Protocol of a 12-week eHealth programme designed to reduce concerns about falling in community-living older people: Own Your Balance randomised controlled trial

Introduction
Concerns about falling (CaF) are common in older people and have been associated with avoidance of activities of daily life. Exercise designed to prevent falls can reduce CaF, but the effects are usually short-lived. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can reduce CaF for longer but is not readily available in the community and unlikely to prevent falls. A multidomain intervention that combines CBT, motivational interviewing and exercise could be the long-term solution to treat CaF and reduce falls in older people with CaF. This paper describes the design of a randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of two different 12 week self-managed eHealth programmes to reduce CaF compared with an active control.

Methods
A total of 246 participants (82 per group) aged 65 and over, with substantial concerns about falls or balance will be recruited from the community. They will be randomised into: (1) myCompass-Own Your Balance (OYB) (online CBT programme) intervention or (2) myCompass-OYB plus StandingTall intervention (an eHealth balance exercise programme), both including motivational interviewing and online health education or (3) an active control group (online health education alone). The primary outcome is change in CaF over 12 months from baseline of both intervention groups compared with control. The secondary outcomes at 2, 6 and 12 months include balance confidence, physical activity, habitual daily activity, enjoyment of physical activity, social activity, exercise self-efficacy, rate of falls, falls health literacy, mood, psychological well-being, quality of life, exercise self-efficacy, programme adherence, healthcare use, user experience and attitudes towards the programme. An intention-to-treat analysis will be applied. The healthcare funder’s perspective will be adopted for the economic evaluation if appropriate.

Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval was obtained from the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (2019/ETH12840). Results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journals, local and international conferences, community events and media releases.

Trial registration number
ACTRN12621000440820.

Leggi
Febbraio 2024

Abstract 12: Association Between Socioeconomic Deprivation, Stroke Incidence and Long-Term Outcome: 10-year Follow-Up From a Population-Based Cohort Study of All Strokes in Oxfordshire, UK

Stroke, Volume 55, Issue Suppl_1, Page A12-A12, February 1, 2024. Background:Socioeconomic deprivation is associated with an increased risk of stroke. However, there is scant evidence on its impact on long-term stroke outcomes. We investigate its long-term impact on stroke incidence, mortality, functional outcome, quality-of-life and life-expectancy.Methods:In a prospective population-based cohort, deprivation (based on residential postcode and stratified into quartiles using the national cut-points for England) was related to incident stroke, 10-year mortality, disability (modified Rankin Scale >2), institutionalisation in long-term care facilities, quality of life (Euroqol-5Dimensions), and life expectancy (including disability-free and quality-adjusted) after first-ever stroke. Cox, logistic and ordinary least squares regression were used to adjust for age, sex, urban-rural mix, previous comorbidity/disability, risk factors, stroke severity and type.Findings:Out of a population of 94,567 people (~1.5 million people years), 2,429 had a first-ever stroke. Higher deprivation was associated with stroke risk in those aged 55 to 74. Compared to the most affluent (quartile 1), stroke risk was higher in those living in quartile 2 (incidence rate ratio: 1.28, p=0.0019), quartile 3 (1.37, p=0.005) and quartile 4 (1.81, p=0.001). Mean follow-up after stroke was 5.2 (S.D. 4.0) years. After multivariable adjustment, increasing deprivation was associated with mortality (p=0.046), disability (p=0.013) and reduced quality of life (p=0.028), but not with institutionalisation (p=0.23). 10-year quality-adjusted life-expectancy was 4.85 (95%CI: 4.67 to 4.04 years) in stroke patients in quartile 1, with life expectancy reducing by 0.46 (-0.75 to -0.16) in quartile 2, 1.10 (-1.58 to -0.67) in quartile 3 and 1.25 (-2.06 to -0.48) years in quartile 4.Interpretation:We show that incidence of stroke, as well as 10-year health outcomes, are worsened with increasing deprivation. Consequently there remains considerable scope for improvements in at risk deprived communities.

Leggi
Febbraio 2024

COMPARING REAL-WORLD OUTCOMES, MEASURED AS 12 AND 24-MONTH IBD-RELATED SURGERIES, BETWEEN INFLIXIMAB DOSE OPTIMIZED PATIENTS USING THERAPEUTIC DRUG MONITORING (TDM) VS AN UNOPTIMIZED CONTROL GROUP, IN A LARGE US COMMUNITY-BASED GASTROENTEROLOGY PRACTICES

Anti-TNFs such as infliximab (IFX) continue to be the standard of care to treat moderate-to-severe IBD. Remission and reducing detrimental outcomes are achievable goals when therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is implemented to assist with IFX therapy optimization. TDM aids in achieving & maintaining adequate drug exposure to avoid loss of response by offering actionable information to guide treatment adjustments. The value of TDM has been described in numerous studies which show that optimization of anti-TNFs correlates with improved clinical outcomes & the use of TDM is recommended by IBD guidelines and expert consensus.

Leggi
Gennaio 2024

Experience and impact of gender-based violence in Honiara, Solomon Islands: a cross-sectional study recording violence over a 12-month period

Objective
This study aims to collect data on the experience and impact of gender-based violence experienced by women attending health clinics in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

Method
Any woman over the age of 18 who attended a local health clinic in Honiara, Solomon Islands during the time of recruitment (ten consecutive weekdays in May 2015) was eligible to participate in an interviewer administered, in-person survey, gathering data on gender-based violence over the past 12 months.

Results
A total of 100 women were recruited into this study. Of these women, 47% of women reported experiencing physical or sexual violence in the past 12 months. The most common perpetrators were the woman’s husband or boyfriend. There are low rates of reporting, particularly through formal avenues such as to police or village leaders. Alcohol was involved in more than half the cases of reported violence.

Conclusion
Women in this study report high rates of gender-based violence. To our knowledge, this is the only study examining women’s personal experience of gender-based violence in the Solomon Islands, with self-reported data on the frequency and nature of the violence, and the impact on women, including physical and mental, utilisation of healthcare services, police and legal involvement. Efforts to reduce gender-based violence should aim to reduce intimate partner violence, increase reporting and address wider social attitudes towards gender equality.

Leggi
Novembre 2023

Abstract 13832: XplainScar: Explainable Artificial Intelligence to Identify and Localize Left Ventricular Scar in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) Using 12-lead Electrocardiogram

Circulation, Volume 148, Issue Suppl_1, Page A13832-A13832, November 6, 2023. Background/Rationale:Myocardial scar, identified by late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on MRI, is associated with sudden death in HCM. Unlike ECG, MRI is expensive and adversely affected by artifacts from implanted devices. However, little is known about ECG features of LV-scar in HCM.Objective:Develop an ECG-based explainable machine learning method to identify and localize LV-scar in HCM.Method:We retrospectively studied 500 HCM patients (JH HCM Registry) for model development, and 248 patients (UCSF HCM Registry) for validation. All patients underwent MRI and ECHO within 1 year of ECG. LV-LGE (scar) was assessed using QMass. After excluding RV-insertion-point-LGE, the LV was divided into basal, mid, and apical regions for scar detection. Resting 12-lead ECGs were segmented, features were extracted and adjusted for LV-mass, age, sex. We utilized unsupervised and self-supervised ECG representation learning, where patients are partitioned into groups of several sub-clusters, each sharing similar ECG patterns, but with high separation between scar and no-scar classes. In each group, a self-supervised neural net and a fully connected neural net successfully predicted LV-scar (see Figure) and revealed ECG features of scar.Results:Our method identifies LV-scar in the JH-dataset with high precision (90%), sensitivity (95%), specificity (80%), F1-score (90%), and generalizes well to UCSF-data (precision:88%, sensitivity:90%, specificity:78%, F1-score:89%). The top ECG features for basal-scar are Q-amplitude, Q-slope, non-terminal QRS duration in aVR, and area under QRS and T wave energy in V1-V2. T-wave inversion in V4-V6, area under QRS in V3, TP slope in V3-V4 predicted apical scar. Features selected for mid scar prediction combine features for basal and apical scar.Conclusion:This is the first ECG-based ML model to identify/localize LV-scar in HCM. Our model demonstrates good performance and reveals ECG features of scar in HCM.

Leggi
Novembre 2023

Abstract 12591: 12,13-dihome and Noradrenaline Are Associated With the Occurrence of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Circulation, Volume 148, Issue Suppl_1, Page A12591-A12591, November 6, 2023. Introduction:Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most prevalent cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, strict blood glucose control does not always prevent the development and progression of AMI.Aims:Therefore, the present study aimed to explore potential new biomarkers associated with the occurrence of AMI in T2DM patients.Methods:A total of 82 participants were recruited, including the control group (n=28), T2DM without AMI group (T2DM, n=30) and T2DM with initial AMI group (T2DM+AMI, n=24). The untargeted metabolomics using LC-MS analysis was performed to evaluate the changes in serum metabolites. Then, candidate metabolites were determined using ELISA method in the validation study (n=126/T2DM group, n=122/T2DM+AMI group).Results:The results showed that 146 differential serum metabolites were identified among the control, T2DM and T2DM+AMI, Moreover, 16 differentially-expressed metabolites were significantly altered in T2DM+AMI compared to T2DM. Furthermore, three candidate differential metabolites, 12,13-diHOME, noradrenaline (NE) and estrone sulfate (ES), were selected for validation study. Serum levels of 12,13-diHOME and NE in T2DM+AMI were significantly higher than those in T2DM. Multivariate logistic analyses showed that 12,13-diHOME (OR, 1.491; 95% CI, 1.230-1.807,P

Leggi
Novembre 2023