, the need for adaptive performance and intraPC learning. During the first wave, collective uncertainty about the unknown disease and the continuation of the crisis urged residents to adapt in order to take care of patients with a disease that was as yet unknown. The combination of collective uncertainty, social cohesion and a sense of safety, and the presence of different disciplines in one department promoted residents’ intraPC learning. However, intraPC learning was not always the matter of course due to the scope of the crisis and the huge numbers of new patients. CONCLUSION: Collective uncertainty affected the residents’ adaptability. The combination of collective uncertainty, social cohesion, and the presence of different disciplines in one department promoted the residents’ intraPC learning. An important facilitating factor for both adaptability and intraPC learning is a high level of social cohesion and safety. The physical and psychological proximity of supervisors is an important factor contributing to a safe learning environment. This study provides implications for practice for learning during postgraduate training in non-crisis settings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03868-9

The structural properties of sexual fantasies for sexual offenders : a preliminary model

While the phenomenon of sexual fantasy has been researched extensively, little contemporary inquiry has investigated the structural properties of sexual fantasy within the context of sexual offending. In this study, a qualitative analysis was used to develop a descriptive model of the phenomena of sexual fantasy during the offence process. Twenty-four adult males convicted of sexual offences provided detailed retrospective descriptions of their thoughts, emotions and behaviours&mdash;before, during and after their offences. A data-driven approach to model development, known as Grounded Theory, was undertaken to analyse the interview transcripts. A model was developed to elucidate the structural properties of sexual fantasy in the process of sexual offending, as well as the physiological and psychological variables associated with it. The Sexual Fantasy Structural Properties Model (SFSPM) comprises eight categories that describe various properties of sexual fantasy across the offence process. These categories are: origin, context, trigger, perceptual modality, clarity, motion, intensity and emotion. The strengths of the SFSPM are discussed and its clinical implications are reviewed. Finally, the limitations of the study are presented and future research directions discussed