Publications by authors named "AITKEN J"

Introduction: Indigenous communities globally are inequitably affected by non-communicable diseases such as cancer and coronary artery disease. Increased focus on personalized medicine approaches for the treatment of these diseases offers opportunities to improve the health of Indigenous people. Conversely, poorly implemented approaches pose increased risk of further exacerbating current inequities in health outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

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Job boredom is one of the most common negative affective states experienced in the workplace, yet also among the least well-understood. One stream of research suggests that employees frequently react to job boredom by engaging in counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). However, recent studies show the converse-that engaging in CWB relates to job boredom.

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Background: The global economic cost of cancer and the costs of ongoing care for survivors are increasing. Little is known about factors affecting hospitalisations and related costs for the growing number of cancer survivors. Our aim was to identify associated factors of cancer survivors admitted to hospital in the public system and their costs from a health services perspective.

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Objective: The Australian Cancer Atlas (ACA) aims to provide small-area estimates of cancer incidence and survival in Australia to help identify and address geographical health disparities. We report on the 21-month user-centered design study to visualize the data, in particular, the visualization of the estimate uncertainty for multiple audiences.

Materials And Methods: The preliminary phases included a scoping study, literature review, and target audience focus groups.

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Background: It is vital that health service delivery and health interventions address patients' needs or preferences, are relevant for practice and can be implemented. Involving those who will use or deliver healthcare in priority-setting can lead to health service delivery and research that is more meaningful and impactful. This is particularly crucial in rural communities, where limited resources and disparities in healthcare and health outcomes are often more pronounced.

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Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) require specialized follow-up throughout their lifespan to prevent or manage late effects of cancer treatment. Knowing the size and structure of the population of CCS is crucial to plan interventions. In this scoping review we reviewed studies that reported prevalence of CCS in Europe.

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Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) has been implicated in the development of Crohn's disease (CD) for over a century. Similarities have been noted between the (histo)pathological presentation of MAP in ruminants, termed Johne's disease (JD), and appearances in humans with CD.

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Article Synopsis
  • This feasibility study examined collecting and analyzing tear proteins from preterm infants to understand the potential links to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and to find possible prognostic markers.
  • Using Schirmer's test and mass spectrometry, researchers collected tear samples from 12 infants scheduled for ROP screening, identifying 701 proteins, including key markers associated with ROP risk.
  • The findings suggest that tear sampling is practical, indicating a need for a larger study to explore its role in identifying ROP and improving understanding of retinal development.
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Nearly 90% of oral cancers are characterized as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), representing the sixth most common type of cancer. OSCC usually evolves from oral potentially malignant disorders that, in some cases, are histologically consistent with a oral dysplasia. The levels of 1α,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-(OH)2D3; calcitriol), the active form of vitamin D3, have been shown to be decreased in patients with oral dysplasia and OSCC.

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The current research provides a detailed longitudinal examination of instrumental helping, comforting, and sharing in early childhood. Preschoolers completed a series of prosocial behavior tasks when they were 2 years old (n = 200), 3 years old (n = 161), and 4 years old (n = 135). As expected, children's prosocial behaviors increased with age across all tasks.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study highlights the importance of providing quality survivorship information to cancer survivors, who often feel they aren't receiving adequate guidance from healthcare professionals.
  • Using a realist review approach, researchers analyzed various published papers from Australia to identify effective ways of communicating survivorship information to adult cancer survivors.
  • Six key mechanisms for effective communication were identified, including tailoring information to individual backgrounds, improving provider communication, and using multiple channels to deliver information, which can help clinicians and policymakers enhance survivorship care practices.
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ssp. (MAP) is the cause of Johne's disease (JD), which is a chronic infectious gastrointestinal disease of ruminants and is often fatal. In humans, MAP has been associated with Crohn's disease (CD) for over a century, without conclusive evidence of pathogenicity.

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In this paper, we examine the primary impact of two categories of food recovery policies on food donation and the secondary impact on food safety, food waste, and food insecurity in U.S. states.

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Background: An international expert panel recently recommended 15 'non-stage prognostic indicators' (NSPIs) across eight childhood cancers, classified as essential or additional, for collection in population-based cancer registries. We aimed to describe the incidence distribution and survival of each of these NSPIs.

Procedures: Cases were extracted from the Australian Childhood Cancer Registry.

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Objectives: To investigate the clinical and echocardiographic presentation of dogs with persistent atrial standstill (PAS), identify variables measured at first presentation that could predict their survival, and document the progression of the disease after pacing.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective study of medical records of dogs diagnosed with PAS at three referral hospitals of the United Kingdom over seven years.

Results: Twenty-six dogs were diagnosed with PAS during the study period.

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Introduction: In Australia, opportunistic screening (occurring as skin checks) for the early detection of melanoma is common, and overdiagnosis is a recognised concern. Risk-tailored cancer screening is an approach to cancer control that aims to provide personalised screening tailored to individual risk. This study aimed to explore the views of key informants in Australia on the acceptability and appropriateness of risk-tailored organised screening for melanoma, and to identify barriers, facilitators and strategies to inform potential future implementation.

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Background: Treatment decisions for men diagnosed with prostate cancer depend on a range of clinical and patient characteristics such as disease stage, age, general health, risk of side effects and access. Associations between treatment patterns and area-level factors such as remoteness and socioeconomic disadvantage have been observed in many countries.

Objective: To model spatial differences in interventional treatment rates for prostate cancer at high spatial resolution to inform policy and decision-making.

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Objective: To undertake an economic evaluation of a telehealth psychological support intervention for patients with primary brain tumor (PBT).

Methods: A within-trial cost-utility analysis over 6 months was performed comparing a tailored telehealth-psychological support intervention with standard care (SC) in a randomized control trial. Data were sourced from the Telehealth Making Sense of Brain Tumor (Tele-MAST) trial survey data, project records, and administrative healthcare claims.

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Background: Delays to breast cancer treatment can lead to more aggressive and extensive treatments, increased expenses, increased psychological distress, and poorer survival. We explored the individual and area level factors associated with the interval between diagnosis and first treatment in a population-based cohort in Queensland, Australia.

Methods: Data from 3216 Queensland women aged 20 to 79, diagnosed with invasive breast cancer (ICD-O-3 C50) between March 2010 and June 2013 were analysed.

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Objectives: To assess associations between breast cancer-specific survival and timeliness of treatment, based on 2020 Australian guidelines for the treatment of early breast cancer.

Design: Population-based cohort study; analysis of linked Queensland Cancer Register, patient medical record, and National Death Index data, supplemented by telephone interviews.

Setting, Participants: Women aged 20-79 years diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during 1 March 2010 - 30 June 2013, followed to 31 December 2020.

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Background: The Toronto Paediatric Cancer Stage Guidelines are a compendium of staging systems developed to facilitate collection of consistent and comparable data on stage at diagnosis for childhood cancers by cancer registries.

Material And Methods: This retrospective, observational cohort study investigated changes in stage-specific incidence and survival for children diagnosed between 2000-2008 compared to 2009-2017 using the population-based Australian Childhood Cancer Registry. Information on mortality for each patient was available to 31 December 2020.

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Our calculations of the global instability index (G) values for some diamond-like materials with the general formula I-II-IV-VI have indicated that the structures may be unstable or incorrectly determined. To compute the G value of a given compound, the bond valence sums (BVSs) must first be calculated using a crystal structure. Two examples of compounds with high G values, based on data from the literature, are the wurtz-stannite-type dicopper cadmium silicon tetrasulfide (CuCdSiS) and the stannite-type dicopper mercury tin tetrasulfide (CuHgSnS), which were first reported in 1967 and 1965, respectively.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bowel cancer screening participation remains low in many regions of Australia, with overall rates around 44% from 2015-2020, especially in remote and disadvantaged areas.
  • The study utilized data modeling and Bayesian spatial models to analyze participation patterns across 2,247 small areas, revealing significant spatial differences and limited improvements over time.
  • Addressing the geographic disparities in screening participation could lead to a significant increase in screenings, with the potential for an additional 250,000 tests, emphasizing the need for tailored interventions to improve access and uptake.
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Objective: This pragmatic randomized control trial aimed to evaluate clinical efficacy of the Making Sense of Brain Tumour program delivered via videoconferencing (Tele-MAST) for improving mental health and quality of life (QoL) relative to standard care in individuals with primary brain tumor (PBT).

Method: Adults with PBT experiencing at least mild distress (Distress Thermometer ≥4) and caregivers were randomly allocated to the 10-session Tele-MAST program or standard care. Mental health and QoL were assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention (primary endpoint), and 6-weeks and 6-months follow-up.

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