BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases implemented health protocol guidelines to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Individuals with comorbidities were advised to take precautionary measures due to their increased vulnerability. This study aimed to assess the relationship between knowledge, acceptance, and adherence to health protocols among fully vaccinated individuals with comorbidities in the National Capital Region, Philippines.

The study employed an explanatory-sequential mixed-method design. The quantitative phase involved an online survey with 384 respondents. The survey included questions on socio-demographic profile, COVID-19 knowledge, acceptability of health protocols, and adherence to preventive practices. Chi-square Test of Independence and Pearson’s Correlation Test were used to analyze the data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 participants, providing rich insights into their personal experiences. The interview transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi’s descriptive method with the aid of qualitative analysis software (MAXQDA), ensuring a rigorous approach to thematic analysis. The integration of the two phases was achieved by connecting quantitative results with qualitative insights, creating a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena under study.

Findings showed that the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics and level of knowledge (Gender pCONCLUSION

The study suggests that multiple factors contribute to non-adherence to health protocols. Recognizing these holes and weaknesses in the COVID-19 pandemic response stresses the need for national leaders to place urgency on properly implementing preventive measures and providing health education to the masses during public health situations. Collaboration from all sectors is crucial in addressing public health crises. This study can be a valuable resource for future researchers, local government units, and policymakers in prioritizing public health care and pandemic preparedness.

Background: The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been significant, affecting individuals across all health spectrums. Many have adapted their lifestyles to navigate the challenges posed by the pandemic. Despite this, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the specific lifestyle changes made by Filipinos with comorbidities during this time. Objectives: We aimed to ascertain the lifestyle changes among Filipinos with comorbidities and examine how their condition and various sociodemographic factors influenced these changes during the pandemic. Methodology: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study involving 402 Filipino adults with comorbidities residing in Metro Manila. Using descriptive statistics, we summarized sociodemographic profiles and considerations for lifestyle changes. We assessed lifestyle changes using principal component analysis. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors associated with these changes. Results: Lifestyle modifications include positive changes in a healthy diet, nutrition, and social support, as well as negative changes in restorative sleep, mental and physical states, and unhealthy eating habits. Monthly household income was positively associated with lifestyle changes. Specifically, individuals belonging to the middle to upper-income categories tend to adopt these modifications compared to those in the lower-income brackets (B [unstandardized beta]=3.99; 95% CI [Confidence Interval)= 0.98, 6.99). The primary reason for embracing these changes was to delay or prevent the progression of diseases, followed by the desire to minimize health complications. Conclusions High-income Filipinos are more inclined to adopt lifestyle modifications compared to lower-income individuals. Prioritizing disease prevention and minimizing health complications are common considerations for these changes.
Chronic Disease ; Comorbidity ; COVID-19 ; Health

Background: The prevalence of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is high and tends to continue to increase in Indonesia. Based on data, the Province of South Kalimantan, Indonesia in early mid-2021 experienced a high spike in cases, resulting in a large number of deaths, especially in Banjar Regency. Active COVID-19 cases in South Kalimantan in July 2021 were recorded at 5,279 (12.41%) out of 42,527 positive cases. Data compiled from the COVID-19 Task Force (Satgas) showed that Banjar Regency was the third highest area of the cumulative number of deaths, with as many as 47 people dying in one day. The results of many research on risk factors for COVID-19 cases vary widely. People with comorbidities are a very vulnerable group. Objective: This study aims to identify the relationship between comorbid conditions and death based on data from COVID-19 admission in the Wetland Environment community in Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan, Indonesia in the years 2020-2021. Methods: This is a retrospective analytical observational study which used purposive sampling. The data were collected from the case form report (CFR). The dependent variable in this study was inpatients at Ratu Zaleha Hospital who died and were diagnosed as positive for COVID-19, while the independent variables were age (productive/non-productive), tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, asthma, pneumonia, heart disease, COPD (lung disease), HIV/AIDS, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and stroke (CVA). Data were analyzed by univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses with logistic regression method to obtain adjusted OR. Results: Out of 700 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection, 273 (39%) had no comorbidity while 427 (61%) had at least one comorbid condition. There were 330 (47.1%) male patients and 370 (52.9%) female patients. There were 565 (80.7%) patients who belong in the productive age and 135 (19.35%) in the nonproductive age. Results showed that age (p=0.002), asthma (p=0.026), chronic kidney disease (p=0.000), and heart disease (p=0.002) are significant risk factors of COVID-19 death in Banjar Regency. Conclusion Based on our analysis of COVID-19-related deaths in Banjar Regency in Ratu Zaleha Hospital on the year 2020-2021, diabetes, pneumonia, kidney failure, and COPD were associated with increased mortality.
COVID-19 ; Comorbidity ; Mortality

Restless legs syndrome （RLS） is a common sensory-motor disorder of the nervous system， and its mechanism remains unknown， which may be related to neuropsychiatric diseases， nutritional and metabolic diseases， kidney diseases， and pregnancy. We report a special case of RLS which was diagnosed prior to hyperthyroidism and experienced worsening of the RLS symptoms. We aim to discuss the mechanism of hyperthyroidism aggravating RLS， helping clinicians have a better understanding of the influencing factors for RLS.
Hyperthyroidism ; Comorbidity

BACKGROUND: Amygdala plays an important role in the neurobiological basis of panic disorder (PD), and the amygdala contains different subregions, which may play different roles in PD. The aim of the present study was to examine whether there are common or distinct patterns of functional connectivity of the amygdala subregions in PD using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and to explore the relationship between the abnormal spontaneous functional connectivity patterns of the regions of interest (ROIs) and the clinical symptoms of PD patients. METHODS: Fifty-three drug-naïve, non-comorbid PD patients and 70 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analyses were conducted using the bilateral amygdalae and its subregions as the ROI seed. Two samples t test was performed for the seed-based Fisher's z -transformed correlation maps. The relationship between the abnormal spontaneous functional connectivity patterns of the ROIs and the clinical symptoms of PD patients was investigated by Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: PD patients showed increased rsFC of the bilateral amygdalae and almost all the amygdala subregions with the precuneus/posterior cingulate gyrus compared with the HC group (left amygdala [lAMY]: t  = 4.84, P  <0.001; right amygdala [rAMY]: t  = 4.55, P  <0.001; left centromedial amygdala [lCMA]: t  = 3.87, P  <0.001; right centromedial amygdala [rCMA]: t  = 3.82, P  = 0.002; left laterobasal amygdala [lBLA]: t  = 4.33, P  <0.001; right laterobasal amygdala [rBLA]: t  = 4.97, P  <0.001; left superficial amygdala [lSFA]: t  = 3.26, P  = 0.006). The rsFC of the lBLA with the left angular gyrus/inferior parietal lobule remarkably increased in the PD group ( t  = 3.70, P  = 0.003). And most of the altered rsFCs were located in the default mode network (DMN). A significant positive correlation was observed between the severity of anxiety and the rsFC between the lSFA and the left precuneus in PD patients ( r  = 0.285, P  = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS Our research suggested that the increased rsFC of amygdala subregions with DMN plays an important role in the pathogenesis of PD. Future studies may further explore whether the rsFC of amygdala subregions, especially with the regions in DMN, can be used as a biological marker of PD.
Humans ; Panic Disorder ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Amygdala ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Comorbidity

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of cardiac troponin (cTn) levels in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and explore a potential strategy for improving the diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data from patients with high-risk chest pain admitted in Zhujiang Hospital from January, 2018 to December, 2020, including 126 patients with and 272 patients without CKD, and 122 patients diagnosed to have AMI and 276 patients without AMI. The baseline clinical data of the patients and blood test results within 12 h after admission were collected. RESULTS: In patients without AMI, cTnT level was significantly higher in those with co-morbid CKD than in those without CKD (P < 0.001), and showed a moderate negative correlation with eGFR (r_s=- 0.501, P < 0.001), while cTnI level did not differ significantly between the two groups (P=0.72). In patients with CKD, the optimal cutoff level was 0.177 μg/L for cTnT and 0.415 ng/mL for cTnI for diagnosis of AMI, for which cTnI had a higher specificity than cTnT. The diagnostic model combining both cTnT and cTnI levels [P=e^Y/(1+ e^Y), Y=6.928 (cTnT)-0.5 (cTnI)-1.491] had a higher AUC value than cTn level alone. CONCLUSION In CKD patients, the cutoff level of cTn is increased for diagnosing AMI, and cTnI has a higher diagnostic specificity than cTnT. The combination of cTnT and cTnI levels may further improve diagnostic efficacy for AMI.
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Myocardial Infarction/diagnosis* ; Comorbidity ; Troponin T ; Troponin I ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic/diagnosis* ; Biomarkers

To study of premature/early death of autistic patients from the perspective of life course can help families, medical institutions and policy makers better deal with the adverse effects of autism. Several studies have shown that autistic patients have a high risk of death, however, the results are still inconsistent. To assess the risk of mortality among the autistic patients, we undertook a comprehensive search of MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE databases. This paper reviewed the studies on the negative disease outcomes of autism spectrum disorders, including the risk of death, causes of death and several research hotspots in this field. Strict inclusion/exclusion criteria were used. Information was extracted from selected papers, tabulated and synthesized. In the study, 15 studies were included, with a total of 216 045 individuals. The main outcome was all-cause mortality in association with autism and the secondary outcome was cause-specific mortality. The results showed that all-cause mortality was higher for the autistic patients (RR=2.32, 95%CI: 1.98-2.72, I²=87.1%, P < 0.001). Risk ratio showed a greater inequality for female than male (male: RR=2.00, 95%CI: 1.57-2.55, I²=93.2%, P < 0.001; female: RR=4.66, 95%CI: 3.30-6.58, I²=92.0%, P < 0.001). Compared with the unnatural death, the risk of natural death was higher (RR=3.44, 95%CI: 1.27-9.26, I²=80.2%, P=0.025). As autism had many comorbidities, which would bring more health risks and natural deaths possibilities. There were some structural differences in unnatural death. Accidental injury death and suicide were two kinds of causes. Lacking social skills would weaken the ability to ask for help when encountering injuries. This paper put forward some suggestions for futures. First, to well study the comorbidity can reduce the risk of death from a medical point of view. Second, the scientists and policymakers should pay attention to the social environment and provide a safer environment for the autistic patients. Third, for women and for adolescents without cognitive impairment, due to their high risk of suicide, the society should provide them with more supportive social networks and improve their life satisfaction. Fourth, it is necessary to balance the rehabilitation resources in various regions in China and provide more high-quality lifelong rehabilitation monitoring and care services.
Adolescent ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Autism Spectrum Disorder ; Cause of Death ; Comorbidity ; Autistic Disorder ; China

Humans ; Hospital Mortality ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Comorbidity ; Registries ; Neoplasms/complications*

Machine learning approaches are increasingly being applied to neuroimaging data from patients with psychiatric disorders to extract brain-based features for diagnosis and prognosis. The goal of this review is to discuss recent practices for evaluating machine learning applications to obsessive-compulsive and related disorders and to advance a novel strategy of building machine learning models based on a set of core brain regions for better performance, interpretability, and generalizability. Specifically, we argue that a core set of co-altered brain regions (namely 'core regions') comprising areas central to the underlying psychopathology enables the efficient construction of a predictive model to identify distinct symptom dimensions/clusters in individual patients. Hypothesis-driven and data-driven approaches are further introduced showing how core regions are identified from the entire brain. We demonstrate a broadly applicable roadmap for leveraging this core set-based strategy to accelerate the pursuit of neuroimaging-based markers for diagnosis and prognosis in a variety of psychiatric disorders.
Humans ; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/epidemiology* ; Brain/pathology* ; Neuroimaging/methods* ; Machine Learning ; Comorbidity ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods*

Tinnitus and anxiety disorder are common clinical symptoms. Comorbidity between tinnitus and anxiety state is increasing year by year. The relationship between tinnitus and anxiety state has always been a hot topic, and this paper reviews the literature on the relationship between chronic subjective tinnitus and anxiety state in recent years.
Humans ; Tinnitus/diagnosis* ; Anxiety ; Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology* ; Comorbidity