METHOD AND MATERIAL: A preliminary study of the original TIBSIT (Phase 1) followed by cultural adaption (Phase 2) were carried out on volunteers from various neighbourhoods in Klang Valley, Malaysia comprising of age group 16-80 years. A total of 150 test subjects and 50 test subjects were recruited for Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively. Cultural adaptation was done with changes to the distractors that were found to be confusing. In addition, modifications included added language translation and visual reinforcement with images of the odour's substance of origin.
RESULTS: 109 out of the 150 responses were accepted for Phase 1. A detection rate of less than 75% was found in three of the odours with the remaining showing an average rate of 87.2% to 97.7%. These three odours were culturally adapted for Phase 2. All 50 responses for Phase 2 were accepted; two of the odours' detection rates improved to 98% but the plum odour was only detected 53% of the time.
CONCLUSION: TIBSIT provides a quick office-based olfaction testing. The culturally adapted test kit is a potentially useful screening test for the Malaysian population. It is also safe and excludes the need of the clinician to carry out the test. This becomes especially useful in testing any dysosmia (hyposmia/anosmia) cases suspected of SARS-COV-2 virus infection (COVID-19).
AIM: This review aimed to explore the effects of psychoeducational interventions on improving outcome measures for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
METHODS: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guideline was used in this systematic review. Two reviewers were involved in screening articles for inclusion and in the data extraction process. The selected studies were assessed for quality using the 'Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trial (CONSORT)' checklist. Out of the 441 records identified, 11 papers were considered for full review (from 2000 to 2018).
RESULTS: The psychoeducational interventions showed a consistent improvement in many outcome measures. Most of the reviewed studies focused on outpatients and the method of delivering the psychoeducational interventions was mostly in lecture format.
CONCLUSION: This systematic review of randomized controlled trial studies emphasizes the positive impact of psychoeducational interventions for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia concerning various outcome measures. The findings of this review have important implications for both nursing practice and research, as the information presented can be used by the administrators and stakeholders of mental health facilities to increase their understanding and awareness of the importance of integrating psychoeducational interventions in the routine care of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between 12th and May 13, 2020. Quota sampling was used to attain equal gender and age distributions representative of the Japanese population.
RESULTS: A total of 4127 complete responses were analysed. Higher educational level (B = 0.045, p = 0.002) and household income (B = 0.04, p = 0.009) were associated with a higher increase in preventive measures when comparing before and after the state of emergency was declared. The highest reported social anxiety was a feeling of fear (65.6%), followed by embarrassment (43.8%), keeping infection a secret (41.3%), avoidance (41.3%), and stigma (25.5%). A total of 86.1% of the respondents reported moderate to severe anxiety. The partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that being female has the greatest effect (B = 0.246, p
OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Borg CR-10 scale to monitor the perceived exertion of office exercise training.
METHODS: The study involved 105 staff members employed in a government office with an age range from 25 to 50 years. The Borg CR-10 scale was self-administered two times, with an interval of two weeks in order to evaluate the accuracy of the original findings with a retest. Face validity and content validity were also examined.
RESULTS: Reliability was found to be high for the Borg CR-10 scale (0.898). Additionally a high correlation between the Borg CR-10 scale and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was identified (rs = 0.754, P
METHODS: An anonymous cross-sectional survey was conducted between 4 January and 5 March 2021 in 17 countries worldwide. Proportions and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and vaccine characteristics influencing vaccination acceptance were generated and compared across countries and regions. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
RESULTS: Of the 19,714 responses received, 90.4% (95% CI 81.8-95.3) reported likely or extremely likely to receive COVID-19 vaccine. A high proportion of likely or extremely likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was reported in Australia (96.4%), China (95.3%) and Norway (95.3%), while a high proportion reported being unlikely or extremely unlikely to receive the vaccine in Japan (34.6%), the U.S. (29.4%) and Iran (27.9%). Males, those with a lower educational level and those of older age expressed a higher level of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Less than two-thirds (59.7%; 95% CI 58.4-61.0) reported only being willing to accept a vaccine with an effectiveness of more than 90%, and 74.5% (95% CI 73.4-75.5) said they would accept a COVID-19 vaccine with minor adverse reactions. A total of 21.0% (95% CI 20.0-22.0) reported not accepting an mRNA vaccine and 51.8% (95% CI 50.3-53.1) reported that they would only accept a COVID-19 vaccine from a specific country-of-origin. Countries from the Southeast Asia region reported the highest proportion of not accepting mRNA technology. The highest proportion from Europe and the Americas would only accept a vaccine produced by certain countries. The foremost important vaccine characteristic influencing vaccine choice is adverse reactions (40.6%; 95% CI 39.3-41.9) of a vaccine and effectiveness threshold (35.1%; 95% CI 33.9-36.4).
CONCLUSIONS: The inter-regional and individual country disparities in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy highlight the importance of designing an efficient plan for the delivery of interventions dynamically tailored to the local population.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, online searches of multiple databases were performed to retrieve articles from their inception until December 2017. Inclusion criteria included all English-based original articles of immunohistochemistry (IHC) studies investigating CAIX expression in human RCC tissue. Four articles were finally selected for meta-analysis with a total of 1964 patients. Standard meta-analysis methods were applied to evaluate the role of CAIX in RCC prognosis. The relative risk (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were recorded for the association between biomarker and prognosis, and data were analysed using MedCalc statistical software.
RESULTS: The meta-analysis showed that high CAIX expression was associated with low tumour stage (RR 0.90%, 95% CI 0.849-0.969, p= 0.004), low tumour grade (RR 0.835%, 95% CI 0.732-0.983, p= 0.028), absence of nodal involvement (RR 0.814%, 95% CI 0.712-0.931, p= 0.003) and better ECOS-PS index (RR 0.888%, 95% CI 0.818-0.969, p= 0.007). The high tissue CAIX expression in RCC is hence an indication of an early malignancy with a potential to predict favourable disease progression and outcome.
CONCLUSION: The measurement of this marker may be beneficial to determine the course of the illness. It is hoped that CAIX can be developed as a specific tissue biomarker for RCC in the near future.
METHODOLOGY: Patients suitable for BCS who were treated with IORT between January 2016 and June 2019 from three centres were analysed. They were divided into low-risk and high-risk groups based on the risk of recurrence according to the TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy (TARGIT) A and B study criteria. Outcomes of interest included local recurrence, wound complications, and radiation toxicity, with a subset analysed for cosmetic and patient-reported outcomes.
RESULTS: Within a median follow-up of 31 months, there were 104 and 211 patients in the low- and high-risk groups, respectively. No significant difference was observed in local recurrence rates (low-risk, 1.0% vs. high-risk, 1.4%; p = 1.000). Both cohorts exhibited low frequencies of severe wound complications ranging between 1.4 and 1.9%. No major radiation toxicities were reported in either group. In the subgroup analysis, low-risk patients had significantly better mean scores in the subscales of inframammary fold and scar. Based on the BREAST-Q patient-reported outcomes questionnaire, seven out of nine parameters were scored similarly between both groups with no significant difference.
CONCLUSION: This study showed that the use of IORT in both low- and high-risk early breast cancers is efficacious and safe with low recurrence rates and an acceptable toxicity profile.
Setting and Design: In vitro - Comparative study.
Materials and Methods: Denture base adaptation of two different rapid heat-cured polymethyl methacrylate acrylic resins using five different cooling methods were compared. Forty maxillary edentulous stone cast were prepared to produce the denture bases with standardized thickness. The specimens were divided into five groups (n = 8) according to type of materials and cooling methods. The master stone cast and all forty denture bases were scanned with 3Shape E1 laboratory scanner. The scanned images of each of the denture bases were superimposed over the scanned image of the master cast using Materialize 3-matic software. Three dimensional differences between the two surfaces were calculated and color surface maps were generated for visual qualitative assessment.
Statistical Analysis Used: Generalized Linear Model Test, Bonferroni Post Hoc Analysis.
Results: All bench-cooled specimens showed wide green-colored area in the overall palatal surface, while the rapid cooled specimens presented with increased red color areas especially at the palate and post dam area. Generalized Linear Model test followed by Bonferroni post hoc analysis showed significant difference in the root mean square values among the specimen groups.
Conclusion: Samples that were bench cooled, demonstrated better overall accuracy compared to the rapid cooling groups. Regardless of need for shorter denture processing time, bench cooling of rapid heat-cured PMMA is essential for acceptable denture base adaptation.
METHODS: A total of 1210 participants 60 years and above, representing the three main ethnic groups were recruited from a larger cohort study. Weighted factors valued for comparison included socio demographics and health status. Knowledge of and attitude and behaviour towards personal oral health were also assessed. Dentition status, adapted from WHO oral health guidelines, was the dependent variable investigated. Data were analysed using descriptive chi square test and multivariate binary logistic regression.
RESULTS: Overall, 1187 respondents completed the study. The dentition status and oral health related knowledge, attitude and behaviour varied between the three ethnic groups. The Chinese were significantly less likely to have ≥13 missing teeth (OR = 0.698, 95% CI: 0.521-0.937) and ≥1 decayed teeth (0.653; 0.519-0.932) compared to the Malays, while the Indians were significantly less likely than the Malays to have ≥1 decayed teeth (0.695; 0.519-0.932) and ≥2 filled teeth (0.781; 0.540-1.128).
CONCLUSION: Ethnic differences in dentition outcome are related to oral health utilization highlighting the influence of cultural differences and the need for culturally sensitivity interventions.
METHODS: A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Khartoum state in Sudan. The study targeted male and female adolescents in secondary schools. A total of 3387 students from public and private schools participated in the study. Multistage random sampling was used to select the participants. The Arabic version questionnaire from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) was utilised to collect the data from the participants.
RESULTS: Among the participants, 57.3% were females and 42.7% were males. Students from private and public schools were 48.4 and 51.6%, respectively. The overall prevalence of those who had ever used smokeless tobacco was 7.6%, in which the prevalence among male students was 11.0% while among females was 5.0%. The determinant factors were male gender (OR 1.53 CI 95% 1.03-2.28), family structure (OR 1.52 CI 95% 1.03-2.23), exposure to second-hand smoke at home (OR 1.60 CI 95% 1.11-2.31), friends smoking cigarettes (OR 1.78 CI 95% 1.22-2.60), lack of restriction of selling tobacco to minors (OR 1.73 CI 95% 1.25-2.39), promotion of smokeless tobacco (OR 2.12 CI 95% 1.20-3.72) and low self-efficacy (OR 7.47 CI 95% 4.45-12.52).
CONCLUSION: A comprehensive prevention programme that enforces the prohibition of the promotion of smokeless tobacco and the selling of smokeless tobacco to minors is crucial. Moreover, the prevention programme should enhance adolescents' self-efficacy.