PLoS medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A peer-facilitated psychological group intervention for perinatal women living with HIV and depression in Tanzania-Healthy Options: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.
Perinatal women living with HIV (PWLH) have a greater risk of depression compared to other women; however, there are limited specialized mental health services available to them. We aimed to determine whether a stepped-care intervention facilitated by trained lay providers can improve mental health outcomes postpartum for PWLH. ⋯ The Healthy Options intervention did not demonstrate reduction in depressive symptoms at 9 months postpartum, the primary outcome. Significant reductions were seen in depression symptoms at 6 weeks postpartum, the secondary outcome. Stepped-care interventions may be relevant for improving outcomes in the critical early postpartum window.
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Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLBs) is a common cause of dementia but has higher mortality than Alzheimer's disease (AD). The reasons for this are unclear, but antidementia drugs (including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors [AChEIs] and memantine) symptomatically benefit people with DLB and might improve outcomes. We investigated whether AChEIs and/or memantine were associated with reduced hospital admissions and mortality. ⋯ In this study, we observed that use of AChEIs with or without memantine in DLB was associated with shorter duration of hospital admissions and decreased risk of mortality. Although our study was naturalistic, it supports further the use of AChEIs in DLB.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), especially hypertension and diabetes, are rapidly rising in sub-Saharan Africa, necessitating health systems transformations. In Tanzania, current policies aim to improve control of hypertension and diabetes, but information is still needed to assess the gaps in treatment. ⋯ The high burden of hypertension and low levels of control in our study underscores the importance of improving the awareness and treatment of hypertension. The differences in the care cascades for hypertension and diabetes demonstrates that chronic NCD treatment is possible in this setting, but efforts will be needed across the entire care cascade to improve hypertension control.
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The benefit of primary and booster vaccination in people who experienced a prior Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection remains unclear. The objective of this study was to estimate the effectiveness of primary (two-dose series) and booster (third dose) mRNA vaccination against Omicron (lineage BA.1) infection among people with a prior documented infection. ⋯ In this study, we observed that primary vaccination provided significant but limited protection against Omicron (lineage BA.1) infection among people with and without a documented prior infection. While booster vaccination was associated with additional protection against Omicron BA.1 infection in people without a documented prior infection, it was not found to be associated with additional protection among people with a documented prior infection. These findings support primary vaccination in people regardless of documented prior infection status but suggest that infection history may impact the relative benefit of booster doses.