• Brink Klemmensen posted an update 3 days, 7 hours ago

    The high prevalence of periodontal diseases is an important oral health problem worldwide. It is necessary to increase public knowledge on and influence attitudes towards periodontal diseases in order to prevent them. However, the effect of oral health education (OHE) as a primary preventive method in China is unsatisfactory. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of extending an e-learning course regarding periodontal health by comparing the effects of oral health education regarding periodontal health (OHE-PH) on dental and non-dental students and the effects between a traditional course and an e-learning course among non-dental students at Sichuan University.

    A quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and a post-test was performed. A total of 217 dental students and 134 non-dental students attended a traditional course; 69 non-dental students attended an e-learning course. Before- and after-course questionnaires about periodontal health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours were administ traditional course in some areas. The e-learning course may be an effective method for periodontal health education and oral health promotion among undergraduates.

    Identifying individual characteristics linked with physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (SED) can assist in designing health-enhancing interventions for children. We examined cross-sectional associations of temperament characteristics with 1) PA and SED and 2) meeting the PA recommendation in Finnish children.

    Altogether, 697 children (age 4.7 ± 0.9 years, 51.6% boys) within the Increased Health and Wellbeing in Preschools (DAGIS) study were included. Parents responded to the Very Short Form of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire consisting of three temperament dimensions surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. PA and SED were assessed for 7 days (24 h per day) using a hip-worn ActiGraph accelerometer, and the daily minutes spent in light PA (LPA), moderate PA (MPA), vigorous PA (VPA), and SED were calculated. The PA recommendation was defined as having PA at least 180 min/day, of which at least 60 min/day was in moderate-to-vigorous PA. Adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses were applied.

    Surgency was associated with LPA (B = 3.80, p = 0.004), MPA (B = 4.87, p < 0.001), VPA (B = 2.91, p < 0.001), SED (B = - 11.45, p < 0.001), and higher odds of meeting the PA recommendation (OR = 1.56, p < 0.001). Effortful control was associated with MPA (B = - 3.63, p < 0.001), VPA (B = - 2.50, p < 0.001), SED (B = 8.66, p < 0.001), and lower odds of meeting the PA recommendation (OR = 0.61, p = 0.004). Negative affectivity was not associated with PA, SED, or meeting the PA recommendation.

    Children’s temperament should be considered when promoting PA in preschoolers. Special attention should be paid to children scoring high in the temperament dimension effortful control.

    Children’s temperament should be considered when promoting PA in preschoolers. Tofacitinib cost Special attention should be paid to children scoring high in the temperament dimension effortful control.

    Beginning in 2019, stepped-wedge designs (SWDs) were being used in the investigation of interventions to reduce opioid-related deaths in communities across the United States. However, these interventions are competing with external factors such as newly initiated public policies limiting opioid prescriptions, media awareness campaigns, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, control communities may prematurely adopt components of the intervention as they become available. The presence of time-varying external factors that impact study outcomes is a well-known limitation of SWDs; common approaches to adjusting for them make use of a mixed effects modeling framework. However, these models have several shortcomings when external factors differentially impact intervention and control clusters.

    We discuss limitations of commonly used mixed effects models in the context of proposed SWDs to investigate interventions intended to reduce opioid-related mortality, and propose extensions of these models to address thpreserve Type 1 error.

    Mixed effects models can adjust for different combinations of external factors through correct specification of fixed and random time effects. Since model choice has considerable impact on validity of results and study power, careful consideration must be given to how these external factors impact study endpoints and what estimands are most appropriate in the presence of such factors.

    Mixed effects models can adjust for different combinations of external factors through correct specification of fixed and random time effects. Since model choice has considerable impact on validity of results and study power, careful consideration must be given to how these external factors impact study endpoints and what estimands are most appropriate in the presence of such factors.

    Differentiating true glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) from pseudoprogression (PsP) remains a challenge with current standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The objective of this study was to explore whether patients’ absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) levels can be utilized to predict true tumor progression and PsP.

    Patients were considered eligible for the study if they had 1) GBM diagnosis, 2) a series of blood cell counts and clinical follow-ups, and 3) tumor progression documented by both MRI and pathology. Data analysis results include descriptive statistics, median (IQR) for continuous variables and count (%) for categorical variables, p values from Wilcoxon rank sum test or Fisher’s exact test for comparison, respectively, and Kaplan-Meier analysis for overall survival (OS). OS was defined as the time from patients’ second surgery to their time of death or last follow up if patients were still alive.

    78 patients were included in this study. The median age was 56 years. Median ALC dropped 34.5% from s may be needed to evaluate the PsP predictive value of peripheral blood biomarkers.

    Our results indicate that ALC level in GBM patients before or after treatment does not have predictive value for true disease progression or pseudoprogression. Patients with true progression had worse OS compared to those who had pseudoprogression. A larger sample size that includes CD4 cell counts may be needed to evaluate the PsP predictive value of peripheral blood biomarkers.