Diagnostic performance of a point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay among Chinese patients with chest pain.

Background: A novel handheld point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I analyser has recently been introduced to the market. Evaluating its diagnostic performance against laboratory standards is imperative, given the variations in cardiac troponin levels across populations. This study compared the diagnostic performance between the point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay (Siemens Healthineers Atellica VTLi) and a laboratory high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay (Abbott ARCHITECT STAT High Sensitive Troponin-I) performed using blood samples from various populations (overall, male, female, younger and older) of Chinese patients with chest pain.

Enhancing the Predictive Power of Google Trends Data Through Network Analysis: Infodemiology Study of COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has revealed a high demand for timely surveillance of pandemic developments. Google Trends (GT), which provides freely available search volume data, has been proven to be a reliable forecast and nowcast measure for public health issues. Previous studies have tended to use relative search volumes from GT directly to analyze associations and predict the progression of pandemic.

Pandemic risk of COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: An analysis of network connectedness with air travel data.

Objectives: The United States has become the country with the largest number of COVID-19 reported cases and deaths. This study aims to analyze the pandemic risk of COVID-19 outbreak in the US.

Methods: Time series plots of the network density, together with the daily reported confirmed COVID-19 cases and flight frequency in the five states in the US with the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases were developed to discover the trends and patterns of the pandemic connectedness of COVID-19 among the five states.

Asking Sensitive Questions Using the Randomized Response Approach in Public Health Research: An Empirical Study on the Factors of Illegal Waste Disposal.

A survey study is a research method commonly used to quantify population characteristics in biostatistics and public health research, two fields that often involve sensitive questions. However, if answering sensitive questions could cause social undesirability, respondents may not provide honest responses to questions that are asked directly. To mitigate the response distortion arising from dishonest answers to sensitive questions, the randomized response technique (RRT) is a useful and effective statistical method.

Preliminary investigation on prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia: Should we tune our focus on healthy adults?

Aim: Osteoporosis and osteopenia are global health problems with increasing trend, particularly in developed regions. Apart from traditional well-recognized high-risk groups (i.e.