The field of infant mental health (IMH) has offered valuable insights into the critical importance of social-emotional development, including the enduring influence of early experiences throughout life. Maternal and Child Health (MCH) nurses are ideally placed to facilitate knowledge sharing with parents. This Australian-based qualitative exploratory descriptive study explored how MCH nurses incorporate IMH in their clinical practice, and how they share this information with caregivers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves central and peripheral immune deregulation. Gene identification and studies of AD genetic variants of peripheral immune components may aid understanding of peripheral-central immune crosstalk and facilitate new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. In this study, we have identified in a Flanders-Belgian family a novel variant p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Spirometric small airways obstruction (SAO) is common in the general population. Whether spirometric SAO is associated with respiratory symptoms, cardiometabolic diseases, and quality of life (QoL) is unknown.
Methods: Using data from the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study (N = 21,594), we defined spirometric SAO as the mean forced expiratory flow rate between 25 and 75% of the FVC (FEF) less than the lower limit of normal (LLN) or the forced expiratory volume in 3 s to FVC ratio (FEV/FVC) less than the LLN.
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been associated with exposures in the workplace. We aimed to assess the association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study.
Methods: We analysed cross-sectional data from 28 823 adults (≥40 years) in 34 countries.
Fetal programming is a mechanism whereby stimuli acting on the developing fetus influence the development of the fetus in a way that may set the stage for adult health and disease. These stimuli may be environmental, such as maternal smoking; metabolic, such as the maternal diet and nutrition; or endocrine, such as diabetes or stress, and may extend over several generations. The endocrine system influences fetal programming with effects of insulin, thyroid hormones, and glucocorticoid hormones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been the third leading cause of morbidity and the sixth leading cause of mortality in 2020. This chronic disease usually impairs health status and is an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this study was to assess health-Related quality of life (HRQL) in a large sample of participants with and without COPD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a substantial burden of chronic respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). LMICs have particular challenges in delivering cost-effective prevention, diagnosis, and management of COPD. Optimal care can be supported by effective implementation of guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmoking is the most well-established cause of chronic airflow obstruction (CAO) but particulate air pollution and poverty have also been implicated. We regressed sex-specific prevalence of CAO from 41 Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study sites against smoking prevalence from the same study, the gross national income per capita and the local annual mean level of ambient particulate matter (PM) using negative binomial regression. The prevalence of CAO was not independently associated with PM but was strongly associated with smoking and was also associated with poverty.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Global Burden of Disease program identified smoking and ambient and household air pollution as the main drivers of death and disability from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To estimate the attributable risk of chronic airflow obstruction (CAO), a quantifiable characteristic of COPD, due to several risk factors. The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study is a cross-sectional study of adults, aged ≥40, in a globally distributed sample of 41 urban and rural sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFew longitudinal studies have assessed the relationship between occupational exposures and lung-function decline in the general population with a sufficiently long follow-up. To examine the potential association in two large cohorts: the ECRHS (European Community Respiratory Health Survey) and the SAPALDIA (Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults). General-population samples of individuals aged 18 to 62 were randomly selected in 1991-1993 and followed up approximately 10 and 20 years later.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Globally chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was reported as the fourth leading cause of death (5.1%) in 2004 and is projected to occupy the third position (8.6%) in 2030.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe hallmark pathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains are senile plaques, comprising β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, and neuronal inclusions formed from tau protein. These plaques form 10-20 years before AD symptom onset, whereas robust tau pathology is more closely associated with symptoms and correlates with cognitive status. This temporal sequence of AD pathology development, coupled with repeated clinical failures of Aβ-directed drugs, suggests that molecules that reduce tau inclusions have therapeutic potential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost studies determining the prevalence of airway obstruction are limited to short time periods. Because temporal trends of obstruction in populations are largely unknown, we determined the prevalence of airway obstruction over 20 years in yearly general population samples in Switzerland between 1993 and 2012. We analyzed data of 85,789 participants aged 35 years and older who provided spirometric measurements as part of the LuftiBus lung function campaign.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBronchodilator response (BDR) testing is used as a diagnostic method in obstructive airway diseases. The aim of this investigation was to compare different methods for measuring BDR in participants with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to study to the extent to which BDR was related to symptom burden and phenotypic characteristics.Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured before and 15 min after 200 μg of salbutamol in 35 628 subjects aged ≥16 years from three large international population studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There are several reports on underdiagnosis of COPD, while little is known about COPD overdiagnosis and overtreatment. We describe the overdiagnosis and the prevalence of spirometrically defined false positive COPD, as well as their relationship with overtreatment across 23 population samples in 20 countries participating in the BOLD Study between 2003 and 2012.
Methods: A false positive diagnosis of COPD was considered when participants reported a doctor's diagnosis of COPD, but postbronchodilator spirometry was unobstructed (FEV/FVC > LLN).
Objectives: Chronic bronchitis (CB) is an important chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)-related phenotype, with distinct clinical features and prognostic implications. Occupational exposures have been previously associated with increased risk of CB but few studies have examined this association prospectively using objective exposure assessment. We examined the effect of occupational exposures on CB incidence in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a global health burden that affects 300 million people worldwide. Globally, COPD was reported as the fourth leading cause of death in 2004 and is projected to occupy the third position in 2030. The goal of the present project is to describe the prevalence and determine the causes and risk factors of COPD in five provinces of Iran.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiatoms are one of the dominant groups in phytoplankton communities of the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Although generally well-studied, little is known about size dependent photophysiological responses in diatom bloom formation and succession. To increase this understanding, four Antarctic diatom species covering two orders of magnitude in cell size were isolated in northern Marguerite Bay (WAP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mother-baby units are innovative and important models of care that allow inpatient treatment of postpartum maternal mental disorders whilst preserving and promoting the attachment relationship with their young infants.
Objectives: To report data across five public mother-baby units in Australia in order to explore similarities and distinguishing features of each model.
Method: Each unit also provided 12 months of data on key characteristics of their unit.