OBJECTIVES: (1) To compare hand function characteristics and functional abilities of injured workers who have or have not returned to work. (2) To estimate hand function characteristics and functional abilities as predictors to return to work.
METHODS: One hundred and fifteen adult workers with hand injuries aged 18- 59 years old from five general hospitals in Malaysia participated in a cross-sectional study. Predictors were estimated using logistic regression.
RESULTS: There was a significant association between occupational sector (p = 0.012), injury duration (p = 0.024), occupational performance (p = 0.009) and satisfaction with performance (p
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of three-modal exercise on fatigue, sleep, QoL as well as to determine the relationship between age, disease severity, disease stage and working years with women diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD).
METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 44 female educators in stages I-II with PD who were between the ages of 40 and 60 volunteered. For a total of 36 sessions over the course of six weeks, Group A received a three-modal fitness program through online video sessions, whereas Group B received Nordic walking. The outcome measures included the Fatigue Severity Scale, Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale, and Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire-39.
RESULTS: Age, Hoehn and Yahr scale, working years, and PD in years did not correlate with each other (p > 0.50). The three-modal exercise experimental Group A showed statistically significant improvement in QoL (p 0.001), sleep (p 0.001), and fatigue (p 0.001).
CONCLUSION: Women in the field of education who participated in a three-modal exercise programme for PD reported a significant improvement in their level of exhaustion, sleep patterns, and quality of life.
METHODS: The electronic databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect were systematically searched for studies reporting the prevalence of constipation in older adults up to February 2022. To perform the analysis, the random effects model was used, and heterogeneity was assessed by Cochran's Q test and expressed as I2.
RESULTS: Out of 5341 evaluated publications, 36 met the eligibility criteria. These studies included 58,405 older adults aged 60-93 years. The overall prevalence of constipation in older adults was 18.9% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 14.7-23.9%). The prevalence of constipation in older adults according to Rome II criteria was 16.2% (95% CI: 6.8-33.7), based on Rome III criteria was 19.2% (95% CI: 12.6-28.1), and based on Rome IV criteria was 10.3% (95% CI: 5.8-17.7). The highest prevalence of constipation was found in older adults in Africa at 32.3% (95% CI: 21.5-45.4), and the lowest in Asia at 13.6% (95% CI: 9.1-19.9). Concerning diagnostic tools, the highest prevalence of constipation was found if a self-reporting tool was applied with a value of 19.7% (95% CI: 15.8-24.3).
CONCLUSION: The results suggest that health policymakers should pay more attention to the prevention of constipation in older adults, including raising public awareness to the importance of nutrition and diet and physical activity in older adults.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: Based on autopsy materials, we conducted a morphological study of patients (n = 20) aged 45 to 55 years who were observed in cardiac and neurological hospitals for 5-7 years. We removed kidney, heart and aorta samples from patients. For the study, a histological and immunohistochemical methods were used.
RESULTS: Results and conclusions: Morphological study of vessels endothelium of kidneys, heart and aorta demonstrated that in the majority of observations intima underwentprofound pathological changes, manifested by different degrees of disorganization of endothelial lining and violations of structural and functional organization of the endotheliocytes, subendothelial layer, basal membrane. These pathological processes in all cases had similar features with the development of immune inflammation. Inflammatory infiltration was represented by macrophages, mast cells, plasma cells. Biological mediators of the presented cells can aggravate the damage to endothelial cells. Indirect signs of low ability to restore the structure of the vessel wall and endothelial lining may be a weak expression of the VEGF and bcl-2 vascular endothelial growth factor.
The aim: To establish possible associations of the insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) gene polymorphism with the severity of the metabolic syndrome components in patients with arterial hypertension (AH).
Material and methods: 187 patients with AH aged 45-55 years and 30 healthy individuals. Methods: anthropometry, reactive hyperemia, color Doppler mapping, biochemical blood analysis, HOMA-insulin resistance (IR), glucose tolerance test, enzyme immunoassay, molecular genetic method.
Results: Among hypertensive patients, 103 had abdominal obesity, 43 - type 2 diabetes, 131 - increased blood triglycerides, 19 - decreased high density lipoproteins, 59 - prediabetes (33 - fasting hyperglycemia and 26 - impaired glucose tolerance), 126 had IR. At the same time, hypertensive patients had the following distribution of IRS-1 genotypes: Gly/Gly - 47.9%, Gly/Arg - 42.2% and Arg/Arg - 10.7%, whereas in healthy individuals the distribution of genotypes was significantly different: Gly/Gly - 86.8% (p <0.01), Gly/ Arg - 9.9% (p <0.01) and Arg/Arg - 3.3% (p <0.05). Hypertensive patients with Arg/Arg and Gly/Arg genotypes had significantly higher HOMA-IR (p <0.01), glucose, insulin and triglycerides levels (p <0.05), than in Gly/Gly genotype. At the same time, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, adiponectin, HDL, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, degree of endothelium-dependent vasodilation, as well as the frequency of occurrence of impaired glucose tolerance did not significantly differ in IRS-1 genotypes.
Conclusions: In hypertensive patients, the genetic polymorphism of IRS-1 gene is associated with such components of the metabolic syndrome as hypertriglyceridemia and fasting hyperglycemia; it is not associated with proinflammatory state, endothelial dysfunction, dysglycemia, an increase in waist circumference and decrease in HDL.
Method: Field data collected during the COVID-19 outbreak in Selangor, Malaysia, up to 13 April 2020 were used, comprising socio-demographic characteristics, comorbidities and presenting symptoms of COVID-19 cases. ICU admission was determined from medical records. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with ICU admission requiring intubation/mechanical ventilation among COVID-19 cases.
Results: A total of 1287 COVID-19-positive cases were included for analysis. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (15.5%) and diabetes (11.0%). More than one third of cases presented with fever (43.8%) or cough (37.1%). Of the 25 cases that required intubation/mechanical ventilation, 68.0% had hypertension, 88.0% had fever, 40.0% had dyspnoea and 44.0% were lethargic. Multivariate regression showed that cases that required intubation/mechanical ventilation had significantly higher odds of being older (aged 360 years) [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 3.9] and having hypertension (aOR = 5.7), fever (aOR = 9.8), dyspnoea (aOR = 9.6) or lethargy (aOR = 7.9) than cases that did not require intubation/mechanical ventilation.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 cases in Selangor, Malaysia requiring intubation/mechanical ventilation were significantly older, with a higher proportion of hypertension and symptoms of fever, dyspnoea and lethargy. These risk factors have been reported previously for severe COVID-19 cases, and highlight the role that ageing and underlying comorbidities play in severe outcomes to respiratory disease.