METHODS: This is a cross sectional study. Myopic children who had been wearing ortho-K and SVSs for 12 months were recruited, and the questionnaires were distributed online. The PREP scores were obtained using a summary scoring method. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine data normality. Unpaired t-test was performed for normally distributed data, and the Mann-Whitney test for non-normally distributed data. P
METHODS: A total of 3,779 documents were retrieved from the Scopus database for the bibliometric analysis and network visualization. By comparing each keyword's overall connection strength (centrality), frequency (density), and average year of publication (novelty) to the calculated median values acquired from the overlay view of the VOSviewer map, the enhanced strategic diagrams (ESDs) were constructed.
RESULTS: The findings showed an increasing trend in the number of publications. The United States leads the contributing countries in cognitive aging research. The scientific productivity pattern obeyed Lotka's law. The most productive researcher was Deary, I. J., with the highest number of publications. The collaborative index showed an increasing trend from 1980 onwards. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience is the most prestigious journal in the field of cognitive aging research. In Bradford core journals zone 1, the top 10 core journals of cognitive aging research provided more than half of the total articles (697, or 55.36 percent).
CONCLUSIONS: For the next decades, the trending topics in cognitive aging research include neuropsychological assessment, functional connectivity, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), decision-making, gender, compensation, default mode network, learning and memory, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), obesity, D-galactose, epigenetics, frailty, mortality, mini-mental state examination (MMSE), anxiety, and gait speed.
METHODS: This is a double-blind randomized controlled hospital-based study involving diabetic patients with postoperative corneal epithelial defects after vitreoretinal surgery. Diabetic patients were randomized into 2 different groups and received either 0.5 units of topical insulin (DTI) or artificial tears (Vismed, sodium hyaluronate 0.18%; DAT). The primary outcome measured was the rate of corneal epithelial wound healing (mm 2 /h) over a preset interval and time from baseline to minimum size of epithelial defect on fluorescein-stained anterior segment digital camera photography. The secondary outcome measured was the safety of topical insulin 0.5 units and artificial tears (Vismed, sodium hyaluronate 0.18%). Patients were followed up until 3 months postoperation.
RESULTS: A total of 38 eyes from 38 patients undergoing intraoperative corneal debridement during vitreoretinal surgery with resultant epithelial defects (19 eyes per group) were analyzed. DTI was observed to have a significantly higher healing rate compared with the DAT group at rates over 36 hours ( P = 0.010), 48 hours ( P = 0.009), and 144 hours ( P = 0.009). The rate from baseline to closure was observed to be significantly higher in the DTI group (1.20 ± 0.29) (mm 2 /h) compared with the DAT group (0.78 ± 0.20) (mm 2 /h) as well ( P < 0.001). No adverse effect of topical insulin and artificial tears was reported.
CONCLUSIONS: Topical insulin (0.5 units, 4 times per day) is more effective compared with artificial tears (Vismed, sodium hyaluronate 0.18%, 4 times per day) for the healing of postoperative corneal epithelial defects induced during vitreoretinal surgery in diabetic patients, without any adverse events.
CASE SUMMARY: This is the case of a 54-year-old Malay woman with genetically confirmed FH complicated by premature coronary artery disease (PCAD). She was clinically diagnosed in primary care at 52 years old, fulfilling the Simon Broome Criteria (possible FH), Dutch Lipid Clinic Criteria (score of 8: probable FH), and Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Case Ascertainment Tool (relative risk score of 9.51). Subsequently, she was confirmed to have a heterozygous LDLR c.190+4A>T intron 2 pathogenic variant at the age of 53 years. She was known to have hypercholesterolaemia and was treated with statin since the age of 25. However, the lipid-lowering agent was not intensified to achieve the recommended treatment target. The delayed FH diagnosis has caused this patient to have PCAD and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at the age of 29 years and a second PCI at the age of 49 years. She also has a very strong family history of hypercholesterolaemia and PCAD, where seven out of eight of her siblings were affected. Despite this, FH was not diagnosed early, and cascade screening of family members was not conducted, resulting in a missed opportunity to prevent PCAD.
DISCUSSION: Familial hypercholesterolaemia can be clinically diagnosed in primary care to identify those who may require genetic testing. Multidisciplinary care focuses on improving identification, cascade screening, and management of FH, which is vital to improving prognosis and ultimately preventing PCAD.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with MetS attending a university primary care clinic in Selangor, Malaysia. The usability score was measured using a previously translated and validated EMPOWER-SUSTAIN Usability Questionnaire (E-SUQ) with a score of > 68 indicating good usability. Multiple logistic regressions determined the factors associated with its usability.
RESULTS: A total of 391 patients participated in this study. More than half (61.4%) had a good usability score of > 68, with a mean (± SD) usability score of 72.8 (± 16.1). Participants with high education levels [secondary education (AOR 2.46, 95% CI 1.04, 5.83) and tertiary education (AOR 2.49, 95% CI 1.04, 5.96)], those who used the booklet at home weekly (AOR 2.94, 95% CI 1.63, 5.33) or daily (AOR 2.73, 95% CI 1.09, 6.85), and those who had social support to use the booklet (AOR 1.64, 95% CI 1.02, 2.64) were significantly associated with good usability of the booklet.
CONCLUSIONS: The usability of the EMPOWER-SUSTAIN Global Cardiovascular Risks Self-Management Booklet© was good among patients with MetS in this primary care clinic, which supports its widespread use as a patient empowerment tool. The findings of this study also suggest that it is vital to encourage daily or weekly use of this booklet at home, with the support of family members. The focus should also be given to those with lower education to improve the usability of this booklet for this group of patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the perceptions of nurses (n = 45) and students (n = 6) when performing patient transfers from bed to wheelchair and vice versa using the NEAR-1 compared to an existing floor lift, walking belt, and manual transfer. Participants filled out surveys evaluating the perceived task demands and usability of the NEAR-1, as well as open-ended interviews.
RESULTS: The use of the NEAR-1 significantly reduced the mean of all NASA-TLX constructs (p
METHODS: The water samples evaluated in this study were collected from four recreational forest rivers, Sungai Congkak, Sungai Lopo, Hulu Perdik, and Gunung Nuang. The samples were subjected to next-generation sequencing (NGS) for the 16S rRNA and in-depth metagenomic analysis of the bacterial communities.
RESULTS: The water samples recorded various bacterial diversity. The samples from the Hulu Perdik and Sungai Lopo downstream sampling sites had a more significant diversity, followed by Sungai Congkak. Conversely, the upstream samples from Gunung Nuang exhibited the lowest bacterial diversity. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Acidobacteria were the dominant phyla detected in downstream areas. Potential pathogenic bacteria belonging to the genera Burkholderiales and Serratia were also identified, raising concerns about co-infection possibilities. Nevertheless, Leptospira pathogenic bacteria were absent from all sites, which is attributable to its limited persistence. The bacteria might also be washed to other locations, contributing to the reduced environmental bacterial load.
CONCLUSION: The present study established the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the river ecosystems assessed. The findings offer valuable insights for designing strategies for preventing pathogenic bacteria environmental contamination and managing leptospirosis co-infections with other human diseases. Furthermore, closely monitoring water sample compositions with diverse approaches, including sentinel programs, wastewater-based epidemiology, and clinical surveillance, enables disease transmission and outbreak early detections. The data also provides valuable information for suitable treatments and long-term strategies for combating infectious diseases.
METHODS: This two-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial was implemented between January 2018 and November 2018. Six schools were selected using stratified random sampling, whereby students were purposively selected and invited. The criteria of inclusion to the programme were secondary school students (aged 13 years old-17 years old) who smoked conventional cigarettes (CC) and electronic cigarettes (EC).
RESULTS: A total of 422 students from six schools participated in this study. Three schools were designated as intervention (n = 250) and the other three as control schools (n = 172). Formative evaluation of participants in the FSSCP using the logic model showed that participants were satisfied with the overall programme (91.5%), were motivated to stop smoking (90.4%) and were prevented from relapse (89.2%). The quit rate at a 3-month follow-up was 41.8%.
CONCLUSION: The logic model supported the development of the programme, with details on the processes, dissemination activities, identification of barriers, evaluation criteria and outcomes provided.
METHODS: A non-probability purposive sampling was used for the recruitment process. The inclusion criteria of the participants were registered female undergraduates and aged between 18-30 years old. A semi-structured in-depth interview was used to collect topic-related information from the participants and signed consents were obtained prior to the interview. The interview questions were on respondents' understanding of exercise, motivation and barriers to exercise, and exercise preferences. The recruitment process was conducted until the data was saturated. All interviews were audio recorded and manually transcribed verbatim. NVivo 11 was used to conduct the inductive analysis of the data to develop themes for motivation and barriers to exercise. For exercise preferences, four predetermined themes were used.
FINDINGS: A total of 26 respondents participated in this study. Eight themes were found for motivation to exercise, with the most common themes being maintaining or improving appearance, health benefits and togetherness. For barriers of exercising, five themes were found, and the most common ones were disliking exercise and no motivation. For exercise preferences, most respondents preferred a structured exercise program with flexibility in terms of when and where the exercise could be conducted. Light or moderate intensity exercise for 10-30 minutes with a frequency of 1-2 times a week was desired the most among the respondents.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, personal and environmental factors play important roles in motivating or hampering female undergraduates to exercise, and a structured program was the preferred mode of exercise of these respondents. A new exercise module was designed based on this needs assessment with a 70% acceptance rate among the participants. These findings can help the future development of more exercise modules tailored to female university students.