The importance of microbiology reference laboratories and adequate funding for infectious disease surveillance.

Microbiology reference laboratories perform a crucial role within public health systems. This role was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Viewpoint, we emphasise the importance of microbiology reference laboratories and highlight the types of digital data and expertise they provide, which benefit national and international public health.

Stress reactivity moderates the association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms in adolescents: Results from a population-based study.

Background: A large body of evidence links stressful life events with depression. However, little is understood about the role of perceived impact in this association.

Methods: We performed regression analysis to investigate whether self-reported stress reactivity (derived by regressing the impact-weighted life event score on the unweighted score) moderated the association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms in adolescents from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort (n = 4791), controlling for age at outcome, sex, ethnicity, and maternal education.

Maximizing insights from longitudinal epigenetic age data: simulations, applications, and practical guidance.

Background: Epigenetic age (EA) is an age estimate, developed using DNA methylation (DNAm) states of selected CpG sites across the genome. Although EA and chronological age are highly correlated, EA may not increase uniformly with time. Departures, known as epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), are common and have been linked to various traits and future disease risk.

Patients Discharged "Against Medical Advice" More than Once: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Analysis of a Vulnerable Population.

Background: Patients who have been discharged "against medical advice" (AMA) are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality, but there is little research about patients who have had more than one AMA discharge.

Objective: We aimed to describe the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with more than one AMA discharge.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective chart review of a sample of adult patients who were discharged AMA more than once between 2016 and 2021 and abstracted detailed characteristics of this sample.