Understanding the role of mask-wearing during COVID-19 on the island of Ireland.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions have played a key role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is challenging to estimate their impacts on disease spread and outcomes. On the island of Ireland, population mobility restrictions were imposed during the first wave, but mask-wearing was not mandated until about six months into the pandemic. We use data on mask-wearing, mobility, and season, over the first year of the pandemic to predict independently the weekly infectious contact estimated by an epidemiological model.

Estimating time-dependent contact: a multi-strain epidemiological model of SARS-CoV-2 on the island of Ireland.

Mathematical modelling plays a key role in understanding and predicting the epidemiological dynamics of infectious diseases. We construct a flexible discrete-time model that incorporates multiple viral strains with different transmissibilities to estimate the changing patterns of human contact that generates new infections. Using a Bayesian approach, we fit the model to longitudinal data on hospitalisation with COVID-19 from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland during the first year of the pandemic.

Reductions in serum lipids with a 4-year decline in serum perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid.

Background: Several epidemiological cross-sectional studies have found positive associations between serum concentrations of lipids and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, or C8). A longitudinal study should be less susceptible to biases from uncontrolled confounding or reverse causality.

Methods: We investigated the association between within-individual changes in serum PFOA and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and changes in serum lipid levels (low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides) over a 4.

Comparison between free serum thyroxine levels, measured by analog and dialysis methods, in the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate.

Results from animal studies have shown that negative associations between serum levels of free thyroxine (FT4) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) at concentrations much higher than those reported for any exposed population may be due to bias in analog methods used for measuring FT4. We aimed to assess if there is evidence of differences between human FT4 measurements in serum by an analog and a dialysis method due to the presence of PFOS or perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in a population of 50 adults with typical US serum PFOS concentrations but higher PFOA concentrations. Mean analog-dialysis difference was -0.

Heartwatch: the effect of a primary care-delivered secondary prevention programme for cardiovascular disease on medication use and risk factor profiles.

Background: Heartwatch is a secondary prevention programme of coronary heart disease (CHD) in primary care in Ireland. The aim was to further examine the effect of the Heartwatch programme on cardiovascular risk factors and treatments of patients with a follow-up of 3.5 years.

Stroke associated with atrial fibrillation--incidence and early outcomes in the north Dublin population stroke study.

Background: Prospective population-based studies are important to accurately determine the incidence and characteristics of stroke associated with atrial fibrillation (AF), while avoiding selection bias which may complicate hospital-based studies.

Methods: We investigated AF-associated stroke within the North Dublin Population Stroke Study, a prospective cohort study of stroke/transient ischaemic attack in 294,592 individuals, according to recommended criteria for rigorous stroke epidemiological studies.

Results: Of 568 stroke patients ascertained in the first year, 31.

A non-synonymous variant in ADH1B is strongly associated with prenatal alcohol use in a European sample of pregnant women.

Pregnant women are advised to abstain from alcohol despite insufficient evidence on the fetal consequences of moderate prenatal alcohol use. Mendelian randomization could help distinguish causal effects from artifacts due to residual confounding and measurement errors; however, polymorphisms reliably associated with alcohol phenotypes are needed. We aimed to test whether alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) gene variants were associated with alcohol use before and during pregnancy.

A review of studies of adherence with antihypertensive drugs using prescription databases.

Poor adherence with antihypertensive therapies is a major factor in the low rates of blood pressure control among people with hypertension. Patient adherence is influenced by a large number of interacting factors but their exact impact is not well understood, partly because it is difficult to measure adherence. Longitudinal prescription data can be used as a measure of drug supply and are particularly useful to identify interruptions and changes of treatment.