Objectives were to estimate the lifetime prevalence of self-reported sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and describe STIs healthcare.
Data was collected in the period 2016-2017 from a probability ...sample of the general population, 18-49 years old, at respondents' homes by a combination of face-to-face interviews and self-administration of more sensitive questions. Statistical methods for complex survey data were used to account for stratification, clustered sampling, and weighting.
Approximately every tenth sexually experienced individual reported to have had genitourinary symptoms suggestive of STIs, but only a minority of them reported to have had those respective STIs diagnosed. The proportion of sexually experienced individuals that reported to have ever been diagnosed with an STI (excluding trichomoniasis, pubic lice for men and women, and pelvic inflammatory disease, vaginal thrush, bacterial vaginosis for women) was 2.4% for men and 6.7% for women (p<0.001). Independent risk factors associated with self-reported STIs in women included at least 10 lifetime sexual partners and having been forced into sex. The majority of the last STI episodes in women were treated by gynaecologists accessible at the primary healthcare level and in men by a dermatovenerologist, after referral by a general practitioner. Approximately half of STI patients were counselled for safer sex and majority reported to have notified their sexual contacts.
Our estimates for lifetime prevalence of self-reported STIs in a probability sample of Slovenian sexually experienced men and women, 18-49 years old, indicate a substantial national burden of STIs. The results will inform national STI prevention and control policies and strategies.
This paper presents a novel multimodal virtual rehabilitation environment. Its design and implementation are based on principles related to intrinsic motivation and game design. The system consists ...of visual, acoustic, and haptic modalities. Elements contributing to intrinsic motivation are carefully joined in the three modalities to increase patients' motivation during the long process of rehabilitation. The message in a bottle (MIB) virtual scenario is designed to allow interplay between motor and cognitive challenges in the exercising patient. The user first needs to perform a motor action to receive a cognitive challenge that is finally solved by a second motor action. Visual feedback provides the most relevant information related to the task. Acoustic feedback consists of environmental sounds, music, and spoken instructions or encouraging statements for the patient. The haptic modality generates tactile information related to the environment and provides various modes of assistance for the patient's arm movements. The MIB scenario was evaluated with 16 stroke patients, who rated it positively using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory questionnaire. Additionally, the MIB scenario seems to elicit higher motivation than a simpler pick-and-place training task.
BackgroundTo inform prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), we need reliable prevalence estimates.AimOne objective of the Slovenian National Survey of Sexual Lifestyles, ...Attitudes and Health was to estimate the prevalence of STIs with
,
,
and
.MethodsData were collected between October 2016 and July 2017 in a probability sample of the general population aged 18-49 years. Computer-assisted face-to-face interviewing and self-completion of questionnaires were used. Respondents were invited to provide urine samples to be tested for STIs.ResultsOf 1,929 survey participants, 1,087 individuals provided urine samples which were tested confidentially for
and a subset (n = 1,023) were tested anonymously for the other STIs. The prevalence of
was 0.5% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1-1.8) in men and 1.7% (95% CI: 0.9-3.2) in women. Age-specific prevalence was the highest among individuals aged 18-24 years, 2.8% (95% CI: 0.7-10.6) in men and 4.7% (95% CI: 1.7-12.3) in women.
was not detected. Prevalence of
was 0.5% (95% CI: 0.1-2.2) in men and 0.3% (95% CI: 0.1-1.1) in women; the highest prevalence was among men aged 25-34 years (1.1%; 95% CI: 0.2-7.5) and women aged 35-49 years (0.5%; 95% CI: 0.1-2.0).
was detected in the sample from one woman (0.2%; 95% CI: 0.1-1.2).ConclusionThe substantial prevalence of
among young adults suggests gaps in testing, diagnosis and treatment.
This paper presents the analysis of four psychophysiological responses in post-stroke upper extremity rehabilitation. The goal was to determine which psychophysiological responses would provide the ...most reliable information about subjects' psychological states during rehabilitation. Heart rate, skin conductance, respiration, and skin temperature were recorded in a stroke group and a control group during two difficulty levels of a pick-and-place task performed in a virtual environment using a haptic robot and during a cognitive task. Psychophysiological measurements were correlated with results of a self-report questionnaire. All four responses showed significant changes in response to the different tasks. Skin conductance differentiated between the two difficulty levels and was correlated with self-reported arousal in both stroke and control groups. Skin temperature differentiated between the two difficulty levels for the control group, but provided poor results for the stroke group. Heart rate and respiration increased during tasks, but their connection to psychological state was unclear. Results suggest that, of the four measured responses, skin conductance offers the most potential as a psychological state indicator, with other measures providing supplementary information. Psychophysiological measurements could thus be used in closed-loop biocooperative systems that would detect the user's psychological state and change the course of therapy accordingly.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission among women remains an issue in the WHO European Region, with nearly 50,000 women diagnosed in 2018 and over half (54%) diagnosed late. Although new ...HIV diagnoses declined between 2009 and 2018 in the West of the Region, they increased in the Centre and East. Understanding the characteristics of women diagnosed with HIV can inform gender-sensitive prevention services including pre-exposure prophylaxis and early testing and linkage to care.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated the development of virus concentration and molecular-based virus detection methods, monitoring systems and overall approach to epidemiology. Early into the ...pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology started to be employed as a tool for tracking the virus transmission dynamics in a given area. The complexity of wastewater coupled with a lack of standardized methods led us to evaluate each step of the analysis individually and see which approach gave the most robust results for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in wastewater. In this article, we present a step-by-step, retrospective view on the method development and implementation for the case of a pilot monitoring performed in Slovenia. We specifically address points regarding the thermal stability of the samples during storage, screening for the appropriate sample concentration and RNA extraction procedures and real-time PCR assay selection. Here, we show that the temperature and duration of the storage of the wastewater sample can have a varying impact on the detection depending on the structural form in which the SARS-CoV-2 target is present. We found that concentration and RNA extraction using Centricon filtration units coupled with Qiagen RNA extraction kit or direct RNA capture and extraction using semi-automated kit from Promega give the most optimal results out of the seven methods tested. Lastly, we confirm the use of N1 and N2 assays developed by the CDC (USA) as the best performing assays among four tested in combination with Fast Virus 1-mastermix. Data show a realistic overall process for method implementation as well as provide valuable information in regards to how different approaches in the analysis compare to one another under the specific conditions present in Slovenia during a pilot monitoring running from the beginning of the pandemic.
The aim of this work was to investigate the activity of soluble, ionically- and covalently-bound peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.7), the protein content, and the photosynthetic pigment metabolism in the ...potato (
Solanum tuberosum L.) cv. Igor, at the time of local lesion development resulting from infection with potato virus Y
NTN. In comparison to intact plants, mock inoculation with the sap of healthy plants induced changes in peroxidase activity and metabolism of photosynthetic pigments which could, in most cases, be distinguished from the changes induced by virus infection. An inverse correlation was observed between chlorophyll content and the activity of soluble and ionically-bound peroxidases. This activity increased while that of covalently-bound peroxidase decreased, even in green leaves of infected plants which were visibly unchanged, as well as in green leaves with local lesions. Lower chlorophyll content, and higher carotenoid to chlorophyll ratio than those in intact and mock-inoculated controls – signs of senescence – were observed in leaves with local lesions and in yellow leaves of infected plants. Differences in measured parameters in intact, mock-inoculated, and infected plants showed that processes induced by virus infection differ from those induced by mock inoculation, and that viral induced senescence is clearly not the same as natural senescence.
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