scholarly journals How Many People Live with Dementia in Portugal? A Discussion Paper of National Estimates

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Manuel Gonçalves-Pereira ◽  
Ana Verdelho ◽  
Matthew Prina ◽  
Maria João Marques ◽  
Miguel Xavier
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Prevalence Studies ◽  
People With Dementia

Dementia poses major public health challenges, and high-quality epidemiological data are needed for service planning. Published estimates of numbers of people with dementia in Portugal have been based, in most cases, on prevalence rates derived from international studies or expert consensus. As in many other countries, Portuguese community prevalence studies’ results are nongeneralizable to a country level. Moreover, their prevalence estimates differ (not surprisingly, owing to different methodologies, e.g., design, sampling, and diagnostic criteria). Regardless, the Portuguese 10/66 Dementia Research Group (10/66 DRG) population-based survey fulfilled 10 out of 11 Alzheimer’s Disease International quality criteria for prevalence studies. It relied on cross-culturally validated methods, fostering a wide comparability of results. Therefore, we can provide rough estimates of 217,549 community dwellers with dementia in Portugal according to the 10/66 DRG criteria (that would be only 85,162 according to DSM-IV criteria). This refers to people aged 65 years or older who are not institutionalized. Although broadly consistent with international projections, these estimates must be cautiously interpreted. Particularly in the context of scarce funding, which will probably last for years, we need more efficient, evidence-based dementia policies. Concerning further epidemiological studies, high-quality methods are needed but also their comparability potential should be improved at national and international levels. Most of all, fund allocation in Portugal should now privilege routine dementia information systems in both health and social services.

The Growing Epidemic of Diabetes Mellitus

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragan Lovic ◽  
Alexia Piperidou ◽  
Ioanna Zografou ◽  
Haralambos Grassos ◽  
Andreas Pittaras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
World Health ◽  
Prevalence Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Income Status ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Public Health Strategies

Background: During the past decades, the prevalence of diabetes (DM) has increased significantly, mainly as a result of continuous rise in the incidence of type 2 DM. According to World Health Organization statistics, >422 million adults globally were suffering from DM in 2014 and a continuous rise in DM prevalence is expected. Objective: The present review considers recent epidemiological data providing worldwide estimates regarding the incidence of DM. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify available data from epidemiological studies evaluating the current burden of DM. Results: Over the past few decades the prevalence of DM has risen significantly in nearly all countries and may be considered as a growing epidemic. Urbanization and income status are major factors which influence current rates in the prevalence studies introducing interesting differences between several population groups. Conclusion: Having recognized the global burden of DM, we now realize the urgent need for effective interventions. In order to monitor the public-health strategies and design effective future interventions we need reliable global estimates regarding the prevalence of DM.

Epidemiological Trends in Attempted Suicide in Adolescents and Young Adults Between 1996 and 2004

Crisis ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie De Munck ◽  
Gwendolyn Portzky ◽  
Kees Van Heeringen
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Attempted Suicide ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Adolescents And Young Adults ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Suicide Attempters ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Epidemiological Trends

Background: Notwithstanding the epidemiological studies indicating an increased risk of attempted suicide among adolescents and young adults, there is a scarcity of international studies that examine long-term epidemiological trends in rates and characteristics of this vulnerable group. Aims: This article describes the results of a 9-year monitoring study of suicide attempts in adolescents and young adults referred to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Gent University Hospital (Belgium). Methods: Between January 1996 and December 2004, trends, sociodemographic, and methodrelated characteristics of suicide attempts were assessed by a psychiatrist on data sheets. Results: Attempted suicide rates declined from 1996 to 2001 and then rose until 2004, but did not exceed previous rates. During the 9 years of monitoring, there was a preponderance of female suicide attempters, except for 1997. Rates of attempts and of fatal suicide were negatively correlated. Significantly more males than females deliberately injured themselves. Younger attempters, especially females, significantly more often poisoned themselves with analgesics. In nearly one in five attempts, alcohol was used in combination with other methods, and alcohol intake was more commonly observed in older suicide attempters. Nearly half of the adolescents were identified as repeaters. Conclusions: The results of this study warrant further monitoring of trends and characteristics of young suicide attempters.

scholarly journals Methods for epidemiological studies in competitive cycling: an extension of the IOC consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injury and illness in sport 2020

2021 ◽  
pp. bjsports-2020-103906
Author(s):  
Benjamin Clarsen ◽  
Babette M Pluim ◽  
Víctor Moreno-Pérez ◽  
Xavier Bigard ◽  
Cheri Blauwet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Consensus Statement ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Population Characteristics ◽  
Exposure Study ◽  
Injury Mechanisms ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Final Manuscript ◽  
Collection Methods

In 2020, the IOC released a consensus statement that provides overall guidelines for the recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injury and illness in sport. Some aspects of this statement need to be further specified on a sport-by-sport basis. To extend the IOC consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injury and illness in sports and to meet the sport-specific requirements of all cycling disciplines regulated by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). A panel of 20 experts, all with experience in cycling or cycling medicine, participated in the drafting of this cycling-specific extension of the IOC consensus statement. In preparation, panel members were sent the IOC consensus statement, the first draft of this manuscript and a list of topics to be discussed. The expert panel met in July 2020 for a 1-day video conference to discuss the manuscript and specific topics. The final manuscript was developed in an iterative process involving all panel members. This paper extends the IOC consensus statement to provide cycling-specific recommendations on health problem definitions, mode of onset, injury mechanisms and circumstances, diagnosis classifications, exposure, study population characteristics and data collection methods. Recommendations apply to all UCI cycling disciplines, for both able-bodied cyclists and para-cyclists. The recommendations presented in this consensus statement will improve the consistency and accuracy of future epidemiological studies of injury and illness in cycling.

scholarly journals Genetic Contribution of Endometriosis to the Risk of Developing Hormone-Related Cancers

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 6083
Author(s):  
Aintzane Rueda-Martínez ◽  
Aiara Garitazelaia ◽  
Ariadna Cilleros-Portet ◽  
Sergi Marí ◽  
Rebeca Arauzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Clear Cell ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genomic Analyses ◽  
Gynecological Disorder ◽  
Robust Evidence

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder that has been associated with endometrial, breast and epithelial ovarian cancers in epidemiological studies. Since complex diseases are a result of multiple environmental and genetic factors, we hypothesized that the biological mechanism underlying their comorbidity might be explained, at least in part, by shared genetics. To assess their potential genetic relationship, we performed a two-sample mendelian randomization (2SMR) analysis on results from public genome-wide association studies (GWAS). This analysis confirmed previously reported genetic pleiotropy between endometriosis and endometrial cancer. We present robust evidence supporting a causal genetic association between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, particularly with the clear cell and endometrioid subtypes. Our study also identified genetic variants that could explain those associations, opening the door to further functional experiments. Overall, this work demonstrates the value of genomic analyses to support epidemiological data, and to identify targets of relevance in multiple disorders.

scholarly journals The Impact of Work Hours on Depressive Symptoms among Koreans Aged 45 and Over

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 853
Author(s):  
Juyeong Kim ◽  
Eun-Cheol Park
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Health Studies ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Impact

Background: Given the documented importance of employment for middle-aged and older adults’ mental health, studies of the association between their number of work hours and depressive symptoms are needed. Objectives: To examine the association between the number of work hours and depressive symptoms in Korean aged 45 and over. Methods: We used data from the first wave to fourth wave of the Korea Longitudinal Study of Aging. Using the first wave at baseline, data included 9845 individuals. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. We performed a longitudinal analysis to estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms by work hours. Results: Both unemployed males and females aged 45–65 years were associated with higher depressive symptoms (β = 0.59, p < 0.001; β = 0.32, p < 0.001). Females working ≥ 69 h were associated with higher depressive symptoms compared to those working 41–68 h (β = 0.25, p = 0.013). Among those both middle-aged and older adults, both males and females unemployed were associated with higher depressive symptoms. Those middle-aged female working ≥69 h were associated with higher depressive symptoms. Conclusions: An increase in depressive symptoms was associated with unemployed males and females working ≥69 h compared to those working 41–68 h. Although this association was found among middle-aged individuals, a decrease in depressive symptoms in both sexes was associated with working 1–40 h. Depressive symptoms should decrease by implementing employment policies and social services to encourage employers to support middle-aged and older adults in the workforce considering their sex and age differences.

scholarly journals A deep cascaded segmentation of obstructive sleep apnea-relevant organs from sagittal spine MRI

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-588
Author(s):  
Tatyana Ivanovska ◽  
Amro Daboul ◽  
Oleksandr Kalentev ◽  
Norbert Hosten ◽  
Reiner Biffar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Obstructive Sleep Apnea ◽  
Sleep Apnea ◽  
Soft Palate ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Sleep Apnea Syndrome ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
Validation Set ◽  
Spine Mri

Abstract Purpose The main purpose of this work was to develop an efficient approach for segmentation of structures that are relevant for diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), namely pharynx, tongue, and soft palate, from mid-sagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MR) data. This framework will be applied to big data acquired within an on-going epidemiological study from a general population. Methods A deep cascaded framework for subsequent segmentation of pharynx, tongue, and soft palate is presented. The pharyngeal structure was segmented first, since the airway was clearly visible in the T1-weighted sequence. Thereafter, it was used as an anatomical landmark for tongue location. Finally, the soft palate region was extracted using segmented tongue and pharynx structures and used as input for a deep network. In each segmentation step, a UNet-like architecture was applied. Results The result assessment was performed qualitatively by comparing the region boundaries obtained from the expert to the framework results and quantitatively using the standard Dice coefficient metric. Additionally, cross-validation was applied to ensure that the framework performance did not depend on the specific selection of the validation set. The average Dice coefficients on the test set were $$0.89\pm 0.03$$ 0.89 ± 0.03 , $$0.87\pm 0.02$$ 0.87 ± 0.02 , and $$0.79\pm 0.08$$ 0.79 ± 0.08 for tongue, pharynx, and soft palate tissues, respectively. The results were similar to other approaches and consistent with expert readings. Conclusion Due to high speed and efficiency, the framework will be applied for big epidemiological data with thousands of participants acquired within the Study of Health in Pomerania as well as other epidemiological studies to provide information on the anatomical structures and aspects that constitute important risk factors to the OSAS development.

Quality in long-term care homes for people with dementia: an assessment of specialist provision

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIOBHAN REILLY ◽  
MICHELE ABENDSTERN ◽  
JANE HUGHES ◽  
DAVID CHALLIS ◽  
DAN VENABLES ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
North West ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
National Service Framework ◽  
Specialist Services ◽  
Care Regimes

There has been debate for some years as to whether the best model of care for people with dementia emphasises specialist facilities or integrated service provision. Although the United Kingdom National Service Framework for Older People recommended that local authority social services departments encourage the development of specialist residential care for people with dementia, uncertainty continues as to the benefits of particular care regimes, partly because research evidence is limited. This paper examines a large number of ‘performance measures’ from long-term care facilities in North West England that have residents with dementia. Of the 287 in the survey, 56 per cent described themselves as specialist services for elderly people with mental ill-health problems (known familiarly as ‘EMI homes’). It was envisaged that EMI homes would score higher than non-EMI homes on several measures of service quality for people with dementia that were developed from research evidence and policy documents. The analysis, however, found that EMI homes performed better than non-EMI homes on only a few measures. While both home types achieved good results on some standards, on others both performed poorly. Overall, EMI and non-EMI homes offered a similar service.

scholarly journals The Effect of Random Error in Exposure Measurement upon the Shape of the Exposure Response

Dose-Response ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. dose-response.0 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny S. Crump
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Error ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Random Errors ◽  
Exposure Measurement ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Exposure Response ◽  
Log Normal ◽  
Normally Distributed

Although statistical analyses of epidemiological data usually treat the exposure variable as being known without error, estimated exposures in epidemiological studies often involve considerable uncertainty. This paper investigates the theoretical effect of random errors in exposure measurement upon the observed shape of the exposure response. The model utilized assumes that true exposures are log-normally distributed, and multiplicative measurement errors are also log-normally distributed and independent of the true exposures. Under these conditions it is shown that whenever the true exposure response is proportional to exposure to a power r, the observed exposure response is proportional to exposure to a power K, where K < r. This implies that the observed exposure response exaggerates risk, and by arbitrarily large amounts, at sufficiently small exposures. It also follows that a truly linear exposure response will appear to be supra-linear—i.e., a linear function of exposure raised to the K-th power, where K is less than 1.0. These conclusions hold generally under the stated log-normal assumptions whenever there is any amount of measurement error, including, in particular, when the measurement error is unbiased either in the natural or log scales. Equations are provided that express the observed exposure response in terms of the parameters of the underlying log-normal distribution. A limited investigation suggests that these conclusions do not depend upon the log-normal assumptions, but hold more widely. Because of this problem, in addition to other problems in exposure measurement, shapes of exposure responses derived empirically from epidemiological data should be treated very cautiously. In particular, one should be cautious in concluding that the true exposure response is supra-linear on the basis of an observed supra-linear form.

Researchers' judgment criteria of high-quality answers on academic social Q&A platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Li ◽  
Chengzhi Zhang ◽  
Daqing He ◽  
Jia Tina Du
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Second Stage

PurposeThrough a two-stage survey, this paper examines how researchers judge the quality of answers on ResearchGate Q&A, an academic social networking site.Design/methodology/approachIn the first-stage survey, 15 researchers from Library and Information Science (LIS) judged the quality of 157 answers to 15 questions and reported the criteria that they had used. The content of their reports was analyzed, and the results were merged with relevant criteria from the literature to form the second-stage survey questionnaire. This questionnaire was then completed by researchers recognized as accomplished at identifying high-quality LIS answers on ResearchGate Q&A.FindingsMost of the identified quality criteria for academic answers—such as relevance, completeness, and verifiability—have previously been found applicable to generic answers. The authors also found other criteria, such as comprehensiveness, the answerer's scholarship, and value-added. Providing opinions was found to be the most important criterion, followed by completeness and value-added.Originality/valueThe findings here show the importance of studying the quality of answers on academic social Q&A platforms and reveal unique considerations for the design of such systems.

scholarly journals Epidemiological trends in digestive cancers compared to trends in alcohol consumption. Facts from Romania: correlation or coincidence?

2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-386
Author(s):  
Simona Valean ◽  
Romeo Chira ◽  
Dan Dumitrascu
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Causative Relationship ◽  
Consumption Data ◽  
Digestive Cancers ◽  
Epidemiological Trends

Cancer has emerged as the leading cause of death in human populations, according to recent estimations. Epidemiological studies emphasized the role of life style and of environmental factors in promoting the risk for digestive cancers. The contribution of alcohol was highly suspected. Even for digestive cancers with dominant infection etiology, like liver cancer and gastric cancer, the contribution of alcohol should be assessed. At population level there is therefore a need to compare trends in epidemiological data of gastrointestinal cancers and data on alcohol consumption, in order to extrapolate any causative relationship. The purpose of this review was to analyze the time trend of digestive cancers in Romania, in terms of mortality rates (between 1955-2012), and incidence rates (between 2008-2012), in males and females, and to analyze the alcohol consumption data, aiming to find out if there is any association.

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