Plos One
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Evidence for association between sickle cell and alpha thalassemia trait and severe malaria is compelling. However, for these polymorphisms associations with uncomplicated malaria, and for G6PD deficiency associations with uncomplicated and severe malaria, findings have been inconsistent. We studied samples from a three-arm case-control study with the objective of determining associations between common host erythrocyte polymorphisms and both uncomplicated and severe malaria, including different severe malaria phenotypes. ⋯ Associations were complex, with HbAS principally protective against severe anemia, _α/αα against altered consciousness, and negative epistasis between the two polymorphisms.
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Maternal immunization is an effective strategy to protect pregnant women and their infants from vaccine-preventable diseases. Despite the recommendation of maternal influenza and more recently pertussis immunization in Australia, uptake of these vaccines has been suboptimal. A midwife delivered immunization program for pregnant women at the Women's and Children's Hospital in South Australia commenced in April 2015. Monitoring the uptake of the current funded vaccine programs for pregnant women is limited. The study aimed to estimate maternal vaccine uptake and assess factors associated with influenza and pertussis vaccine uptake among pregnant women. ⋯ High uptake of influenza and pertussis vaccines during pregnancy can be attained with health care provider recommendation and inclusion of maternal immunization as part of standard antenatal care. A midwife delivered maternal immunization program is a promising approach to improve maternal vaccine uptake by pregnant women.
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Short versions of the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) questionnaire are increasingly used to measure and compare health literacy (HL) in populations worldwide. As no validated versions of these questionnaires have thus far appeared in French, this study aimed to study the psychometric properties of the French translation of the 16- and 6-item short versions (HLS-EU-Q16 and HLS-EU-Q6), including their measurement invariance across sex, age, and education level. ⋯ The French version of the HLS-EU-Q16 has acceptable psychometric properties, despite meaningful DIF for age, sex and education level and a poor discriminative power among subjects with average to high HL level. We recommend its use to measure HL in populations with sufficient reading skills to discriminate between subjects with low to average HL. Also, sensitivity analyses should be performed to evaluate the potential measurement bias due to DIF. Our results did not demonstrate the validity of the HLS-EU-Q6.
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To develop and validate a Weight Literacy Scale in English and Spanish for adults. ⋯ The Weight Literacy Scale is a reliable and valid research instrument to assess weight literacy among English- and Spanish-speaking adults.
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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198859.].