Objective: To assess the effect of decentralization (DC) of antiretroviral therapy (ART) provision in a rural district of Malawi using an integrated primary care model.
Methods: Between October 2004 and December 2008, 8093 patients (63% women) were registered for ART. Of these, 3440 (43%) were decentralized to health centres for follow-up ART care. We applied multivariate regression analysis that adjusted for sex, age, clinical stage at initiation, type of regimen, presence of side effects because of ART, and duration of treatment and follow-up at site of analysis.
Results: Patients managed at health centres had lower mortality [adjusted OR 0.19 (95% C.I. 0.15-0.25)] and lower loss to follow-up (defaulted from treatment) [adjusted OR 0.48 (95% C.I. 0.40-0.58)]. During the first 10 months of follow-up, those decentralized to health centres were approximately 60% less likely to default than those not decentralized; and after 10 months of follow-up, 40% less likely to default. DC was significantly associated with a reduced risk of death from 0 to 25 months of follow-up. The lower mortality may be explained by the selection of stable patients for DC, and the mentorship and supportive supervision of lower cadre health workers to identify and refer complicated cases.
Conclusion: Decentralization of follow-up ART care to rural health facilities, using an integrated primary care model, appears a safe and effective way to rapidly scale-up ART and improves both geographical equity in access to HIV-related services and adherence to ART.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02503.x | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
January 2025
Institute for Antiviral Research, Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84321-5600, USA.
Zika virus (ZIKV) causes a variety of peripheral and central nervous system complications leading to neurological symptoms such as limb weakness. We used a mouse model to identify candidate genes potentially involved in causation or recovery from ZIKV-induced acute flaccid paralysis. Using Zikv and Chat chromogenic and fluorescence in situ RNA hybridization, electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and ZIKV RT-qPCR, we determined that some paralyzed mice had infected motor neurons, but motor neurons are not reduced in number and the infection was not present in all paralyzed mice; hence infection of motor neurons were not strongly correlated with paralysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Public Health (Oxf)
January 2025
Centre for Applied Health & Social Care Research (CARe), Robert Winston Building, Broomhall Road, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S10 2BP, UK.
Background: Local decision-makers lack granular data on the prevalence of chronic pain in their populations. We applied matching methods to generalize estimates from one local survey in England to other neighborhoods across the country with a similar sociodemographic composition.
Methods: We used propensity score matching to match lower-layer super output areas (LSOA) across England with 230 surveyed LSOAs in North Staffordshire by age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, and rurality.
Sleep Health
January 2025
Unit of Population Epidemiology, Division of Primary Care, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Background: Social inequalities in sleep have been reported, but there is less research on the mechanisms underlying this association. This study investigates the relationship between financial hardship and sleep within the general adult population, focusing on the mediating effects of psychosocial and lifestyle-related factors.
Methods: We used data from the Specchio cohort, a population-based study in Geneva, Switzerland, initiated in December 2020.
BJGP Open
January 2025
Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Background: Integrating therapist-led sessions and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) materials within one online platform may be effective for people with depression. A trial evaluating this mode of delivering CBT is being conducted. To maximize future trial recruitment and understand patients' views of health interventions, it is important to explore reasons for declining to participate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Psychiatry Neurosci
January 2025
From the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. (Djimbouon); the Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Unit, Institute of Mental Health Research, Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. (Djimbouon, Northoff); the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (Klar); and the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany (Klar).
Background: Schizophrenia is hypothesized to involve a disturbance in the temporal dynamics of self-processing, specifically within the interoceptive, exteroceptive, and cognitive layers of the self. This study aimed to investigate the intrinsic neural timescales (INTs) within these self-processing layers among people with schizophrenia.
Methods: We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to investigate INTs, as measured by the autocorrelation window, among people with schizophrenia and healthy controls during both resting-state and task (memory encoding and retrieval) conditions.
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