Public health policy relies on accurate data, which are often unavailable for small populations, especially indigenous groups. Yet these groups have some of the worst health disparities in the United States, making it an ethical imperative to explore creative solutions to the problem of insufficient data. We discuss the limits of widely applied methods of data aggregation and propose a mixed-methods approach to data borrowing as a way to augment sample sizes. In this approach, community partners assist in selecting related populations that make suitable "neighbors" to enlarge the data pool. The result will be data that are substantial, accurate, and relevant to the needs of small populations, especially for health-related policy and decision-making at all levels.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302783 | DOI Listing |
BMC Cancer
January 2025
Department of Community & Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, 151001, Bathinda, Punjab, India.
Introduction: Existing evidence suggests a lower uptake of cervical cancer screening among Indian women. Coverage is lower in rural than urban women, but such disparities are less explored. So, the present study was conducted to explore the self-reported coverage of cervical cancer screening in urban and rural areas stratified by socio-demographic characteristics, determine the spatial patterns and identify any regional variations, ascertain the factors contributing to urban-rural disparities and those influencing the likelihood of screening among women aged 30-49 years factors residing in urban, rural, and overall Indian settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Microbiol
January 2025
The Marine Science Institute, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Background: The observed growth variability of different aquaculture species in captivity hinders its large-scale production. For the sandfish Holothuria scabra, a tropical sea cucumber species, there is a scarcity of information on its intestinal microbiota in relation to host growth, which could provide insights into the processes that affect growth and identify microorganisms with probiotic or biochemical potential that could improve current production strategies. To address this gap, this study used 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize differences in gut and fecal microbiota among large and small juveniles reared in floating ocean nurseries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Cancer
January 2025
Epidemiology of Cancer Healthcare & Outcomes (ECHO) Group, Department of Behavioural Science, Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care (IEHC), UCL, London, UK.
Background: Abnormal results in commonly used primary care blood tests could be early markers of cancer in patients presenting with non-specific abdominal symptoms.
Methods: Using linked data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and national cancer registry we compared blood test use and abnormal results from the 24-months pre-diagnosis in 10,575 cancer patients (any site), and 52,875 matched-controls aged ≥30 presenting, with abdominal pain or bloating to primary care.
Results: Cancer patients had two-fold increased odds of having a blood test (odds ratio(OR):1.
Neuroimage
January 2025
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address:
Left-right asymmetry of the human brain is widespread through its anatomy and function. However, limited microscopic understanding of it exists, particularly for anatomical asymmetry where there are few well-established animal models. In humans, most brain regions show subtle, population-average regional asymmetries in thickness or surface area, alongside a macro-scale twisting called the cerebral petalia in which the right hemisphere protrudes anteriorly past the left.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neurosci Methods
January 2025
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany; Faculty of Biology and Psychology, University of Goettingen, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
Background: Neuronal activity is modulated by behavior and cognitive processes. The combination of several neurotransmitter systems, acting directly or indirectly on specific populations of neurons, underlie such modulations. Most studies with non-human primates (NHPs) fail to capture this complexity, partly due to the lack of adequate methods for reliably and simultaneously measuring a broad spectrum of neurotransmitters while the animal engages in behavioral tasks.
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