Healthcare, Volume 13, Issue 20

Background/Objectives: Military identity serves as a foundational lens through which service members navigate the events of everyday military and civilian life. However, the very process that cultivates a sense of unity and purpose can be a double-ed...

Background: Telomere attrition has been implicated in immune function and vulnerability to infectious diseases. However, the relation between telomere length and COVID-19 severity remains unclear. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients aged...

Background: Maternal obesity affects 20–25% of pregnancies globally and has been associated with adverse offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. This umbrella review synthesized evidence on neurodevelopmental pathways linking maternal obesity to...

Background: Balance problems are one of the major risk factors for falls. Despite the availability of effective fall prevention interventions, falls and related injuries are rising. This study explored the factors associated with healthcare utilizati...

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) in hospitals relies heavily on infection control nurses (ICNs) who manage complex consultations to prevent and control infections. This study evaluated large language models (LLMs) as artificial inte...

Background/Objectives: Families of ICU patients endure intense psychological strain. While anxiety and depression are well documented, less attention has been given to hostility—expressed both outwardly as anger and inwardly as guilt or self-cr...

Background: In healthcare institutions, radiologists play an essential role in patients’ care, enabling them to begin treatment and start their recoveries. However, data on the characteristics and distribution of the radiology workforce in Saud...

Background/Objectives: Chemotherapy often leads to persistent physical and cognitive impairments, and while the dual-task paradigm is a sensitive tool for detecting such deficits, its application to functional strength in oncology remains largely une...

Background: Pulse oximetry is a non-invasive method for continuous monitoring of peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) to estimate arterial oxygen saturation. Previous studies suggested that SpO₂ measurements show variability depending on the par...

Background/Objectives: Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the most common shockable rhythm in cardiac arrest, yet refractory VF (RVF), defined as persistent VF after ≥three failed defibrillation attempts, poses a significant challenge. Two alternati...

Background/Objective: One of the life stages that affects the consolidation of habits and health is the university stage. This transition to adulthood is associated with a decrease in physical activity, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease....

Background: The continuous expansion of the National Reimbursement Drug List has led to an increasing cost disparity among alternative drugs for the same indications. Under the current proportional reimbursement mechanism, choosing higher-cost treatm...

The global population of older adults is growing rapidly, and refugees are now a significant proportion of the older adult population in Canada. Transnational healthcare practices (THPs)—seeking health information or services from the country o...

Background: Chronic diseases have proliferated worldwide and become one of the foremost public health challenges. The provincial pooling policy of Chinese Basic Medical Insurance Program (BMIP) (hereinafter the Policy) is conducive to coordinating he...

Background/Objectives: As the aging population is growing globally, oral health has become integral to ensuring healthy aging and quality of life. This study assessed the oral health status of older adults in a Malaysian long-term care facility and e...

Background: The growth of digital patient feedback presents a new opportunity for healthcare quality monitoring. This study addresses the need to automatically classify the content of patient reviews to identify primary sources of dissatisfaction. Ob...

Background: People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) require a customised, multidisciplinary plan throughout their lifetime to support optimal health. The purpose of this scoping review was to synthesise research on the main scales used to detect s...

Background/Objectives: Problematic smartphone use is common among nursing students and has been linked to academic and psychosocial difficulties. This PROSPERO-registered systematic review (CRD42024559668) identified the instruments used to assess sm...

Background/Objectives: Dysregulated gamma oscillations are associated with cognitive dysfunction. Auditory stimulation at 40 Hz enhances neural activity in brain regions associated with learning, attention, and memory. This study assessed the safety...

Background/Objectives: Treating critically ill patients is complex and often subjective. This study investigates adherence to clinical guidelines for sepsis among different providers. Considering the strengths of the recommendations, we hypothesize t...

Background: Studies on the relationship between unmet healthcare needs and depression in older adults are limited in Asia. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between unmet healthcare needs and the risk of depression in older adults aged...

Background/Objectives: Disparities in multiple myeloma (MM) survival occur based on factors like genetics, age, race, income level, and access to healthcare. The impact of age at diagnosis on MM survival is not fully understood and continues to draw...

Background: Most research on asthma and physical exercise is complex, costly, and often inconclusive, leading to minimal mention of exercise in international asthma management guidelines. Patients with mild asthma are frequently excluded from clinica...

Background: In the Republic of Kazakhstan, informal caregivers remain the main source of patient support. Caregivers of individuals with dementia experience an increased caregiver burden and significantly higher levels of stress. We investigated the...

Objectives: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common healthcare-associated infections in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs); they are associated with longer lengths of stay, higher levels of care, increased treatment costs, and higher morta...

Background: Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare chronic liver disease characterised by bile duct strictures. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is the principal imaging modality for diagnosis; however, its interpretation is...

Background/Objectives: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a three-dimensional deformity of the spine that can negatively impact on quality of life, pulmonary function, and body image. Its conservative management includes various interventions,...

Background: Pharmacists’ perceptions and practices shape the real-world uptake of generic medicines. From a health-economics perspective, wider generic substitution reduces patient out-of-pocket spending and creates headroom in payer budgets fo...

Background/Objectives: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains a leading cause of mortality with millions suffering worldwide. The number of annual cases is sharply increasing primarily due to growing older adult populations. To date, there is neither...

Background and objective: Child illness remains a significant public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, with complex multifactorial causes extending beyond biomedical factors. This qualitative study explored p...

Background/Objectives: Robust, state-level LGBTQ+ health surveillance is scarce in Kentucky, limiting evidence-based healthcare planning and policy. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and early public-health utility of a community-partnered annual...

Background/Objectives: Orthorexia nervosa and appearance-related pressures are increasingly discussed in youth sport, where performance demands may amplify perfectionistic tendencies and the internalization of cultural body ideals. This study examine...

Introduction: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is still associated with high mortality. Introduction of multi-parameter early warning systems (EWS) could reduce the incidence of IHCA. However, data regarding prevention of IHCA remains conflicting. M...

Background/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how infodemics—an excessive amount of both accurate and misleading information—undermine health responses. Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools have been increasingly appl...

Background: African American (AA)/Black and Latinx communities have limited access to evidence-based fall prevention programs such as Tai Chi Prime (TCP). Community-led interventions that incorporate peer support are cost-effective and sustainable. U...

Background: Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are closely linked to maladaptive coping strategies, including impulsive and emotional eating, which undermine health and well-being in young adults. Technical university students are particularly vuln...

Background: Malnutrition is a serious health concern among older adults in residential aged care (RAC), and timely identification is critical for effective intervention. Recent advancements in transformer-based large language models (LLMs), such as R...

Background: Adolescent depression is highly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Identifying top key risk factors is necessary to inform effective prevention program design. Machine learning (ML) offers a powerful approach to analyz...

Chronological age (C-Age), determined by the time elapsed since the birth of an individual, is considered one of the main risk factors for the onset and prognosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Biological age (B-Age), in contrast, conditioned by genetic...

Background/Objectives: Older women who habitually wear makeup exhibit better cognitive and psychological functioning. However, physical characteristics associated with habitual makeup use in this population remain unclear. We aimed to evaluate physic...

Background: Exposure therapy is an established intervention for treating specific phobias. This study evaluates a Virtual Exposure Therapist (VET), a virtual reality (VR)-based system enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI), designed to reduce spi...

Background: The decline in fertility rates is a growing concern globally, impacting family dynamics and the economy. This study assesses women’s attitudes toward fertility and childbearing in Saudi Arabia and explored their associations with so...

Background: The aim of this study was to compare four recently introduced LLMs (ChatGPT-5, Grok 4, Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Claude Sonnet-4). Experienced endodontists evaluated the accuracy, completeness, and readability of the responses given to open-e...

Background/Objectives: Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease with a high global prevalence and substantial public health burden. Often diagnosed after irreversible damage has occurred, its early detection depends heavily on patient awarenes...

Background/Objectives: Caregiving for patients with advanced cancer or chronic illness imposes substantial psychological burden, yet the role of caregiver attachment style in moderating this distress is underexplored. This multicenter, cross-sectiona...

Background/Objectives: Sleep disturbances are recognized as a common feature of Long COVID but detailed investigation into the specific nature of these sleep symptoms remain limited. This study analyzes comprehensive sleep questionnaire data from a L...

Introduction: Acquired brain injury (ABI) produces significant cognitive, motor, and psychosocial impairments that affect people’s daily functioning. Rehabilitation programs increasingly combine physical activity with neuropsychological strateg...

Background/Objectives: Frequent users (FUs) are patients who repeatedly attend Emergency Departments (EDs). This study aims to identify the clinical and social characteristics of FUs in a Local Health Authority in Rome and to quantify and compare the...

Background/Objectives: Chronic non-malignant pain (CNMP) affects 46.4% of adults in Saudi Arabia and often requires interdisciplinary care, including mental health services. Despite this need, mental health integration remains limited. This study exp...

Background and objectives: Pain is a prevalent and often underestimated issue in children with cerebral palsy (CP). When left untreated, pain can result in secondary complications such as reduced mobility and mental health challenges, which negativel...