Preseason Symptom Reporting and Cognition in Middle School Athletes with Past Concussions

This study examined the association between past concussions and current preseason symptom reporting and cognitive performance in 9,257 youth ages 11–13. Participants completed neurocognitive testing prior to participating in a school sports between 2009 and 2019. We stratified the sample by gender and number of prior concussions and assessed group differences on the Post-Concussion Symptom Scale total score and the ImPACT cognitive composite scores. Those with≥2 prior concussions reported more symptoms than those with 0 concussions (d=0.43–0.46). Multiple regressions examining the contribution of concussion history and developmental/health history to symptom reporting showed the most significant predictors of symptoms scores were (in descending order): treatment for a psychiatric condition, treatment for headaches, history of learning disability (in boys only), history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and age. Concussion history was the weakest statistically significant predictor in boys and not significant in girls. Cognitively, boys with 1 prior concussion had worse speed those with 0 concussions (d=0.11), and girls with≥2 prior concussions had worse verbal/visual memory than girls with 0 concussions (ds=0.38–0.39). In summary, youth with≥2 prior concussions reported more symptoms than those with no concussions. Boys with multiple concussions performed similarly on cognitive testing, while girls had worse memory scores.

COVID-19 patient accounts of illness severity, treatments and lasting symptoms

First-person accounts of COVID-19 illness and treatment can complement and enrich data derived from electronic medical or public health records. With patient-reported data, it is uniquely possible to ascertain in-depth contextual information as well as behavioral and emotional responses to illness. The Novel Coronavirus Illness Patient Report (NCIPR) dataset includes complete survey responses from 1,584 confirmed COVID-19 patients ages 18 to 98. NCIPR survey questions address symptoms, medical complications, home and hospital treatments, lasting effects, anxiety about illness, employment impacts, quarantine behaviors, vaccine-related behaviors and effects, and illness of other family/household members. Additional questions address financial security, perceived discrimination, pandemic impacts (relationship, social, stress, sleep), health history, and coping strategies. Detailed patient reports of illness, environment, and psychosocial impact, proximal to timing of infection and considerate of demographic variation, is meaningful for understanding pandemic-related public health from the perspective of those that contracted the disease.

Prescription Medications and Co-Morbidities in Late Middle-Age are Associated with Greater Cognitive Declines: Results from WRAP

The present study investigated: 1) sex differences in polypharmacy, comorbidities, self-rated current health (SRH), and cognitive performance, 2) associations between comorbidities, polypharmacy, SRH, and objective measures of health, and 3) associations of these factors with longitudinal cognitive performance. Analyses included 1039 eligible Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) participants who were cognitively unimpaired at baseline and had ≥2 visits with cognitive composites, self-reported health history, and concurrent medication records. Repeated measures correlation (rmcorr) examined the associations between medications, co-morbidities, SRH, and objective measures of health (including LIfestyle for BRAin Health Index (LIBRA), and depression). Linear mixed-effect models examined associations between medications, co-morbidities, and cognitive change over time using a preclinical Alzheimer’s cognitive composite (PACC3) and cognitive domain z-scores (executive function, working memory, immediate learning, and delayed recall). In secondary analyses, we also examined whether the number of medications interacted with co-morbidities and whether they modified age-related cognitive trajectories. The number of prescribed medications was associated with worse SRH and a higher number of self-reported co-morbidities. More prescribed medications were associated with a faster decline in executive function, and more comorbidities were associated with faster PACC3 decline. Those with a non-elevated number of co-morbidities and medications performed an average of 0.26 SD higher (better) in executive function and an average of 0.18 SD higher on PACC3 than those elevated on both. Associations between medications, co-morbidities, and executive function, and PACC3 suggest that persons with more co-morbidities and medications may be at increased risk of reaching clinical levels of impairment earlier than healthier, less medicated peers.

An Intelligent Approach for Prediction of Life Style Conditions in Adolescent Girls by Analyzing Health Parameters

Monitoring health parameters has become a challenging task due to unpredictable diseases and related symptoms. Lifestyle is a crucial factor to decide to be healthy, in adolescent girls especially. This chapter presents a work in progress on prediction of lifestyle of adolescent girls based on problems like unhealthy routines of eating habits, sleep patterns, stress, etc. Therefore, an IT-enabled system is presented to assess current lifestyle of adolescent girls in an easy and faster way. A systematic survey is conducted with specially designed survey form by consulting medical practitioners and physical trainers. Twenty-one factors related to age, diet habits, exercise habits, sleeping habits, health history, etc. are included in the expert-guided form. One hundred fifty-five individual responses are collected and assessed manually by medical experts to annotate as healthy or unhealthy types. The healthy lifestyle prediction accuracy with support vector machine is 83.87% whereas it is 80.64% using logistic regression.

Oral Health of COVID-19 Patients Using Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Clinical Study of 19 Cases

The oral health of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is an important issue in treatment of respiratory failure. We retrospectively investigated the oral health history of severe COVID-19 patients who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) from April 2020 to December 2020 using the oral assessment guide from Fukuoka University (OAG-F). Nineteen consecutive patients (median age: 62 years) were divided into two groups according to survival (survivors, n = 12; non-survivors, n = 7). A univariate analysis revealed no significant differences between the groups in sex, age, body mass index (BMI), or the number of remaining teeth, whereas the ECMO assistance of non-survivors (median: 34 days) was prolonged in comparison to survivors (median: 8 days; p < 0.05). Among the factors of OAG-F, significant differences were observed between the groups in the conditions of the saliva, mucous membrane, and gingiva. The total scores in non-survivors (median: 19) were significantly higher in comparison to survivors (Median: 15.5), suggesting that the frequency of oral health deterioration was higher in non-survivors (p < 0.05). Taken together, these findings suggest that poor oral health is associated with mortality in COVID-19 patients receiving ECMO in the ICU.

The Michigan Genomics Initiative: a biobank linking genotypes and electronic clinical records in Michigan Medicine patients

The recent wave of biobank repositories linking individual-level genetic data with dense clinical health history has introduced a dramatic paradigm shift in phenotyping for human genetic studies. The mechanism by which biobanks recruit participants can vary dramatically according to factors such as geographic catchment and sampling strategy. These enrollment differences leave an imprint on the cohort, defining the demographics and the utility of the biobank for research purposes. Here we introduce the Michigan Genomics Initiative (MGI), a rolling enrollment, single health system biobank currently consisting of >85,000 participants recruited primarily through surgical encounters at Michigan Medicine. A strong ascertainment effect is introduced by focusing recruitment on individuals in Southeast Michigan undergoing surgery. MGI participants are, on average, less healthy than the general population, which produces a biobank enriched for case counts of many disease outcomes, making it well suited for a disease genetics cohort. A comparison to the much larger UK Biobank, which uses population representative sampling, reveals that MGI has higher prevalence for nearly all diagnosis-code-based phenotypes, and larger absolute numbers of cases for many phenotypes. GWAS of these phenotypes replicate many known findings, validating the genetic and clinical data and their proper linkage. Our results illustrate that single health-system biobanks that recruit participants through opportunistic sampling, such as surgical encounters, produce distinct patient profiles that provide an ideal resource for exploring the genetics of complex diseases.

Prospective changes in physical activity, sedentary time and sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic in a US-based cohort study

ObjectivesAssess differences in movement behaviours within the 24-hour cycle, including light intensity physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sedentary time and sleep, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess these differences stratified by several relevant factors in a subcohort of the Cancer Prevention Study-3.Design and settingUS-based longitudinal cohort study (2018–August 2020).ParticipantsN=1992 participants, of which 1304 (65.5%) are women, and 1512 (75.9%) are non-Latino white, with a mean age 57.0 (9.8) years.MeasuresAge, sex, race/ethnicity, education; self-reported LPA, MVPA, sedentary time and sleep duration collected before and during the pandemic; pandemic-related changes in work, childcare and living arrangement; COVID-19 health history.ResultsCompared to 2018, participants spent an additional 104 min/day sedentary, 61 fewer min/day in LPA and 43 fewer min/day in MVPA during the pandemic. Time spent sleeping was similar at the two time points. Differences in movement behaviours were more pronounced among men, those with a higher level of education, and those who were more active before the pandemic.ConclusionsFrom 2018 to Summer 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, US adults have made significant shifts in daily time spent in LPA, MVPA and sedentary. There is an urgent need to promote more physical activity and less sedentary time during this public health crisis to avoid sustaining these patterns long-term.

Religious perspectives on Vaccination: Mandatory Covid-19 vaccine for SA Churches

In public health history, vaccinations have been seen as very helpful as they help protect societies from preventable diseases and save many lives around the world. Despite the fact that few religious groups oppose vaccination for a variety of reasons, almost all major religions in the world support vaccination as long as it complies with religious precepts for the preservation, protection, or well-being of livelihoods. However, during the surge of Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa and elsewhere, governments witnessed unprecedented hesitancy and opposition to the Covid-19 vaccination by the general public. Those who opposed the Covid-19 vaccine cited multiple concerns or reasons, ranging from possible side effects, adverse events, vaccine safety, vaccine effectiveness, conspiracy theories, and religious or cultural reasons. Based on a literature search, this paper attempts to discuss various religious views on the subject of vaccination in general and subsequently make use of such perspectives to support calls for a compulsory Covid-19 vaccination, especially for South African churches. This is a timely topic of central concern as it seeks to politely dispel religious misunderstandings and confusion that could arise as a result of debates on mandatory vaccines for Covid-19. Health and religion will be brought together to shape the ongoing discussions about the moral urgency of a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination in South Africa.

Specific peculiarity of the forensic veterinary expert conclusion structure according to the research of fowl corpse results

The article identifies and systematizes some issues of the forensic veterinary expert conclusion structure according to the research of fowl carcass results. It is claimed that the sequence of fowl carcass examination results presentation is determined by a forensic veterinary expert with account the examination specifics, the object study state and the issues nature raised by the subject of examination appointment for the expert decision. It is shown that the peculiarity of its introductory part is a specific issues list raised for the forensic veterinary expert decision by the research subject. Mandatory elements of the “Research” section in the expert's conclusion is a statement of the individual documents study results in the proceedings and directly related to the examination (extract from the animal's health history, fowl ambulatory card, site inspection report, etc.), carcass registration data, results of its external and internal research according to certain algorithms description, results of additional researches (forensic chemical, histological, forensic toxicological, etc.), forensic veterinary diagnosis and the synthesizing part conclusion formulation. The final part of the expert's conclusion is the questions answer to the mentioned in the introductory part in a categorical or, as an exception, in a probable form. Be sure to indicate the damage nature or pathological changes, their location, the cause of fowl death, the causal relationship between the damage caused to the fowl health and the onset of its death. The appendices peculiarity is that they are drawn up in the photo tables form, which carry information about the fowl carcasses forensic veterinary examination stages, supplement and confirm the expert's opinion verbal part.

Full paper

Background: Khalwa is a boarding school that specializes in teaching Quran and Islamic principles. Otorhino-laryngological diseases are very common in children, and the cause of considerable morbidity. They include a range of diseases from as simple as common cold to as disabling as hearing loss. This study aims to determine the pattern of ORL diseases in Mustafa Alfadni,Khalwa and more specifically to assess the presence of symptoms and signs of Ear, Nose and Throat diseases and to measure it’s prevalence among Khalwa students.Methods: this study was a cross-sectional facility- based study, carried out at Mustafa Alfadni Quran recitation (Khalwa) in suburb of Sharq alneel in Khartoum state. All of the students of this Khalwa were involved. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire composed of demographic data, medical and health history, clinical examination using check list followed by physical assessment by a tuning fork for weber’s and rhinne tests, otoscope. diagnosis was done by an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS software.Results: 116 khalwa students aged between 6 and 24 years with mean of 13.7 +-2.7 years were involved. 10.4% of the respondents were complaining of ear pain, 7.8% were suffering from tinnitus, 18.1% complained of nasal obstruction, 6% of them were suffering from facial pain, 23% were complaining of sneezing. 18.8% of the respondents suffered from epistaxis and 14.7% of them had sore throat. Medical examination revealed that, 25.8% had ear wax. The tympanic membrane in 4.4% was retracted, in 1.8% was bulging and in 2.6% there was effusion behind it and it was perforated in 1.8%. Hearing loss was 20.8% as a conductive hearing loss, and 4.2% were found to have sensorineural hearing loss. 16% had tonsillitis, and 10.5% had otitis media.Conclusion: Khalwa students were suffering from ear discharge, sneezing, epistaxis and sore throat beside ear wax and tympanic membrane disturbance that complicated with hearing loss recommended to have health services and health education program in the Khalawi to decrease the suffering of otitis media and hearing loss and prevent its’ complication as well.