In stage 1 of our genome-wide association (GWA) study for type 1 diabetes, one locus at 16p13 was detected (P = 1.03 x 10(-10)) and confirmed in two additional cohorts. Here we describe the results ...of testing, in these additional cohorts, 23 loci that were next in rank of statistical significance.
Two independent cohorts were studied. The Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium replication cohort consisted of 549 families with at least one child diagnosed with diabetes (946 total affected) and DNA from both parents. The Canadian replication cohort consisted of 364 nuclear family trios with one type 1 diabetes-affected offspring and two parents (1,092 individuals).
One locus at 12q13, with the highest statistical significance among the 23, was confirmed. It involves type 1 diabetes association with the minor allele of rs1701704 (P = 9.13 x 10(-10), OR 1.25 95% CI 1.12-1.40).
We have discovered a type 1 diabetes locus at 12q13 that is replicated in an independent cohort of type 1 diabetic patients and confers a type 1 diabetes risk comparable with that of the 16p13 locus we recently reported. These two loci are identical to two loci identified by the whole-genome association study of the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium, a parallel independent discovery that adds further support to the validity of the GWA approach.
WPV amongst healthcare workers has been reported as a public health challenge across the countries of the world, with more in the developing countries where condition of care and service is very ...poor.
We aimed to systematically produce empirical evidence on the WPV against health care workers in Africa through the review of relevant literature.
We sourced for evidence through the following databases: PubMed, Science direct and Scopus from 30th November to 31st December 2019 as well as the reference list of the studies included. A total of 22 peer reviewed articles were included in the review (8065 respondents). Quality appraisal of the included studies was assessed using critical appraisal tools for cross-sectional studies.
Across the studies, diverse but high prevalence of WPV ranging from 9% to 100% was reported with the highest in South Africa (54%–100%) and Egypt (59.7%–86.1%). The common types were verbal, physical, sexual harassment and psychological violence. The correlates of WPV reported were gender, age, shift duty, emergency unit, psychiatric unit, nursing, marital status and others. Various impacts were reported including psychological impacts and desire to quit nursing. Patients and their relatives, the coworkers and supervisors were the mostly reported perpetrators of violence. Doctors were mostly implicated in the sexual violence against nurses. Policy on violence and management strategies were non-existent across the studies.
High prevalence of WPV against healthcare workers exists in Africa but there is still paucity of research on the subject matter. However, urgent measures like policy formulation and others must be taken to address the WPV as to avert the impact on the healthcare system.
Health profession; Public health; Musculoskeletal system; Clinical psychology; Emergency medicine; Clinical research; Violence; Health; Healthcare workers.
With social distancing being a key preventative measure of COVID-19, proper provision of healthcare services becomes a challenge as healthcare professionals are concerned about the risk of potential ...infection. Telemedicine, a practice that uses telecommunication networks for the delivery of healthcare services and medical education, has been adopted by several countries and has shown to provide positive outcomes. This concept is poorly practiced in African Countries compared to other countries of the world. This paper reiterates the need for the expansion of telemedical systems in Africa for the dual goals of COVID-19 prevention and provision of quality healthcare services to people.
: Cigarette smokers have elevated cardiovascular risk factors, which contributes significantly to mortality. Although social media is a potential avenue to deliver smoking interventions, its role in ...health promotion among smokers remains relatively unexplored.
: To examine the uptake and impact of health-related social media use in cigarette smokers.
: Using data from the 2017-2020 Health Information National Trends Survey, we evaluated differences in health-related social media use between smokers and nonsmokers. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the association between social media use and positive health behaviors.
: We included 1863 current smokers and 13,560 nonsmokers; Most participants were women (51.0%), White (64.6%), and 49.2% were aged ≥50 years. Smokers who used ≥1 social media site for health-related purposes in the past year were significantly more likely to meet the guideline recommendations for: (i) weekly physical activity (AOR 2.00, 95% CI 1.23-3.24), (ii) daily vegetable intake (AOR 2.48, 95% CI 1.10-5.59), and (iii) weekly strength training (AOR 1.80, 95% CI 1.10-2.94). However, the odds of reporting intentions to quit smoking (AOR 1.81, 95% CI 0.98-3.34) and attempts at smoking cessation (AOR 1.68, 95% CI 0.90-3.12) did not differ by health-related social media use.
: Smokers use social media for health-related purposes at comparable rates to nonsmokers. While our findings indicate that these platforms present a novel opportunity for health promotion among smokers, future research exploring the utility of social media in smoking cessation is crucial.
COVID-19 pandemic brought adaptive changes in lifestyle with possible impact on the incidence of traumatic dental injuries.
This study compared the presentation and pattern of traumatic dental ...injuries in children during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 pandemic periods.
This was a retrospective study done using clinical records of children aged 16 years and below who presented at the paediatric dental clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Information such as demographics, aetiology, type of injuries, and dentition type were elicited from the 1284 clinical records from March 2019 to February 2021. Data were analysed and the level of significance was set at
≤ 0.05.
One hundred (7.8%) patients presented with traumatic dental injuries (TDIs; 71 8.5% and 29 6.5% pre-pandemic March 2019 to February 2020 and pandemic periods March 2020 to February 2021, respectively) and their mean age was 7.0 (±4.2) years. The male-to-female ratio before and during the pandemic periods was 1.54:1 and 1.42:1, respectively. The commonest aetiology and type of TDI were falls 82 (82%) and injuries to tooth-supporting structures 45 (45%), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in sex (
= 0.86), aetiology (
= 0.31), type of TDI (
= 0.16), and dentition affected (
= 0.97) between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods but the difference in the age groups was significant (
= 0.02).
The incidence of TDIs was higher in the pre-pandemic period. The younger age group had more dental injuries than the older ones at both periods. This may be due to difficulty in enforcing restrictions on young children even during COVID-19 restrictions.
Effect of Exchange Rate on Domestic Price Level in Nigeria Okechukwu, Nwokoye Matthew; Okoye, Machi Ignatius; Florence, Nwokocha Azuka ...
Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences,
10/2023, Volume:
21, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Open access
Nigeria experienced significant depreciation of her currency during the specified period of this study, mainly due to factors such as falling oil prices, external economic conditions such as slowdown ...in global economic growth, trade tensions which led to capital outflows from emerging markets including markets in Nigeria, tightening of global monetary policy which affected capital flows to these emerging markets, coupled with domestic macroeconomic challenges like concerns over policy consistency, governance issues and security challenges, capital flight and weakened investors’’ confidence. These conditions collectively created an adverse environment for the Nigerian economy, leading to the depreciation of Naira. Consequently, this study set out to achieve the main objective of investigating on a more recent basis, effects of exchange rate on domestic price level in Nigeria. The period covered was from January 2015 through December 2022. The study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and the variables included consumer price inflation, nominal exchange rate, import prices, international crude oil prices and real output growth. We found insignificant positive impact of the nominal exchange rate on consumer price inflation in Nigeria. The import prices also proved a significant effect on consumer price inflation in Nigeria. the study recommends that Governments at all levels in the country should encourage and support the innovative ideas of business firms and individuals. This will support local production, hence, there can be substitution of imported goods for domestically produced goods and the exchange rate will be stable.
This study investigated the causal relationship between fiscal policy and private investment in Nigeria (1986-2019) using secondary data from Statistical bulletin of Central Bank of Nigeria. The ...research work used the Granger Causality techniques to test the causal relationship between the independent variables (Tax revenue, Oil revenue, Total expenditure and Public debt) on the dependent variable (Private Investment) while VAR was used to test the short run relationship. The study found that fiscal policy instruments granger causes private investment in Nigeria within the period of the study. The study therefore advocates that Government should as necessity fully liberalized or privatized NNPC and the Power sector as these critical sectors will help the growth of the private sectors and reduce unemployment in the country. Nigerian Government ought to increase its spending on infrastructure, especially capital projects in the economy in order to bridge infrastructure gap in the country. Provision of tax incentives to private sectors by the Government should be encouraged, as this will help the growth of private investment in the country. Also, restructuring of the economy by manufacturing what we need should be encouraged by government because exporting commodity (raw material) means exporting jobs.
This study was carried out in order to ascertain if the Okigwe red lump stone, found in South-eastern Nigeria, could be used as coarse aggregate in making structural concrete. The maximum compressive ...strength values, obtained at 28 days for red lump stone concrete were 13.72 N/mm2 at w/c ratio of 0.53 for mix ratio 1:2:4 and 8.74 N/mm2 for mix ratio 1:3:6, at w/c ratio of 0.55. These values were not up to 20 N/mm2 which is the ACI 318 (1995) recommendation for structural concrete. Therefore, Okigwe red lump stone must not be used in making structural concrete using mixes 1:2:4 and 1:3:6.
Individuals with mental disorders have elevated risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and as a result, experience earlier mortality than the general population. Yet, evidence-based strategies and ...interventions to promote physical and cardiometabolic health in mental health contexts remains limited. Social media has emerged as a promising and readily affordable tool to expand the reach of mental health services, including the delivery of behavioral and physical health interventions. Despite its widespread availability, the potential for social media use to support positive lifestyle behaviors in mental health contexts remains relatively unexplored. We examined the potential for using social media tools for health promotion by people with anxiety or depression.
Using cross-sectional data from the 2017–2020 edition of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), we evaluated differences between individuals with self-reported history of diagnosed depression/anxiety and the general population concerning health-related usage of social media platforms. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to evaluate the association between social media usage and positive health behaviors.
Overall, individuals with mental disorders were more likely than the general population to engage in health-related social media usage. Those with anxiety or depression who engaged in health-related social media usage were significantly more likely to; report intentions to quit smoking (OR 3.13, 95% CI 1.12 – 8.70; p = 0.029) endorse past 12-month attempts at smoking cessation (OR 3.41, 95% CI 1.32 –8.82; p = 0.012) and were more likely to meet national recommendation for weekly strength training (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.11 – 2.00; p = 0.008).
People with anxiety or depression use social media for health purposes at rates higher than the general population. Our findings suggest that these tools can reach many people with mental disorders and offer a novel window of opportunity to promote physical health and positive lifestyle behavior change in this highly vulnerable population.
•About 3 in 4 individuals with depression and/or anxiety use social media•People with depression and/or anxiety were more likely than the general population to engage in health-related social media usage.•Social media usage was associated with healthier lifestyle and may be another tool to augment the physical health of people with depression and/or anxiety
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