Objective: Selecting items from item pool for the development of WHOQOL-OLD by six statistical methods. Testing the function of Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability method for item selection.Methods:Collecting data by the means of multistage sampling, two new methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability were employed to select items in view of internal consistency and stability in addition to the commonly used methods such as methods of dispersion and correlation coefficient. Results: Items selected by different methods were remained to constitute the old module of WHOQOL; items with high internal consistency or high stability were selected by methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability. Conclusion: The four commonly used methods select items from aspects of representation, independence and discrimination, while methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability select the items in view of internal consistency and stability. The two new methods are recommended together with the conventional methods in item selection.

Objective To evaluate the performance of a prediction system built with LASSO regression model and Baidu search query data.Methods Based on a strategy using a combination of Bagging and multi-measure optimization method,this study proposed an ensemble LASSO regression model which had an obviously improved performance,and applied it to predict the epidemics of influenza in China.Results The results showed that the improved model had significantly smaller prediction error rates than that of the conventional LASSO regression model for influenza cases during the study period of 2011-2015.This study designed an open source R package,SparseLearner,which was conveniently used and further developed.Conclusion The combination of Bagging and multi-measure optimization method is an efficient strategy to improve the performance of LASSO regression model.The proposed ensemble LASSO regression model in this study can be applied for the prediction of infectious diseases epidemics.

Objective To evaluate the teaching activity on public health courses from clinical medical students in our university in order to provide a scientific basis for improving the curriculum design and teaching reform. Methods The “Questionnaire on Teaching Evaluation in Public Health Courses”, including teaching attitude, teaching content, teaching methods and teaching effectiveness was designed, and a general investigation was conducted among the clinical medical students of five-year program (840 students) and eight-year program (278 students) in these three aspects to under-stand students' evaluation to the course, who had finished the public health courses, including Preven-tive Medicine, Medical Statistics and Epidemiology (hereinafter referred to as: statistics, epidemiology, prevention) in Sun Yat-sen University. Statistical analysis was made using SPSS 13.0 software. Data analysis methods contain descriptive analysis, T-test, ANOVA, LSD, SNK, hierarchical logistic regres-sion analysis, etc. Results The overall score of teaching evaluation is (4.04±0.60). Differences exist between the evaluation in the five-year medical students and the eight-year medical students. The P values were 0.000 (Medical Statistics), 0.269 (Epidemiology), 0.047 (Preventive Medicine). The com-parison of scores among the four dimensions shows: Teaching effectiveness < Teaching methods β' effectiveness. Conclusions Clinical Medical students' overall evaluation on the public health courses offered by this university was good. Teaching effectiveness and teaching methods still need improvement. Teaching contents are the most influential factor of overall teaching satisfaction, followed by teaching effectiveness.

Objective To examine the consistency between asthma children's self-assessment health-related quality of life and their proxies' assessment, to give theoretic basis of clinical treatment for asthma children. Methods Parents and asthma children completed the PedsQLTM 4.0 Generic Core Scales and PedsQLTM 3.0 Asthma Module during an outpatient visit or in the hospital. Wilcoxon signed rank test and ICC were used to compare the difference between asthma children's self-report and their proxies' report. Results The findings indicated that neither the total scores nor domain scores (except physiological domain) between asthma children's self-reports and proxies' reports (parents most of all)showed inconsistency. The value of ICC was not less than 0.7 except physiological dimension and showed consistency. Some different information in several domains was founded by the scores after layered by age. Conclusions There are consistency between children's self assessment of health-related quality of life and their proxies' assessment based upon results of PedsQLTM scale.

Objective To acknowledge the quality of life (QOL) in patients after lung transplantation and to explore related factors. Methods A cross- sectional study design and a convenience sampling were performed in this research. Totally 30 patients after lung transplantation were investigated. The questionnaires which used to explore the quality of life were Short Form 36 Health Survey Questionnaires (SF-36) and Revised Airways Questionnaires 20 (AQ20-R). Related state were surveyed by questionnaires consisted of demographic questionnaires, Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Medical Coping Mode Questionnaires (MCMQ). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 20.0 software. Correlation analysis and multivariate analysis were performed using Pearson linear correlation analysis and multi-linear regression. Results The scores among the 8 dimensions of SF-36 were(34.48±16.73)-( 71.63±22.83), lower than those of norms(Z=-9.684--2.817, P<0.05 or 0.01). Somatic pain scored the highest (71.63±22.83), while physiological function scored the lowest (34.48±16.73). The mean score of AQ20-R was 7.93±5.21. The major two problems that manifested QOL were: uncomfortable feeling of lung caused by strong scent, smog or perfume, exhausted feeling after having a cold. The mean scores of SAS and SDS were 44.33±9.33,48.05±9.80, higher than those of norms, which were 33.80 ± 5.90, 41.88 ± 10.57 (t=6.1833, 3.4458, P < 0.01). The scores among the 3 dimensions of MCMQ were 8.93 ± 2.08, 16.10 ± 2.28, 3.63 ± 1.33 and the differences were significant in 3 dimensions compared with those norms, which were 19.48±3.81, 14.44±2.97, 8.81±3.17(t=-27.7281, 3.9885,-21.3878, P<0.01). Conclusions In SF-36, role-physical of patients after lung transplantation was the worst dimension, while bodily pain was the best dimension of QOL. The QOL of patients after lung transplantation were almost worse than normal people. The related factors of QOL in patients after lung transplantation maybe:anxiety, depression and medical coping style.

Persons with disability are a weak group in whole society.It is an indicant of social harmonization to enhance care for the persons with disablility and improve their quality of life.Therefore,problems of care model for persons with disability,the attitude to them as well as their quality of life attract more and more attention from people.

Objective To investigate the quality of life of patients with chronic diseases as well as the influencing factors. Method Two hundred and fifty five elderly patients with chronic disease from 3 hospitals in Guangzhou involved in the survey by adopting WHO quality of life-old(WHO OQOL-OLD)to investigate the quality of life and influencial factors.Results The quality of life of the elderly patients was in middle level.In the dimension of Past,Present and Future Activities,the quality of life was statistically different between the patients with different chronic diseases(P<0.05);In the dimension of Autonomy and Death&Dying, the quality of life was statistically different between those with and without cerebrovascular diseaseor(all P<0.05);In the dimensions of Autonomy,Social Participation,Death and Dying and Intimacy,the quality of life was statistically different between those needing care and no care after discharge(all P<0.05).Conclusions The quality of life of the elderly patients with chronic diseases is in middle level.The influencing factors for the quality of life include contracting multiple diseases,needing care after discharge and cerebrovascular diseases.At discharge,nurses should regulate instructions for them for the purpose of improving their autonomy,social participation and adaptability after discharge. Thus,their quality of life can be improved.

Objective To evaluate the impact of early enteral nutrition (EEN) compared with parenteral nutrition (PN) on patients after hepatectomy. Methods Seventy-eight patients undergoing liver resection were randomized prospectively into two groups: EEN group receiving early enteral nutrition (n=35) and PN group receiving parenteral nutrition (n=43). The patients in both groups received isocaloric and isonitrogenous nutritional formulas 24 h after operation and the formulas were stopped on postoperative day 7. The general conditions, liver function tests, clinical complications,and clinical nutritional variables at three time points that included preoperative phase, postoperative day 1 (POD 1) and postoperative day 8 (POD 8) were observed. Results No significant differences were found in length of hospital stay, liver function and clinical nutritional variables between the 2 groups. In the EEN group, the serum prealbumin level almost returned to the preoperative level on POD 8. The nutritional complication rate of the EEN group was increased significantly but it was milder than that of the PN group. The time of gut function recovery in the EEN group was shorter than that of the PN group. The costs of nutritional drugs showed a significant decrease in the EEN group.Conclusion Early enteral nutrition is safe, rational and effective in patients who have undergone hepatectomy. Early enteral nutrition is better than parenteral nutrition in promoting liver function recovery, liver protein synthesis, postoperative recovery of gut function and decreasing costs of nutritional drugs.

Objective To evaluate the effects of branched-chain amino acids-enriched early parenteral and enteral nutrition on the liver function and serum aminograms in cirrhotic rats after partial hepatectomy. Methods In this prospective randomized controlled study, 24 cirrhotic rats, induced by thioacetamide, were randomized into three groups: enteral nutrition (EN) group, EN + branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) group, and parenteral nutrition (PN) + BCAA group. After receiving partial hepatectomy, rats in all three groups were nutritionally supported with equal amount of calorie and nitrogen contents from the 1st postoperative day ( PO day 1 ) to PO day 5. On PO day 6, parameters including body weight, liver functions, prealbumin, transferring, and serum aminograms were measured or determined, and the level of liver albumin mRNA was detected by reversal transcription-polymerase chain reaction and morphological examinations such as HE staining and immunohistochemical staining, which were assessed by index of Ki67 protein index. Results Body weight was significantly decreased in all three groups on PO day 6 (P ＜0.05 ). Compared with EN + BCAA group, serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase after partial hepatectomy were significantly higher in PN + BCAA group (P ＜0.05 ). Serum alkaline phosphatase level was significantly higher in PN + BCAA group than in EN group ( P ＜0. 05). The level of prealbumin was significantly lower in PN + BCAA group when compared with EN group or EN +BCAA group ( both P ＜ 0. 05 ), although no such significant difference was noted in terms of transferrin ( P ＞0. 05 ). The levels of leucine and isoleucine elevated while those of tyrosine, phenylalanine, arginine and tryptophan declined in PN + BCAA group or EN + BCAA group when compared with EN group ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). Aminograms were not significantly different between EN + BCAA group and PN + BCAA group ( P ＞ 0. 05 ). Levels of total amino acid and aromatic amino acid (AAA) were significantly lower while BCAA and ratio between BCAA and AAA (BCAA/AAA) were significantly higher in PN + BCAA group or EN + BCAA group than in EN group (P ＜ 0. 05 ).Significantly lower level of albumin mRNA and index of Ki67 were observed in PN + BCAA group than in EN group or EN + BCAA group (P ＜ 0.05 ) on PO day 6. Conclusions BCAA-enriched EN or PN reverses amino acid disequilibrium and restores BCAA/AAA in cirrhotic rats after partial hepatectomy. Compared with PN, EN is superior in improving postoperative liver function, promoting protein synthesis, and speed up tissue regeneration in the postoperative liver. However, it still can not restore serum albumin in a short term.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the reliahility and validity of the chronic HBV-infections related stigma scale.MethodsThe initial items and construct of the scale were developed according to theoretical analysis and interviews of experts and patients.A total of 151 patients with chronic HBV-infection were administered by convenient sampling method in this pilot study. The reliability and the validity of the scale were then evaluated.ResultsThe response rate of the scale was 94.5％.The Cronbach α coefficients of all dimeusions ranged from 0.75-0.87.The results of correlation analysis showed that there were higher correlation coefficients ( r ranged from 0.62-0.86) between items and their hypothesized subscales than those with other subscales ( r ranged from 0.14-0.55).The scale distinguished between patients with low subscale scores ( the subscale scores were ( 1.89 ±0.30 ),( 1.86 ± 0.29 ),( 1.96 ± 0.23 ),( 2.29 ± 0.45 ),( 1.59 ± 0.42 ) independently) and those with high subscale scores(the subscalc scores were (3.62 ±0.44),(3.99 ±0.41 ),(3.79 ±0.37),(4.13 ±0.34),(3.10 ±0.53 ) independently) (P ＜ 0.01 ).Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the main indices of goodness of fit CFI was 0.94,NNFI 0.92,RMSEA 0.087.ConclusionThe chronic HBV-infections related stigma has good psychometric properties regarding to reliability and validity.