Prevalence of and factors contributing to anxiety,depression and cognitive disorders among urban elderly in Odisha – A study through the health systems’ Lens

IntroductionGrowing geriatric mental health needs of urban population in India pose several programmatic challenges. This study aimed to assess anxiety, depression and cognitive disorders among urban elderly, and explore availability of social support mechanisms and of a responsive health system to implement the national mental health programme.Methods244 respondents were randomly selected from Berhampur city. We administered a semi-structured interview schedule to assess substance abuse, chronic morbidity, anxiety, depression and cognitive abilities. Further, in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 key informants including district officials, psychiatrists, and programme managers. We used R software and ‘thematic framework’ approach, respectively, for quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Ethical standards were complied with.ResultsAbout half of the respondents were economically dependent; 57.3% had moderate to severe anxiety; 46.7% had moderate to severe depression; while about 25% had severe cognitive impairments. We found association of chewing tobacco (1.34(0.28–2.40)) and depression (0.52(0.37–0.68)) with anxiety; negative perception about elderly-friendly society (1.64(0.75–2.53)) and physical inactivity (2.88(1.60–4.16)) with depression; and age (-0.11(-0.20 – -0.02)) and physical inactivity (-3.44(-5.13 – -1.74)) with cognitive disorders. Qualitative analysis revealed lack of awareness, social stigma, poor availability of trained human resources, and poor political commitment as important systemic barriers to early detection and treatment of mental ailments among the elderly.ConclusionEstablishing tobacco cessation centres, sensitizing community about mental health needs of elderly, incentivizing physical activity of elderly, integrating mental health with primary care, multi-skilling providers and developing a cadre of community counsellors need urgent attention of policy makers and programme implementers.     

手术室细节护理管理在医院感染控制中的应用评价

目的探讨手术室细节护理管理在医院感染控制中的应用效果。方法选定2017年1月-2018年3月该院收诊的160例手术室患者,按照管理方法的不同分为观察组(细节护理管理)80例与对照组(传统护理管理)80例,比较两组手术室患者的护理质量、并发症发生率、感染发生率、护理满意度、收缩压。结果观察组护理管理后的护理安全(82.23±6.14)分、体征监测(93.46±6.23)分、体位协助(87.32±4.65)分、器械准备(91.57±6.21)分、文书记录(90.24±4.92)分、护理满意率(98.75%)均高于对照组(P<0.05);观察组护理管理后的并发症发生率(2.50%)、感染发生率(1.25%)、收缩压(121.37±6.26)mmHg均低于对照组(P<0.05)。结论细节护理管理方法可有效提高手术室患者的护理满意度,减少其感染情况,值得推广使用。     

Sleep time and sleep-related symptoms across two generations – results of the community-based RHINE and RHINESSA studies

Study objectivesTo analyze the association between sleep-related symptoms and sleep length in parents and their children in relation to other risk factors in both generations.MethodThe participants were parents (n = 5,855, age 54.3 ± 6.5 years, 45.2% men) who participated in the community-based Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) study and one random member of their adult offspring (n = 5,855, age 30.2 ± 7.7 years, 41.5% men) who participated in the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) study. Both generations responded to identical questionnaires on sleep symptoms, including difficulty initiating sleep (DIS), difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS), early morning awakening (EMA), snoring, nocturnal sweating, nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux (nGER), sleep time and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Insomnia was defined as either, or both, DIS and DMS in combination with EDS.ResultsAll sleep variables except nocturnal sweating were more common in offspring whose parents had reported the same symptom. After adjusting for age, gender, BMI, smoking, physical activity, education, center and parents' total number of children, there were independent associations between sleep symptoms in parents and offspring for DIS (adj. OR, 95% CI: 1.52, 1.20–1.93), DMS (1.34, 1.15–1.56), snoring (1.45, 1.15,1.83), nGER (1.65, 1.15–2.37), insomnia (1.39, 1.13–1.73), short sleep time (<6 h/night) (2.51, 1.72–3.68) and EDS (1.48, 1.26,1.72). There were no independent relationships between symptoms in parents and offspring for EMA, nocturnal sweating or long sleep time (>9 h/night).ConclusionThe familiar aggregation of many sleep disturbances was not explained by investigated lifestyle and environmental factors. This supports a heritable factor in sleep problems.     

刍议研究生科学道德和学风教育质量管理体系之构建

研究生科学道德和学风建设是学位与研究生教育的重要组成部分。针对近年来科学研究和学术活动中各种违背科学道德和学术规范的行为时有发生,国家教育部对研究生科学道德和学风建设日益重视,因此构建研究生的科学道德和学风教育质量管理体系具有十分重要的意义。实现研究生科学道德和学风教育质量体系的方针和目标需具备三个要素,即教育实践的模式(集主题教育、方法学习、学术实践三位一体)、有效性评价机制和绩效考核机制。此外,尚需建立体系优化机制,以适应各种内外部因素的变化,保持体系的更新和优化。     

Patient Perspectives on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgery: A Focus on Sexual Health

BackgroundIn the last decade, many novel minimally invasive surgical techniques within benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) surgery were developed to reduce postoperative complications that often discourage patients from pursuing BPH surgery.AimTo assess perspective of future and past international BPH surgery patients regarding their postoperative complications, namely erectile and ejaculatory function.MethodsA survey was distributed randomly to 2 groups of BPH patients: one with 149 patients having undergone surgery in the last 2 years (group A), and the other cohort of 151 men seriously considering BPH surgery in the next year (group B). This survey consisted of 20 questions that assessed patients' motivating factors for undergoing elective BPH surgery and their perspectives regarding the potential postoperative complications attributed to BPH surgery.OutcomesThe perspective of future and past international BPH surgical patients towards the preservation of their erectile and ejaculatory functions was assessed with the help of a survey.ResultsResults indicated that in general BPH surgery patients considered the maintenance of erectile (95%, n = 284) and ejaculatory function (92%, n = 276) to be important preoperative considerations, regardless of their age. Patients aged 50–59 years were most concerned with the permanent impact on sexual function and patients aged >60 years were most concerned with urinary incontinence. In patients aged >70 years, 66% (n = 43) and 62% (n = 40) of the respondents indicated that maintaining erectile and ejaculatory function was important, respectively.Clinical ImplicationsPatient-centered care needs to be implemented in order to address the importance that past and future BPH surgery patients hold toward the maintenance of their postoperative sexual function.Strengths & LimitationsIn the group of patients having previously undergone BPH surgery, the possibility of recall bias should be taken into account when interpreting the study's findings. However, maintaining sexual function was also important for the group of patients seriously considering surgery in the next year suggesting that these considerations are not solely due to recall bias. Additionally, the results were limited by the small sample size of participants in groups A (n = 149) and B (n = 151).ConclusionIt was found that past and future BPH surgery patients attribute a significant importance toward the maintenance of their sexual function. Although novel approaches with better sexual outcomes such as Rezum and UroLift for prostates <80 mL, and Aquablation for any size prostate are available, more research is needed to investigate their long-term effects on sexual function before they can be recommended to patients.Bouhadana D, Nguyen D-D, Zorn KC, et al. Patient Perspectives on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgery: A Focus on Sexual Health. J Sex Med 2020;17:2108–2112.     

Health technology assessment with risk aversion in health

Standard cost-effectiveness models compare incremental cost increases to incremental average gains in health, commonly expressed in Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Our research generalizes earlier models in several ways. We introduce risk aversion in Quality of Life (QoL), which leads to “willingness-to-pay” thresholds that rise with illness severity, potentially by an order of magnitude. Unlike traditional CEA analyses, which discriminate against persons with disabilities, our analysis implies that the marginal value of improving QoL rises for disabled individuals. Our model can also value the uncertain benefits of medical interventions by employing well-established analytic methods from finance. Finally, we show that traditional QALYs no longer serve as a single index of health, when consumers are risk-averse. To address this problem, we derive a generalized single-index of health outcomes—the Generalized Risk-Adjusted QALY (GRA-QALY). Earlier models of CEA that abstract from risk-aversion nest as special cases of our more general model.     

Developing a Brief Neuropsychological Battery for Early Diagnosis of Cognitive Impairment

ObjectivesEarly diagnosis of cognitive impairment is increasingly emphasized in the literature to facilitate timely preventive interventions. Although bedside cognitive tests such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are widely used for such early diagnostic purposes, they may not have comparable performance to a full neuropsychological battery (FNB) in diagnosing early cognitive impairment. This study investigated whether a small subset of neuropsychological tests can be added on to MoCA to match its performance to that of the FNB in discriminating mild cognitive impairment and dementia (MCI/dementia) from normal cognition.DesignCross-sectional diagnostic study.SettingAlzheimer's Disease Centers across the United States.ParticipantsOlder participants (≥50 years) who completed MoCA and the FNB (N = 9187).MeasuresThe study sample was split into two: the derivation sample (n = 1837) was used to develop a brief neuropsychological battery that best discriminated MCI/dementia (using the best-subset approach with 10-fold cross-validation); while the validation sample (n = 7350) verified its actual performance in discriminating MCI/dementia.ResultsA 3-item neuropsychological battery was identified, comprising MoCA, Benson Complex Figure Recall, and Craft Story 21 Delayed Recall. It had excellent performance in discriminating MCI/dementia from normal cognition (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] 90.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 89.2%-90.7%), which was comparable to that of the FNB (AUROC 88.4%, 95% CI 87.6%-89.2%). By contrast, MoCA alone had significantly worse AUROC (86.9%, 95% CI 86.0%-87.7%) than that of the FNB.Conclusions/ImplicationsUsing rigorous methods, this study developed a brief neuropsychological battery that maintained the brevity of a bedside cognitive test, while rivaling the diagnostic performance of an FNB in early cognitive impairment. This brief battery offers a viable alternative when the FNB is needed but cannot be feasibly administered in nonspecialty clinics. It can have a wider health systems effect of improving patients’ access to accurate diagnosis in early cognitive impairment and facilitating timely interventions to delay the progression of cognitive impairment.     

医疗设备维修管理之团队建设

通过我院设备科设备维修队伍的团队建设,说明团队建设在设备维修管理中的重要性。     

邹城市预防艾滋病健康教育效果评价

目的评价预防艾滋病健康教育与行为干预效果。方法采用问卷方式对社区居民进行预防艾滋病信息的可及性及知信行的调查。结果社区居民艾滋病知晓率为97.41%,熟悉艾滋病传播途径的87.78%,62.78%的认为艾滋病病人或感染者和正常人享有一样的入学/就业权,38.70%的人愿意与感染艾滋病的同事继续共事,60.19%的人愿意与感染艾滋病的家人继续共同生活,最近3次性行为100%使用安全套者为26.48%,82.04%的人有医疗用血安全意识,64.81%的人有医疗器械安全意识。最想获取艾滋病预防措施、传播途径、病理知识、症状表现、治疗方法、检测途径及检测方法、疫情信息,新闻、电视公益广告、专题报道、反映艾滋病病人生活的电影或电视剧、科普材料、大型公益演出人们最喜欢。结论政府重视,多部门合作,组织机构健全,宣传教育广泛,干预措施到位,成效显著。