Background: Cancer survival and mortality outcomes for people with mental health and substance use conditions (MHSUC) are worse than for people without MHSUC, which may be partly explained by poorer access to timely and appropriate healthcare, from screening and diagnosis through to treatment and follow-up. Access and quality of healthcare can be evaluated by comparing the proportion of people who receive a cancer diagnosis following an acute or emergency hospital admission (emergency presentation) across different population groups: those diagnosed with cancer following an emergency presentation have lower survival.
Methods: National mental health service use datasets (2002-2018) were linked to national cancer registry and hospitalisation data (2006-2018), to create a study population of people aged 15 years and older with one of four cancer diagnoses: lung, prostate, breast and colorectal.
Background: People who enter and leave places of incarceration experience considerable health inequities and are at increased risk of premature death compared to the general population. Causes of premature death in this population vary markedly between countries and so country-specific information is needed. Additionally, there is a lack of large population-based studies which can disaggregate mortality risk based on person and incarceration factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolysaccharide A (PSA) is the immunodominant capsular carbohydrate from the gram negative commensal microbe Bacteroides fragilis that has shown remarkable potency in ameliorating many rodent models of inflammatory disease by eliciting downstream suppressive CD4+ T cells. PSA is composed of a zwitterionic repeating unit that allows it to be processed by antigen presenting cells (APCs) and presented by MHCII in a glycosylation-dependent manner. While previous work has uncovered much about the interactions between MHCII and PSA, as well as the downstream T cell response, little is known about how PSA affects the phenotype of MHCII+ APCs, including macrophages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inadequate physical activity is a substantial cause of health loss worldwide, and this loss is attributable to diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and certain forms of cancer.
Objective: This study aims to assess the potential impact of the prescription of smartphone apps in primary care settings on physical activity levels, health gains (in quality-adjusted life years [QALYs]), and health system costs in New Zealand (NZ).
Methods: A proportional multistate lifetable model was used to estimate the change in physical activity levels and predict the resultant health gains in QALYs and health system costs over the remaining life span of the NZ population alive in 2011 at a 3% discount rate.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is effective for induction of remission in ulcerative colitis (UC). Diet has potential to augment the efficacy and durability of FMT by encouraging engraftment of transplanted microorganisms. A trial of FMT combined with a defined diet was undertaken as salvage therapy for a 71-year-old woman with active steroid-refractory extensive UC.
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