Health, Social, and Economic Variables Associated with Depression Among Older People in Low and Middle Income Countries: World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health.

Objective: Although depression among older people is an important public health problem worldwide, systematic studies evaluating its prevalence and determinants in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are sparse. The biopsychosocial model of depression and prevailing socioeconomic hardships for older people in LMICs have provided the impetus to determine the prevalence of geriatric depression; to study its associations with health, social, and economic variables; and to investigate socioeconomic inequalities in depression prevalence in LMICs.

Methods: The authors accessed the World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health Wave 1 data that studied nationally representative samples from six large LMICs (N = 14,877).

Health service use, out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic health expenditure among older people in India: the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE).

Background: Healthcare financing through out-of-pocket payments and inequities in healthcare utilisation are common in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Given the dearth of pertinent studies on these issues among older people in LMICs, we investigated the determinants of health service use, out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among older people in one LMIC, India.

Methods: We accessed data from a nationally representative, multistage sample of 2414 people aged 65 years and older from the WHO's Study on global AGEing and adult health in India.

Cost and burden of informal caregiving of dependent older people in a rural Indian community.

Background: Lack of state supported care services begets the informal caregiving by family members as the mainstay of care provided to the dependent older people in many Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), including India. Little is known about the time spent on caregiving, its cost and the burden experienced by these informal caregivers. We aimed to estimate the costs of informal caregiving and to evaluate the nature as well as correlates of caregivers' burden in a rural Indian community.

Induced abortion and breast cancer among parous women: a Danish cohort study.

Objective: We investigated whether induced abortion is associated with breast cancer when lifestyle confounders, including smoking and alcohol consumption, are adjusted for. Design. Prospective cohort study.

Epidemiology of non-hereditary angioedema.

The prevalence of non-hereditary angioedema was investigated in a general population sample (n = 7,931) and in a sample of Danish patients (n = 7,433) tested for deficiency of functional complement C(1) esterase inhibitor protein (functional C(1) INH). The general population sample (44% response rate) reported a lifetime prevalence of 7.4% for angioedema.

Traits of ADHD and autism in girls with a twin brother: a Mendelian randomization study.

It has been hypothesized that prenatal exposure to testosterone may be associated with traits of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted a population-based study of dizygotic female twins to elucidate this hypothesis, assuming that the sex of the co-twin influences the level of prenatal exposure to testosterone. We invited parents of 24,552 3- to 15-year-old twins to answer questionnaires on traits of ADHD and ASD.

Injury risk in Danish youth and senior elite handball using a new SMS text messages approach.

Objective: To assess the injury incidence in elite handball, and if gender and previous injuries are risk factors for new injuries.

Methods: Cohort study of 517 male and female elite handball players (age groups under (u)16, u-18 and senior). Participants completed a web survey establishing injury history, demographic information and sports experience, and provided weekly reports of time-loss injuries and handball exposure for 31 weeks by short message service text messaging (SMS).

Polymorphisms in the tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 1-beta promoters with possible gene regulatory functions increase the risk of preterm birth.

Objective: To investigate the relation between 19 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms in three cytokine genes, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFA), interleukin 1-beta (IL1B) and interleukin 6 (IL6) and preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation).

Design: Case-control association study.

Sample: A total of 117 singleton pregnant Danish Caucasian women, including 62 preterm birth cases and 55 controls (birth>or=37 weeks).

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with methotrexate (MTX): concentrations of steady-state erythrocyte MTX correlate to plasma concentrations and clinical efficacy.

Objective: To investigate the accumulation of methotrexate (MTX) in circulating erythrocytes and the association with pharmacokinetic variables, weekly dose, and clinical efficacy in 2 cohorts of patients with chronic active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) undergoing MTX monotherapy.

Methods: Seventy-six patients with RA were included in this open prospective study: 40 were included before initiation of MTX therapy. Laboratory analyses, intracellular MTX concentrations in erythrocytes (Ery-MTX), and clinical examinations including toxicity data were performed prospectively for 52 weeks.

Macrophage serum markers in pneumococcal bacteremia: Prediction of survival by soluble CD163.

Objective: Soluble CD163 (sCD163) is a new macrophage-specific serum marker. This study investigated sCD163 and other markers of macrophage activation (neopterin, ferritin, transcobalamin, and soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor [suPAR]) as prognostic factors in patients with pneumococcal bacteremia.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of HIV-1 RNA and DNA loads in blood and the female genital tract.

Objective: To examine if correlates of HIV-1 genital shedding in cross-sectional studies can be used to determine the risk of shedding in individual HIV-1-positive women.

Study Design: Longitudinal samples from blood and cervix were obtained from 18 HIV-1 infected women, and HIV-1 RNA and cell-associated DNA virus, and beta-chemokine levels, were measured. Associations between variables were analyzed at both individual and group level.

Patient-specific errors in agreement between International Normalized Ratios measured by a whole blood coagulometer and by a routine plasma-based method.

We applied a new statistical method to improve comparisons between systems measuring prothrombin time (PT) by splitting disagreement into systematic errors, which can be eliminated, and random errors, which can not. We found that the disagreement between International Normalized Ratio (INR) measurements based on plasma and whole blood was significantly patient-dependent.

Precision of INR measured with a patient operated whole blood coagulometer.

Introduction: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the precision of a portable whole blood coagulometer (CoaguChek S) in the hands of self-managing patients on oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT).

Materials And Methods: Fifteen patients on self-managed OAT performed measurements of INR by two types of portable whole blood coagulometers (CoaguChek and CoaguChek S) at home for 10 weeks.

Results: The coefficient of variation (CV) of INRs determined at home by CoaguChek S by patients on self-managed OAT was 5.

Mechanical heart valve patients can manage oral anticoagulant therapy themselves.

Objectives: Thromboembolism and anticoagulant related bleeding are still the most common complications in mechanical heart valve patients. Management of the oral anticoagulant therapy is therefore a key determinant for these clinical complications. We hypothesize that patients selected to self-managed oral anticoagulant therapy have a better treatment quality than patients in conventional oral anticoagulant therapy.

Limited protective effect of the CCR5Delta32/CCR5Delta32 genotype on human immunodeficiency virus infection incidence in a cohort of patients with hemophilia and selection for genotypic X4 virus.

The relationship among CCR5 genotype, cytomegalovirus infection, and disease progression and death was studied among 159 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with hemophilia. One patient (0.6%) had the CCR5Delta32/CCR5Delta32 genotype (which occurs in approximately 2% of the Scandinavian population) and a rapid disease course.

[Self-management of oral anticoagulant therapy in children with congenital heart defects].

Introduction: Self-management of oral anticoagulation has been shown to produce a better quality of treatment than conventional management when assessed in selected adults. We have extended the concept of self-management to include children with congenital cardiac disease on the hypothesis that it is also possible in this subset of patients. Our aim was to assess the quality of self-management in children with congenital cardiac disease.