Background: Obstetric fistula (OF) is a significant cause of maternal morbidity in lower resource settings where women experience obstructed labor without timely access to skilled obstetric care. The true prevalence of OF is unknown; however, it is estimated to affect 2 to 3.5 million women globally. The Demographic and Health Surveys' (DHS) Fistula Module includes the OF symptom questions most frequently used for prevalence estimates, but these questions have not been validated. The aim of this study is to validate a symptom-based screening questionnaire for OF, including a question in the DHS' Fistula Module.
Methods: With an international panel of fistula surgeons, we developed and face-validated a screening questionnaire that assessed for symptoms of lower urinary tract fistula (LUTF) and lower gastrointestinal tract fistula (LGTF), as well as urinary and fecal incontinence (UI, FI). We evaluated the discriminative ability of the questionnaire using a case-control study design in a 1:2:2 ratio: cases were parous women with fistula confirmed on examination, controls included parous women without fistula on examination, with and without UI symptoms. All women underwent screening for fistula symptoms and a physical examination, with examiners blinded to screening results.
Results: Of the 367 Rwandan women who completed the questionnaires and underwent clinical examination, 59 women had LUTFs and 34 had LGTFs, 274 women were classified as controls with and without symptoms of UI. All LUTF screening questions performed well, including the DHS fistula question. The combination of two LUTF screening questions had the highest sensitivity (100%; 95% CI 94%, 100%), specificity (96%; 95% CI 93%, 98%), and area under the curve (AUC) (0.98). The combination of a LGTF screening question and FI question demonstrated the highest sensitivity (97%; 95% CI 85%, 100%), specificity (98%; 95% CI 95%, 99%) and AUC (0.98).
Conclusions: Our OF screening questionnaire, including the DHS fistula question, demonstrated high sensitivities, specificities, and AUC.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01317-2 | DOI Listing |
Alzheimers Dement
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University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Background: Recruitment registries are tools to decrease the time and cost required to identify and enroll eligible participants into clinical research. Despite their potential to increase the efficiency of accrual, few analyses have assessed registry effectiveness. We investigated the outcomes of study referrals from the Consent-to-Contact (C2C) registry, a recruitment registry at the University of California, Irvine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
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University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Background: In the last decade, virtual reality has become a popular tool for rehabilitation. It is quite useful in spatial rehabilitation for Alzheimer's disease (AD) as it allows safe navigation in a virtual environment which looks realistic. However, a drawback of virtual reality is cybersickness.
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Background: Social robots have been used in other countries for improvement of quality of life for persons with dementia.
Method: LOVOT was introduced as an adjunct to regular therapy sessions (either Physiotherapy or Occupational Therapy) and as an interactive companion during the patient's inpatient stay. The project was carried out over a span of 6 weeks (weekdays) for a maximum of 10-15 mins on an ad-hoc basis.
Alzheimers Dement
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Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo/SP, Brazil.
Background: Dementia awareness and education are currently limited among healthcare workers and the general public, contributing towards the generation and propagation of stigma and discrimination against people with dementia worldwide. It is crucial to promote evidence-based anti-stigma interventions with a focus on stigma reduction.
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Method: A systematic literature search was conducted across seven databases, supplemented by a comprehensive review using Google Scholar to identify relevant grey literature.
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