Temporal Variability of Pesticide Concentrations in Homes and Implications for Attenuation Bias in Epidemiologic Studies

This review summarizes studies discussing vitamin D status in adults and reveals that vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is highly prevalent in adults and that current fortification and supplementation policies are inadequate. Background and aims: Studies suggest a crucial role for adequate vitamin D status in various health conditions including bone metabolism, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and allergies. However, relatively little is known about poor vitamin D status and unmet needs in adults. This report aims to highlight the contribution of epidemiologic studies (through the identification of health effects and societal burden) to the development of vitamin D fortification and supplementation policies and reveal unmet global challenges in adults. Methods: In order to assess worldwide vitamin D status in adults, the search strategy combined the medical literature database MEDLINE (using PubMed) for the time period between January 1, 1980 and February 28, 2011, using the key words vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, and included articles in which access to full text was possible and in which healthy adults were assessed according to one of four commonly used vitamin D threshold classifications. Results: This report reveals that vitamin D deficiency occurs in 4.10 % [95 % CI (confidence interval), 3.93 %, 4.27 %] to 55.05 % (54.07 %, 56.03 %) of adults, while insufficiency occurs in 26.07 % (24.82 %, 27.33 %) to 78.50 % (77.85 %, 79.16 %), depending on the classification used. However, lack of overlap in CIs and high value of I2 statistics indicate considerable heterogeneity between studies. Further, certain populations (i. e. dark-skinned individuals, immigrants, and pregnant women) may be at higher risk for poor vitamin D status. Conclusion: Current policies for vitamin D supplementation and fortification are inadequate and new guidelines are required to improve vitamin D status in adults.

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A randomized cross-over trial in patients suspected of PAD on diagnostic accuracy of ankle-brachial index by Doppler-based versus four-point oscillometry based measurements

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000808 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 516-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Verena Mayr ◽

Mirko Hirschl ◽

Peter Klein-Weigel ◽

Luka Girardi ◽

Michael Kundi

Keyword(s):

Diagnostic Accuracy ◽

Ankle Brachial Index ◽

Area Under The Curve ◽

High Volume ◽

Epidemiologic Studies ◽

Lower Sensitivity ◽

Oscillometric Device ◽

Specificity And Sensitivity ◽

Time Requirements ◽

Peripheral Arterial

Summary. Background: For diagnosis of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAD), a Doppler-based ankle-brachial-index (dABI) is recommended as the first non-invasive measurement. Due to limitations of dABI, oscillometry might be used as an alternative. The aim of our study was to investigate whether a semi-automatic, four-point oscillometric device provides comparable diagnostic accuracy. Furthermore, time requirements and patient preferences were evaluated. Patients and methods: 286 patients were recruited for the study; 140 without and 146 with PAD. The Doppler-based (dABI) and oscillometric (oABI and pulse wave index – PWI) measurements were performed on the same day in a randomized cross-over design. Specificity and sensitivity against verified PAD diagnosis were computed and compared by McNemar tests. ROC analyses were performed and areas under the curve were compared by non-parametric methods. Results: oABI had significantly lower sensitivity (65.8%, 95% CI: 59.2%–71.9%) compared to dABI (87.3%, CI: 81.9–91.3%) but significantly higher specificity (79.7%, 74.7–83.9% vs. 67.0%, 61.3–72.2%). PWI had a comparable sensitivity to dABI. The combination of oABI and PWI had the highest sensitivity (88.8%, 85.7–91.4%). ROC analysis revealed that PWI had the largest area under the curve, but no significant differences between oABI and dABI were observed. Time requirement for oABI was significantly shorter by about 5 min and significantly more patients would prefer oABI for future testing. Conclusions: Semi-automatic oABI measurements using the AngER-device provide comparable diagnostic results to the conventional Doppler method while PWI performed best. The time saved by oscillometry could be important, especially in high volume centers and epidemiologic studies.

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The Effect of Alternative Scoring Procedures on the Measurement Properties of a Self-Administered Depression Scale

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000371 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 55-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Noboru Iwata ◽

Akizumi Tsutsumi ◽

Takafumi Wakita ◽

Ryuichi Kumagai ◽

Hiroyuki Noguchi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Classical Test Theory ◽

Depression Scale ◽

Psychometric Testing ◽

Epidemiologic Studies ◽

Test Theory ◽

Measurement Properties ◽

Irt Model ◽

Response Alternatives ◽

Polytomous Item Response ◽

Θ Point

Abstract. To investigate the effect of response alternatives/scoring procedures on the measurement properties of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) which has the four response alternatives, a polytomous item response theory (IRT) model was applied to the responses of 2,061 workers and university students (1,640 males, 421 females). Test information functions derived from the polytomous IRT analyses on the CES-D data with various scoring procedures indicated that: (1) the CES-D with its standard (0-1-2-3) scoring procedure should be useful for screening to detect subjects with “at high-risk” of depression if the θ point showing the highest information corresponds to the cut-off point, because of its extremely higher information; (2) the CES-D with the 0-1-1-2 scoring procedure could cover wider range of depressive severity, suggesting that this scoring procedure might be useful in cases where more exhaustive discrimination in symptomatology is of interest; and (3) the revised version of CES-D with replacing original positive items into negatively revised items outperformed the original version. These findings have never been demonstrated by the classical test theory analyses, and thus the utility of this kind of psychometric testing should be warranted to further investigation for the standard measures of psychological assessment.

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