Does smoking cessation improve mental health?

There is a possibility that cessation of smoking improves mental health, but there are no studies that have demonstrated this. A cohort study was performed for 1 year in 18 males who spontaneously stopped smoking (cessation group) and 173 who continued to smoke (smoking group). The mental health state was evaluated using the Japanese version of the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) before the cessation of smoking and 6 months and 1 year after smoking cessation. Changes in the GHQ score were compared between the cessation and smoking groups. In order to control the effects of confounding factors, multiple regression analyses were performed using the GHQ score after 6 months and 1 year as dependent variables. The GHQ score in the cessation group significantly decreased 6 months and 1 year after smoking cessation (P < 0.04 and 0.01, respectively, by paired t-test). In the smoking group, the GHQ score slightly decreased. Repeated measure analysis of variance revealed that the decrease in the GHQ score in the cessation group was significantly larger than in the smoking group. Multiple regression analysis revealed significant effects of smoking cessation on mental health after controlling for other confounding factors. It can be concluded that smoking cessation may improve mental health.     

Natural Course of Silicosis in Dust-exposed Workers

Silica-containing dust and silicosis have beenattracting more and more attention with numerousresearches worldwide[1 ,2], especially in China .However ,few studies have been conducted con-cerning the criteria of the period and content ofmedical examination of health surveillance for dust-exposed workers[3]. Since 1986 an epidemiologicalstudy onthe relation of silica dust exposure ,silico-sis and lung cancer was jointly made by TongjiMedical College , US National Cancer Institute andthe US …     

Constructing Large Scale Cohort for Clinical Study on Heart Failure with Electronic Health Record in Regional Healthcare Platform: Challenges and Strategies in Data Reuse

Regional healthcare platforms collect clinical data from hospitals in specific areas for the purpose of healthcare management. It is a common requirement to reuse the data for clinical research. However, we have to face challenges like the inconsistence of terminology in electronic health records (EHR) and the complexities in data quality and data formats in regional healthcare platform. In this paper, we propose methodology and process on constructing large scale cohorts which forms the basis of causality and comparative effectiveness relationship in epidemiology. We firstly constructed a Chinese terminology knowledge graph to deal with the diversity of vocabularies on regional platform. Secondly, we built special disease case repositories (i.e., heart failure repository) that utilize the graph to search the related patients and to normalize the data. Based on the requirements of the clinical research which aimed to explore the effectiveness of taking statin on 180-days readmission in patients with heart failure, we built a large-scale retrospective cohort with 29647 cases of heart failure patients from the heart failure repository. After the propensity score matching, the study group (n=6346) and the control group (n=6346) with parallel clinical characteristics were acquired. Logistic regression analysis showed that taking statins had a negative correlation with 180-days readmission in heart failure patients. This paper presents the workflow and application example of big data mining based on regional EHR data.     

下颌覆盖义齿短微型种植体与标准长度微型种植体效果比较

目的:比较下颌覆盖义齿短微型种植体(mini dental implant,MDI)与标准长度MDI修复牙槽嵴重度萎缩无牙颌患者的效果,为临床应用提供参考.方法:选择进行下颌覆盖义齿短MDI和标准长度MDI修复的无牙颌患者60例,分为短MDI组(30例)和标准MDI组(30例),比较2组基线、术后1周和1年种植体周围组...     

扬中市1991-2015年肝癌发病及死亡趋势分析

目的 分析江苏省扬中市1991-2015年肝癌发病和死亡的长期时间变化趋势和分布特征.方法 根据1991-2015年江苏省扬中市肝癌发病与死亡登记资料,运用Joinpoint回归模型拟合肝癌发病与死亡趋势,同时运用年龄-时期-出生队列(APC)模型,评估年龄、时期和出生队列对发病和死亡趋势的影响.结果 1991-201...     

睡眠时间与冠心病发病及死亡风险前瞻性研究的Meta分析

目的:通过常规Meta分析和量效Meta分析评估睡眠时间与冠心病发病及死亡风险的相关性.方法:计算机检索EMBASE、PubMed、Cochrane、Web of Science、万方、维普、中国生物医学文献数据库及中国知网数据库,筛选关于睡眠时间与冠心病相关性的前瞻性队列研究文献,并将长睡眠时间和短睡眠时间分别定义为...     

脑卒中患者急性期血脂水平与病情严重程度的关系

目的探讨脑卒中患者急性期血脂水平与病情严重程度的关系。方法采用前瞻性队列研究的方法,检测2002年12月~2004年8月所有入院时病程<24h的脑卒中患者548例(其中出血性卒中214例,缺血性卒中334例)的血脂水平;采用斯堪的纳维亚卒中评分(SSS)量表评价患者入院时神经功能缺损程度;比较不同卒中类型患者的血脂水平及其与病情严重程度的关系。结果出血性卒中患者入院时血清胆固醇(TC)为(4.30±1.16)mmol/L,三酰甘油(TG)为(1.37±0.72)mmol/L,明显低于缺血性卒中患者TC和TG水平[(4.90±1.15)mmol/L,(1.52±0.94)mmol/L](均P<0.001);入院时TC<6.0mmol/L的患者443例,TG<2.0mmol/L的患者356例,SSS分别为(32.76±18.63)分和(29.21±18.25)分,明显低于TC>6.0mmol/L和TG>2.0mmol/L患者的SSS[(44.83±14.13)分和(45.95±13.21)分](均P<0.001)。结论出血性卒中患者急性期血清TC和TG水平明显低于缺血性卒中患者;急性期血脂水平较低的脑卒中患者病情较严重。     

A prospective cohort study of the value of maternal plasma concentrations of angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors in early pregnancy and midtrimester in the identification of patients destined to develop preeclampsia

Objective.?Changes in the maternal plasma concentrations of angiogenic (placental growth factor (PlGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)) and anti-angiogenic factors (sEng and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1)) precede the clinical presentation of preeclampsia. This study was conducted to examine the role of maternal plasma PlGF, sEng, and sVEGFR-1 concentrations in early pregnancy and midtrimester in the identification of patients destined to develop preeclampsia.

Methods. This longitudinal cohort study included 1622 consecutive singleton pregnant women. Plasma samples were obtained in early pregnancy (6–15 weeks) and midtrimester (20–25 weeks). Maternal plasma PlGF, sEng, and sVEGFR-1 concentrations were determined using sensitive and specific immunoassays. The primary outcome was the development of preeclampsia. Secondary outcomes included term, preterm, and early-onset preeclampsia. Receiving operating characteristic curves, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and multivariable logistic regression were applied. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results.?(1) The prevalence of preeclampsia, term, preterm, (<37 weeks) and early-onset preeclampsia (<34 weeks) was 3.8 (62/1622), 2.5 (40/1622), 1.4 (22/1622) and 0.6% (9/1622), respectively; (2) Higher likelihood ratios were provided by ratios of midtrimester plasma concentrations of PlGF, sEng, and sVEGFR-1 than single analytes; (3) Individual angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors did not perform well in the identification of preeclampsia as a whole; in particular, they perform poorly in the prediction of term preeclampsia; (4) In contrast, a combination of these analytes such as the PlGF/sEng ratio, its delta and slope had the best predictive performance with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 98–99%, and likelihood ratios for a positive test of 57.6, 55.6 and 89.6, respectively, for predicting early-onset preeclampsia.

Conclusions.?(1) The PlGF/sEng ratio and its delta and slope had an excellent predictive performance for the prediction of early-onset preeclampsia, with very high likelihood ratios for a positive test result and very low likelihood ratios for a negative test result; and (2) Although the positive likelihood ratios are high and the positive predictive values low, the number of patients needed to be closely followed is 4:1 for the PlGF/sEng ratio and 3:1 for the slope of PlGF/sEng.