Background. Insight into the variability of older adults’ sedentary time is needed to inform futu... more Background. Insight into the variability of older adults’ sedentary time is needed to inform future interventions. The aim of this study was to examine the intra- and interpersonal variability in sedentary time, and the moderating role of socio-demographics, physical functioning and geographical location in this variability.Methods. Cross-sectional data from 818 community-dwelling older adults (mean age: 74.8 years; 61.1% female) of the Active Lifestyle and the Environment in Chinese Seniors and Belgian Environmental Physical Activity Study in Seniors were used. An interview questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic information. The Short Physical Performance Battery was performed to evaluate physical functioning, and Actigraph GT3X(+) accelerometers were used to estimate sedentary time. Linear mixed models with random intercepts at the neighborhood, person and day levels examined the variability in sedentary time, and the moderating role of socio-demographics, phy...
Textbox 1. Search terms used to identify articles related to exercise and gestational diabetes me... more Textbox 1. Search terms used to identify articles related to exercise and gestational diabetes mellitus. (DOCX 12 kb)
BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) can be used to build many different scenes aimed at reducing stud... more BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) can be used to build many different scenes aimed at reducing study-related stress. However, few academic experiments about university students for preference testing have been done. Our study aimed to assess the preference of VR games for stress and depression prevention by using a discrete choice experiment (DCE). OBJECTIVE The candidate could wear the headset and alleviate the stress and depression in the game. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the preference of VR technology in college students’ psychological pressure relief and depression prevention. METHODS Five different attributes were selected based on the depression therapy parameter and attributes about VR: (1) treatment modality, (2) therapy duration, (3) perceived remission rate, (4) probability of adverse events, and the (5) monthly cost of adding treatment to a discrete choice experiment. By comparing different attributes and levels, we could draw some conclusions about t...
Background Misdiagnosis, arbitrary charges, annoying queues, and clinic waiting times among other... more Background Misdiagnosis, arbitrary charges, annoying queues, and clinic waiting times among others are long-standing phenomena in the medical industry across the world. These factors can contribute to patient anxiety about misdiagnosis by clinicians. However, with the increasing growth in use of big data in biomedical and health care communities, the performance of artificial intelligence (Al) techniques of diagnosis is improving and can help avoid medical practice errors, including under the current circumstance of COVID-19. Objective This study aims to visualize and measure patients’ heterogeneous preferences from various angles of AI diagnosis versus clinicians in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. We also aim to illustrate the different decision-making factors of the latent class of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and prospects for the application of AI techniques in judgment and management during the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 and in the future. Methods A DCE approac...
Neighbourhood dissatisfaction appears to be detrimental to older adults' health. Understandin... more Neighbourhood dissatisfaction appears to be detrimental to older adults' health. Understanding associations between objective neighbourhood attributes and neighbourhood satisfaction is important to provide optimal neighbourhood environments for older adults. Comparable data from epidemiological studies conducted in two cities (Hong Kong and Ghent, Belgium) were employed. Generalised additive mixed models were used to examined associations between objectively measured neighbourhood environment attributes and neighbourhood dissatisfaction, mediated by perceived neighbourhood attributes and moderated by city and lower extremity function. All associations between objective neighbourhood attributes and neighbourhood dissatisfaction (total effects) were significant and in the expected direction, six were curvilinear. No moderation by city was observed. With one exception, conceptually-comparable perceived counterparts fully or partially mediated associations between objectively-assess...
Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure can trigger asthma exacerbations in children. Different studies h... more Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure can trigger asthma exacerbations in children. Different studies have linked increased asthma symptoms and even deaths in children with SHS, but the risk has not been quantified uniformly across studies. We aimed to investigate the role of SHS exposure as a risk factor of asthma among children.
Family and school are two main places for adolescents to develop socialization, which can be cont... more Family and school are two main places for adolescents to develop socialization, which can be contributed by good parent-child attachment and school bonding. Earlier studies suggested that parent-child attachment played an important role in promoting the formation of high-level school bonding, which is also likely to influence social adaptation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between parent-child attachment and social adaptation, and the mediating role of school bonding. Using stratified cluster sampling, 1,440 college students were first randomly selected from four universities and then stratified by specialty with a balance between genders and grades. Participants voluntarily participated in this study and completed questionnaires including the Parent-Child Attachment Scale, School Bonding Scale, and Social Adaptation Scale. Finally, a total of 1,320 college students were included in the analysis (59.5% female; aged 18–24years, Mage=20.39±1.52years). Data analysis and...
BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their familie... more BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their families, has been rooted in China since the 1980s. It can improve receivers’ quality of life as well as ease their economic burden. The Chinese mass media have continued to actively dispel misconceptions surrounding hospice care and deliver the latest information to citizens. OBJECTIVE This study aims to retrieve and analyze news reports on hospice care in order to gain insight into whether any differences existed in heath information delivered over time and to evaluate the role of mass media in health communication in recent years. METHODS We searched the Huike (WiseSearch) news database for relevant news reports from Chinese mass media released between 2014 and 2019. We defined two time periods for this study: (1) January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016, and (2) January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019. The data cleaning process was completed using Python. We determined appropriate topic numbers ...
Background The influence of meteorological factors on the transmission and spread of COVID-19 is ... more Background The influence of meteorological factors on the transmission and spread of COVID-19 is of interest and has not been investigated. Objective This study aimed to investigate the associations between meteorological factors and the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 in 9 Asian cities. Methods Pearson correlation and generalized additive modeling (GAM) were performed to assess the relationships between daily new COVID-19 cases and meteorological factors (daily average temperature and relative humidity) with the most updated data currently available. Results The Pearson correlation showed that daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were more correlated with the average temperature than with relative humidity. Daily new confirmed cases were negatively correlated with the average temperature in Beijing (r=–0.565, P
A novel coronavirus pneumonia initially identified in Wuhan, China and provisionally named 2019-n... more A novel coronavirus pneumonia initially identified in Wuhan, China and provisionally named 2019-nCoV has surged in the public. In anticipation of substantial burdens on healthcare system following this human-to-human spread, we aim to scrutinise the currently available information and evaluate the burden of healthcare systems during this outbreak in Wuhan. We applied a modified SIR model to project the actual number of infected cases and the specific burdens on isolation wards and intensive care units, given the scenarios of different diagnosis rates as well as different public health intervention efficacy. Our estimates suggest the actual number of infected cases could be much higher than the reported, with estimated 26,701 cases (as of 28th January 2020) assuming 50% diagnosis rate if no public health interventions were implemented. The estimated burdens on healthcare system could be largely reduced if at least 70% efficacy of public health intervention is achieved.
Background: The role of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) as an adjuvant therapy in antitumo... more Background: The role of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) as an adjuvant therapy in antitumor treatment is not well established. This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to investigate the efficacy of LCKD as an adjuvant therapy in antitumor treatment compared to non-ketogenic diet in terms of lipid profile, body weight, fasting glucose level, insulin, and adverse effects; Methods: In this study, databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, and Cochrane trials were searched. Only RCTs that involved cancer participants that were assigned to dietary interventions including a LCKD group and a control group (any non-ketogenic dietary intervention) were selected. Three reviewers independently extracted the data, and the meta-analysis was performed using a fixed effects model or random effects model depending on the I2 value or p-value; Results: A total of six articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. In the overa...
Background In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wu... more Background In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Soon after, increasing numbers of cases were detected in other parts of China, eventually leading to a disease outbreak in China. As this dreadful disease spreads rapidly, the mass media has been active in community education on COVID-19 by delivering health information about this novel coronavirus, such as its pathogenesis, spread, prevention, and containment. Objective The aim of this study was to collect media reports on COVID-19 and investigate the patterns of media-directed health communications as well as the role of the media in this ongoing COVID-19 crisis in China. Methods We adopted the WiseSearch database to extract related news articles about the coronavirus from major press media between January 1, 2020, and February 20, 2020. We then sorted and analyzed the data using Python software and Python package Jieba. We sought a suitable topic number with evidenc...
Background. Insight into the variability of older adults’ sedentary time is needed to inform futu... more Background. Insight into the variability of older adults’ sedentary time is needed to inform future interventions. The aim of this study was to examine the intra- and interpersonal variability in sedentary time, and the moderating role of socio-demographics, physical functioning and geographical location in this variability.Methods. Cross-sectional data from 818 community-dwelling older adults (mean age: 74.8 years; 61.1% female) of the Active Lifestyle and the Environment in Chinese Seniors and Belgian Environmental Physical Activity Study in Seniors were used. An interview questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic information. The Short Physical Performance Battery was performed to evaluate physical functioning, and Actigraph GT3X(+) accelerometers were used to estimate sedentary time. Linear mixed models with random intercepts at the neighborhood, person and day levels examined the variability in sedentary time, and the moderating role of socio-demographics, phy...
Textbox 1. Search terms used to identify articles related to exercise and gestational diabetes me... more Textbox 1. Search terms used to identify articles related to exercise and gestational diabetes mellitus. (DOCX 12 kb)
BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) can be used to build many different scenes aimed at reducing stud... more BACKGROUND Virtual reality (VR) can be used to build many different scenes aimed at reducing study-related stress. However, few academic experiments about university students for preference testing have been done. Our study aimed to assess the preference of VR games for stress and depression prevention by using a discrete choice experiment (DCE). OBJECTIVE The candidate could wear the headset and alleviate the stress and depression in the game. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the preference of VR technology in college students’ psychological pressure relief and depression prevention. METHODS Five different attributes were selected based on the depression therapy parameter and attributes about VR: (1) treatment modality, (2) therapy duration, (3) perceived remission rate, (4) probability of adverse events, and the (5) monthly cost of adding treatment to a discrete choice experiment. By comparing different attributes and levels, we could draw some conclusions about t...
Background Misdiagnosis, arbitrary charges, annoying queues, and clinic waiting times among other... more Background Misdiagnosis, arbitrary charges, annoying queues, and clinic waiting times among others are long-standing phenomena in the medical industry across the world. These factors can contribute to patient anxiety about misdiagnosis by clinicians. However, with the increasing growth in use of big data in biomedical and health care communities, the performance of artificial intelligence (Al) techniques of diagnosis is improving and can help avoid medical practice errors, including under the current circumstance of COVID-19. Objective This study aims to visualize and measure patients’ heterogeneous preferences from various angles of AI diagnosis versus clinicians in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. We also aim to illustrate the different decision-making factors of the latent class of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and prospects for the application of AI techniques in judgment and management during the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 and in the future. Methods A DCE approac...
Neighbourhood dissatisfaction appears to be detrimental to older adults' health. Understandin... more Neighbourhood dissatisfaction appears to be detrimental to older adults' health. Understanding associations between objective neighbourhood attributes and neighbourhood satisfaction is important to provide optimal neighbourhood environments for older adults. Comparable data from epidemiological studies conducted in two cities (Hong Kong and Ghent, Belgium) were employed. Generalised additive mixed models were used to examined associations between objectively measured neighbourhood environment attributes and neighbourhood dissatisfaction, mediated by perceived neighbourhood attributes and moderated by city and lower extremity function. All associations between objective neighbourhood attributes and neighbourhood dissatisfaction (total effects) were significant and in the expected direction, six were curvilinear. No moderation by city was observed. With one exception, conceptually-comparable perceived counterparts fully or partially mediated associations between objectively-assess...
Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure can trigger asthma exacerbations in children. Different studies h... more Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure can trigger asthma exacerbations in children. Different studies have linked increased asthma symptoms and even deaths in children with SHS, but the risk has not been quantified uniformly across studies. We aimed to investigate the role of SHS exposure as a risk factor of asthma among children.
Family and school are two main places for adolescents to develop socialization, which can be cont... more Family and school are two main places for adolescents to develop socialization, which can be contributed by good parent-child attachment and school bonding. Earlier studies suggested that parent-child attachment played an important role in promoting the formation of high-level school bonding, which is also likely to influence social adaptation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between parent-child attachment and social adaptation, and the mediating role of school bonding. Using stratified cluster sampling, 1,440 college students were first randomly selected from four universities and then stratified by specialty with a balance between genders and grades. Participants voluntarily participated in this study and completed questionnaires including the Parent-Child Attachment Scale, School Bonding Scale, and Social Adaptation Scale. Finally, a total of 1,320 college students were included in the analysis (59.5% female; aged 18–24years, Mage=20.39±1.52years). Data analysis and...
BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their familie... more BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their families, has been rooted in China since the 1980s. It can improve receivers’ quality of life as well as ease their economic burden. The Chinese mass media have continued to actively dispel misconceptions surrounding hospice care and deliver the latest information to citizens. OBJECTIVE This study aims to retrieve and analyze news reports on hospice care in order to gain insight into whether any differences existed in heath information delivered over time and to evaluate the role of mass media in health communication in recent years. METHODS We searched the Huike (WiseSearch) news database for relevant news reports from Chinese mass media released between 2014 and 2019. We defined two time periods for this study: (1) January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2016, and (2) January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019. The data cleaning process was completed using Python. We determined appropriate topic numbers ...
Background The influence of meteorological factors on the transmission and spread of COVID-19 is ... more Background The influence of meteorological factors on the transmission and spread of COVID-19 is of interest and has not been investigated. Objective This study aimed to investigate the associations between meteorological factors and the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 in 9 Asian cities. Methods Pearson correlation and generalized additive modeling (GAM) were performed to assess the relationships between daily new COVID-19 cases and meteorological factors (daily average temperature and relative humidity) with the most updated data currently available. Results The Pearson correlation showed that daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were more correlated with the average temperature than with relative humidity. Daily new confirmed cases were negatively correlated with the average temperature in Beijing (r=–0.565, P
A novel coronavirus pneumonia initially identified in Wuhan, China and provisionally named 2019-n... more A novel coronavirus pneumonia initially identified in Wuhan, China and provisionally named 2019-nCoV has surged in the public. In anticipation of substantial burdens on healthcare system following this human-to-human spread, we aim to scrutinise the currently available information and evaluate the burden of healthcare systems during this outbreak in Wuhan. We applied a modified SIR model to project the actual number of infected cases and the specific burdens on isolation wards and intensive care units, given the scenarios of different diagnosis rates as well as different public health intervention efficacy. Our estimates suggest the actual number of infected cases could be much higher than the reported, with estimated 26,701 cases (as of 28th January 2020) assuming 50% diagnosis rate if no public health interventions were implemented. The estimated burdens on healthcare system could be largely reduced if at least 70% efficacy of public health intervention is achieved.
Background: The role of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) as an adjuvant therapy in antitumo... more Background: The role of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) as an adjuvant therapy in antitumor treatment is not well established. This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to investigate the efficacy of LCKD as an adjuvant therapy in antitumor treatment compared to non-ketogenic diet in terms of lipid profile, body weight, fasting glucose level, insulin, and adverse effects; Methods: In this study, databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, and Cochrane trials were searched. Only RCTs that involved cancer participants that were assigned to dietary interventions including a LCKD group and a control group (any non-ketogenic dietary intervention) were selected. Three reviewers independently extracted the data, and the meta-analysis was performed using a fixed effects model or random effects model depending on the I2 value or p-value; Results: A total of six articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. In the overa...
Background In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wu... more Background In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Soon after, increasing numbers of cases were detected in other parts of China, eventually leading to a disease outbreak in China. As this dreadful disease spreads rapidly, the mass media has been active in community education on COVID-19 by delivering health information about this novel coronavirus, such as its pathogenesis, spread, prevention, and containment. Objective The aim of this study was to collect media reports on COVID-19 and investigate the patterns of media-directed health communications as well as the role of the media in this ongoing COVID-19 crisis in China. Methods We adopted the WiseSearch database to extract related news articles about the coronavirus from major press media between January 1, 2020, and February 20, 2020. We then sorted and analyzed the data using Python software and Python package Jieba. We sought a suitable topic number with evidenc...
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