Communicating certainty via verbal probability phrases: comparing health contexts with no context.

Introduction: Medical professionals often use verbal phrases to communicate uncertainties and certainties with their patients and the general public.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate factors that can influence people's interpretation of probability phrases of certainty and uncertainty communicated by doctors in health and medical settings.

Methods: An experimental study with a randomized factorial design was conducted to examine both context-related factors and individual difference factors on participants' interpretation across directions of phrases and frames of the context.

Expedited discharge and risk of readmission after ostomy construction.

Background: Expedited discharge after surgery with construction of an ostomy may leave patients less prepared for home self-care, leading to increased hospital readmissions. We evaluated whether readmission rates were greater for patients with an expedited discharge (1-2 days) compared with nonexpedited discharge (3-5 days) after ostomy construction.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of a prospective database of patients undergoing ostomy construction was performed using the American College of Surgeons National Safety and Quality Improvement Project data between years 2019 and 2020.

School Refusal Behaviors: The Roles of Adolescent and Parental Factors.

School refusal behaviors in adolescents have deleterious immediate and long-term consequences and are associated with mental ill-health such as anxiety and depression. Understanding factors that place youth at higher risk of school refusal behavior may assist in developing effective management approaches. We investigated parental and adolescent factors that may be associated with school refusal behaviors by specifically focusing on the role of parental and adolescent emotion dysregulation, their anxiety and depression, and parental rearing style.

Molecular differentiation between complete and incomplete responders to neoadjuvant therapy in rectal cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer, but only 20-40% of patients completely respond to this treatment.

Methods: To define the molecular features that are associated with response to nCRT, we generated and collected genomic and transcriptomic data from 712 cancers prior to treatment from our own data and from publicly available data.

Results: We found that patients with a complete response have decreased risk of both local recurrence and future metastasis.

ST6GAL1 is associated with poor response to chemoradiation in rectal cancer.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death. Rectal cancer makes up a third of all colorectal cases. Treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer includes chemoradiation followed by surgery.