While health research about persons of South Asian ancestry has been conducted for decades in Canada, it often uses pathologising approaches that fail to consider historical, social and political factors shaping health disparities. Further, this research rarely engages South Asian communities in meaningful ways, reinforcing feelings of disconnect and longstanding mistrust. Greater collaboration and transparency are needed to build trust and generate credible findings. The aims of this research protocol are to (1) examine how community engagement has been implemented in health research involving South Asian populations, (2) explore the experiences of both South Asian community members and academics involved in community-engaged research and (3) develop a framework guiding health research with and for South Asian communities in Canada, titled PRinciples to Operationalize Community Engagement, Equity, and Sustainability in South Asian Health Research in Canada (PROCESS).
This ongoing codesigned concurrent multimethods study is being conducted with community partners across Canadian provinces. First, the scoping review is examining how community engagement has been operationalised in health research involving South Asian populations in Canada. We are performing a search in Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus and PsycINFO databases for articles published between 2003 and 2024 referring to the concept of community engagement in South Asian health research. Two reviewers are independently completing abstract and full-text reviews based on preselected eligibility criteria. Data are being extracted from peer-reviewed studies using a data extraction framework. Findings will be aggregated and synthesised using descriptive content analyses. Second, a qualitative descriptive study is being conducted to explore the experiences of diverse stakeholders, including academics and community partners who are partaking in academic health research focused on South Asians. Semistructured interviews are being analysed using an inductive thematic content analysis. Results from the scoping review and qualitative interviews will be triangulated to detect emerging themes and patterns, which will enable the identification of principles to be incorporated within a draft of the PROCESS framework. In the final phase, we will use a modified Delphi process to iteratively codevelop the PROCESS framework with community partners and researchers across Canada.
The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Institutional Review Board at McGill University approved the study’s protocol (24-05-080). Results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presented in academic and community forums. Results will also be shared with diverse audiences across Canada through multiple formats, including articles, conferences, infographics and social media, with the aim of raising awareness and promoting the adoption of research principles and practices for engaging South Asian communities in health research. This research received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Grant #507768).
by Lauren H. Baker, Terun Desai, Jonathan Sinclair, Amy V. Wells
ObjectivesTo monitor sleep patterns of elite swimmers and explore sleep as a potential risk factor for upper respiratory symptoms (URS) alongside salivary Immunoglobulin A (IgA) in elite swimmers, over an 8-month competitive season.
DesignSecondary analysis of an 8-month longitudinal study in elite international swimmers leading into either the Commonwealth Games 2018 or Swim Cup Eindhoven.
MethodsFourteen elite swimmers (age ± SD = 19.9 ± 0.8 years, height = 178.9 ± 6.3 cm, and mass = 75.0 ± 7.7 kg) were recruited. Self-reported sleep quality, URS data and salivary IgA was obtained weekly on a standardised day. Quantitative sleep parameters were measured using wrist-worn actigraphy four times for two-week bouts; during low, moderate, high training loads and once leading into competition.
ResultsSwimmers waking fatigued was positively associated with frequency (p Conclusions
Perceived fatigue on waking was significantly associated with both frequency and severity of URS, and inversely associated with mucosal immunity (salivary IgA), providing novel insight into the relationship between sleep, fatigue and illness in this cohort. Although causality cannot be established, the high prevalence of inadequate sleep shown in elite swimmers highlights the importance of individual sleep monitoring to support recovery and inform strategies aimed at illness prevention.
To translate and culturally adapt six self-report measures for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and somatic symptom disorder into Hindi and determine their diagnostic accuracy against a diagnostic clinical interview.
Cross-sectional validation study.
Rural Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, northern India.
480 perinatal (pregnant or within 12 months postpartum) and non-perinatal (not currently pregnant and not given birth within 12 months) women at one tertiary hospital and district-level Anganwadi (community health) centres.
Symptom endorsement; and discriminant validity, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the Kessler Scale of Psychological Distress (K10), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD7), Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS), PTSD Checklist (PCL-5) and Scale for the Assessment of Somatic Symptoms (SASS).
Complete data were available for 443 participants. Tiredness and body weakness were the most commonly endorsed symptoms among participants with common mental disorders. Among perinatal participants, the AUROC was highest for the GAD7 (0.88, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.96) and SASS (0.84, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.96). Among non-perinatal participants, the AUROC was highest for the SASS (0.92, 95% CI 0.88 to 0.97) and PHQ9 (0.91, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.96).
Measures which assess for fatigue, tiredness and somatic symptoms may help to identify women experiencing common mental disorders in this setting. Small numbers of participants with clinically diagnosed mental disorders in our sample mean results must be interpreted cautiously.
To assess diagnostic concordance and reclassification following an India-led, multinational virtual multidisciplinary discussion (V-MDD) platform for interstitial lung disease (ILD).
Prospective, multicentre service-evaluation study.
Twenty-four Indian referral centres connected through a secure virtual platform, with international faculty participation from the UK, Greece and Sri Lanka.
A total of 127 anonymised ILD cases discussed across 29 V-MDD sessions (February 2024–February 2025). Each panel included ≥4 pulmonologists, two pulmonary pathologists, one of three rotating thoracic radiologists and one of two rheumatologists, along with international experts.
The cohort (mean age 52.6±16.1 years; 53.5% female (68/127)) most frequently presented with dyspnoea (82.6%) and cough (73.2%). Pre-V-MDD diagnoses included hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) and sarcoidosis as distinct disease entities, and usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) and non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) as radiological patterns, along with connective tissue disease (CTD)-ILD and other ILDs. Concordance between pre- and post-V-MDD CT diagnoses was substantial (=0.658; 95% CI 0.562 to 0.754; p
The India-led, multinational V-MDD model demonstrated substantial diagnostic concordance and refined nearly one-quarter of ILD diagnoses. This virtual, scalable framework expands access to subspecialty expertise and offers a practical blueprint for standardising ILD care in resource-limited and cross-border settings.
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in children, with higher prevalence in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with high-income countries (HICs). Children with CP (CwCP) often face significant challenges in achieving toileting independence due to motor, sensory and cognitive impairments. Parents play a pivotal role in managing these challenges, often encountering significant emotional, physical and social burdens. Despite the importance of toileting for autonomy and dignity, limited evidence exists on tailored toilet training programmes for CwCP, especially in LMICs. Understanding parental perspectives is essential to addressing these gaps and informing family-centred interventions.
This scoping review aims to explore parents’ perspectives on toileting management for CwCP, focusing on strategies, challenges and unmet needs, to inform future research and the development of supportive interventions. This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute and summarised using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews framework. The English language full-text articles, published between January 2014 and December 2024, addressing the parental perspectives, challenges and strategies related to the task of toileting in CwCP below 18 years of age will be included. Systematic searches will be conducted through PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science and grey literature. The data will be extracted and analysed thematically using Microsoft Excel.
The present protocol has been registered in the Open Science Framework (DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/73YQZ). Ethical approval is not required, as this review uses secondary data from published studies and does not involve direct participant recruitment. The findings will synthesise themes related to parents’ strategies, challenges and expectations in toileting management for CwCP. They will help address existing literature gaps and inform the development of practical, evidence-informed toileting education programmes for parents.
Upper limb task-oriented training (UL-TOT) is a complex intervention in which practice conditions related to motor learning principles are applied to enhance upper limb motor recovery after stroke. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication guidelines suggest that detailed reporting of a complex intervention is essential in published studies. Therefore, this review aimed to determine the extent to which practice conditions related to motor learning principles were reported in UL-TOT stroke clinical trials.
A comprehensive search was done using appropriate keywords in PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane databases from 2000 to 2024. Two reviewers independently conducted title screening, abstract screening and full-text evaluation based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A third reviewer resolved the conflicts between the two reviewers during the screening process. Finally, the articles that fulfilled the criteria were included for data extraction.
23 802 studies were retrieved, and 166 studies were retained. Practice conditions such as practice variability (98%), dosage (97%) and movement complexity (96%) were reported more frequently, task selection for practice (75%), challenging and progressive task practice (76%) were reported frequently, practice order (57%), practice distribution (51%), feedback type (44%) and timing (44%) were reported occasionally. Feedback frequency (37%) was reported rarely.
Practice conditions such as practice variability, dosage, movement complexity, task selection, challenging and progressive task practice were reported consistently, while practice distribution, order and feedback were reported inconsistently. Developing a standard checklist for practice conditions related to motor learning principles can improve detailed reporting of practice conditions in future UL-TOT stroke clinical trials. This can help researchers replicate and reliably implement the intervention in specific populations and build on and create more effective interventions.
The UK Health Security Agency and the National Health Service England (NHSE) led a hepatitis C virus (HCV) patient re-engagement exercise beginning in 2018, which entailed sharing public health surveillance data with NHSE Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) in England. The ODNs used the data to contact and offer testing and treatment to people historically diagnosed with HCV, but who did not have evidence of successfully clearing the virus. A quantitative evaluation found that of 55 329 individuals whose details were shared with ODNs, around 13% had treatment after the exercise commenced. This qualitative evaluation aims to identify the barriers and facilitators to the re-engagement exercise as reported by ODN staff.
Semistructured interviews. The topic guide and analysis were guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework, using a combined deductive framework and inductive thematic analysis approach.
21 staff from 13 ODNs. The sampling frame was designed to capture participants from all regions of England and with varied outcomes from the re-engagement exercise.
Interviewees reported the most barriers in environmental context and resources (including staffing limitations, interruptions during COVID-19, restricted laboratory access), and social influences (with limited responses from general practitioners and patients). Interviewees discussed whether it was appropriate for ODNs and individual staff to be assigned the data validation work and reported some stress and memory/attention barriers due to the volume of the exercise. They had varied beliefs about the consequences of the exercise, with most believing it was worthwhile due to treatment yield, lessons learnt and confirmation that some people had cleared the virus. Further facilitators included the ODN goals fitting with the exercise, and regional resources such as patient databases. Interviewees also reported adaptations to the exercise that facilitated patient contact, and their ongoing work to re-engage patients emphasised outreach partnerships and peer support.
The evaluation revealed insights into methods for re-engaging patients and of sharing and using public health data to support clinical practice. Government support and funding provision for regionally tailored holistic re-engagement approaches, alongside enhancements to health surveillance data, could enable barriers to re-engagement to be overcome.