Improved water, sanitation, hygiene and waste services in health-care facilities, Ukraine.

Problem: Water, sanitation and waste infrastructure and services in Ukrainian health-care facilities often fail to meet global and national standards, hindering the provision of safe, quality care. The war has worsened existing problems.

Approach: To incrementally improve water, sanitation, hand hygiene, environmental cleaning and health-care waste practices, the World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the health ministry, the Ukrainian Public Health Centre and regional United States Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) to implement the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT).

A multivariable normal tissue complication probability model for predicting radiation-induced hypothyroidism in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients in the modern radiotherapy era.

Radiation-induced hypothyroidism (RHT) is a common long-term complication for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) survivors. A model using clinical and dosimetric factors for predicting risk of RHT could suggest a proper dose-volume parameters for the treatment planning in an individual level. We aim to develop a multivariable normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model for RHT in NPC patients after intensity-modulated radiotherapy or volumetric modulated arc therapy.

Assessment of water, sanitation, and hygiene services in district health care facilities in rural area of Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Access to sufficient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is a crucial requirement for patients during therapy and general well-being in the hospital. However, in low- and middle-income countries, these services are often inadequate, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality of patients. This study aimed at assessing the current situation of WASH services in six District Health Care Facilities (DHCFs) in rural areas of the Mekong Delta provinces, Vietnam.

Binary Response Analysis Using Logistic Regression in Dentistry.

Multivariate analysis with binary response is extensively utilized in dental research due to variations in dichotomous outcomes. One of the analyses for binary response variable is binary logistic regression, which explores the associated factors and predicts the response probability of the binary variable. This article aims to explain the statistical concepts of binary logistic regression analysis applicable to the field of dental research, including model fitting, goodness of fit test, and model validation.

The Trend of Analytical Approaches in Dental Research.

Objectives: The aims of this article are to examine statistical approaches employed in international dental articles published in 2018 and 2019, as well as to examine relationships among analytical approaches, journal rankings, and types of research.

Materials And Methods: International dental journals published in 2018 and 2019 were selected from the four quartiles (Q1-Q4) of journal rankings using a stratified random sampling. All original articles in a randomly sampled issue of each selected journal were reviewed to explore employed statistical approaches and to examine relationships among analytical approaches, journal rankings, and types of research.

Simultaneous confidence tubes for comparing several multivariate linear regression models.

Much of the research on multiple comparison and simultaneous inference in the past 60 years or so has been for the comparisons of several population means. Spurrier seems to have been the first to investigate multiple comparisons of several simple linear regression lines using simultaneous confidence bands. In this paper, we extend the work of Liu et al.

Assessment of the confidence interval in the multivariable normal tissue complication probability model for predicting radiation-induced liver disease in primary liver cancer.

We developed a confidence interval-(CI) assessing model in multivariable normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) modeling for predicting radiation-induced liver disease (RILD) in primary liver cancer patients using clinical and dosimetric data. Both the mean NTCP and difference in the mean NTCP (ΔNTCP) between two treatment plans of different radiotherapy modalities were further evaluated and their CIs were assessed. Clinical data were retrospectively reviewed in 322 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 215) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 107) treated with photon therapy.

Towards Climate Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Care Facilities.

The aim of building climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities is: (a) to enhance their capacity to protect and improve the health of their target communities in an unstable and changing climate; and (b) to empower them to optimize the use of resources and minimize the release of pollutants and waste into the environment. Such health care facilities contribute to high quality of care and accessibility of services and, by helping reduce facility costs, also ensure better affordability. They are an important component of universal health coverage.

Extending the use of the World Health Organisations' water sanitation and hygiene assessment tool for surveys in hospitals - from WASH-FIT to WASH-FAST.

Background: Poor water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities increases hospital-associated infections, and the resulting greater use of second-line antibiotics drives antimicrobial resistance. Recognising the existing gaps, the World Health Organisations' Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH-FIT) was designed for self-assessment. The tool was designed for small primary care facilities mainly providing outpatient and limited inpatient care and was not designed to compare hospital performance.

Kallikrein-Related Peptidase mRNA Expression in Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of Salivary Glands: A Polymerase Chain Reaction Study.

Kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) are a group of 15 serine proteases implicated in a variety of biological processes. Aberrant expression of KLKs has been associated with the development of certain cancers. However, the role of KLKs in salivary tumors has not been extensively studied.

Strengthening Healthcare Facilities Through Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Improvements: A Pilot Evaluation of "WASH FIT" in Togo.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in healthcare facilities are essential to ensure quality health care and to facilitate infection, prevention, and control practices. They are critical to responding to outbreaks and preventing healthcare-associated infections and, therefore, critical to global health security. Many healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income settings have limited WASH services.

Kallikrein-related peptidase expression in odontogenic cysts and tumors: An immunohistochemical comparative study.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to profile the expression of human kallikrein (KLK)-related peptidases (KLK) in odontogenic lesions.

Methods: Paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed, non-odontogenic (control) and odontogenic lesions were stained for KLK using a standard immunohistochemical technique. The intensity and proportion of epithelial cells stained was scored.

The impact of health anxiety in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis: Misperception, misattribution and quality of life.

Objectives: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease with an unpredictable prognosis. Previous studies have reported health anxiety within the MS population. This study examines the effect of health anxiety on MS patients' quality of life (QoL) and evaluates the potential contribution of cognitive factors in maintaining health anxiety.

The co-occurrence of anemia and cardiometabolic disease risk demonstrates sex-specific sociodemographic patterning in an urbanizing rural region of southern India.

Background/objectives: To determine the extent and sociodemographic determinants of anemia, overweight, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the co-occurrence of anemia with cardiometabolic disease risk factors among a cohort of Indian adults.

Subject/methods: Cross-sectional survey of adult men (n=3322) and nonpregnant women (n=2895) aged 18 years and older from the third wave of the Andhra Pradesh Children and Parents Study that assessed anemia, overweight based on body mass index, and prevalence of MetS based on abdominal obesity, hypertension and blood lipid and fasting glucose measures. We examined associations of education, wealth and urbanicity with these outcomes and their co-occurrence.

Community perceptions of health and chronic disease in South Indian rural transitional communities: a qualitative study.

Background: Chronic diseases are now the leading cause of death and disability worldwide; this epidemic has been linked to rapid economic growth and urbanisation in developing countries. Understanding how characteristics of the physical, social, and economic environment affect behaviour in the light of these changes is key to identifying successful interventions to mitigate chronic disease risk.

Design: We undertook a qualitative study consisting of nine focus group discussions (FGDs) (n=57) in five villages in rural Andhra Pradesh, South India, to understand people's perceptions of community development and urbanisation in relation to chronic disease in rural transitional communities.

Normal probability plots with confidence.

Normal probability plots are widely used as a statistical tool for assessing whether an observed simple random sample is drawn from a normally distributed population. The users, however, have to judge subjectively, if no objective rule is provided, whether the plotted points fall close to a straight line. In this paper, we focus on how a normal probability plot can be augmented by intervals for all the points so that, if the population distribution is normal, then all the points should fall into the corresponding intervals simultaneously with probability 1-α.

Recursive confidence band construction for an unknown distribution function.

Given a sample X1,...

Methodological development of an exploratory randomised controlled trial of an early years' nutrition intervention: the CHERRY programme (Choosing Healthy Eating when Really Young).

Good nutrition in the early years of life is vitally important for a child's development, growth and health. Children's diets in the United Kingdom are known to be poor, particularly among socially disadvantaged groups, and there is a need for timely and appropriate interventions that support parents to improve the diets of young children. The Medical Research Council has highlighted the importance of conducting developmental and exploratory research prior to undertaking full-scale trials to evaluate complex interventions, but have provided very limited detailed guidance on the conduct of these initial phases of research.

Parental food involvement predicts parent and child intakes of fruits and vegetables.

In order to develop successful interventions to improve children's diets, the factors influencing food choice need to be understood. Parental food involvement - the level of importance of food in a person's life - may be one of many important factors. The aim of this study was to determine whether parental food involvement is associated with parents' and children's diet quality.

Step-up procedures for non-inferiority tests with multiple experimental treatments.

Non-inferiority (NI) trials are becoming more popular. The NI of a new treatment compared with a standard treatment is established when the new treatment maintains a substantial fraction of the treatment effect of the standard treatment. A valid NI trial is also required to show assay sensitivity, the demonstration of the standard treatment having the expected effect with a size comparable to those reported in previous placebo-controlled studies.

A qualitative study exploring parental accounts of feeding pre-school children in two low-income populations in the UK.

Good nutrition in the early years of life is essential, yet the diets of many pre-school children in the UK are known to be poor. Understanding the decisions parents make when feeding young children is very important in determining what type and nature of interventional support may be developed to promote good nutrition. The aim of this study was to explore using qualitative methods, parental perceptions of feeding their children in order to inform the development of a nutrition intervention.

Simultaneous inference for several quantiles of a normal population with applications.

A common statistical problem is to make inference about the mean of a normally distributed population. While the mean and the variance are important quantities, many real problems require information on certain quantiles of the population which combine both the mean and variance. Motivated by two recent applications, we consider simultaneous inference for more than one quantile of interest.

Developing a nutrition intervention in children's centres: exploring views of parents in rural/urban settings in the UK.

Objective: The present study explored parents’ requirements for healthy eating support prior to the development of a tailored intervention.

Design: A cross-sectional study of parents attending children’s centres.

Setting: Children’s centres in Cornwall (rural south-west England) and Islington (urban London borough).

Extension of three-arm non-inferiority studies to trials with multiple new treatments.

Non-inferiority (NI) trials are becoming increasingly popular. The main purpose of NI trials is to assert the efficacy of a new treatment compared with an active control by demonstrating that the new treatment maintains a substantial fraction of the treatment effect of the control. Most of the statistical testing procedures in this area have been developed for three-arm NI trials in which a new treatment is compared with an active control in the presence of a placebo.

Cerebellar information processing in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Recent research has characterized the anatomical connectivity of the cortico-cerebellar system - a large and important fibre system in the primate brain. Within this system, there are reciprocal projections between the prefrontal cortex and Crus II of the cerebellar cortex, which both play important roles in the acquisition and execution of cognitive skills. Here, we propose that this system also plays a particular role in sustaining skilled cognitive performance in patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS), in whom advancing neuropathology causes increasingly inefficient information processing.