Antimalarial drug efficacy and resistance in malaria-endemic countries in HANMAT-PIAM_net countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region 2016-2020: Clinical and genetic studies.

Introduction: The World Health Organization recommends regular monitoring of the efficacy of nationally recommended antimalarial drugs. We present the results of studies on the efficacy of recommended antimalarials and molecular markers of artemisinin and partner resistance in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Methods: Single-arm prospective studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (ASSP) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, artemether-lumefantrine (AL) in all countries, or dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) in Sudan for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum.

A Systematic Review of Whether the Use of N95 Respirator Masks Decreases the Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease in the General Population.

The usage of masks such as the N95 has increased exponentially worldwide. With the ever-increasing global rates of cardiovascular disease, it is vital that preventative measures are adopted to help tackle this crisis. N95 masks have been promoted as health prevention odysseys in the battle against viruses such as COVID-19.

Synthesis and Characterization of Acrylamide/Acrylic Acid Co-Polymers and Glutaraldehyde Crosslinked pH-Sensitive Hydrogels.

This project aims to synthesize and characterize the pH-sensitive controlled release of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) loaded hydrogels (5-FULH) by polymerization of acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) in the presence of glutaraldehyde (GA) as a crosslinker with ammonium persulphate as an initiator. The formulation's code is named according to acrylamide (A1, A2, A3), acrylic acid (B1, B2, B3) and glutaraldehyde (C1, C2, C3). The optimized formulations were exposed to various physicochemical tests, namely swelling, diffusion, porosity, sol gel analysis, and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR).

Variation in the apparent importance of health-related problems with the instrument used to measure patient welfare.

Aims: This paper investigates the distributional implications for eight population groups of using six different instruments to measure wellbeing and to prioritise access to health services. Specifically, it examines the importance of different physical and psycho-social problems for the scores obtained using each instrument and whether scores differ because of differences in the concept measured by the instrument or because of the instrument's construction.

Methods: Patients with seven chronic conditions and a sample of the 'healthy' public were administered six instruments: two utility instruments; two self-rating scales; a subjective wellbeing instrument and the ICECAP measure of capability.

Efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapies for the treatment of falciparum malaria in Pakistan (2007-2015): In vivo response and dhfr and dhps mutations.

Artesunate+sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (AS+SP) and artemether+lumefantrine (AL) are the first- and second line treatments, respectively, for the treatment of falciparum infections and dihydroartemsinin+piperaquine (DHA+PPQ) is a potential candidate in case AS+SP or AL fails in Pakistan. The therapeutic efficacies of AS+SP (5 sites in 2007, 2 sites in 2011 and 2 sites in 2012), AL (2 sites in 2012) and DHA+PPQ (2 sites in 2015) were evaluated in seven sentinel sites. Clinical and parasitological outcomes were evaluated among eligible patients.

Measuring the Sensitivity and Construct Validity of 6 Utility Instruments in 7 Disease Areas.

Background: Health services that affect quality of life (QoL) are increasingly evaluated using cost utility analyses (CUA). These commonly employ one of a small number of multiattribute utility instruments (MAUI) to assess the effects of the health service on utility. However, the MAUI differ significantly, and the choice of instrument may alter the outcome of an evaluation.

Diabetes and quality of life: Comparing results from utility instruments and Diabetes-39.

Objective: To compare the Diabetes-39 (D-39) with six multi-attribute utility (MAU) instruments (15D, AQoL-8D, EQ-5D, HUI3, QWB, and SF-6D), and to develop mapping algorithms which could be used to transform the D-39 scores into the MAU scores.

Research Design And Methods: Self-reported diabetes sufferers (N=924) and members of the healthy public (N=1760), aged 18 years and over, were recruited from 6 countries (Australia 18%, USA 18%, UK 17%, Canada 16%, Norway 16%, and Germany 15%). Apart from the QWB which was distributed normally, non-parametric rank tests were used to compare subgroup utilities and D-39 scores.

Mapping between 6 Multiattribute Utility Instruments.

Background: Cost-utility analyses commonly employ a multiattribute utility (MAU) instrument to estimate the health state utilities, which are needed to calculate quality-adjusted life years. Different MAU instruments predict significantly different utilities, which makes comparison of results from different evaluation studies problematical.

Aim: This article presents mapping functions ("crosswalks") from 6 MAU instruments (EQ-5D-5L, SF-6D, Health Utilities Index 3 [HUI 3], 15D, Quality of Well-Being [QWB], and Assessment of Quality of Life 8D [AQoL-8D]) to each of the other 5 instruments in the study: a total of 30 mapping functions.

Why do multi-attribute utility instruments produce different utilities: the relative importance of the descriptive systems, scale and 'micro-utility' effects.

Purpose: Health state utilities measured by the major multi-attribute utility instruments differ. Understanding the reasons for this is important for the choice of instrument and for research designed to reconcile these differences. This paper investigates these reasons by explaining pairwise differences between utilities derived from six multi-attribute utility instruments in terms of (1) their implicit measurement scales; (2) the structure of their descriptive systems; and (3) 'micro-utility effects', scale-adjusted differences attributable to their utility formula.

Can multi-attribute utility instruments adequately account for subjective well-being?

Introduction: The quality of life is included in cost utility analyses by weighting the relevant years of life by health state utilities. However, the utilities predicted by multi-attribute utility instruments (MAUIs) for this purpose do not correlate highly with the subjective well-being (SWB) of people experiencing the health states. This suggests that MAUIs may not take account of the SWB experienced by patients.

Assessing outcomes for cost-utility analysis in depression: comparison of five multi-attribute utility instruments with two depression-specific outcome measures.

Background: Many mental health surveys and clinical studies do not include a multi-attribute utility instrument (MAUI) that produces quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). There is also some question about the sensitivity of the existing utility instruments to mental health.

Aims: To compare the sensitivity of five commonly used MAUIs (Assessment of Quality of Life - Eight Dimension Scale (AQoL-8D), EuroQoL-five dimension (EQ-5D-5L), Short Form 6D (SF-6D), Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3), 15D) with that of disease-specific depression outcome measures (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)) and develop 'crosswalk' transformation algorithms between the measures.

Comparing and explaining differences in the magnitude, content, and sensitivity of utilities predicted by the EQ-5D, SF-6D, HUI 3, 15D, QWB, and AQoL-8D multiattribute utility instruments.

Background: Cost utility analysis permits the comparison of disparate health services by measuring outcomes in comparable units, namely, quality-adjusted life-years, which equal life-years times the utility of the health state. However, comparability is compromised when different utility instruments predict different utilities for the same health state. The present paper measures the extent of, and reason for, differences between the utilities predicted by the EQ-5D-5L, SF-6D, HUI 3, 15D, QWB, and AQoL-8D.

Deriving health utilities from the MacNew Heart Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire.

Introduction: Quality of life is included in the economic evaluation of health services by measuring the preference for health states, i.e. health state utilities.

Modelling utility weights for the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL)-8D.

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to describe the four-stage methodology used to obtain utility scores for the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL)-8D, a 35-item 8 dimension multi-attribute utility instrument, which was created to achieve a high degree of sensitivity to psycho-social health.

Methods: Data for the analyses were obtained from a representative group of 347 members of the Australian public and from 323 mental health patients each of whom provided VAS and time trade-off valuations of multiple health states. Data were used initially to create multiplicative scoring algorithms for each of the instrument's 8 dimensions and for the overall instrument.

Validity and reliability of the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL)-8D multi-attribute utility instrument.

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to report tests of the validity and reliability of a new instrument, the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL)-8D, which was constructed to improve the evaluation of health services that have an impact upon the psychosocial aspects of the quality of life.

Methods: Australian and US data from a large multi-instrument comparison survey were used to conduct tests of convergent, predictive and content validity using as comparators five other multi-attribute utility (MAU) instruments-the EQ-5D, SF-6D, Health Utilities Index (HUI) 3, 15D and the Quality of Well-Being (QWB)-as well as four non-utility instruments-the SF-36 and three measures of subjective well-being (SWB). A separate three part Australian survey was used to assess test-retest reliability.

An instrument for measuring the social willingness to pay for health state improvement.

This paper describes an instrument for measuring the social value of changes in health status, the Relative Social Willingness to Pay. It is a unique combination of measurement attributes designed to minimise cognitive complexity and provide an additional option for measuring 'social value'. Similar to the person trade-off (PTO), it adopts a social perspective and asks respondents to evaluate programmes on behalf of society.

Needlescopic versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a meta-analysis.

Background: To systematically analyse clinical trials on needlescopic (NC) versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) that evaluated the effectiveness of both procedures for the management of cholelithiasis.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Clinical trials on NC versus LC were selected according to specific criteria and analyzed to generate summative data expressed in standardized mean difference.

Needlescopic versus laparoscopic appendectomy: a systematic review.

Background: Needlescopic appendectomies (NA) have been performed since the 1990s. We sought to systematically analyze trials comparing NA with laparoscopic appendectomies (LA) in the management of appendicitis.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of the literature.

Meta-analysis of skin adhesives versus sutures in closure of laparoscopic port-site wounds.

Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of skin adhesives and sutures in the closure of laparoscopic port-site wounds.

Methods: Electronic databases were searched to find relevant randomized controlled trials and their data was analyzed to generate a summative outcome.

Results: Seven trials on port-site wound closure after laparoscopic procedures encompassing 902 patients were retrieved from the electronic databases.

Obstetric outcomes among rural Aboriginal Victorians.

Twenty-eight Aboriginal women and 112 age-matched controls were identified from a retrospective chart review of deliveries over a 1-year period in northern Victoria. Significantly more Aboriginal women were screened for gestational diabetes and met criteria for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes. Overall mode of delivery was similar amongst the two groups.

Eye health in rural Australia.

A review of the current literature relating to eye health in rural Australia was conducted. Few studies have been undertaken, with most information provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare databases, The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program of 1980 and the Visual Impairment Project in Victoria in the mid 1990s. Key findings were that the rural population has an increased prevalence of pterygium, cataract, ocular trauma and glaucoma, but no difference in refractive error or diabetic retinopathy (although data are limited).