1.Drivers for decision change in getting vaccinated against COVID-19: A retrospective cross-sectional study
Rosemary R. Seva ; Lourdes Marie S. Tejero ; Bettina Joyce P. Ilagan
Acta Medica Philippina 2026;60(3):60-69
Background:
A certain percentage of the vaccinated population initially did not want to get vaccinated but changed
their minds (from 30% to 70%). By October 2022, World Bank reported that the Philippines had 77.8% COVID-19 vaccination rate. Knowing the factors that changed their decision can help improve the vaccination rate.
Objective:
This survey aimed to identify the factors that influence positive change in vaccination decisions.
Methods:
This survey was conducted in the Philippines among Filipinos aged 18-80 years old between March to April 2022. The dependent variable in the study was decision change, a binary variable coded as 1 for a vaccinated person who changed their decision from no to yes and 0 for an unvaccinated person who did not change their decision from yes to no.
Results:
Age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.89-0.96) and having a college degree (aOR=11.707,
95% CI=3.23-42.41) are related to changing decisions. Young and college degree holders are likely to change their decisions positively about getting vaccinated. Employer requirement also influences decision change because it affects a person's livelihood. High scores on vaccine confidence (aOR = 1.181, 95% CI = 1.12-1.25) and awareness (aOR = 1.318, 95% CI = 1.08-1.61) are associated with decision change.
Conclusion
Being young, educated, employed with a requirement to vaccinate, and having high vaccine awareness
and confidence are strongly associated with a positive change in the decision to get vaccinated.
Vaccines
;
Vaccination
;
Philippines
;
Awareness
;
Covid-19
2.Use of exam wrapper in internal medicine residency training in two tertiary private hospitals: A pre-experimental study.
Janice Jill K. Lao ; Erlyn A. Sana
Acta Medica Philippina 2026;60(6):51-70
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Self-assessment and metacognition can be practiced with an exam wrapper (EW). EW is a structured, metacognitive, and self-regulated learning strategy that involves guided self-reflection on an exam already taken to improve study habits. This research describes how internal medicine (IM) residents at two tertiary private hospitals performed in written examinations using an EW. The relationship between the residents' metacognition, the exam wrapper, and exam performance was also determined.
METHODSThis study employed a pre-experimental pre- and post-test design. The EW was constructed and tested for validity and reliability. It included (1) a description of study habits, (2) accuracy in self-efficacy perception and exam score prediction, (3) perceived reasons for exam mistakes, and (4) future study plans of residents. A complete enumeration of 24 IM residents was conducted. Respondents completed the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) at the beginning of the study. The intervention consisted of (1) residents taking Exam 1: Gastroenterology, followed by EW; (2) Exam 2: Endocrinology and EW; then (3) Exam 3: Oncology, EW, and MAI. Scores were compared using a paired t-test or analysis of variance (ANOVA). The relationships between metacognition scores, the EW, and exam performance were determined using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.
RESULTSThe final EW comprises 16 items, with overall indices of content validity ratio of 0.72 and item-rated content validity of 0.8. The internal consistency coefficient is 0.65 (Kuder-Richardson 20). Nineteen out of 24 residents (79.17%) completed the study. Mean exam percentage scores were 57.97%, 42%, and 51.16% for Exams 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Exam 2 differed significantly from the other two exams (p = 0 and p = 0.04). EWs for the first two exams were not significantly different and revealed: (1) top study habits included studying right before an exam and skimming the textbook; (2) 68.42% vs. 63.16% accuracy of selfefficacy perception; (3) 26.32% vs. 31.58% accuracy of grade estimation; (4) 31.58% vs. 26.32% accuracy of error analysis; (5) most errors were due to not reading about the topic, and (6) most planned to “read more." Mean MAI scores were 36.79 ± 9.10 (pretest) and 36.05 ± 9.44 (post-test) (p = 0.81). All correlations were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONResidents performed poorly during exams, crammed their studies, preferred low-impact learning strategies, and lacked self-reflection skills and metacognition monitoring. Time issues related to reading or studying were common. There is no significant relationship between metacognition score and exam wrapper use or exam performance in IM residency trainees.
Human ; Metacognition ; Self-control ; Self-regulation
3.Analysis of factors associated with stunting in toddlers: A mixed methods study in Banten, Indonesia.
Rukmaini ; Jenny Anna Siauta ; Ida Handayani ; Mey Maya Sari Nasution
Acta Medica Philippina 2026;60(9):100-109
BACKGROUND
Stunting remains a major public health issue in Indonesia, particularly in regions like Pandeglang Regency, where prevalence rates are high. Understanding the contributing factors is essential for targeted interventions.
OBJECTIVEThis study aimed to analyze factors associated with stunting among toddlers using a mixed-methods approach.
METHODSA cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted in two health centers in Banten Province from December 2021 to January 2022. Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using chi-square tests (pRESULTS
There is a relationship between maternal knowledge, history of exclusive breastfeeding, history of supplementary feeding, support from health workers, and socio-economic status with the prevalence of stunting. However, the pattern of exclusive breastfeeding and seeking health services in the working areas of Bangkonol Health Center and Kaduhejo Health Center, Pandeglang Regency, is not good enough and needs to be improved. Health workers need to educate mothers with toddlers about patterns of providing complementary feeding, food preparation, and storage, and basic health practices to prevent stunting.
RESULTSThere is a relationship between maternal knowledge, history of exclusive breastfeeding, history of supplementary feeding, support from health workers, and socio-economic status with the prevalence of stunting. However, the pattern of exclusive breastfeeding and seeking health services in the working areas of Bangkonol Health Center and Kaduhejo Health Center, Pandeglang Regency, is not good enough and needs to be improved. Health workers need to educate mothers with toddlers about patterns of providing complementary feeding, food preparation, and storage, and basic health practices to prevent stunting.
Human ; Infant: 1-23 Months ; Child Preschool: 2-5 Yrs Old ; Public Health ; Prevalence ; Methods ; Indonesia ; Health ; Growth Disorders ; Comprehension
5.A study on the correlation between oral health status and cognitive impairment in elderly population.
Lisheng XU ; Fan LIU ; Jingyi WEI ; Xin ZHENG ; Xiaoying LI ; Ling ZHANG
West China Journal of Stomatology 2025;43(2):220-226
OBJECTIVES:
This cross-sectional study aims to explore the association between oral health status and cognitive function in Chinese elderly individuals.
METHODS:
The survey participants were composed of elderly people aged≥60 who were admitted to West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University from August 2022 to March 2024. They were divided into a cognitive impairment (CI) group and a healthy control (HC) group according to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score. General information and oral health indicators of all elderly people were collected. Independent sample t-test and chi-square test were used for inter-group comparison, and multiple linear regression model was applied for multivariate analysis of MoCA scores.
RESULTS:
A total of 402 elderly people were included in the study, and the number of remaining teeth in the CI group was significantly lower than that in the HC group. The decayed, missing, filled teeth index, debris index-simplified, gingival index, probing depth (PD), and clinical attachment loss in the CI group were all significantly higher than those in the HC group. There was no difference in denture wearing between the two groups. The results of multiple linear regression showed that there was a correlation between the number of remaining teeth and PD and MoCA scores after correcting for confounding factors.
CONCLUSIONS
Elderly individuals with CI have more prominent oral health issues compared to those with normal cognitive function. There may be a bidirectional relationship between the number of remaining teeth, PD, and cognitive function in elderly people.
Humans
;
Oral Health
;
Aged
;
Cross-Sectional Studies
;
Cognitive Dysfunction/epidemiology*
;
Male
;
Female
;
China/epidemiology*
;
Middle Aged
;
Linear Models
;
Aged, 80 and over
;
Periodontal Index
;
Cognition
6.Recent Advances in Comorbidities of Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures.
Acta Academiae Medicinae Sinicae 2025;47(2):303-308
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures are accompanied by motor,behavioral,sensory,and/or cognitive changes,with the clinical manifestations similar to epileptic seizures.This disease is easy to be misdiagnosed and neglected in clinical work.At present,most intervention measures still depend on the experience of clinicians.This article reviews the comorbidities of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures,including mental and cognitive disorders,somatic syndrome,sleep disorders,and epilepsy.This review aims to strengthen the precision of clinical treatment and management of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and provide more efficient individualized diagnosis and treatment programs for patients.
Humans
;
Seizures/diagnosis*
;
Comorbidity
;
Epilepsy
;
Sleep Wake Disorders
;
Mental Disorders
;
Psychophysiologic Disorders
;
Cognition Disorders
7.Research on motor imagery recognition based on feature fusion and transfer adaptive boosting.
Yuxin ZHANG ; Chenrui ZHANG ; Shihao SUN ; Guizhi XU
Journal of Biomedical Engineering 2025;42(1):9-16
This paper proposes a motor imagery recognition algorithm based on feature fusion and transfer adaptive boosting (TrAdaboost) to address the issue of low accuracy in motor imagery (MI) recognition across subjects, thereby increasing the reliability of MI-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) for cross-individual use. Using the autoregressive model, power spectral density and discrete wavelet transform, time-frequency domain features of MI can be obtained, while the filter bank common spatial pattern is used to extract spatial domain features, and multi-scale dispersion entropy is employed to extract nonlinear features. The IV-2a dataset from the 4 th International BCI Competition was used for the binary classification task, with the pattern recognition model constructed by combining the improved TrAdaboost integrated learning algorithm with support vector machine (SVM), k nearest neighbor (KNN), and mind evolutionary algorithm-based back propagation (MEA-BP) neural network. The results show that the SVM-based TrAdaboost integrated learning algorithm has the best performance when 30% of the target domain instance data is migrated, with an average classification accuracy of 86.17%, a Kappa value of 0.723 3, and an AUC value of 0.849 8. These results suggest that the algorithm can be used to recognize MI signals across individuals, providing a new way to improve the generalization capability of BCI recognition models.
Brain-Computer Interfaces
;
Humans
;
Support Vector Machine
;
Algorithms
;
Neural Networks, Computer
;
Imagination/physiology*
;
Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods*
;
Electroencephalography
;
Wavelet Analysis
8.Effect of repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation on excitability of glutaminergic neurons and gamma-aminobutyric neurons in mouse hippocampus.
Jiale WANG ; Chong DING ; Rui FU ; Ze ZHANG ; Junqiao ZHAO ; Haijun ZHU
Journal of Biomedical Engineering 2025;42(1):73-81
Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is one of the commonly used brain stimulation techniques. In order to investigate the effects of rTMS on the excitability of different types of neurons, this study is conducted to investigate the effects of rTMS on the cognitive function of mice and the excitability of hippocampal glutaminergic neurons and gamma-aminobutyric neurons from the perspective of electrophysiology. In this study, mice were randomly divided into glutaminergic control group, glutaminergic magnetic stimulation group, gamma-aminobutyric acid energy control group, and gamma-aminobutyric acid magnetic stimulation group. The four groups of mice were injected with adeno-associated virus to label two types of neurons and were implanted optical fiber. The stimulation groups received 14 days of stimulation and the control groups received 14 days of pseudo-stimulation. The fluorescence intensity of calcium ions in mice was recorded by optical fiber system. Behavioral experiments were conducted to explore the changes of cognitive function in mice. The patch-clamp system was used to detect the changes of neuronal action potential characteristics. The results showed that rTMS significantly improved the cognitive function of mice, increased the amplitude of calcium fluorescence of glutamergic neurons and gamma-aminobutyric neurons in the hippocampus, and enhanced the action potential related indexes of glutamergic neurons and gamma-aminobutyric neurons. The results suggest that rTMS can improve the cognitive ability of mice by enhancing the excitability of hippocampal glutaminergic neurons and gamma-aminobutyric neurons.
Animals
;
Mice
;
Hippocampus/cytology*
;
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
;
Neurons/physiology*
;
Male
;
Cognition/physiology*
;
gamma-Aminobutyric Acid/metabolism*
;
Action Potentials/physiology*
9.Cross-session motor imagery-electroencephalography decoding with Riemannian spatial filtering and domain adaptation.
Lincong PAN ; Xinwei SUN ; Kun WANG ; Yupei CAO ; Minpeng XU ; Dong MING
Journal of Biomedical Engineering 2025;42(2):272-279
Motor imagery (MI) is a mental process that can be recognized by electroencephalography (EEG) without actual movement. It has significant research value and application potential in the field of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. To address the challenges posed by the non-stationary nature and low signal-to-noise ratio of MI-EEG signals, this study proposed a Riemannian spatial filtering and domain adaptation (RSFDA) method for improving the accuracy and efficiency of cross-session MI-BCI classification tasks. The approach addressed the issue of inconsistent data distribution between source and target domains through a multi-module collaborative framework, which enhanced the generalization capability of cross-session MI-EEG classification models. Comparative experiments were conducted on three public datasets to evaluate RSFDA against eight existing methods in terms of classification accuracy and computational efficiency. The experimental results demonstrated that RSFDA achieved an average classification accuracy of 79.37%, outperforming the state-of-the-art deep learning method Tensor-CSPNet (76.46%) by 2.91% ( P < 0.01). Furthermore, the proposed method showed significantly lower computational costs, requiring only approximately 3 minutes of average training time compared to Tensor-CSPNet's 25 minutes, representing a reduction of 22 minutes. These findings indicate that the RSFDA method demonstrates superior performance in cross-session MI-EEG classification tasks by effectively balancing accuracy and efficiency. However, its applicability in complex transfer learning scenarios remains to be further investigated.
Electroencephalography/methods*
;
Brain-Computer Interfaces
;
Humans
;
Imagination/physiology*
;
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
;
Movement/physiology*
;
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
;
Deep Learning
;
Algorithms
10.Berberine Hydrochloride Improves Cognitive Function and Hippocampal Antioxidant Status in Subchronic and Chronic Lead Poisoning.
Fatemeh Zare MEHRJERDI ; Azadeh Shahrokhi RAEINI ; Fatemeh Sadate ZEBHI ; Zeynab HAFIZI ; Reyhaneh MIRJALILI ; Faezeh Afkhami AGHDA
Chinese journal of integrative medicine 2025;31(1):49-54
OBJECTIVES:
To determine the neuroprotective effects of berberine hydrochloride (BBR) against lead-induced injuries on the hippocampus of rats.
METHODS:
Wistar rats were exposed orally to doses of 100 and 500 ppm lead acetate for 1 and 2 months to develop subchronic and chronic lead poisening models, respectively. For treatment, BBR (50 mg/kg daily) was injected intraperitoneally to rats poisoned with lead. At the end of the experiment, the spatial learning and memory of rats were assessed using the Morris water maze test. Hippocampal tissue changes were examined by hematoxylin and eosin staining. The activity of antioxidant enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and malondialdehyde levels as parameters of oxidative stress and antioxidant status of the hippocampus were evaluated.
RESULTS:
BBR reduced cognitive impairment in rats exposed to lead (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The resulting biochemical changes included a decrease in the activity of antioxidants and an increase in lipid peroxidation of the hippocampus of lead-exposed rats (P<0.05 or P<0.01), which were significantly modified by BBR (P<0.05). BBR also increased the density of healthy cells in the hippocampus of leadexposed rats (P<0.05). Significant changes in tissue morphology and biochemical factors of the hippocampus were observed in rats that received lead for 2 months (P<0.05). Most of these changes were insignificant in rats that received lead for 1 month.
CONCLUSION
BBR can improve oxidative tissue changes and hippocampal dysfunction in lead-exposed rats, which may be due to the strong antioxidant potential of BBR.
Animals
;
Hippocampus/pathology*
;
Rats, Wistar
;
Antioxidants/pharmacology*
;
Berberine/therapeutic use*
;
Cognition/drug effects*
;
Male
;
Lead Poisoning/metabolism*
;
Chronic Disease
;
Oxidative Stress/drug effects*
;
Maze Learning/drug effects*
;
Rats
;
Lipid Peroxidation/drug effects*
;
Malondialdehyde/metabolism*


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