Introduction: Helicobacter pylori infection results in chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, or gastric cancer; therefore, eradication of this bacterium is essential. The strategy for developing effective ...vaccines against H. pylori entails immunization of mice with a combination of classical and recombinant H. pylori antigens, but this has proven to be onerous in all cases. Areas covered: We have reviewed literature databases in PubMed and Scopus using the key words H. pylori, vaccine, and vaccination and have conducted a systematic review of published clinical trials and animal model studies on vaccines against H. pylori and have tried to summarize why the vaccines are not effective or only partially effective. Expert commentary: This is the perfect time to review vaccine development against H. pylori as, after several failed attempts, promising results were reported by Zeng et al. in 2015. Successful vaccine development requires knowledge of both the immune mechanisms active during natural infection by H. pylori, owing to the complicated host response against the pathogen, and the factors that allow the persistence of bacteria, such as genetic diversity of H. pylori. Moreover, various clinical trials are needed to prove vaccine efficacy.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the ...measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countries (N = 14,558). The findings indicate that the FCV-19S has a somewhat problematic structure, yet the one-factor solution is replicable across cultural contexts and could be used in studies that compare people who vary on gender and educational level. The validity of the scale is supported by a consistent pattern of positive correlations with perceived stress and general anxiety. However, given the unclear structure of the FCV-19S, we recommend using latent factor scores, instead of raw scores, especially in cross-cultural comparisons.
Public Significance Statement
The study suggests that the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) could be used in cross-cultural research. However, given the scale's unclear structure, we recommend implementing the latent factor approach instead of relying on raw scores.
The aim of the study was to address the working population with an occupational stress prevention program using mHealth solution and encourage them for healthy lifestyle choices.
Seventeen ...participants were randomized from the corporate setting. A 24alife app with a good compliance program was selected. Test battery has been designed to test the physical readiness, psychological evaluation and biological blood markers for stress. Participants were followed up after 30, 60 and 90 days, respectively, within the intervention period. Weight of participants was tracked three times per month. Univariate analysis compared the continuous variables by One-Way Repeated-Measures ANOVA test when the data were normally distributed, or Wilcoxon rank sum test for abnormal distribution of variables.
Participants used the app with a compliance rate of 94.1%. The psychological evaluation revealed higher motivation for work, lower burnout scores and participants gave subjective responses of better general wellbeing. Some of the participants lost up to four kg of body mass. Physical readiness has also improved.
Results of mHealth projects on corporate could include primary health care institutions and health ministry to extend the existing system to patients' pockets where they can monitor their disease and increase the ability of self-care.
Thyroglobulin (Tg) could be a sensitive biomarker of iodine nutrition in pregnant women (PW). A dried blood spot (DBS) assay would simplify collection and transport in field studies.
Our aims were to ...(1) establish and test a reference range for DBS-Tg in PW; (2) determine whether co-measurement of Tg antibodies (Abs) is necessary to define population iodine status.
Standardized cross-sectional studies of 3870 PW from 11 countries. For the DBS-Tg reference range, we included TgAb-negative PW (n = 599) from 3 countries with sufficient iodine intake.
We measured the urinary iodine concentration and DBS thyroid-stimulating hormone, total thyroxin, Tg, and TgAb.
In the reference population, the median DBS-Tg was 9.2 μg/L (95% confidence interval, 8.7 to 9.8 μg/L) and was not significantly different among trimesters. The reference range was 0.3 to 43.5 μg/L. Over a range of iodine intake, the Tg concentrations were U-shaped. Within countries, the median DBS-Tg and the presence of elevated DBS-Tg did not differ significantly between all PW and PW who were TgAb-negative.
A median DBS-Tg of ∼10 μg/L with <3% of values ≥44 μg/L indicated population iodine sufficiency. Concurrent measurement of TgAb did not appear necessary to assess the population iodine status.
The World Health Organization recommends adjusting salt intake as a part of the nine global targets to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable chronic diseases as a priority and the most ...cost-effective intervention. In 2006, the main aim of the Croatian Action on Salt and Health was to decrease salt intake by 16% because of its critical intake and consequences on human health. We have organized educative activities to increase awareness on salt harmfulness, define food categories of prime interest, collaborate with industries and determine salt intake (24 h urine sodium excretion). It was determined that the proportion of salt in ready-to-eat baked bread should not exceed 1.4%. In the period 2014-2022, salt in semi-white bread was reduced by 14%, 22% in bakery and 25% in the largest meat industry. Awareness of the harmfulness of salt on health increased from 65.3% in 2008 to 96.9% in 2023 and salt intake was reduced by 15.9-1.8 g/day (22.8% men, 11.7% women). In the last 18 years, a significant decrease in salt intake was achieved in Croatia, awareness of its harmfulness increased, collaboration with the food industry was established and regulatory documents were launched. However, salt intake is still very high, underlying the need for continuation of efforts and even stronger activities.
Humor styles across 28 countries Schermer, Julie Aitken; Rogoza, Radosław; Kwiatkowska, Maria Magdalena ...
Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.),
07/2023, Letnik:
42, Številka:
19
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Responses to a measure of the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-enhancing, and self-defeating from the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al.
Journal of Research in ...Personality, 37
(1), 48–75,
2003
) were collected from individuals (
N
= 8361) in 28 countries encompassing 21 different languages. The purpose of this global collaboration was to examine both differences and similarities of humor styles across nations at the descriptive level. Across the countries, typically the highest scores were for the affiliative humor style. When each humor style was examined, some country samples demonstrated differences in mean scores. For example, the samples from Hungary, Indonesia, South Africa, and Serbia had high self-enhancing scores and Japan scored the lowest. In contrast to mean differences, almost all of the countries demonstrated positive inter-scale correlations, similar sex differences, and similar correlations with age, suggesting more similarities than differences. As discussed, some of the samples had low internal consistency values and poorly fitting factor structures for the humor style scales, suggesting that those results should be interpreted with caution.
The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction, positive thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) and hypercholesterolemia in elderly and younger subjects, and the ...association of subclinical hypothyroidism with hypercholesterolemia. The study included 204 elderly (136 females and 68 males, age median 71, range 60-92 years), and 83 younger control subjects (63 females and 20 males, age median 45, range 19-55 years). Subjects with prior thyroid dysfunction were excluded. Serum thyrotropin (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), TPOAb, total cholesterol, height and weight were measured. Mann-Whitney, chi square-test and Student's t-test were used on statistical analysis. The prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH >5 mU/L) in elderly was 7.4% vs. 3.6% in younger subjects, with the highest prevalence of 8.8% in elderly women vs. 4.8% in younger women, and 4.4% in elderly men. The prevalence of hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism in elderly subjects was 0.5% and 1.5%, respectively. In women with subclinical hypothyroidism, the prevalence of TPOAb was 77% in elderly women and 67% in younger women (overall 19.9% in elderly and 14.3% in younger women). The mean FT3 level was lower in elderly women as compared with elderly men (p<0.01) and younger women (p<0.05).The mean cholesterol level was higher in elderly subjects in comparison with younger ones (p<0.01), and in elderly women vs. elderly men (p<0.01), but without difference between subclinical hypothyroidism and euthyroid subjects (6.0 mmol/L). In conclusion, subclinical hypothyroidism is the most prevalent thyroid dysfunction in elderly, with the highest prevalence in elderly women, and autoimmune thyroiditis is the most common etiology. Hypercholesterolemia was more related to older age, especially elderly females, but not influenced by subclinical hypothyroidism. Key words: Subclinical hypothyroidism; Prevalence; Elderly; Thyroid gland; Thyroid dysfunction; Thyrotropin; Cholesterol
The aim of this study was to determine the association between total triiodothyronine (T3), free fraction of thyroxin (FT4), and thyrotropin (TSH) levels with prostate cancer histopathological ...features.
Blood samples from 140 patients with prostate cancer were analyzed preoperatively and stratified according to postoperative histopathological differentiation. The first group (N=62) included patients with prostate cancer Grade Groups (GG) 1-2, while the second group (N=63) included patients with prostate cancer GG 3-5.
T3 levels were significantly higher in patients with prostate cancer GG 3-5 (p=0.047). There was no significant difference in the FT4 and TSH levels between the two groups (p=0.680 and 0.801, respectively). T3 levels were positively correlated with tumor percentage involvement (TPI) (p=0.002), and pT stage (p=0.047) on definitive pathology.
Higher T3 levels are associated with several indicators of prostate cancer histopathological aggressiveness.
The early identification of aggressive forms of cancer is of high importance in treating papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Disease dissemination is a major factor influencing patient survival. Mutation ...status of
oncogene,
V600E, is proposed to be an indicator of disease recurrence; however, its influence on PTC dissemination has not been deciphered. This study aimed to explore the association of the frequency of
V600E alleles in PTC with disease dissemination. In this study, 173 PTC samples were analyzed, measuring the proportion of
V600E alleles by qPCR, which was then normalized against the proportion of tumor cells. Semiquantitative analysis of BRAF V600E mutant protein was performed by immunohistochemistry. The
V600E mutation was present in 60% of samples, while the normalized frequency of mutated
alleles ranged from 1.55% to 92.06%. There was no significant association between the presence and/or proportion of the
V600E mutation with the degree of PTC dissemination. However, the presence of the
mutation was significantly linked with angioinvasion. This study's results suggest that there is a heterogeneous distribution of the
mutation and the presence of oligoclonal forms of PTC. It is likely that the
mutation alone does not significantly contribute to PTC aggressiveness.
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