An Evaluation of Oral Anticoagulant Safety Indicators by England's Community Pharmacies.

Background: Anticoagulants are life-saving medicines that can prevent strokes for patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) as well as treating patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), but when used incorrectly, they are frequently associated with patient harm.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of community pharmacy teams on optimising patient knowledge and awareness and improving medication safety from the use of anticoagulants.

Methods: Two national audits, consisting of 17 questions assessing and improving patients' understanding of anticoagulant therapy, identifying high-risk patients, and contacting prescribers when clinically appropriate were incentivised for England's community pharmacies in 2021-2022 and 2023-2024 using the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) commissioned by NHS England.

Responding to Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms in England's Community Pharmacies.

Most urinary tract infections (UTIs) are self-limiting and frequently present in primary care; it is common for patients to seek symptom relief. The TARGET Treating Your Infection (TYI) leaflet was used to respond to UTI symptoms for women under 65 years presenting in community pharmacies. The widespread use of these leaflets was incentivised as part of NHS England's Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) 2022-23, between October 2022 and March 2023.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Lifestyle on Myopia.

Purpose: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related lifestyle on myopia outcomes in children to young adults.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases (with manual searching of reference lists of reviews). Studies included assessed changes in myopia-related outcomes (cycloplegic refraction) during COVID and pre-COVID.

Predictors of myopic macular degeneration in a 12-year longitudinal study of Singapore adults with myopia.

Purpose: To investigate the predictive factors for myopic macular degeneration (MMD) and progression in adults with myopia.

Methods: We examined 828 Malay and Indian adults (1579 myopic eyes) with myopia (spherical equivalent (SE) ≤-0.5 dioptres) at baseline who participated in both baseline and 12-year follow-up visits of the Singapore Malay Eye Study and the Singapore Indian Eye Study.

Sleep Patterns and Myopia Among School-Aged Children in Singapore.

Purpose: To evaluate the associations of sleep factors with myopia, spherical equivalent (SE), and axial length (AL) in elementary school-aged children from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included multi-ethnic children who participated in the GUSTO prospective birth cohort and were delivered in two major tertiary hospitals in Singapore (2009-2010). Sleep factors and myopia outcomes were assessed at the 8- and 9-year study visits, respectively.

An evidence-based review of the epidemiology of myopic traction maculopathy.

Myopic traction maculopathy (MTM), one of the complications of pathologic myopia, is a spectrum of pathological conditions that are attributed to tractional changes in the eye characterized by retinoschisis, lamellar or full thickness macular hole, and foveal retinal detachment. Considering the global public health burden of MTM and pathologic myopia, it is important to understand these sight-threatening complications and their associations. We conducted an evidence-based review of the prevalence and natural history of MTM and associated risk factors.

The Potential of Current Polygenic Risk Scores to Predict High Myopia and Myopic Macular Degeneration in Multiethnic Singapore Adults.

Purpose: To evaluate the transancestry portability of current myopia polygenic risk scores (PRSs) to predict high myopia (HM) and myopic macular degeneration (MMD) in an Asian population.

Design: Population-based study.

Participants: A total of 5894 adults (2141 Chinese, 1913 Indian, and 1840 Malay) from the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases study were included in the analysis.

Assessment of hypertension association with arsenic exposure from food and drinking water in Bihar, India.

Epidemiological studies have associated chronic exposure to arsenic (As) from drinking water with increased risk of hypertension. However, evidence of an association between As exposure from food and hypertension risks is sparse. To quantify the association between daily As intake from both food (rice, wheat and potatoes) and drinking water (As) along with total exposure (As) and hypertension risks in a study population in Bihar, India, we conducted an individual level cross-sectional analysis between 2017 and 2019 involving 150 participants.

Corrections: Xu, L.; Mondal, D.; Polya, D.A. Positive Association of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) with Chronic Exposure to Drinking Water Arsenic (As) at Concentrations below the WHO Provisional Guideline Value: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2020, , 2536.

In our recently published meta-analysis, due to an oversight, we treated urinary As concentration data reported by Tsinovoi et al [...

Association of low-level inorganic arsenic exposure from rice with age-standardized mortality risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in England and Wales.

Adverse health outcomes, including death from cardiovascular disease (CVD), arising from chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) are well documented. Consumption of rice is a major iAs exposure route for over 3 billion people, however, there is still a lack of epidemiological evidence demonstrating the association between iAs exposure from rice intake and CVD risks. We explored this potential association through an ecological study using data at local authority level across England and Wales.

Exploratory study of the association in the United Kingdom between hypertension and inorganic arsenic (iAs) intake from rice and rice products.

Hypertension risks arising from chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) are well documented. Consumption of rice is a major iAs exposure route for over 3 billion people; however, there is a lack of epidemiological evidence demonstrating an association of hypertension risks with iAs intake from rice, especially in areas where there is little exposure from drinking water but a growing demand for rice intake. To address this, we conducted an individual-level cross-sectional analysis to quantify the extent to which daily iAs intake from rice and rice products (E-iAs) modifies the association between hypertension risks and previously well-established risk factors.

Positive Association of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) with Chronic Exposure to Drinking Water Arsenic (As) at Concentrations below the WHO Provisional Guideline Value: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

To the best of our knowledge, a dose-response meta-analysis of the relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and arsenic (As) exposure at drinking water As concentrations lower than the WHO provisional guideline value (10 µg/L) has not been published yet. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to estimate the pooled association between the relative risk of each CVD endpoint and low-level As concentration in drinking water both linearly and non-linearly using a random effects dose-response model. In this study, a significant positive association was found between the risks of most CVD outcomes and drinking water As concentration for both linear and non-linear models (-value for trend < 0.

Phytoremediation potential of Acorus calamus in soils co-contaminated with cadmium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Phytoremediation is a promising technology for the remediation of sites co-contaminated with inorganic (heavy metal) and organic pollutants. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the independent and interactive effects of cadmium (Cd) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the growth of the wetland plant Acorus calamus and its ability to uptake, accumulate, and remove pollutants from soils. Our results showed that growth and biomass of A.