The use of and need for data and information by health professionals supporting the delivery of palliative cancer care services in sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative study.

Purpose: The ability to develop and evaluate approaches to the management of advanced cancer in sub-Saharan Africa is limited by the lack of local, reliable and valid data to ensure that practice is evidence-based, replicable and reflects the needs of the population served.

Methods: A secondary qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 59 health professionals delivering palliative cancer care in Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe were conducted to determine the use and needs for data and information for patient care and service delivery. Framework analysis was used, informed by a conceptual model for data use in low and middle-income countries.

Life and Health Under Israeli Military Occupation During COVID-19: Report from the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory.

This qualitative study explores lived experiences of Palestinians in the West Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic intersecting with life under Israeli military occupation, structural violence, and racism. Insight is provided into the pandemic's effect on daily life and health and into coping and support mechanisms employed under apartheid conditions. Forty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted among a stratified sample of Palestinian adults.

A Current Review of the Uses of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis and Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis in Acute and Chronic Heart Failure Patients: An Under-valued Resource?

Background: There is a need to detect and prevent fluid overload and malnutrition in heart failure. Bioelectrical impedance analysis and bioelectrical impedance vector analysis are medical instruments that can advance heart failure management by generating values of body composition and body water, assisting clinicians to detect fluid and nutritional status. However, there is a lack of evidence to summarise how they have been used among heart failure patients.

Clinical First-Trimester Prediction Models for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy complication that negatively impacts the health of both the mother and child. Early prediction of the risk of GDM may permit prompt and effective interventions. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize the study characteristics, methodological quality, and model performance of first-trimester prediction model studies for GDM.

Immunosuppression use in primary antiphospholipid antibody-positive patients: Descriptive analysis of the AntiPhospholipid Syndrome Alliance for Clinical Trials and InternatiOnal Networking (APS ACTION) Clinical Database and Repository ("Registry").

Background/purpose: APS ACTION Registry was created to study the outcomes of patients with persistently positive antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) with or without other systemic autoimmune disease (SAIDx). Given that immunosuppression (IS) is used for certain aPL manifestations, for example, thrombocytopenia (TP), our primary objective was to describe the indications for IS in aPL-positive patients without other SAIDx. Secondly, we report the type of IS used in patients with selected microvascular or non-thrombotic aPL manifestations.

Informal dementia care: The carer's lived experience at the divides between policy and practice.

Support for informal dementia care at a local community level is not working for most carers today. Carers looking after a person with dementia have long lamented the absence of an empowered named support and an effectively actioned care plan. Drawing on literary writing and social research, we argue in this article that these challenges have existed since dementia emerged as a major condition in the West during the 1980s.

The relationship of socio-demographic factors and patient attitudes to connected health technologies: A survey of stroke survivors.

More evidence is needed on technology implementation for remote monitoring and self-management across the various settings relevant to chronic conditions. This paper describes the findings of a survey designed to explore the relevance of socio-demographic factors to attitudes towards connected health technologies in a community of patients. Stroke survivors living in the UK were invited to answer questions about themselves and about their attitudes to a prototype remote monitoring and self-management app developed around their preferences.

An online survey and interview of GPs in the UK for assessing their satisfaction regarding the medical training curriculum and NICE guidelines for the management of menopause.

Background: The UK is home to 13 million menopausal women. The aim of this study was to determine the views of GPs on their levels of confidence and comfort when advising or treating menopausal women and assess the need for further training.

Method: An anonymous online questionnaire was sent out to GPs working within the NHS across the UK between January 2021 and March 2021.

Prolonged disorders of consciousness: A response to a "critical evaluation of the new UK guidelines.".

Background: In 2020, The London Royal College of Physicians published "Prolonged disorders of consciousness following sudden-onset brain injury: national clinical guidelines". In 2021, in the journal Brain, Scolding et al. published "a critical evaluation of the new UK guidelines".

'I Have to Explain to him': How Companions Broker Mutual Understanding Between Patients with Intellectual Disabilities and Health Care Practitioners in Primary Care.

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience marked health inequalities. This is attributable, at least in part, to suboptimal healthcare communication with health care practitioners (HCPs) whereby patients with ID and HCPs struggle to understand each other. Companions who attend healthcare appointments with patients with ID can support the communicative exchange between patient and HCP, but their involvement can have unintended consequences.

Self-sampling for cervical screening offered at the point of invitation: A cross-sectional study of preferences in England.

Objectives: This study assessed preferences for human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling if offered as an alternative to clinician-based screening at the point of invitation for cervical screening.

Setting And Methods: An online questionnaire was completed by screening-eligible women living in England (n = 3672). Logistic regressions explored associations between demographic characteristics and screening preferences, stratified by previous screening attendance.

COVID-19 disruption to cervical cancer screening in England.

Introduction: In England, routine invitations for cervical screening were reduced between April 2020 and June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We quantify the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on attendance and excess diagnoses of cervical cancer (CC).

Methods: Using Public Health England CC screening data on laboratory samples received in 2018 as a baseline we quantify the reduction in screening attendances due to the COVID-19 pandemic between April 2020 and March 2021 for women aged 25-64.

Changes in Healthcare Provision During Covid-19 and Their Impact on Children With Chronic Illness: A Scoping Review.

This paper provides an overview of the evidence around how the health systems and policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic affected children with long-term conditions in the UK. We conducted a scoping review guided by the PRISMA-ScR Checklist. The PubMed and PsycINFO databases (2019-August 2021) were searched and screened for papers (of any design) by 2 reviewers independently.

The experience of receiving a diagnosis of depression in adolescence: A pilot qualitative study in Brazil.

Receiving a diagnosis of depression can have an important impact on the lives of adolescents. However, there is limited information about how youth tackle, attribute meaning to and understand mental health diagnoses. The aim of this study was to explore adolescents' initial reactions after receiving a clinical diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder in the context of a neurobiological study of depression in Brazil.

Co-designing complex interventions with people living with dementia and their supporters.

Background And Objectives: We engaged people living with dementia, family carers and health and social care professionals in co-designing two dementia care interventions: for family carers and people living with dementia (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study (NIDUS)-family and home-care workers (NIDUS-professional training programme).

Research Design And Methods: Over October 2019-March 2020, we invited public and patient (PPI) and professional members of our NIDUS co-design groups to complete the PPI Engagement Evaluation Tool (designed to assess engagement activities), and non-professional PPI members to participate in qualitative telephone interviews. We thematically analysed and integrated mixed-methods findings.

The role of social support in the experience of life with ischemic heart disease for socially disadvantaged patients: A qualitative study.

Objectives: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) displays wide social inequalities that are often explained with reference to lifestyle factors. However, research indicates that social support may also play an important role in social inequality in IHD. This study aims to explore the role of social support in the experience of life with IHD for socially disadvantaged patients.

Management of sleep disorders in the menopausal transition.

The menopausal transition is associated with increasing sleep disorders including sleep apnoea and restless leg syndrome. Insomnia is the most common and is recognised as a core symptom of the menopause. Guidelines to support decision making for women with sleep problems during the menopausal transition are lacking.

Inequalities in Older age and Primary Health Care Utilization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.

The objective of this research was to systematically review and synthesize quantitative studies that assessed the association between socioeconomic inequalities and primary health care (PHC) utilization among older people living in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). Six databases were searched, including Embase, Medline, Psych Info, Global Health, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, CNKI, to identify eligible studies. A narrative synthesis approach was used for evidence synthesis.

A Systematic Review of Resilience Factors for Psychosocial Outcomes During the Transition to Adulthood Following Childhood Victimisation.

Exposure to childhood victimisation (i.e. abuse, neglect, domestic violence or bullying) can detrimentally impact later psychosocial adjustment.

Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma in people of African ancestry with HIV and Hepatitis B.

Current guidelines recommend six-monthly ultrasound surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in high risk, non-cirrhotic people with HIV and hepatitis B co-infection (HBV). African or Asian ethnicity is considered a risk factor for the development of HCC. Risk stratification scores for HCC have been generated in HBV mono-infected Caucasian and Asian populations, however they not been validated in people with HIV or those of African ancestry.

Relationships between prolonged physical and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced physical activity and disability in activities of daily living among people with advanced respiratory disease.

In people with advanced respiratory disease, we examined (i) the impact of COVID-19-related physical and social isolation on physical activity and (ii) relationships between time spent in isolation and disability in activities of daily living. Cross-sectional analysis was conducted in adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease or interstitial lung disease. Measures included change in physical activity since physically and socially isolating (Likert scale) and disability (Barthel Index and Lawton-Brody IADL scale) or difficulty (World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule-2.

A Novel Intraoperative Ultrasound Probe for Transsphenoidal Surgery: First-in-human study.

. Ultrasound has been explored as an alternative, less bulky, less time-consuming and less expensive means of intraoperative imaging in pituitary surgery. However, its use has been limited by the size of its probes relative to the transsphenoidal corridor.

'You can't just put somebody in a situation with no armour'. An ethnographic exploration of the training and support needs of homecare workers caring for people living with dementia.

Background: Homecare workers carry out complex work with people living with dementia, while under-supported, undervalued and undertrained. In this ethnographic study, we explore the skills, training and support needs of homecare workers supporting people living with dementia.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted 82 interviews with people living with dementia ( = 11), family caregivers ( = 22), homecare staff ( = 30) and health and social care professionals ( = 19) and conducted 100-hours of participant observations with homecare workers ( = 16).

Speech Outcomes Following Orticochea Pharyngoplasty in Patients With History of Cleft Palate and Noncleft Velopharyngeal Dysfunction.

Objective: To report speech outcomes following Orticochea pharyngoplasty in 43 patients with cleft palate and noncleft velopharyngeal dysfunction.

Design: A retrospective surgical audit of patients undergoing Orticochea pharyngoplasty between 2004 and 2012, with speech as a primary outcome measure.

Setting: Patients known to a regional UK cleft center.