scholarly journals A global genetic epidemiological review of pseudoexfoliation syndrome

Author(s):  
Patrice M. Hicks ◽  
Adam Siedlecki ◽  
Benjamin Haaland ◽  
Leah A. Owen ◽  
Elizabeth Au ◽  
...  

Pseudoexfoliation (PXF) syndrome is an important public health concern requiring individual population level analysis. Disease prevalence differs by geographic location and ethnicity, and has environmental, demographic, genetic, and molecular risk factors have been demonstrated. Epidemiological factors that have been associated with PXF include age, sex, environmental factors, and diet. Genetic and molecular components have also been identified that are associated with PXF. Underserved populations are often understudied within scientific research, including research about eye disease such as PXF, contributing to the persistence of health disparities within these populations. In each population, PXF needs may be different, and by having research that identifies individual population needs about PXF, the resources in that population can be more efficiently utilized. Otherwise, PXF intervention and care management based only on the broadest level of understanding may continue to exacerbate health disparities in populations disproportionally burdened by PXF.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cuschieri ◽  
Julian Mamo

Abstract Background Depression is a chronic non communicable disease. It is a growing public health concern with established links with a number of co-morbidities, including diabetes mellitus. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression at a population level, establish the depression sub-population phenotypic characteristics while exploring for links between depression and a spectrum of glycemic abnormalities. Methods A nationally representative cross-sectional study was conducted in Malta between 2014 and 2016. Participants were categorized into different sub-populations according to their glycaemic status. Depression prevalence rates and phenotypic characteristics for each sub-population were established. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify links with depression. Results Depression was prevalent in 17.15% (CI 95%: 16.01 – 18.36) with a female predominance. Those with known (as opposed to newly diagnosed) diabetes had the highest depression prevalence when compared to other glycemic sub-groups. These also exhibited a significant link with self-reported depression. However, at a population level, depression was mostly prevalent within the normoglycaemic sub-population. Conclusions The study confirms the strong link between diabetes and depression, especially, in a high risk dysglycaemic population. Of public health concern is the high depression occurrence within the normoglycaemic sub-population, which attributed for the majority of the Maltese population. In order to reduce the impact of mental health on the population, physicians may consider implementing depression screening clinical tools as part of their routine health check-ups at primary care level, irrespective of the glycaemic status of their patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cuschieri ◽  
Julian Mamo

Abstract Background Depression is a chronic non communicable disease. It is a growing public health concern with established links with a number of co-morbidities, including diabetes mellitus. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression at a population level, establish the depression sub-population phenotypic characteristics while exploring for links between depression and a spectrum of glycemic abnormalities. Methods A nationally representative cross-sectional study was conducted in Malta between 2014 and 2016. Participants were categorized into different sub-populations according to their glycaemic status. Depression prevalence rates and phenotypic characteristics for each sub-population were established. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify links with depression. Results Depression was prevalent in 17.15% (CI 95%: 16.01–18.36) with a female predominance. Those with known (as opposed to newly diagnosed) diabetes had the highest depression prevalence when compared to other glycemic sub-groups. These also exhibited a significant link with self-reported depression. However, at a population level, depression was mostly prevalent within the normoglycaemic sub-population. Conclusions The study confirms the strong link between diabetes and depression, especially, in a high risk dysglycaemic population. Of public health concern is the high depression occurrence within the normoglycaemic sub-population, which attributed for the majority of the Maltese population. In order to reduce the impact of mental health on the population, physicians may consider implementing depression screening clinical tools as part of their routine health check-ups at primary care level, irrespective of the glycaemic status of their patients.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuli Njoku ◽  
Fathima Wakeel

Preventable differences in health outcomes between U.S. population subgroups, related to factors such as race or ethnicity, income, and geographic location, are troubling. Geographically, rural American communities experience higher rates of adverse health conditions when compared with urban areas, further widening disparities in health outcomes. Such disparities necessitate the creation of effective curricula to enable students to address the health needs of underserved populations. By intentionally incorporating health disparities awareness content into the curricula, undergraduate and graduate public health programs can play an integral role in developing conscious health practitioners to help close gaps in health outcomes. Moreover, rural health courses may increase students’ interest in rural health careers. This article presents the process and results of faculty efforts to design and deliver health disparities–related education in undergraduate and graduate public health courses at a rural Midwestern U.S. university. Various teaching development programs inspired faculty to use intentional instructional approaches to teach students about health disparities. Consequently, faculty incorporated a variety of assessment methods and teaching styles to infuse health disparities awareness content into public health courses. Results from students’ course evaluations and reflections are discussed along with lessons learned and implications for future pedagogical directions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Cuschieri ◽  
Julian Mamo

Abstract Background Depression is a chronic non communicable disease and its control constitutes a growing public health concern given its links with a number of co-morbidities, including diabetes mellitus. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression at a population level, establish the depression sub-population phenotypic characteristics while exploring for links between depression and a spectrum of glycemic abnormalities. Methods A nationally representative cross-sectional study was conducted in Malta between 2014 and 2016. Participants were categorized into different sub-populations according to their glycaemic status. Depression prevalence rates and phenotypic characteristics for each sub-population were established. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify links with depression. Results Depression was prevalent in 17.15% (CI 95%: 16.01 – 18.36) with a female predominance. Those with known (as opposed to newly diagnosed) diabetes had the highest depression prevalence when compared to other glycemic sub-groups and exhibited a significant link with self-reported depression. However, at a population level, depression was mostly prevalent within the normoglycaemic sub-population. Conclusions The study confirms the strong link between diabetes and depression, especially, in a high risk dysglycaemic population. Of public health concern is the high depression occurrence within the normoglycaemic sub-population, which constitutes the majority of the total Maltese population. Given the high prevalence of depressive illness in the population and in order to reduce the impact of mental health on the population, physicians may consider implementing depression screening clinical tools as part of their routine health check-ups at primary care level, irrespective of the glycaemic status of their patients.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Venkata Vijaya K. Dalai ◽  
Jason E. Childress ◽  
Paul E Schulz

Dementia is a major public health concern that afflicts an estimated 24.3 million people worldwide. Great strides are being made in order to better diagnose, prevent, and treat these disorders. Dementia is associated with multiple complications, some of which can be life-threatening, such as dysphagia. There is great variability between dementias in terms of when dysphagia and other swallowing disorders occur. In order to prepare the reader for the other articles in this publication discussing swallowing issues in depth, the authors of this article will provide a brief overview of the prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, current treatment options, and implications for eating for the common forms of neurodegenerative dementias.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen O'Loughlin ◽  
Emily K. Donovan ◽  
Zach Radcliff ◽  
Mark Ryan ◽  
Bruce Rybarczyk

Author(s):  
Bethan Evans ◽  
Charlotte Cooper

Over the last twenty years or so, fatness, pathologised as overweight and obesity, has been a core public health concern around which has grown a lucrative international weight loss industry. Referred to as a ‘time bomb’ and ‘the terror within’, analogies of ‘war’ circulate around obesity, framing fatness as enemy.2 Religious imagery and cultural and moral ideologies inform medical, popular and policy language with the ‘sins’ of ‘gluttony’ and ‘sloth’, evoked to frame fat people as immoral at worst and unknowledgeable victims at best, and understandings of fatness intersect with gender, class, age, sexuality, disability and race to make some fat bodies more problematically fat than others. As Evans and Colls argue, drawing on Michel Foucault, a combination of medical and moral knowledges produces the powerful ‘obesity truths’ through which fatness is framed as universally abject and pathological. Dominant and medicalised discourses of fatness (as obesity) leave little room for alternative understandings.


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