Goodhauge7600

OBJECTIVE Preanalytical processing of blood samples can affect plasma glucose measurement because on-going glycolysis by cells prior to centrifugation can lower its concentration. In June 2017, ACT Pathology changed the processing of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) blood samples for pregnant women from a delayed to an early centrifugation protocol. The effect of this change on the rate of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis was determined. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS All pregnant women in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are recommended for GDM testing with a 75-g OGTT using the World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. From January 2015 to May 2017, OGTT samples were collected into sodium fluoride (NaF) tubes and kept at room temperature until completion of the test (delayed centrifugation). From June 2017 to October 2018, OGTT samples in NaF tubes were centrifuged within 10 min (early centrifugation). RESULTS A total of 7,509 women were tested with the delayed centrifugation protocol and 4,808 with the early centrifugation protocol. The mean glucose concentrations for the fasting, 1-h and 2-h OGTT samples were, respectively, 0.24 mmol/L (5.4%), 0.34 mmol/L (4.9%), and 0.16 mmol/L (2.3%) higher using the early centrifugation protocol (P less then 0.0001 for all), increasing the GDM diagnosis rate from 11.6% (n = 869/7,509) to 20.6% (n = 1,007/4,887). CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study highlight the critical importance of the preanalytical processing protocol of OGTT blood samples used for diagnosing GDM. Delay in centrifuging of blood collected into NaF tubes will result in substantially lower rates of diagnosis than if blood is centrifuged early. © 2020 by the American Diabetes Association.BACKGROUND Patients at their end-of-life (EOL) phase frequently visit the emergency department (ED) due to their symptoms, yet the environment and physicians in ED are not traditionally equipped or trained to provide palliative care. This multicentre study aims to measure the current quality of EOL care in ED to identify gaps, formulate improvements and implement the improved EOL care protocol. We shall also evaluate healthcare resource utilisation and its associated costs. METHODS AND ANALYSIS This study employs a quasiexperimental interrupted time series design using both qualitative and quantitative methods, involving the EDs of three tertiary hospitals in Singapore, over a period of 3 years. There are five phases in this study (1) retrospective chart reviews of patients who died within 5 days of ED attendance; (2) pilot phase to validate the CODE questionnaire in the local context; (3) preimplementation phase; (4) focus group discussions (FGDs); and (5) postimplementation phase. In the prospective cohort, presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT03906747. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Prednisolone F ic50 See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.OBJECTIVES Overtreatment is increasingly seen as a challenge in clinical practice and can lead to unnecessary interventions, poor healthcare outcomes and increasing costs. However, little is known as to what exactly causes overtreatment. In 2015, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (RDMA) attempted to address this problem and distinguished several mechanisms that were thought to drive overtreatment. In 14 qualitative interviews among Dutch physicians, we investigated which mechanisms played a role in decision-making and whether all mechanisms were considered equally important. DESIGN We asked physicians to present a case from personal experience, in which the patient or family requested continuing treatment against the advice of the physician. PARTICIPANTS Fourteen physicians from five different medical areas agreed to participate. SETTING Interviews were held face-to-face at the workplace of the physician. RESULTS Three closely related mechanisms were mentioned most frequently as drivers of overtreatment, as perceived by the physician 'death is not a common topic of conversation', never give up' is the default attitude in our society' and 'patients' culture and outlook on life influences their perception of death'. The mechanism 'medical view taking priority' was mentioned to be an inhibitor of overtreatment. CONCLUSIONS Of the 15 mechanisms described by the report of the Steering Committee of the RDMA, not all mechanisms were mentioned as driving overtreatment. Three mechanisms were mentioned most as being a driver of overtreatment ('death is not a common topic of conversation'; never give up' is the default attitude in our society and 'patients' culture and outlook on life influences their perception of death'), some played no role at all, and others were considered to be inhibitors of overtreatment, especially the mechanism 'medical view taking priority'. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.INTRODUCTION People with type 2 diabetes (T2D) can improve glycaemic control or even achieve remission through weight loss and reduce their use of medication and risk of cardiovascular disease. The Glucose Lowering through Weight management (GLoW) trial will evaluate whether a tailored diabetes education and behavioural weight management programme (DEW) is more effective and cost-effective than a diabetes education (DE) programme in helping people with overweight or obesity and a recent diagnosis of T2D to lower their blood glucose, lose weight and improve other markers of cardiovascular risk. METHODS AND ANALYSIS This study is a pragmatic, randomised, single-blind, parallel group, two-arm, superiority trial. We will recruit 576 adults with body mass index>25 kg/m2 and diagnosis of T2D in the past 3 years and randomise them to a tailored DEW or a DE programme. Participants will attend measurement appointments at a local general practitioner practice or research centre at baseline, 6 and 12 months. The primary how participants manage their weight after the programme ends. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION Ethical approval was received from East of Scotland Research Ethics Service on 15 May 2018 (18/ES/0048). This protocol (V.3) was approved on 19 June 2019. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and communicated to other stakeholders as appropriate. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER ISRCTN18399564. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.OBJECTIVE To estimate age-specific abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy in Zimbabwe, and to examine differences among adolescents by marital status and residence. DESIGN We used a variant of the Abortion Incidence Complications Methodology, an indirect estimation approach, to estimate age-specific abortion incidence. We used three surveys the Health Facility Survey, a census of 227 facilities that provide postabortion care (PAC); the Health Professional Survey, a purposive sample of key informants knowledgeable about abortion (n=118) and the Prospective Morbidity Survey of PAC patients (n=1002). SETTING PAC-providing health facilities in Zimbabwe. PARTICIPANTS Healthcare providers in PAC-providing facilities and women presenting to facilities with postabortion complications. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcome measure was abortion incidence (in rates and ratios). The secondary outcome measure was the proportion of unintended pregnancies that end in abortion. RESULTS Adolescent woiers to care among young people that affect their ability to decide whether and when to parent. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.OBJECTIVES To analyse the association between the type of work (productive vs reproductive work) and the levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in women with fibromyalgia. METHOD This cross-sectional study involved 258 women with fibromyalgia from southern Spain. Of them, 55% performed reproductive work (unpaid, associated with caregiving and domestic roles) exclusively, while 45% had productive job (remunerated, that results in goods or services). Physical activity of light, moderate and vigorous intensity in the leisure time, at home, at work, and totally were measured through the leisure time physical activity instrument and with the physical activity at home and work instrument, respectively. link2 Sedentary behaviour was measured by the Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire. RESULTS After adjusting for age, fat percentage, education level and marital status, the multivariate analysis of covariance model informed the existence of significant differences between type of work groups (p0.05 for all comparisons). CONCLUSIONS Women with productive work had greater levels of physical activity compared with those who only did reproductive work, except for physical activity at home. Having productive work might facilitate movement of women with fibromyalgia towards a more active lifestyle. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.OBJECTIVES To examine three walkability measures (points of interest (POI), transit stations and impedance (restrictions to walking) within 640 m of participant's addresses) in different regions in Germany and assess the relationships between walkability, walking/cycling and body mass index (BMI) using generalised additive models. SETTING Five different regions and cities of Germany using data from five cohort studies. PARTICIPANTS For analysing walking/cycling behaviour, there were 6269 participants of a pooled sample from three cohorts with a mean age of 59.2 years (SD 14.3) and of them 48.9% were male. For analysing BMI, there were 9441 participants of a pooled sample of five cohorts with a mean age of 62.3 years (SD 12.8) and of them 48.5% were male. OUTCOMES (1) Self-reported walking/cycling (dichotomised into more than 30 min and 30 min and less per day; (2) BMI calculated with anthropological measures from weight and height. RESULTS Higher impedance was associated with lower prevalence of walking/cycling more than 30 min/day (prevalence ratio (PR) 0.95; 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97), while higher number of POI and transit stations were associated with higher prevalence (PR 1.03; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.05 for both measures). Higher impedance was associated with higher BMI (ß 0.15; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.25) and a higher number of POI with lower BMI (ß -0.14; 95% CI -0.24 to 0.04). No association was found between transit stations and BMI (ß 0.005, 95% CI -0.11 to 0.12). Stratified by cohort we observed heterogeneous associations between BMI and transit stations and impedance. link3 CONCLUSION We found evidence for associations of walking/cycling with walkability measures. Associations for BMI differed across cohorts. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.INTRODUCTION Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered the intermediate phase between normal age-related cognitive decline and dementia. Moxibustion has gained increased popularity for the management of MCI in China.This study aimed to evaluate the effects and safety of moxibustion on symptoms of MCI. METHODS AND ANALYSIS Four English databases and six Chinese databases will be searched from their inception to October 2019 Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, Wanfang Database, SinoMed, China Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database and the China Master's Theses Full-text Database. Only clinical randomised controlled trials and the first period in randomised cross-over trial related to moxibustion for MCI will be included. The primary outcomes include the improvement of cognitive function, as measured by validated assessment tools.