Population-level, patient-reported outcomes: a case study regarding a public health intervention that involves patients with life-limiting illnesses.

Introduction: Dying and death are public health concerns, but little is known about public health interventions that target populations living with life-limiting illnesses. This gap makes it difficult to identify best-practice public health interventions for this population and to achieve public health objectives. The study aimed to describe a public health intervention that intends to improve population-level outcomes using point-of-care and patient-reported outcomes.

Characteristics of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer who access palliative care: An observational study.

Purpose: Despite the benefits of palliative care (PC) in pancreatic cancer, little is known about patients who access PC. This observational study examines the characteristics of patients with pancreatic cancer at their first episode of PC.

Methods: First-time, specialist PC episodes captured through the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC), in Victoria, Australia between 2014 and 2020, for pancreatic cancer, were identified.

Palliative care symptoms and problems in a culturally and linguistically diverse population: large retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: Migrant Australians with cancer have higher unmet needs and poorer health-related quality of life. Less is known about their palliative care experience. We aimed to assess comparative symptom distress and problem severity for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians with cancer in palliative care.

Appetite-Related Distress Is Burdensome in the Last Sixty Days of Life of People Receiving Palliative Care: A National Longitudinal Consecutive Cohort Study.

People with life-limiting illnesses experience a range of distressing symptoms. Appetite-related symptoms are common, but studies have found varied prevalence and the distress caused has had limited quantification. To examine the clinicodemographic factors and trajectory of appetite-related distress in the last 60 days of life.

The Level of Distress From Fatigue Reported in the Final Two Months of Life by a Palliative Care Population: An Australian National Prospective, Consecutive Case Series.

Context: Fatigue is the most commonly reported symptom in life-limiting illnesses, although not much is known about the distress it causes patients as they approach death.

Objectives: To map the trajectory of distress from fatigue reported by an Australian palliative care population in the last 60 days leading up to death.

Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, consecutive cohort study using national data from the Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2018.

Hypertension prevalence in patients attending tertiary pain management services, a registry-based Australian cohort study.

Persistent pain and hypertension often co-occur, and share several biological and lifestyle risk factors. The present study aimed to provide insight into the prevalence of, and factors associated with, hypertension in the largest cohort of patients seeking treatment in 43 tertiary pain clinics in Australia. Adults aged > = 18 years registered to the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration registry between 2013 and 2018 were included if they had persistent non-cancer pain (N = 43,789).

Critical Phenological Events Affect Chemical Defense of Plant Tissues: Iridoid Glycosides in a Woody Shrub.

Plants are chemically-complex organisms; each individual contains diverse tissue-types, has the ability to differentially allocate secondary metabolites to these tissues and can change this allocation through time. The interaction of variation in chemical defense of different tissue types and variation in chemical defense through time, however, is rarely examined and has not been studied for iridoid glycoside-producing woody plants. In this study, we quantified allocation of iridoid glycosides (IGs) to the leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds of 25 individuals of a long-lived shrub (Lonicera x bella Zabel, Caprifoliaceae), at five important phenological timepoints (leaf-out, flowering, fruit appearance, fruit ripening, and fruit dispersal) throughout a growing season.

Prioritizing a sequence of short-duration groups as the standardized pathway for chronic noncancer pain at an Australian tertiary multidisciplinary pain service: preliminary outcomes.

Objective: To describe implementation and report preliminary outcomes of a resource-efficient, standardized group pathway for chronic noncancer pain.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study of a group-based pain management pathway in comparison with an Australasian benchmarking data set.

Setting: An Australian tertiary multidisciplinary pain service.

Normative data for common pain measures in chronic pain clinic populations: closing a gap for clinicians and researchers.

Normative data for chronic pain questionnaires are essential to the interpretation of aggregate scores on these questionnaires, for both clinical trials and clinical practice. In this study, we summarised data from 13,343 heterogeneous patients on several commonly used pain questionnaires that were routinely collected from 36 pain clinics in Australia and New Zealand as part of the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePPOC) including the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI); the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS); the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ); and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). The data are presented as summarised normative data, broken down by demographic (age, sex, work status, etc) and pain site/medical variables.

Vitamin D supplementation decreases specific Th2 responses in CF patients with aspergillus sensitization: a phase one open-label study.

Background: Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) complicated by allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) are vitamin D deficient and treatment with 1,25 (OH) vitamin D of CD4+ cells from CF patients with ABPA decreases (Af)-induced Th2 responses. This Phase I clinical trial investigated the safety and effectiveness of daily vitamin D supplementation in CF patients with ABPA to reduce allergic responses and ABPA symptoms, and increase serum vitamin D levels.

Methods: Seven patients ages 12 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of CF and ABPA with current evidence of Af sensitization received 4000 IU vitamin D (cholecalciferol) daily for 24 weeks.

Vitamin D3 attenuates Th2 responses to Aspergillus fumigatus mounted by CD4+ T cells from cystic fibrosis patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.

Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is caused by a dominant Th2 immune response to antigens derived from the opportunistic mold Aspergillus, most commonly Aspergillus fumigatus. It occurs in 4%-15% of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF); however, not all patients with CF infected with A. fumigatus develop ABPA.

Does polyembryony confer a competitive advantage to the invasive perennial vine Vincetoxicum rossicum (Apocynaceae)?

Determining which traits may allow some introduced plant species to become invasive in their new environment continues to be a key question in invasion biology. Vincetoxicum rossicum is an invasive, perennial vine colonizing natural and seminatural habitats primarily in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. More than half its seeds exhibit polyembryony, a relatively uncommon condition in which a single seed produces multiple seedlings.