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It is widely known that a diagnosis of visual impairment has significant mental health impacts. Proposed approaches to addressing these include cognitive behavioural, problem-solving and stepped care solutions.
Limited research has focused specifically on vision-impaired patients’ preferences for mental health support following diagnosis. This study aimed to address this gap.
The study was qualitative and cross-sectional, involving thematic analysis of semistructured interviews with patients diagnosed with vision impairment.
Twenty vision-impaired patients, aged from 20 to 84 years old and with a range of diagnoses, were interviewed regarding their experience of and recommendations for mental health support at the point of diagnosis and thereafter.
Three main themes were identified: (1) Mapping the Journey: The Critical Role of Accessible Information, (2) Navigating the Emotional Impact: Help-Seeking Attitudes and Experiences and (3) Tailored Mental Health Support: Timing, Delivery and Preferred Providers. Each theme had three subthemes.
It was concluded that clear information about diagnosis, prognosis and available supports is fundamental to promoting and maintaining mental health for vision-impaired patients. Person-centred and/or peer support is highly valued. To be maximally effective, specific mental health support should be informed by knowledge of vision impairment, with standardised treatment programmes not being valued highly. The study results strongly suggest that mental health support needs to be tailored to the unique needs of each individual, and therefore, a stepped care approach may be most helpful, encompassing clear information, practical advice and ongoing peer and professional support.
Functional seizures (FS) are events that resemble epileptic seizures, but are not attributed to brain pathology and are instead thought to be due to psychological factors. A small, multisite, open-label, single-arm, pilot trial of a breathing intervention known as breathing control training (BCT) found it to be safe and effective in reducing seizure frequency in FS. We propose a protocol for a study to confirm these results.
A 24-week, multicentre, individually-randomised, assessor-blinded, two-arm, parallel-group efficacy and acceptability trial of BCT versus control (Befriending) in 220 participants ≥16 years of age with FS. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to receive two sessions of either BCT or Befriending over a 4-week period. Sessions will be delivered by a respiratory physiotherapist at a clinical care site or via telehealth. They will complete assessments prior to commencing treatment and at 4, 12 and 24 weeks after their initial session of BCT/Befriending. The trial will be conducted alongside treatment as usual. An economic evaluation including cost-utility and cost-effectiveness analyses will be carried out from health sector and societal perspectives.
The study has been approved by The Austin Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/84335/Austin-2022) and the New Zealand Central Health and Disability Ethics Committee (2022 FULL 12324). Findings will be reported to trial participants and consumers; presented at local, national and international conferences; and disseminated by a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Qualitative evidence in ovarian cancer (OC) doctor-patient-caregiver communication is scarce. This study explored the information needs of patients and caregivers, comparing these to healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) perspectives, to uncover why gaps exist.
Qualitative, observational, multicentre and cross-sectional study with OC patients, their caregivers and HCPs. Qualitative data were collected through remote semistructured interviews. Themes were identified using thematic analysis. The EORTC QLQ-C30 and the disease-specific EORTC QLQ-OV28 were collected as quality of life measures and analysed descriptively.
Patients were recruited during their routine visits in five university hospitals in Spain.
Patients were ≥18 years of age in stages III or IV according to FIGO classification, were on first line treatment or recurrent and platinum sensitive with the most complex molecular profiles. 19 patients, 7 caregivers and 10 HCPs participated in the study.
Three main themes emerged: (a) patient information needs about the disease and pharmacological treatments, (b) patient information needs about non-pharmacological support and (c) caregiver information needs. The first theme was viewed through three differing attitudes (the Involved, Trusting and Indecisive), with HCPs’ agreeing with the attitudes but without adjusting transmitted information accordingly. For the second theme, patients expressly desired more information on psychosexual issues, psychological support and patient associations (PAs), and HCPs concurred with a need for more non-pharmacological support. Regarding the third theme, caregivers expressed not being engaged by HCPs, despite HCPs recognising their importance, with nurses being more empathetic than oncologists on this matter.
These results highlight the importance of understanding the information needs of OC patients and their caregivers. This understanding enables HCPs to provide better support, helping patients and caregivers make more informed health decisions.
Returning research results that indicate risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia—a disease for which no meaningful treatments or cure exist—to cognitively normal participants is controversial. AD is thought to begin many years before clinical signs and symptoms begin. During this time, individuals are cognitively normal but have biomarkers that indicate pathophysiological changes in the brain. With this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of returning research results on cognitively normal participants recruited from a longitudinal observational cohort on ageing at the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Centre (Knight ADRC) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Our study uses a 2-year, delayed-start randomised clinical trial design. Participants are randomised to receive their research results either 2 weeks or 1 year after informed consent. This study was approved to recruit up to 450 participants with existing genetic and biomarker testing results from the Knight ADRC. During the study period, 260 individuals were eligible and approached for entry into the study. The primary cognitive outcomes are 1-year change in subjective cognitive score on the clinical dementia rating sum of box scores and the objective cognitive score on cognitive composite score. The primary psychosocial outcome is change in geriatric depression scale score 1 year after return of research results. The study was powered to answer primary outcomes with 140 participants (70 per study arm).
This study has been approved by the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) Institutional Review Board and the Human Research Protection Office. Results from these trials are shared through conferences and publications.
Detecting cancer earlier improves treatment options and long-term survival. A multicancer early detection test that reliably picks up early-stage cancer would potentially save lives and reduce the cost of treating cancer. One promising candidate is the Enlighten test, which applies machine learning to plasma amino acid concentrations to detect cancer. In a cohort of 77 patients recently diagnosed with breast, colorectal, pancreatic or prostate cancer, 60 (78%) were detected by the test (sensitivity), with no false positives in 20 healthy controls. The MODERNISED study will further develop the Enlighten test to detect 10 different cancers by adding bladder, lung, melanoma, oesophageal, ovarian and renal cancer to the test.
MODERNISED (ISRCTN17299125) is a multicentre prospective, non-interventional, case–control study. We aim to recruit 1000 adult participants with a recent cancer diagnosis, 250 adult participants with symptoms of cancer where a cancer diagnosis was ruled out by the National Health Service (NHS) standard of care and 100 healthy adult volunteers. Cancer tissue of origin (ToO) will include bladder, breast, colorectal, lung, melanoma, oesophageal, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and renal. Participants in the two non-cancer cohorts who are later diagnosed with cancer will be moved to the cancer cases cohort. The primary aim is to train and validate a machine learning algorithm to detect cancer, which will be evaluated by AUROC. Secondary aims include training and validating an algorithm to predict ToO and stage of cancer, exploring differences in performance by demographics and estimating how sensitivity varies across specificity cut-offs of 95%, 99% and 99.9%. These results will provide a statistically powered estimate of how well the Enlighten test can discriminate between individuals with and without cancer, which can then be validated for clinical use in further research.
This study is sponsored by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and has been approved by the Health Research Authority and Health and Care Research West Midlands (24/WM/0234). Results will be presented at scientific meetings and published in international peer-reviewed journals. Lay summaries of study progress and findings will be published on the Southampton Clinical Trial Unit’s website.
Fibrosis is a pathological feature that can occur in a wide range of diseases including diabetes mellitus. We investigated whether in people with type 1 (T1DM) or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), glycaemia or diabetes-related complications are associated with fibrotic diseases.
Retrospective cohort study using UK Clinical Resource Datalink (CPRD) Aurum and Hospital Episode Statistics.
We included people with prevalent T1DM or T2DM as of 31 December 2015 (recorded in CPRD Aurum), eligible for linkage with Hospital Episode Statistics and followed up for 3 years.
We defined diabetes status using blood/urine biomarkers and complications. In the T2DM cohort, we also investigated exposures of hyperglycaemia, insulin resistance and metformin prescription. Fibrotic condition diagnoses were determined from both primary and secondary care records. Logistic regression analyses were undertaken to understand the strength of association between diabetes status/diabetic complications and fibrotic conditions, respectively.
The T1DM cohort consisted of 9669 people while the T2DM cohort included 504 066 people. In T1DM, we found that albuminuria was associated with lung fibrosis (ORadj: 2.07, 99% CI 1.35 to 2.17), and microvascular complications were associated with atherosclerosis (ORadj: 1.81, 99% CI 1.18 to 2.77) and cardiomyopathy (ORadj 1.53, 99% CI:1.15 to 2.04). In the T2DM cohort, both glycaemia above target and diabetes complications were associated with most fibrotic conditions.
Within the T1DM population, no consistent association between diabetes status and all fibrotic diseases was observed. More research is required to understand whether the association between diabetes complications and fibrotic diseases is due to shared risk factors or whether glycaemia in T2DM may be influenced by fibrotic pathology.
To develop and pilot test the AdvantAGE transitional care model at a Swiss geriatric hospital.
Multi-method design.
The study progressed in three stages from January 2021 to December 2023: (1) contextual analysis using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, incorporating qualitative interviews, (2) development and pilot testing of transitional care interventions on three acute geriatric wards using a descriptive explorative study design and (3) development and validation of a logic model using an iterative approach involving project interest groups and researchers.
We identified central challenges and needs related to transitions from hospital to home, including insufficient information flow, patient and caregiver insecurities and lacking adherence to recommended treatment. The newly developed transitional care model comprised five core elements: continuous support for patients and caregivers, care coordination with primary care providers, comprehensive health management at home, medication- and self-management with patients and caregivers and advance care planning. Of 137 eligible patients, 62 participated in the 10-month pilot test of the preliminary transitional care intervention, with an average participation duration of 69 days. Findings from the pilot informed the refinement of the intervention elements and the development of a preliminary logic model.
Employing an implementation science approach facilitated the development and refinement of the AdvantAGE model, ensuring alignment with the needs of project interest groups and the specific implementation context.
This study demonstrates the development of a transitional care model tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of the local healthcare context. Findings provide valuable insights for healthcare practitioners, researchers and policymakers, offering implications for developing transitional care practices and policies.
Limited patient and public involvement was incorporated, focusing on the interpretation of the findings of the first step of this study. Further contributions included providing feedback on the development of the elements of the AdvantAGE transitional care model, ensuring the research addressed priorities relevant to patients and primary health care providers in Basel-Stadt.
This study aims to assess the association of multimorbidity with capacity impairment in the Chilean population.
Cross-sectional study.
We analysed data from the National Health Survey performed in Chile in 2016 and 2017.
Persons aged 15 years and over were selected using a random, stratified and multistage sampling by clusters in all 15 geographical regions of the country.
We consider the WHO’s definition of multimorbidity as the coexistence of two or more chronic conditions in the same person. For capacity impairment, the survey included 24 items in eight dimensions that represent functioning as a reflection of the overall health experience perceived by an individual with a health condition and interacting with the environment.
The 2016–2017 ENS (Encuesta Nacional de Salud) included 6233 participants (mean age 48.9±19.3, and 62% women). There is an association between impairment of capacity and being a woman (OR=1.62; 95% CI 1.37 to 1.92) and between being under 45 years old and conserved capacity (OR=0.8, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.99). The predictive model determined that women classified with five or more chronic conditions of 80 years and over and with less than 8 years of formal education reach the highest probability of having any impairment of capacity.
Multimorbidity is associated with impaired capacity in the adult population in Chile, and these public health problems are present at early ages and have a greater impact on women.
En el presente artículo se presenta la ciencia como un producto cultural occidental que ha evolucionado desde la modernidad. Debido a ello se obtuvo su forma actual, la cual logró imponerse, por su efectividad, a nivel global. Se reflexiona también sobre el origen y la evolución de lo que se conoce como “método científico” y se problematiza la naturaleza de la hipótesis y su corroboración empírica. El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar epistemológicamente sobre la práctica social de la ciencia, el método y la hipótesis científica. El escrito está estructurado en tres apartados. El primero, presenta la ciencia y el método científico desde sus orígenes hasta la actualidad. El segundo, se centra en los supuestos epistemológicos del método científico, profundizando en el inductivismo y las diversas alternativas que Bunge, Popper y Hempel plantean. Por último, se analiza la hipótesis científica, estudiando su naturaleza y los requisitos obligatorios que esta exige. Concluye sosteniendo que la “ciencia” es un producto occidental con tendencias empiristas y en muchos casos experimentales. Además, se logró determinar los componentes fundamentales del método científico, el cual no es estático, pues varía cada vez que cambia la concepción o la práctica social de la ciencia. Asimismo, se estableció que la contrastación empírica es fundamental para confrontar la hipótesis con la realidad.
Adequate nurse staffing is crucial for quality healthcare, necessitating accurate predictions of patient arrival rates. These forecasts can be determined using supervised machine learning methods. Optimization of machine learning methods is largely about minimizing the prediction error. Existing models primarily utilize data such as historical patient visits, seasonal trends, holidays, and calendars. However, it is unclear what other features reduce the prediction error. Our systematic literature review identifies studies that use supervised machine learning to predict patient arrival numbers using nontemporal features, which are features not based on time or dates. We scrutinized 26 284 studies, eventually focusing on 27 relevant ones. These studies highlight three main feature groups: weather data, internet search and usage data, and data on (social) interaction of groups. Internet data and social interaction data appear particularly promising, with some studies reporting reduced errors by up to 33%. Although weather data are frequently used, its utility is less clear. Other potential data sources, including smartphone and social media data, remain largely unexplored. One reason for this might be potential data privacy challenges. In summary, although patient arrival prediction has become more important in recent years, there are still many questions and opportunities for future research on the features used in this area. Objetivo principal: Mejorar la calidad del sueño y descanso de los pacientes en el servicio de urgencias mediante la participación y cono-cimiento de las percepciones de los profesionales sanitarios. Metodología: Un total de 173 profesionales sanitarios (79 enfermeras/os, 33 TCAE, 29 médicos/as y 32 celadores/as) cumplimentaron el cuestionario ad hoc de percepción de los profesionales sobre cómo afecta la luz y ruido al sueño y descanso de los pacientes. Resultados principales: Aspectos relacionados con la organización y dinámicas de trabajo, las competencias, habilidades y cuidados llevados a cabo por los profesionales daban lugar a distinciones en la participación de responder al cuestionario y en las percepciones de los profesionales sobre cómo la luz y ruido afecta al sueño y descanso de los pacien-tes, lo cual remarcaba la necesidad de evaluar factores perturbadores ambientales y establecer estrategias, medidas, intervenciones y cuidados para mejorar la calidad de sueño de los pacientes. Por tanto, los resultados de este trabajo aportaban nuevos datos en compa-ración con los datos de escasos estudios sobre la necesidad de conocer la percepción de los profesionales sanitarios sobre factores perturbadores ambientales que afectan al sueño/descanso de los pacientes, particularmente en el servicio de urgencias. Conclusión principal: Existe una variabilidad de las diferentes categorías de profesionales sanitarios en relación a la participación en contestar al cuestionario ad hoc, así como diferencias significativas entre las percepciones sobre cómo afecta la luz y ruido sobre el sueño/descanso de los pacientes. Por tanto, se plantean perspectivas de futuro y se alude a estrategias dirigidas a los pacientes, profesionales y organi-zación/entorno de trabajo para mejorar la calidad de sueño de los pacientes en el servicio de urgencias.
Introducción: los pacientes que se encuentran hospitalizados sufren un conjunto de reacciones y sentimientos que conlleva generalmente proble-mas de sueño en el hospital, donde el trabajo es continuo en relación a los cuidados que requieren los pacientes y donde es necesario considerar la tecnología que caracteriza a las diferentes unidades, por el ruido que se produce y la luz que requieren los profesionales para llevar a cabo el trabajo. El ruido y la luz son los factores ambientales que afectan en mayor medida a los pacientes hospitalizados. El objetivo es comprobar, identifi-car y discutir cuales son los factores perturbadores ambientales que afectan al sueño/descanso de los pacientes ingresados en el hospital. Material y métodos: se llevó a cabo una búsqueda bibliográfica en las principales bases de datos primarias y secundarias como Pubmed®, CINAHL®, Coch-rane® y Google Acádemico® de los últimos 10 años. Resultados: se obtuvo un gran número de artículos, de los cuales se seleccionaron los que fueron más relevantes según el objetivo de esta revisión narrativa crítica. Discusión y conclusiones: existe una gran complejidad y variabilidad en las metodologías de los diferentes estudios relacionados con factores perturbadores ambientales, pero también en los últimos años se está prestando mayor atención a la investigación sobre los factores que afectan a sueño y descanso de los pacientes ingresados en el hospital. Se puede concluir que el ruido y la luz son los factores perturbadores ambientales principales que afectan al sueño/descanso de los pacientes hospitalizados y que se necesita más investigación de alta calidad para superar las limitaciones y dificultades de estudios previos y fortalecer los cuidados de enfermería basados en la evidencia.
Introducción: En las últimas décadas, la población juvenil española, ha experimentado numerosos cambios en sus patrones de alimentación y ejercicio físico, destacando el alto porcentaje de adolescentes que acuden a su centro educativo sin haber desayunado. Diversos estudios muestran que la educación escolar puede producir efectos beneficiosos, promoviendo actividad física y alimentación saludable, hábitos que permanecen el resto de la vida. Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de los hábitos nutricionales y de ejercicio físico en la población infantojuvenil de Benicassim, que durante el año lectivo 2015-2016 cursara de 6º primaria a 2º de bachillerato. Metodología: Estudio descriptivo, observacional y transversal que muestra los hábitos nutricionales y de ejercicio físico mediante la Encuesta mundial de salud a escolares (módulos de alimentación y deporte). Participaron 143 alumnos que cursaban entre 6º de primaria y 2º de bachillerato en Benicàssim. Resultados principales: La mayoría de alumnos mantienen hábitos saludables (desayuno y almuerzo diario, consumo de lácteos y consumo moderado de alimentos salados y grasos), aunque persiste un 20% que no muestran estos hábitos. Los chicos realizan más ejercicio físico (3-4 días), que las chicas (2-3 días), que parece que pasan más horas sentadas. Conclusiones: La mayor parte de los encuestados presentan hábitos saludables, sin embargo, gran parte de los alumnos no desayunan a diario. Además cabe destacar el importante porcentaje de población con un IMC considerado como delgadez.
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