Publications by authors named "Syed Ahmar Shah"

Unlabelled: Atopic dermatitis, food allergy, allergic rhinitis, and asthma are among the most common diseases in childhood. They are heterogeneous diseases, can co-exist in their development, and manifest complex associations with other disorders and environmental and hereditary factors. Elucidating these intricacies by identifying clinically distinguishable groups and actionable risk factors will allow for better understanding of the diseases, which will enhance clinical management and benefit society and affected individuals and families.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Using electronic health records, we derived and internally validated a prediction model to estimate risk factors for long COVID and predict individual risk of developing long COVID.

Design: Population-based, retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Scotland.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Trajectories of asthma and allergy in children are heterogeneous and commonly derived from parental report of disease or clinical records. This study combined parental-reported and register-based dispensed medication data to characterize childhood trajectories of co-existing asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema.

Methods: From a Swedish population-based birth cohort (N = 5654), survey responses collected at the age of 1, 4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is currently based on clinical evaluation. Despite clinical hallmarks, unfortunately, the error rate is still significant. Low in-vivo diagnostic accuracy of clinical evaluation mainly relies on the lack of quantitative biomarkers for an objective motor performance assessment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: An early warning tool to predict attacks could enhance asthma management and reduce the likelihood of serious consequences. Electronic health records (EHRs) providing access to historical data about patients with asthma coupled with machine learning (ML) provide an opportunity to develop such a tool. Several studies have developed ML-based tools to predict asthma attacks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Asthma attacks are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality but are preventable in most if detected and treated promptly. However, the changes that occur physiologically and behaviourally in the days and weeks preceding an attack are not always recognised, highlighting a potential role for technology. The aim of this study 'DIGIPREDICT' is to identify early digital markers of asthma attacks using sensors embedded in smart devices including watches and inhalers, and leverage health and environmental datasets and artificial intelligence, to develop a risk prediction model to provide an early, personalised warning of asthma attacks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A study conducted in Scotland aimed to determine how common long COVID is among adults and to identify the risk factors linked to its development.
  • Out of nearly 4.7 million participants, about 81,219 (1.7%) were found to have long COVID, with various methods yielding different case counts, primarily due to limited overlap among the identification methods.
  • Factors associated with a higher likelihood of long COVID included being female, being between 38-67 years old, being overweight or obese, having pre-existing health conditions, being immunosuppressed, shielding from infection, or being hospitalized shortly after testing positive for COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To determine whether periods of disruption were associated with increased 'avoidable' hospital admissions and wider social inequalities in England.

Design: Observational repeated cross-sectional study.

Setting: England (January 2019 to March 2022).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A data-driven prediction tool has the potential to provide early warning of an asthma attack and improve asthma management and outcomes. Most previous machine learning (ML)-based studies for asthma attack prediction have reported a severe class imbalance, with major implications for model performance. We aimed to undertake a systematic comparison of several class imbalance handling techniques in the context of risk prediction models for asthma prognosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Vaccination continues to be the key public health measure for preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes. Certain groups may be at higher risk of incomplete vaccine schedule, which may leave them vulnerable to COVID-19 hospitalisation and death.

Aim: To identify the sociodemographic and clinical predictors for not receiving a scheduled COVID-19 vaccine after previously receiving one.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Monitoring asthma is essential for self-management. However, traditional monitoring methods require high levels of active engagement, and some patients may find this tedious. Passive monitoring with mobile-health devices, especially when combined with machine-learning, provides an avenue to reduce management burden.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Brazil and Scotland have used mRNA boosters in their respective populations since September 2021, with Omicron's emergence accelerating their booster program. Despite this, both countries have reported substantial recent increases in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. The duration of the protection conferred by the booster dose against symptomatic Omicron cases and severe outcomes is unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A national study in Scotland investigated the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in early pregnancy by comparing vaccinated women to unvaccinated controls for their risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.
  • The study included 18,780 women for miscarriage analysis and 10,570 for ectopic pregnancy, finding no significant association between vaccination and either of these outcomes.
  • The results support ongoing public health recommendations that COVID-19 vaccination is safe for pregnant women and is the best way to protect themselves and their babies from the virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Current UK vaccination policy targets high-risk individuals for future COVID-19 booster doses, but the specific groups that would benefit the most remain uncertain.
  • A study analyzed data from 30 million people across the UK to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes in those who completed their primary vaccination and received a booster dose of certain vaccines.
  • The findings highlighted that from late December 2021 to February 2022, only a small percentage of vaccinated individuals experienced severe COVID-19 outcomes, indicating the effectiveness of the vaccination program, especially when considering variations in risk factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Supported self-management empowering people with asthma to detect early deterioration and take timely action reduces the risk of asthma attacks. Smartphones and smart monitoring devices coupled with machine learning could enhance self-management by predicting asthma attacks and providing tailored feedback.We aim to develop and assess the feasibility of an asthma attack predictor system based on data collected from a range of smart devices.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The two-dose BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy against COVID-19 disease in clinical trials of children and young people (CYP). Consequently, we investigated the uptake, safety, effectiveness and waning of the protective effect of the BNT162b2 against symptomatic COVID-19 in CYP aged 12-17 years in Scotland.

Methods: The analysis of the vaccine uptake was based on information from the Turas Vaccination Management Tool, inclusive of Mar 1, 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to determine which children are at the highest risk for COVID-19 hospitalization to guide vaccination policies in Scotland, utilizing data from the EAVE II platform and the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm.* -
  • An analysis of over 146,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases among children aged 5-17 revealed that 0.7% were hospitalized, with those in specific risk groups facing significantly higher hospitalization rates.* -
  • Key risk factors identified include sickle cell disease, chronic kidney disease, and blood cancer, with their corresponding hazard ratios indicating a substantial increase in risk compared to children without these conditions.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: COVID-19 is commonly experienced as an acute illness, yet some people continue to have symptoms that persist for weeks, or months (commonly referred to as 'long-COVID'). It remains unclear which patients are at highest risk of developing long-COVID. In this protocol, we describe plans to develop a prediction model to identify individuals at risk of developing long-COVID.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Asthma is a variable long-term condition. Currently, there is no cure for asthma and the focus is, therefore, on long-term management. Mobile health (mHealth) is promising for chronic disease management but to be able to realize its potential, it needs to go beyond simply monitoring.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Several countries reported a substantial reduction in asthma exacerbations associated with COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions. However, it is not known if these early reported declines were short-term and if these have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels following easing of lockdown restrictions.

Methods: We undertook a retrospective, cohort study of all asthma patients in a national primary care database of almost 10 million patients, Optimum Patient Care Database (OPCRD), identified from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2015, using a previously validated algorithm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF