Plos One
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Measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with chronic low back pain (LBP) is crucial to monitor and improve the patients' health status through effective rehabilitation. While the 12-item short-form health survey (SF-12) was developed as a shorter alternative to the 36-item short-form health survey for assessing HRQOL in large-scale studies, to date, no cross-culturally adapted and validated Hausa version exists. This study aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the SF-12 into Hausa language, and test its psychometric properties in mixed urban and rural Nigerian populations with chronic LBP. ⋯ The Hausa SF-12 was successfully developed and showed evidence of factorial invariance across age, gender, and habitation. The instrument demonstrated satisfactory construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. However, stronger psychometric properties need to be established in general population and other patients groups in future studies. The instrument can be used clinically and for research in Hausa-speaking patients with chronic LBP.
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Infant cognitive development is influenced by maternal factors that range from obesity to early feeding and breast milk composition. Animal studies suggest a role for human milk oligosaccharide (HMO), 2'-fucosyllactose (2'FL), on learning and memory, yet no human studies have examined its impact on infant cognitive development relative to other HMOs and maternal factors. ⋯ Our findings suggest that maternal factors influence infant cognitive development through multiple means. Though maternal obesity may be a separate negative influence, greater frequency of breast milk feeding at 1 month contributed to infant cognitive development through greater exposure to 2'FL relative to other HMOs. The influence of 2'FL was not significant at 6 months, indicating that early exposure to 2'FL may be a critical temporal window for positively influencing infant cognitive development.
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Efficient strategies to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are peremptory to relieve the negatively impacted public health and global economy, with the full scope yet to unfold. In the absence of highly effective drugs, vaccines, and abundant medical resources, many measures are used to manage the infection rate and avoid exhausting limited hospital resources. Wearing masks is among the non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measures that could be effectively implemented at a minimum cost and without dramatically disrupting social practices. ⋯ Wearing a mask presents a rational way to implement as an NPI to combat COVID-19. We recognize our study provides a projection based only on currently available data and estimates potential probabilities. As such, our model warrants further validation studies.
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Our hospital experienced the first healthcare-associated COVID-19 outbreak in Seoul at the time the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Korea. The first confirmed COVID-19 patient was a hospital personnel who was in charge of transferring patients inside our hospital. To contain the virus spread, we shutdown our hospital, and tested all inpatients, medical staff members, and employees. ⋯ The robust control of the COVID-19 outbreak further minimized the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the hospital and local communities. However, there was also a debate over the appropriate period of hospital shutdown and testing of all hospital staff and patients. Future studies are required to refine and establish the in-hospital quarantine and de-isolation guidelines based on the epidemiological and clinical settings.
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Gender composition, stress and leadership of a resuscitation team influence CPR performance. Whether psychological variables such as self-esteem, motivation and personality traits are associated with resuscitation performance, stress levels and gender of rescuers during a cardiac arrest scenario remains uncertain. ⋯ This simulator study found that self-esteem of resuscitation teams and agreeableness of team leaders of inexperienced students was associated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation performance. Whether enhancing these factors during resuscitation trainings serve for better performance remains to be studied.