Masculinities and sexual and reproductive health and rights: a global research priority setting exercise.

Engaging men and boys in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and doing so in a way that challenges harmful masculinities, is both neglected and vital for improving the SRHR of both women and men. To address this gap, WHO commissioned a global research priority setting exercise on masculinities and SRHR. The exercise adapted the quantitative child health and nutrition research initiative priority setting method by combining it with qualitative methods.

Validation and feasibility of a postal system for remote monitoring of HbA1c.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the accessibility to hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) tests required for virtual diabetes clinics. The aim was to develop and validate a user-friendly postal system for remote HbA1c monitoring.

Research Design And Methods: Validation: A total of 123 capillary blood samples from people with diabetes (PWD) needing face-to-face consultations along with healthy volunteers were measured on a point-of-care (POC) Siemens DCA Vantage Analyzer.

Effects of the Norfolk diabetes prevention lifestyle intervention (NDPS) on glycaemic control in screen-detected type 2 diabetes: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: The purpose of this trial was to test if the Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study (NDPS) lifestyle intervention, recently shown to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes in high-risk groups, also improved glycaemic control in people with newly diagnosed screen-detected type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We screened 12,778 participants at high risk of type 2 diabetes using a fasting plasma glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). People with screen-detected type 2 diabetes were randomised in a parallel, three-arm, controlled trial with up to 46 months of follow-up, with a control arm (CON), a group-based lifestyle intervention of 6 core and up to 15 maintenance sessions (INT), or the same intervention with additional support from volunteers with type 2 diabetes trained to co-deliver the lifestyle intervention (INT-DPM).

Performance of the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quantitative Antibody Assay Including the New Variants of Concern, VOC 202012/V1 (United Kingdom) and VOC 202012/V2 (South Africa), and First Steps towards Global Harmonization of COVID-19 Antibody Methods.

In the initial stages of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) COVID-19 pandemic, a plethora of new serology tests were developed and introduced to the global market. Many were not evaluated rigorously, and there is a significant lack of concordance in results across methods. To enable meaningful clinical decisions to be made, robustly evaluated, quantitative serology methods are needed.

Experience of point-of-care HbA1c testing in the English National Health Service Diabetes Prevention Programme: an observational study.

Introduction: To report the observations of point-of-care (POC) glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) testing in people with non-diabetic hyperglycemia (NDH; HbA1c 42-47 mmol/mol (6.0%-6.4%)), applied in community settings, within the English National Health Service Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP).

Coronavirus conspiracy beliefs, mistrust, and compliance: taking measurement seriously.

Background: Freeman . (, , 21, 1-13) argue that there is widespread support for coronavirus conspiracy theories in England. We hypothesise that their estimates of prevalence are inflated due to a flawed research design.

Lifestyle Intervention With or Without Lay Volunteers to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in People With Impaired Fasting Glucose and/or Nondiabetic Hyperglycemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Nearly half of the older adult population has diabetes or a high-risk intermediate glycemic category, but we still lack trial evidence for effective type 2 diabetes prevention interventions in most of the current high-risk glycemic categories.

Objective: To determine whether a group-based lifestyle intervention (with or without trained volunteers with type 2 diabetes) reduced the risk of progression to type 2 diabetes in populations with a high-risk glycemic category.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study was a parallel, 3-arm, group-based, randomized clinical trial conducted with up to 46 months of follow-up from August 2011 to January 2019 at 135 primary care practices and 8 intervention sites in the East of England.

Discordance in glycemic categories and regression to normality at baseline in 10,000 people in a Type 2 diabetes prevention trial.

The world diabetes population quadrupled between 1980 and 2014 to 422 million and the enormous impact of Type 2 diabetes is recognised by the recent creation of national Type 2 diabetes prevention programmes. There is uncertainty about how to correctly risk stratify people for entry into prevention programmes, how combinations of multiple 'at high risk' glycemic categories predict outcome, and how the large recently defined 'at risk' population based on an elevated glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) should be managed. We identified all 141,973 people at highest risk of diabetes in our population, and screened 10,000 of these with paired fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c for randomisation into a very large Type 2 diabetes prevention trial.

This too shall pass: A study of ingested sharp foreign bodies.

Background: Gastrointestinal foreign body (GFB) ingestion is a common problem and often results in surgical consultation. Current literature is limited to case reports and fails to provide data regarding the management of sharp GFB ingestion. We hypothesized that patients who ingest sharp objects rarely have perforation or obstruction requiring surgical intervention.

Diagnostic accuracy of calculated serum osmolarity to predict dehydration in older people: adding value to pathology laboratory reports.

Objectives: To assess which osmolarity equation best predicts directly measured serum/plasma osmolality and whether its use could add value to routine blood test results through screening for dehydration in older people.

Design: Diagnostic accuracy study.

Participants: Older people (≥65 years) in 5 cohorts: Dietary Strategies for Healthy Ageing in Europe (NU-AGE, living in the community), Dehydration Recognition In our Elders (DRIE, living in residential care), Fortes (admitted to acute medical care), Sjöstrand (emergency room) or Pfortmueller cohorts (hospitalised with liver cirrhosis).

The effect of anaemia and abnormalities of erythrocyte indices on HbA1c analysis: a systematic review.

Aims/hypothesis: The use of HbA1c for the diagnosis of diabetes is now widely advocated despite caveats to its use. Anaemia is cited as a major confounder to this use; however, the effect of erythrocyte indices and to what degree anaemia influences HbA1c levels is not known.

Methods: A systematic electronic database search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and the Cochrane Library was conducted for relevant articles published between January 1990 and May 2014.

Investigation of 2 models to set and evaluate quality targets for hb a1c: biological variation and sigma-metrics.

Background: A major objective of the IFCC Task Force on Implementation of HbA1c Standardization is to develop a model to define quality targets for glycated hemoglobin (Hb A1c).

Methods: Two generic models, biological variation and sigma-metrics, are investigated. We selected variables in the models for Hb A1c and used data of external quality assurance/proficiency testing programs to evaluate the suitability of the models to set and evaluate quality targets within and between laboratories.

Multicentre evaluation of the Premier Hb9210 HbA1c analyser.

Background: The accurate and precise quantification of HbA1c is essential for the diagnosis and routine monitoring of patients with diabetes. We report an evaluation of the Trinity Biotech Premier Hb9210 analyser (Bray, Ireland/Kansas City, MO, USA), a boronate affinity chromatography-based high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system for the measurement of glycated haemoglobin.

Methods: We evaluated the analytical performance of the Hb9210 as part of a multicentre evaluation.

IFCC standardised HbA(1c): should the world be as one?

The central importance of HbA(1c) in monitoring glycaemic control was highlighted by the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) which showed that improved glycaemic control, as monitored by HbA(1c), delayed the onset of diabetic complications. Following this publication the issue of international standardisation of glycated haemoglobin (GHb) measurements became an important objective. The lack of international standardisation resulted in several countries developing National Standardisation Programmes.