Level of elderly-supportive infrastructure, fine particulate matter and cardiovascular disease hospitalisations: a time-stratified case-crossover study in Wuhan.

Background: Amid rapid urbanisation, the health effects of the built-environment have been widely studied, while research on elderly-supportive infrastructure and its interaction with PM (PM, Particulate Matter) exposure remains limited.

Objectives: To examine the effect of PM on cardiovascular hospitalisation risk among the elderly and the moderating role of elderly-supportive infrastructure in Wuhan, a city undergoing rapid urbanisation.

Methods: A time-stratified case-crossover design was adopted in which the K-means cluster analysis was applied to categorize elderly-supportive infrastructure.

The Role of COVID-19 in Excess Mortality in Slovakia: A Novel Approach Based on Healthcare Billing Records.

Objectives: Propose a methodology to identify COVID-19 associated deaths using healthcare billing records and evaluate its effectiveness by comparing the results with excess mortality data from 2020 to 2022 and confirmed COVID-19 deaths.

Methods: A retrospective quantitative analysis was conducted by merging healthcare billing records with cause of death data. The term "COVID-19 associated death" was defined as any death occurring within a defined timeframe following a confirmed contact with COVID-19.

Higher risk of respiratory infections and otitis media in cleft lip and/or palate patients: the Japan Environment and Children's Study.

Background: Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is one of the most frequent craniofacial disorder which could associate with a wide range of craniofacial complication. In order to perform comprehensive care of CL/P patients, it is crucial to elucidate the link of CL/P and general clinical conditions. This study aims to elucidate the relationships between medical history of different CL/P types and infectious diseases to serve as a reference for the comprehensive care of patients with CL/P.

Cohort profile: the Nanjing Diabetes Cohort database - a population-based surveillance cohort.

Purpose: To study epidemiology, complications, risk factors, clinical course and treatment patterns of diabetes, the Nanjing Diabetes Cohort (NDC) was established using anonymised electronic health records from 650 hospitals and primary care since 2020. This cohort provides valuable data for researchers and policy-makers focused on diabetes management and public health strategies.

Participants: Diabetes was defined as having inpatient or outpatient encounters with a diagnosis of diabetes International Classification of Diseases-9/10 codes, any use of insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs, or one encounter with haemoglobin A1C >4.

PM chemical components are associated with in-hospital case fatality among acute myocardial infarction patients in China.

Recent studies have linked the cardiovascular events with the exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM); however, the impact of PM chemical components on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) case fatality remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we included 178,340 hospitalised patients with AMI utilising the inpatient discharge database from Sichuan, Shanxi, Guangxi, and Guangdong, China spanning 2014-2019. We evaluated exposure to PM and its components (black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), sulphate (SO), nitrate (NO), and ammonium (NH)) using bilinear interpolation based on the patient's residential address.

Socioeconomic disparities in changes to preterm birth and stillbirth rates during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a study of 21 European countries.

Background: Despite concerns about worsening pregnancy outcomes resulting from healthcare restrictions, economic difficulties and increased stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, preterm birth (PTB) rates declined in some countries in 2020, while stillbirth rates appeared stable. Like other shocks, the pandemic may have exacerbated existing socioeconomic disparities in pregnancy, but this remains to be established. Our objective was to investigate changes in PTB and stillbirth by socioeconomic status (SES) in European countries.

Use of Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 Inhibitors in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and the Incidence of Retinal Vein Occlusion in Taiwan.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of newly diagnosed retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) using sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i).

Methods: Claims data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan were used in this nationwide retrospective cohort study. A target trial emulation framework was applied.

Spatiotemporal distribution and lag effect of extreme temperature exposure on mortality of residents in Jiangsu, China.

Background: With the ever-increasing occurrence of extreme weather events as a result of global climate change, the impact of extreme temperatures on human health has become a critical area of concern. Specifically, it is imperative to investigate the impact of extreme weather conditions on the health of residents.

Methods: In this study, we analyze the daily death data from 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province from January 2014 to September 2022, using the distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) to comprehensively account for factors such as relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, air pollutants, and other factors to evaluate the lag and cumulative effects of extreme low temperature and high temperature on the death of residents across different age groups.

Long-term returns to local health-care spending.

This paper investigates the effects of health-care spending on mortality rates of patients who experienced a heart attack. We relate in-hospital deaths to in-hospital spending and post-discharge deaths to post-discharge health-care spending. In our analysis, we use detailed administrative data on individual personal characteristics including comorbidities, information about the type of medical treatment and information about health-care expenses at the regional level.

Repeated vaccination does not appear to significantly weaken the protective effect of influenza vaccine in the elderly: A test-negative case-control study in China.

Background: The impact of repeated influenza vaccination on vaccine effectiveness has been a topic of debate. Conducting more multinational, multicenter studies in different influenza seasons is crucial for a better understanding of this issue. There is a lack of comprehensive related research reports in China.

Effectiveness of inactivated influenza vaccine against laboratory-confirmed influenza among Chinese elderly: a test-negative design.

Background: Evidence on the effectiveness of influenza vaccination in the elderly is limited, and results are controversial. There are also few reports from China.

Methods: We conducted a test-negative case-control study design to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) against laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated visits among elderly (aged ≥ 60 years) across four influenza seasons in Ningbo, China, from 2018 to 19 to 2021-22.

COVID-19 Hierarchical Classification Using a Deep Learning Multi-Modal.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), originating in China, has rapidly spread worldwide. Physicians must examine infected patients and make timely decisions to isolate them. However, completing these processes is difficult due to limited time and availability of expert radiologists, as well as limitations of the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.

Heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient quality: an analysis of five common diseases in China.

Background: Many countries has introduced pro-competition policies in the delivery of healthcare to improve medical quality, including China. With the increasing intensity of competition in China's healthcare market, there are rising concerns among policymakers about the impact of hospital competition on quality. This study investigated heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient quality.

Maternal diabetes and risk of offspring congenital heart diseases: the Japan Environment and Children's Study.

Background: Few prospective cohort studies have examined the association between maternal diabetes, including pre-pregnancy and gestational diabetes, and the risk of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Asian offspring.

Methods: We examined the association between maternal diabetes and offspring CHD among 97,094 mother-singleton infant pairs in the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) between January 2011 and March 2014. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of offspring CHD based on maternal diabetes (pre-pregnancy diabetes and gestational diabetes) were estimated using logistic regression after adjusting for maternal age at delivery, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), maternal smoking habits, alcohol consumption, annual household income, and maternal education.

Short-Term Effects of Extreme Meteorological Factors on Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease Infection During 2010-2017 in Jiangsu, China: A Distributed Lag Non-Linear Analysis.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD) is an infectious disease that primarily affects young children. In densely populated Jiangsu Province in China, the impact of extreme meteorological factors on HFMD is a concern. We aimed to examine the association between extreme meteorological variables and HFMD infection risk using daily HFMD infections and meteorological data from 2010 to 2017 in Jiangsu Province.

Effects of fissure length and angle on the fracture modes of 3D printed teeth model: Insights from DIC-based fracture tests and meshless numerical simulations.

To investigate the influences of teeth fissure properties on their failure modes, 3D Printing technology is used to prepare the teeth models. The strain distributions of the teeth model surfaces at each moment of the loading processes are obtained by the DIC technique. And the progressive failure processes as well as the stress distributions of the teeth models are simulated by the improved Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Method.