DESIGN: A systematic review was conducted using electronic databases of CINAHL, PubMed, PsychINFO, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, SocINDEX and Web of Science for articles published until the 11th of January 2018.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: All observational studies investigating the association between social support and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia were included.
PARTICIPANTS: Older adults aged 60 years and more who are living in the community.
EXPOSURE MEASURES: Social support.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Depression.
RESULTS: We retrieved16 356 records and screened 66 full-text articles. Twenty-four observational studies were included in the review. They consisted of five cohort studies and 19 cross-sectional studies. Social support was found to be measured by multiple components, most commonly through a combination of structural and functional constructs. Perceived social support is more commonly measured compared with received social support. Good overall social support, having a spouse or partner, living with family, having a large social network, having more contact with family and friends, having emotional and instrumental support, good support from family and satisfaction with social support are associated with less depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in Asia.
CONCLUSIONS: There were 20 different social support measures and we applied a framework to allow for better comparability. Our findings emphasised the association between good social support and decrease depression among older adults. Compared with western populations, family support has a greater influence on depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia. This indicates that the family institution needs to be incorporated into designed programmes and interventions when addressing depression in the Asian context. TRIAL : registration number : CRD42017074897.
PURPOSE: In this study, we evaluated the use of the Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell count program on the Sysmex XN-3000 hematology analyzer as an effective parameter for enumerating CD34+ cells.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Whole blood samples from 144 subjects who are either healthy donors or patients scheduled to undergo peripheral blood stem cell collection were collected and hemopoietic stem cells were quantified using CD34 cell enumeration by flow cytometry and XN-HPC by hematology analyzer.
RESULTS: The correlation between the two methods was high (r = 0.766; 95% CI: 0.702-0.818). Passing-Bablok showed an intercept at 3.45 (2.54 to 4.74) with a slope of 0.78 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.89). Residual analysis of this model indicated no significant deviation from linearity (p = 0.360). The receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated an area under curve to be 0.88 (0.82 to 0.92), with a positive predictive value of 80.3%. The correlation between CD34+ and XN-HPC showed a strong relationship and good agreement with minimal bias.
CONCLUSION: The XN-HPC showed good analytical performance. With the increasing requirements for stem cell transplantation, a technically simple and rapid alternative for stem cell enumeration that is sustainable is highly useful.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop mobile apps in assisting clinical decision in ADR assessments of causality, severity, and preventability using validated tools. The usability of the apps was assessed.
METHODS: We designed mobile apps using validated assessment tools for ADRs. They are the Liverpool ADRs Causality Assessment Tool, Hartwig's Severity Assessment Scale, and the Modified Schumock and Thronton Preventability Scale. The apps were named "Adverse Drug ReactionCausality," "Adverse Drug ReactionSeverity," and "Adverse Drug RxnPreventability." A survey was conducted using the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess the usability of the developed apps among health care professionals.
RESULTS: These apps are available for download through Google Play Store for free since January 2015. From the survey, the mean SUS score was 70.9 based on 26 responses from the pediatric ward of Hospital Ampang, Malaysia.
CONCLUSIONS: The developed apps received an overall acceptable usability among health care professionals. The usage of these apps will improve detection, assessment, and avoidance of future ADRs. They will also contribute to future research on ADRs, thus increasing drug safety.
METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study involving SLE patients who visited our institute between January 2020 and June 2021. A review of the medical records and face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain sociodemographics, SLE disease characteristics and the intervals from the first symptoms to the diagnosis. Health-seeking behaviours were assessed by asking about the patients' first action during the initial symptoms and were divided into: (i) seeking professional health personnel; (ii) self-treatment; and (iii) the use of the internet as a primary source of information. Diagnostic delays were defined as the interval between initial symptoms and SLE diagnosis of more than 6 months. Low-level disease activity state (LLDAS) at 12 months was assessed from the medical records. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was subsequently conducted to determine factors associated with diagnostic delays.
RESULTS: Among the 154 patients included in the study, 24% (n = 37) had delayed diagnosis. The delay was significantly higher among the Indian versus Malay versus Chinese (42.9% vs 28% vs 10.8%, p = 0.037). Patients with rash tend to have delayed diagnosis (37.8% vs 22.2%, p = 0.08) while fewer patients with frothy urine had delayed diagnosis (8.1% vs 21.4%, p = 0.09). No significant association was found between health-seeking behaviours and diagnostic delays. The rate of LLDAS at 12 months was significantly lower among patients with delayed diagnosis (43.2% vs 70.0%, p = 0.006). Chinese ethnicity remained the only significant factor associated with lesser diagnostic delays in the multivariate analysis, with OR 0.30 (CI 0.09-0.93), p = 0.037.
CONCLUSION: There were ethnic disparities in the early diagnosis of SLE in Malaysia, with Indian patients having a longer interval between the first symptom and diagnosis while the Chinese were associated with lower diagnostic delays. Early diagnosis predicted early attainment of LLDAS, suggesting that prompt recognition of the initial SLE symptoms is important.