Prevalence of Life Stressors and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Women in Iceland.

Importance: Comprehensive data on the prevalence of various life stressors and their role in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among women are lacking.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of a broad range of life stressors and their association with PTSD in a large nationally representative cohort of women.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional analysis used data from the population-based Stress-And-Gene-Analysis, which invited women in Iceland to complete an online survey from March 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019.

The Uses and Experiences of Synchronous Communication Technology for Home-Dwelling Older Adults in a Home Care Services Context: Qualitative Systematic Review.

Background: European health care systems regard information and communication technology as a necessity in supporting future health care provision by community home care services to home-dwelling older adults. Communication technology enabling synchronous communication between 2 or more human actors at a distance constitutes a significant component of this ambition, but few reviews have synthesized research relating to this particular type of technology. As evaluations of information and communication technology in health care services favor measurements of effectiveness over the experiences and dynamics of putting these technologies into use, the nuances involved in technology implementation processes are often omitted.

Predictors of treatment outcomes for Hepatitis C infection in a nationwide elimination program in Iceland: The treatment as prevention for Hepatitis C (TraP HepC) study.

Background: Limited data exists about treatment outcomes in nationwide hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination programs where injection drug use (IDU) is the main mode of transmission. In 2016 Iceland initiated the HCV elimination program known as Treatment as Prevention for Hepatitis C (TraP HepC). Factors associated with HCV cure in this population are examined.

Gene-variant specific effects of plasma amyloid-β levels in Swedish autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.

Background: Several blood-based biomarkers offer the opportunity of in vivo detection of brain pathology and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer disease with high specificity and sensitivity, but the performance of amyloid-β (Aβ) measurements remains under evaluation. Autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (ADAD) with mutations in PSEN1, PSEN2 and APP can be studied as a model for sporadic Alzheimer disease. However, clarifying the genetic effects on the Aβ-levels in different matrices such as cerebrospinal fluid or plasma is crucial for generalizability and utility of data.

Estimated number of lives directly saved by COVID-19 vaccination programmes in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023: a retrospective surveillance study.

Background: By March, 2023, 54 countries, areas, and territories (hereafter CAT) in the WHO European Region had reported more than 2·2 million COVID-19-related deaths to the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Here, we estimated how many lives were directly saved by vaccinating adults in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023.

Methods: In this retrospective surveillance study, we estimated the number of lives directly saved by age group, vaccine dose, and circulating variant-of-concern (VOC) period, regionally and nationally, using weekly data on COVID-19 mortality and infection, COVID-19 vaccination uptake, and SARS-CoV-2 virus characterisations by lineage downloaded from The European Surveillance System on June 11, 2023, as well as vaccine effectiveness data from the literature.

The Effect of Age of First Exposure on Vocabulary, Mean Length of Utterance, Morphosyntactic Accuracy, and Semantic and Sentence-Level Patterns in the First 2 Years of French Second-Language Learning by Preschool- to Adolescent-Age Mandarin Speakers.

Background: Bilingual assessment is particularly difficult in the very first period of children's second language (L2) exposure. This exploratory, longitudinal study examined L2 learning after 1 and 2 years of L2 exposure by young immigrants and how it is affected by their age at first exposure to the L2 (AoE).

Method: Participants were 18 immigrants ranging in age from 2;11 to 14;2 (years;months), all within their first year in Montreal at Time 1, enrolled in a French school or day care, and from a Mandarin first language background.

Sexual violence in the workplace and associated health outcomes: a nationwide, cross-sectional analysis of women in Iceland.

Background: Workplace sexual violence against women is a pressing global issue with scarce knowledge on its health implications. Existing research is largely limited to specific occupations, which calls for comprehensive, population-based studies. This study aimed to examine the associations between self-labelled workplace sexual violence and a variety of health outcomes in a nationally representative sample of Icelandic women aged 18-69 years.

Association Between Autoimmune Diseases and Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance : An Analysis From a Population-Based Screening Study.

Background: Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is a precursor of multiple myeloma (MM) and related conditions. In previous registry-based, retrospective studies, autoimmune diseases have been associated with MGUS. However, these studies were not based on a screened population and are therefore prone to ascertainment bias.

Development of a Multivariable Model to Predict the Need for Bone Marrow Sampling in Persons With Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance : A Cohort Study Nested in a Clinical Trial.

Background: Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) are asymptomatic precursor conditions to multiple myeloma and related disorders. Smoldering multiple myeloma is distinguished from MGUS by 10% or greater bone marrow plasma cells (BMPC) on sampling, has a higher risk for progression, and requires specialist management.

Objective: To develop a multivariable prediction model that predicts the probability that a person with presumed MGUS has 10% or greater BMPC (SMM or worse by bone marrow criteria) to inform the decision to obtain a bone marrow sample and compare its performance to the Mayo Clinic risk stratification model.

Balancing risks and rewards: How hematologists discuss uncertainty in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes.

Objective: Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) offers many patients with blood cancers a chance of cure but carries risks. We characterized how hematologists discuss the high-risk, high-reward concept of alloHCT.

Methods: Qualitative analysis of video-recorded virtual encounters of hematologists who routinely perform alloHCT with actors portraying an older man recently diagnosed with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome.

Communication Strategies of Transplant Hematologists in High-Risk Decision-Making Conversations.

Purpose: Shared decision making (SDM) is essential to empower patients with blood cancers to make goal-concordant decisions about allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. This study characterizes communication strategies used by hematologists to discuss treatment options and facilitate SDM with patients in this high-risk, high-reward setting.

Methods And Materials: We recruited US hematologists who routinely perform allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant through email.

COVID-19 illness severity and 2-year prevalence of physical symptoms: an observational study in Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Background: Although the persistence of physical symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection is a major public health concern, evidence from large observational studies beyond one year post diagnosis remain scarce. We aimed to assess the prevalence of physical symptoms in relation to acute illness severity up to more than 2-years after diagnosis of COVID-19.

Methods: This multinational study included 64,880 adult participants from Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway with self-reported data on COVID-19 and physical symptoms from April 2020 to August 2022.

Determining hemodilution in diagnostic bone marrow aspirated samples in plasma cell disorders by next-generation flow cytometry: Proposal for a bone marrow quality index.

Hemodilution of bone marrow (BM) aspirates is a limitation of multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) in plasma cell disorders. There is a need for a validated approach for assessing sample quality and the distribution of non-plasma cell BM populations by MFC could provide a solution. We evaluated BM-associated cell populations, assessed by next-generation flow cytometry (NGF) and white blood cell (WBC) count in 351 BM aspirated samples from 219 participants with plasma cell disorders in the Iceland Screens, Treats, or Prevents MM study (iStopMM), as markers of hemodilution by their discriminatory ability between first and (generally more hemodiluted) second pull BM aspirated samples.

Adverse childhood experiences and psychological functioning among women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: population-based study.

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are well-known risk factors for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Aims: The aim was to study the associations between specific ACEs and psychological functioning in women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Method: Among 29 367 women (mean age 44 years) from the Icelandic Stress-And-Gene-Analysis (SAGA) study, 534 (1.

Association between adverse childhood experiences and perinatal depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional analysis of 16,831 women in Iceland.

Emerging data suggest that certain adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with perinatal depression (PND). However, few studies have comprehensively assessed the cumulative number and types of ACEs and their association to PND. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 16,831 female participants from the Stress-And-Gene-Analysis (SAGA) cohort in Iceland, 2018.

Bilingual Adolescents' Complex Syntax Production in Both Languages Across Conversational and Expository Contexts.

Purpose: Bilingual development has been shown to be highly dependent on language-specific exposure. This study extended the study of bilingual development to adolescence and to the production of complex syntax in two contexts: conversation and expository discourse.

Method: English-French bilinguals (EFbil; = 27) and French L1 speakers ( = 14) aged 12 to 17 years produced French and English conversational and expository samples.

Disease associations with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance can only be evaluated using screened cohorts: results from the population-based iStopMM study.

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is an asymptomatic precursor condition that precedes multiple myeloma and related disorders but has also been associated with other medical conditions. Since systematic screening is not recommended, MGUS is typically diagnosed due to underlying diseases and most cases are not diagnosed. Most previous studies on MGUS disease associations have been based on clinical cohorts, possibly resulting in selection bias.