Exploration of preferences among people with COPD to inform resource allocation: a discrete choice experiment study.

Introduction: Treatment options for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are numerous but adherence remains a key challenge. We performed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) of patients' preferences in accessing care for the management of COPD. The aim of this study was to understand patients' preferences for modes of accessing care for the management of COPD.

Retinal Vessel Functional Responses in South Africans Living With and Without HIV: The EndoAfrica-NWU Study.

Objectives: The effects of HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) on microvascular function are poorly explored. We compared retinal vessel functional responses to flicker light-induced provocation (FLIP) in people living with HIV (PLWH) and people living without HIV (PLWoutH).

Methods: We included 115 PLWH and 51 PLWoutH with a median age of 41 years.

Food intake in South African children and retinal microvascular health: The ExAMIN Youth SA study.

Background And Aims: Retinal arteriolar narrowing and venular widening are associated with increased cardiovascular risk, even at young ages. Whether diet contributes to early microvascular changes in children is not widely explored. We explored the associations of frequency of healthy and unhealthy food group intake with retinal vessel calibers in black and white children.

To Airbnb or not to Airbnb: Does Airbnb feel safer than hotels during a pandemic?

Airbnb was able to recover faster than hotels from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research note examines whether Airbnb's success resulted from tourists feeling safer in Airbnbs due to their greater opportunities for social distancing. Nearly 9500 U.

Clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes, including experiencing of patient safety events, associated with admitting patients to single rooms compared with shared accommodation for acute hospital admissions: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Objectives: Assess the impact of single rooms versus multioccupancy accommodation on inpatient healthcare outcomes and processes.

Design: Systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Data Sources: Medline, Embase, Google Scholar and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence website up to 17 February 2022.

Are cardiovascular health measures heritable across three generations of families in Soweto, South Africa? A cross-sectional analysis using the random family method.

Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is increasing in many low and middle-income countries, including those in Africa. To inform strategies for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in South Africa, we sought to determine the broad heritability of phenotypic markers of cardiovascular risk across three generations.

Design: A cross-sectional study conducted in a longitudinal family cohort.

Obesity, hypertension, and tobacco use associated with left ventricular remodeling and hypertrophy in South African women: Birth to Twenty Plus Cohort.

Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a marker of increased risk in developing future life-threatening cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, it is unclear how CVD risk factors, such as obesity, blood pressure (BP), and tobacco use, are associated with left ventricular (LV) remodeling and LVH in urban African populations. Therefore, we aimed to identify the prevalence of LVH as well as the health factors associated with LV remodeling and LVH, within black South African adult women and their pre-pubescent children.

Methods: Black female adults (n = 123; age: 29-68 years) and their children (n = 64; age: 4-10; 55% female) were recruited from the Birth to Twenty Plus Cohort in Soweto, South Africa.

Determining Underlying Mechanisms of Early Vascular Ageing by Clustered Analysis: The African-PREDICT Study.

Objective: Identifying individuals at increased risk of early vascular ageing (EVA) is paramount to inform intervention and prevention strategies and curb the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease.

Methods: We stratified and phenotyped pre-screened young apparently healthy South African adults (20-30 yrs) (n=1,041) into vascular ageing profile groups based on carotid femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) percentiles (healthy vascular ageing [HVA]; average vascular ageing [AVA] and EVA). We further compared various anthropometric, cardiovascular (CV), oxidative stress and lifestyle risk factors and determined factor scores to explore associations between CV measures and factor clusters to explore associations in those at risk of EVA.

Obesity, blood pressure and retinal microvascular phenotype in a bi-ethnic cohort of young children.

Background And Aims: Childhood obesity and high blood pressure (BP) are main determinants for cardiovascular disease development with regional and ethnic differences. Narrower arteriolar (CRAE) and wider venular (CRVE) retinal vessel diameters are sensitive markers of early vascular compromise in children. We aimed to compare retinal vessel diameters and investigate associations and odds ratios with body mass index (BMI) and BP in a multi-national/ethnic childhood study.

Accurate prediction of complex traits for individuals and offspring from parents using a simple, rapid, and efficient method for gene-based breeding in cotton and maize.

Accurate, simple, rapid, and inexpensive prediction of complex traits controlled by numerous genes is paramount to enhanced plant breeding, animal breeding, and human medicine. Here we report a novel method that enables accurate, simple, and rapid prediction of complex traits of individuals or offspring from parents based on the number of favorable alleles (NFAs) of the genes controlling the objective traits. The NFAs of 226 cotton fiber length (GFL) genes and nine maize hybrid grain yield related (ZmF1GY) genes were directly used to predict cotton fiber lengths of individual plants and maize grain yields of F hybrids from parents, respectively, using prediction model-based methods as controls.

A single-institution review of image-guided brachytherapy for vaginal malignancies using customized molded applicators and interstitial needles.

Purpose: To review a single-institution's pattern of practice, dosimetry results, and clinical outcomes for patients with unresectable malignancies of vagina, vulva, or urethra, receiving brachytherapy using customized vaginal moulds with or without interstitial needles.

Material And Methods: Twenty-one consecutive patients were reviewed. Patients were treated using customized moulds with or without interstitial needles, implanted with a free-hand technique.

An Epithelial Abrasion Model for Studying Corneal Wound Healing.

The cornea is critical for vision, accounting for about two-thirds of the refractive power of the eye. Crucial to the role of the cornea in vision is its transparency. However, due to its external position, the cornea is highly susceptible to a wide variety of injuries that can lead to the loss of corneal transparency and eventual blindness.

Cross-Talk Between Large Artery Stiffness and Retinal Microvasculature in Children: The ExAMIN Youth SA Study.

Cross-talk between the macro-and microvasculature is considered an important contributor to target organ damage. Previous findings were predominantly in adult populations and investigation into this mechanism in children may provide insight into the development of early adverse vascular changes. Whether any ethnic differences in cross-talk is evident, also remains to be determined.

Bridging the impactibility gap in population health management: a systematic review.

Objectives: Assess whether impactibility modelling is being used to refine risk stratification for preventive health interventions.

Design: Systematic review.

Setting: Primary and secondary healthcare populations.

Elevated blood pressure positively associates with alpha-1 microglobulin in prepubescent children: the ExAMIN Youth SA study.

Objectives And Methods: Hypertension is a growing health concern in childhood populations and individuals of African descent. As the kidneys play a significant role in blood pressure regulation, we compared alpha-1 microglobulin (A1M) as a marker of proximal tubular function between young healthy black and white children (n = 957; aged: 5-9 years) and explored its association with blood pressure.

Results: The black children had higher levels of A1M (P < 0.

A demographic approach to assess elevated blood pressure and obesity in prepubescent children: the ExAMIN Youth South Africa study.

Background: Obesity and hypertension prevalence among children are a concern, with limited evidence available on sex and ethnic differences in childhood blood pressure. We aimed to determine the number of children with hypertension and obesity to identify unique adiposity and blood pressure characteristics by sex and ethnicity, and to estimate the odds of having elevated blood pressure with increasing adiposity.

Methods: We included 1062 healthy children (5-9 years of age) in an observational school-based study in South Africa.

Teaching for Student and Societal Wellbeing in HPE: Nine Pedagogies for Social Justice.

We currently find ourselves living in precarious times, with old and new social inequities on the rise due to the challenges associated with an unprecedented rise of global migration and neoliberalism, amplified in our post COVID-19 world. Research has demonstrated that there is a high correlation between inequality at the societal level and the overall health and wellbeing of individuals within those societies. We believe that school health and physical education (HPE) has a significant role to play in addressing and acting on social inequities that impact on the wellbeing of both students and society as a whole.

Serum L-arginine and endogenous methylarginine concentrations predict irritable bowel syndrome in adults: A nested case-control study.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND & AIMS: Nitric oxide, a major inhibitory nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmitter that relaxes smooth muscle, may be implicated in the pathophysiology of visceral hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Impaired bioavailability of the nitric oxide precursor molecule L-arginine and higher concentrations of methylarginines (endogenous inhibitors of nitric oxide synthesis) are known to impair nitric oxide synthesis in numerous gastrointestinal cell types. We therefore examined serum concentrations of L-arginine and the methylarginines in a nested case-control study, to assess whether these factors are associated with adult IBS.

Outcomes of a Climate Change Workshop at the 2020 African Conference on Emergency Medicine.

Unlabelled: A changing climate will have demonstrable effects on health and healthcare systems, with specific and disproportionate effects on communities in Africa. Emergency care systems and providers have an opportunity to be at the forefront of efforts to combat the worst health effects from climate change. The 2020 African Conference on Emergency Medicine, under the auspices of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, convened its first ever workshop on the topic of climate change and human health.

Platelet and Erythrocyte Extravasation across Inflamed Corneal Venules Depend on CD18, Neutrophils, and Mast Cell Degranulation.

Platelet extravasation during inflammation is under-appreciated. In wild-type (WT) mice, a central corneal epithelial abrasion initiates neutrophil (PMN) and platelet extravasation from peripheral limbal venules. The same injury in mice expressing low levels of the β-integrin, CD18 (CD18 mice) shows reduced platelet extravasation with PMN extravasation apparently unaffected.

Characterization of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System in Young Healthy Black Adults: The African Prospective Study on the Early Detection and Identification of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease (African-PREDICT Study).

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Retinal vasodilatory responses are inversely associated with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1: The African-PREDICT study.

Aims: Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), traditionally associated with fibrinolysis, is increasingly implicated in impaired vascular function. However, studies on its association with microvascular function are limited to the cutaneous and coronary microvascular beds in older and diseased individuals. To better understand its potential involvement in the early stages of disease development, we investigated the associations of retinal vasodilatory responses to flicker light with PAI-1 activity (PAI-1) in young and healthy individuals.