METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, 9432 community-dwelling elderly people aged 60 years and older living in rural or urban areas in Haikou were investigated. The interviews collected self-reported information on the presence of four major chronic diseases, as well as socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and self-reported height and weight.
FINDINGS: Overall, 31.7% (2961/9344) reported at least one of the four chronic diseases. The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, COPD, and stroke was 26.0% (2449/9407), 8.0% (749/9371), 1.0% (95/9360), and 1.9% (175/9382), respectively. Common correlates of the four major chronic diseases were older age, being engaged in intellectual work, currently being a smoker and obesity. Gender, locality of residence, and alcohol consumptions were also found to be associated to some of the chronic conditions.
CONCLUSION: This finding indicates that multiple chronic conditions among elderly people in Haikou are prevalent and warrant special attention to reduce diseases burden and align health care services to cater the holistic elderly patients' need.
METHODS: DNA of 400 cynomolgus macaques from 10 Chinese breeding farms was genotyped to characterize their regional origin and rhesus ancestry proportion. A nested PCR assay was used to detect Plasmodium cynomolgi infection in sampled individuals.
RESULTS: All populations exhibited high levels of genetic heterogeneity and low levels of inbreeding and genetic subdivision. Almost all individuals exhibited an Indochinese origin and a rhesus ancestry proportion of 5%-48%. The incidence of P. cynomolgi infection in cynomolgus macaques is strongly associated with proportion of rhesus ancestry.
CONCLUSIONS: The varying amount of rhesus ancestry in cynomolgus macaques underscores the importance of monitoring their genetic similarity in malaria research.
METHODS: A total of 480 Ae. aegypti adult mosquitoes were collected from October and November 2018 based on the results of previous investigations and the distribution of Ae. aegypti in Yunnan. Each individual sample was processed and screened for the presence of Wolbachia by PCR with wsp primers. Phylogenetic trees for the wsp gene was constructed using the neighbour-joining method with 1,000 bootstrap replicates, and the p-distance distribution model of molecular evolution was applied.
RESULTS: 24 individual adult mosquito samples and 10 sample sites were positive for Wolbachia infection. The Wolbachia infection rate (IR) of each population ranged from 0 - 41.7%. The infection rate of group A alone was 0%-10%, the infection rate of group B alone was 0%-7.7%, and the infection rate of co-infection with A and B was 0-33.3%.
CONCLUSIONS: Wolbachia infection in wild Ae. aegypti in China is the first report based on PCR amplification of the Wolbachia wsp gene. The Wolbachia infection is 5%, and the wAlbA and wAlbB strains were found to be prevalent in the natural population of Ae. aegypti in Yunnan Province.
METHODS: To address the research gap, the present research made an attempt to investigate the crucial role of social media in affecting students' psychological (PWB) and subjective well-being (SWB) by testing the mediating role of self-esteem and online social support and the moderation effect of cyberbullying. The data in the study were obtained from a sample of 1,004 college students (483 females and 521 males, Mage = 23.78, SD = 4.06) enrolled at 135 Chinese universities. AMOS 26.0 and SPSS 26.0 as well as the Process macro were utilized for analyzing data and testing the moderated mediation model.
RESULTS: Findings revealed that social media usage by university students was positively associated with their PWB and SWB through self-esteem and online social support, and cyberbullying played a moderating role in the first phase of the mediation process such that the indirect associations were weak with cyberbullying reaching high levels.
CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the importance of discerning the mechanisms moderating the mediated paths linking social media usage by young adults to their PWB and SWB. The results also underline the importance of implementing measures and interventions to alleviate the detrimental impacts of cyberbullying on young adults' PWB and SWB.
METHODOLOGY: The literatures published after April, 2015 up to December, 2016 on k13 mutant alleles for artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum and relevant literatures were comprehensively reviewed.
RESULTS: To date, 13 non-synonymous mutations of k13 gene have been observed to have slow parasite clearance. Worldwide mapping of k13 mutant alleles have shown mutants associated with artemisinin resistance were confined to southeast Asia and China and did not invade to African countries. Although in vitro ring stage survival assay of 0-3 h was a recently developed assay, it was useful for rapid detection of artemisinin resistance associated k13 allelic marker in the parasite. Recently, dissemination of k13 mutant alleles was recommended to be investigated by identity of haplotypes. Significant characteristics of well described alleles in the reports were mentioned in this review for the benefit of future studies.
CONCLUSION: According to the updates in the review, it can be concluded artemisinin resistance does not disseminate to India and African countries within short period whereas regular tracking of these mutants is necessary.
METHODS: Descriptive analyses were used to explore the temporal, spatial, and demographic distribution of dengue fever.
RESULTS: Of the 73,761 dengue cases reported in mainland China during 2004-2018, 93.7% indigenous and 65.9% imported cases occurred in Guangdong and Yunnan, respectively. A total of 55,970 and 5938 indigenous cases occurred in 108 Guangdong and 8 Yunnan counties, respectively during 2004-2018. Whereas 1146 and 3050 imported cases occurred in 84 Guangdong and 72 Yunnan counties, respectively during 2004-2018. Guangdong had a much higher average yearly indigenous incidence rate (3.65 (1/100000) vs 0.86 (1/100000)), but a much lower average yearly imported incidence rate (0.07 (1/100000) vs 0.44(1/100000)) compared with Yunnan in 2004-2018. Furthermore, dengue fever occurred more widely in space and more frequently in time in Guangdong. Guangdong and Yunnan had similar seasonal characteristics for dengue fever, but Guangdong had a longer peak period. Most dengue cases were clustered in the south-western border of Yunnan and the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong. Most of the imported cases (93.9%) in Guangdong and Yunnan were from 9 Southeast Asian countries. Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia imported mainly into Guangdong while Myanmar and Laos imported into Yunnan. There was a strong male predominance among imported cases and an almost equal gender distribution among indigenous cases. Most dengue cases occurred in individuals aged 21-50 years, accounting for 57.3% (Guangdong) vs. 62.8% (Yunnan) of indigenous and 83.2% (Guangdong) vs. 62.6% (Yunnan) of imported cases. The associated major occupations (house worker or unemployed, retiree, and businessman, for indigenous cases; and businessman, for imported cases), were similar. However, farmers accounted for a larger proportion of dengue cases in Yunnan.
CONCLUSIONS: Identifying the different epidemiological characteristics of dengue fever in Guangdong and Yunnan can be helpful to formulate targeted, strategic plans, and implement effective public health prevention measures in China.
METHODS: Total 14 eligible articles published before March 2019 involving 35 studies, of which 21 studies (16,109 cases and 26,378 controls) for rs2205960 G > A, 8 studies (2,424 cases and 3,692 controls) for rs704840 T > G, and 6 studies (3,839 cases and 5,867 controls) for rs844648 G > A were included. Effects of the three respective polymorphisms on the susceptibility to ADs were estimated by pooling the odds ratios (ORs) with their corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) in allelic, dominant, recessive, heterozygous and homozygous models.
RESULTS: The overall analysis revealed that all the rs2205960 G > A, rs704840 T > G and rs844648 G > A polymorphisms could increase the risk of ADs in allelic, dominant, recessive, heterozygous and homozygous models. Furthermore, subgroup analysis showed that both rs2205960 G > A and rs704840 T > G were significantly associated with the susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). What's more, statistically significant association between rs2205960 G > A polymorphism and primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) susceptibility was also observed in allelic, dominant and heterozygous models.
CONCLUSIONS: This current meta-analysis suggested that all of the three TNFSF4 polymorphisms may be associated with ADs susceptibility in Asians.
METHODS: We surveyed participants at the 2009 and 2013 Congresses of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Federation of Endocrine Societies by distributing questionnaires to attendees at registration.
RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 268 respondents in 2009 and 163 respondents in 2013. Similar to the high prevalence of low-risk thyroid cancer observed in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, across the Asia-Pacific countries surveyed in 2009 and 2013, 50 to 100% of the respondents from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Sri Lanka reported that more than 50% of the patients had low-risk thyroid cancer on follow-up. Importantly, there was much variation with regards to the perceived availability of investigation and treatment modalities.
CONCLUSION: We found a wide variation in clinicians' perception of availability of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in the face of a rise in thyroid cancer incidence and thyroid cancer management guidelines that emphasized their importance. The lack of availability of management tools and treatments will prove to be a major barrier to the implementation of thyroid cancer management guidelines in Southeast Asia, and likely in other parts of the world as well.