Publications by authors named "Vikram Niranjan"

Article Synopsis
  • - The main objective of this Cochrane Review protocol is to evaluate how alcohol consumption influences the progression to symptomatic heart failure in individuals who are at risk or have pre-heart failure stages.
  • - The review also aims to examine the impact of alcohol on the deterioration of left ventricular function in those with early stages of heart failure.
  • - Furthermore, the study will investigate the relationship between alcohol consumption and different types of heart failure (e.g., reduced and preserved ejection fraction) over various timeframes.
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Introduction: Despite the benefits of quitting smoking for those who have cancer, including improved health outcomes and reduced therapeutic toxicities, it is unclear how many people are supported in quit attempts during this time. Variations in the availability and provision of smoking cessation (SC) services are reported, with little understanding of the challenges and solutions. This co-designed study aimed to understand the perspectives of health care professionals (HCPs) working in oncology settings to engage in SC practices and identify recommendations for developing an SC pathway.

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Objectives: Despite the unfavorable outcomes associated with continued smoking, a substantial proportion of patients with cancer continue to smoke after diagnosis. However, limited use of smoking cessation (SC) interventions has been reported. This study explored the perceptions of patients with cancer who continue to smoke/recently quit regarding SC.

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Background: While much progress has been made in reducing tobacco use in many countries, both active and passive smoking remain challenges. The benefits of smoking cessation are universally recognized, and the hospital setting is an ideal setting where smokers can access smoking cessation services as hospital admission can be a cue to action. Consistent delivery of good quality smoking cessation care across health services is an important focus for reducing the harm of tobacco use, especially among continued smokers.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on cancer services and will have likely led to delayed early detection and diagnosis. In response, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) planned and delivered seven cancer roadshow events run on 15 days across seven shopping centres in four deprived areas based on Trinity National Deprivation Index, 2016, in Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Dublin regions in Ireland to educate and promote awareness about cancer signs and symptoms, importance of screening, positive lifestyle changes, and encourage medical care-seeking behaviour.

Methods: ICS nurses and trained ICS volunteers conducted health checks such as blood pressure, BMI, and CO, monitoring (one health check per person maximum), provided health information and conducted motivational interviews in aforementioned regions.

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Article Synopsis
  • This review looked at how researchers in Europe study the concept of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) for infectious diseases.
  • They found 105 studies that met their criteria, with most focusing on food- and water-borne diseases.
  • The number of these studies has grown, particularly from 2015 to 2022, and there's a need for better guidelines to help make results more comparable.
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The detrimental impact of smoking on health and wellbeing are irrefutable. Additionally, smoking is associated with the development of cancer, a reduction treatment outcomes and poorer health outcomes. Nevertheless, a significant number of people continue to smoke following a cancer diagnosis.

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Background: General practice is well situated to promote physical activity (PA), but with PA levels declining after 45 years of age, often those who are most likely to benefit from interventions tend to be the least likely recruited to participate in research.

Aims And Rationale: The aim of this study was to investigate recruitment and reporting of participant demographics in PA trials for adults aged 45 years and above. Specific objectives were: (i) to examine the reporting of demographics of participants; (ii) to investigate the strategies used to recruit these participants; and, (iii) to examine the efficiency of recruitment strategies.

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What can we learn from the history of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in healthcare and research across global jurisdictions? Depending on region and context, the terminology and heritage of involvement in research vary. In this paper, we draw on global traditions to explore dominant themes and key considerations and critiques pertaining to PPI in order to inform a PPI culture shift in Ireland. We then describe the heritage of PPI in Ireland and present the case for combining methodological imperatives with policy drivers to support and encourage involvement.

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Background: It is important to understand the effects of population ageing on disease burden and explore conditions that drive poor health in later life to prevent or manage these. We examined the development of disease burden and its components for major disease groups among older adults in Europe over the last 30 years.

Methods: Using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study, we analyzed burden of disease trends between 1990 and 2019 measured by years of life lost (YLL), years lived with disability (YLD) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) among older adults (65+ years) in Western, Central and Eastern Europe using cause groups for diseases and injuries.

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Background: Physical activity (PA) is recommended in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) to improve health outcomes. Dance is one such form of PA which is meaningful, valuable, enjoyable and has demonstrated positive physical and mental health effects.

Methods: With pre-post design, 16 patients, members of the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, were enrolled in this study.

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Dance has been highlighted as one of the most enjoyable, safe, and feasible forms of physical activity, improving physical health, mental health, and general well-being, among various patients. Little is known about the effect and impact of dance interventions to improve health among patients with pulmonary diseases, and research lacks a robust synthesis of evidence. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of dance intervention on patients with noninfectious pulmonary diseases.

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Background: Calculating the disease burden due to injury is complex, as it requires many methodological choices. Until now, an overview of the methodological design choices that have been made in burden of disease (BoD) studies in injury populations is not available. The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify existing injury BoD studies undertaken across Europe and to comprehensively review the methodological design choices and assumption parameters that have been made to calculate years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) in these studies.

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Smoking among cancer patients leads to poorer outcomes, yet many patients continue smoking. As part of a feasibility study of smoking cessation for cancer patients in Ireland, smoking rates were reviewed. Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (HIPE) data on the smoking status of discharges with a cancer diagnosis (overall, breast, lung, cervical and head and neck cancer) were used (2014-2018).

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Background: Insufficient physical activity (PA) is a leading risk factor for premature death worldwide. Ireland's public healthcare system, the Health Service Executive (HSE), has supported the development of the National Exercise Referral Framework (NERF) to tackle low levels of PA amongst those with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). 'NERF centres' are medically supervised PA programmes across Ireland that have established referral pathways with local hospitals and general practitioners.

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Background: As prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy rise, health care systems must respond to these challenges. Data is needed from general practice regarding the impact of age, number of chronic illnesses and medications on specific metrics of healthcare utilisation.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of general practices in a university-affiliated education and research network, consisting of 72 practices.

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Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the experiences and perspectives of general practitioners' and medical students' use of, and behaviour on, social media and to understand how they negotiate threats to professional and personal life on social media.

Design: A two-phase qualitative design was used, consisting of semistructured interviews and follow-up vignettes, where participants were asked to respond to vignettes that involved varying degrees of unprofessional behaviour. Data were analysed using template analysis.

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Objectives: The involvement of individuals and communities in health decision-making is enshrined in WHO policies. However, migrant groups are under-represented in health decision-making processes. Our aim was to explore migrants' involvement in health policy, service development and research in the WHO European Region to identify levers for inclusive and meaningful practice.

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Background: Exercise prescribing can help patients to overcome physical inactivity, but its use in general practice is limited. The purpose of this narrative review was to investigate contemporaneous experiences of general practitioners and patients with exercise prescribing.

Method: PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct and Cochrane reviews were reviewed using the terms 'exercise prescription', 'exercise prescribing', 'family practice', 'general practice', 'adults' and 'physical activity prescribing'.

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Aims: Healthcare systems urgently required policies to guide the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this review was to document the healthcare policies developed during the initial wave of widespread COVID-19 transmission in Ireland. We further sought to determine the key focus and impact of these policies.

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Background: Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are a relatively new model of clinical medical education, whereby students participate in patient care over time and develop relationships with those patients', their clinicians, and other health care staff involved in the care of those patients. It has been called 'relationship-based education' but, to date, no review has investigated the development and impact of these central relationships within this curricula model.

Aims: The aim of this study is to review the literature pertaining to relationships in LICs, specifically to understand how they come about and how they affect learning.

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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has evolved as a pandemic of unimaginable magnitude. The health care system is facing a tremendous challenge to provide ethical and quality care. The transformation of the patient-based care to population-based care during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised ethical dilemma among urologists.

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Introduction: In this era of globalization, urbanization, and rapidly expanding unhygienic food corners across the globe, the incidence of food poisoning is very common nowadays.

Aim: The aim of our study was to investigate the perceptions and readiness of schoolteachers to accept notifications on food poisoning as a part of education to the students.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with the help of a validated questionnaire for data collection.

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The incidence of small- and medium-size renal stones is rising. Stone clearance, bleeding, urine leak, and infectious complications are major concerns for urologists. They can choose the best technique from a list of armamentarium available.

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