Search Results (7)

Background/Objectives: Retrospective analysis of long-term periodontal tooth loss (PTL) during supportive periodontal care (SPC) in patients with Stage III/IV periodontitis who received strictly non-surgical periodontal treatment. Methods: Fully documented medical documentation of SPC > 5 years was analyzed at T0 (baseline), T1 (after Steps 1/2), and during SPC (T2). PTL, periodontal pocket depth (PD), bleeding on probing (BOP), tooth mobility (TM), furcation involvement (FI), and frequency of SPC were recorded. Each parameter was tested for significance in a bivariate analysis, before a multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed to identify possible factors with an impact on PTL during SPC. Results: A total of 51 women/64 men (T1 mean age 55.4 ± 10.3 yrs) were surveilled after 9.0 ± 2.4 yrs; 2647 teeth were included. On average, patients attended 10.6 ± 3.8 SPC sessions between T1 and T2; 77 patients (67%) attended at least 1/year. At T1, 68 teeth were lost; 6.1% of the remaining teeth showed FI, and 13.8% showed TM. During SPC, the PTL range was 118 (1.03 ± 1.21/patient). TM, FI, mean PD, and Stage IV periodontitis proved to be statistically significantly associated with increased PTL. Conclusions: PTL was low in this cohort. Nevertheless, at T1, it may be beneficial to focus on stopping TM by splinting the mobile teeth and reducing the PD or treating FI appropriately, understanding that these precise applications of surgical procedures could positively affect long-term tooth retention. Full article

Background: Pregnant women who are infected with malaria usually have more severe symptoms and negative health outcomes than women who are not pregnant, with higher rates of miscarriage, intrauterine demise, premature delivery, low-birth-weight neonates, and neonatal death. Based on evidence from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, this study assessed the variation in insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) usage and its associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia. Methods: Data from a total of 1122 women who were pregnant at the time of the survey were included in the final analysis. Bivariate and multilevel analyses were conducted. Multilevel modeling with fixed and random coefficients was used to estimate the variation in pregnant women’s ITNs usage across communities (residence areas) and regions of Ethiopia. Results: Out of the total 1122 pregnant women, 58.37% slept under a net and 41.63% did not sleep under nets. Significant variations were observed in pregnant women’s ITNs usage across communities (residence areas) and regions of Ethiopia, with between variations in pregnant women’s ITNs usage across communities (residence areas) and regions. In addition, the region, place of residence, wealth index, educational level, and age of the women as well as whether they believed that mosquito bites cause malaria were significant factors in pregnant women’s usage of ITNs. Pregnant women in Ethiopia had moderate usage of ITNs with varied risk factors at the individual, community, and regional levels. Conclusion: Based on the factors identified, there is a need to implement and/or strengthen programs (e.g., regular sensitization) that intensify high coverage of ITNs for effective malaria prevention in Ethiopia, especially among pregnant women who do not use ITNs. Full article

Physical activity is an important health determinant for people’s quality of life and well-being. This study intends to (1) identify how the practice of physical activity fits into families’ daily lives; and (2) verify to what extent the practice of physical activity is influenced by the urban model, family composition, and family perceptions. A survey was applied to 410 families (corresponding to 1006 individuals) in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, focusing on different physical activities—gym, swimming, walking/trekking/hiking, and cycling. Results are based on descriptive and bivariate data analysis and show the existence of asymmetries in the practice of physical activity in LMA. The urban context impacts the choice and frequency of physical activity practices. The typology of family and age proved to be more differentiating factors than income, being reinforced by daily lives (e.g., daily movements, transport modes, etc.). Positive self-perceptions of quality of life and health levels are also conducive to more active practices, contrary to negative perceptions of the neighborhood that are related to practices in peripheral destinations. Conclusions highlight the need for differentiated measures of physical activity promotion according to the territories and communities’ characteristics in a multilevel approach. Full article

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between cognitive function, the city’s social environment, and individual characteristics of older adults. The individual data of older people were from the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan 2013–2016. The participants who were aged 65 and above were included in the analysis (n = 1356). City-level data were obtained for twenty cities in Taiwan. The data of city-level indicators were from governmental open data and Taiwan’s Age Friendly Environment Monitor Study. A multilevel mixed-effect model was applied in the analysis. Population density, median income, safety in the community, barrier-free sidewalks, high education rate of the population, low-income population rate, household income inequality, and elderly abuse rate were related to cognitive function in the bivariate analysis. When controlling for individual factors, the city’s low-income population rate was still significantly related to lower cognitive function. In addition, the participants who were at younger age, had a higher education level, had a better financial satisfaction, had worse self-rated health, had higher numbers of disease, and had better physical function had better cognitive function. Social and built environments associated with cognitive function highlight the importance of income security and the age friendliness of the city for older adults. Income security for older people and age-friendly city policies are suggested. Full article

Urbanization and ageing are global phenomena and offer unique challenges in different countries. A supportive environment plays a critical role in addressing the issue of behavioral change and health promotion among older adults. Many studies in the U.S., EU, and Australia have considered promoting physical activity in the community based on ecological models, whereas very few Asian studies have examined the relationships among urbanization, the built environment and physical activity in elderly at the ecological level, especially from a multi-level perspective. Due to the prevalence of post-war baby boomers and a very low birth-rate, the older population (aged 65 years old and older) in Taiwan has increased rapidly since 2011 and has exceeded the younger generation (0–14 years old) in 2017. Hence, the purpose of this study was first to examine the degree of urbanization in townships and the status of related built environments in Taiwan and then to investigate whether the built environment is associated with recommended amounts of physical activity among older adults. Three national datasets and a multi-level design were used in this research. Data at the individual level was obtained from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) which was taken from June 2009 to February 2010. Ecological data was obtained from the 2006 National Land Use Investigation of the National Geographic Information System and the 2010 Population and Housing Census. The analyses included a descriptive analysis, a bivariate analysis, a multiple logistic regression, and a multi-level analysis, utilizing a mostly hierarchical linear model (HLM). The results showed a significant relationship between factors at the environmental levels and physical activity in older adults. Urbanization, the built environment, and the median income of townships were positively correlated to the physical activity of the older adults. After controlling for individual-level factors, urbanization still exhibited this correlation. Parks and green spaces were associated with achieving the recommended amount of physical activity. However, there was no relationship after controlling for factors at the individual level. Detailed discussions were provided. Full article

This paper analyses the complexity of multivariate electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in different frequency scales for the analysis and classification of focal and non-focal EEG signals. The proposed multivariate sub-band entropy measure has been built based on tunable-Q wavelet transform (TQWT). In the field of multivariate entropy analysis, recent studies have performed analysis of biomedical signals with a multi-level filtering approach. This approach has become a useful tool for measuring inherent complexity of the biomedical signals. However, these methods may not be well suited for quantifying the complexity of the individual multivariate sub-bands of the analysed signal. In this present study, we have tried to resolve this difficulty by employing TQWT for analysing the sub-band signals of the analysed multivariate signal. It should be noted that higher value of Q factor is suitable for analysing signals with oscillatory nature, whereas the lower value of Q factor is suitable for analysing signals with non-oscillatory transients in nature. Moreover, with an increased number of sub-bands and a higher value of Q-factor, a reasonably good resolution can be achieved simultaneously in high and low frequency regions of the considered signals. Finally, we have employed multivariate fuzzy entropy (mvFE) to the multivariate sub-band signals obtained from the analysed signal. The proposed Q-based multivariate sub-band entropy has been studied on the publicly available bivariate Bern Barcelona focal and non-focal EEG signals database to investigate the statistical significance of the proposed features in different time segmented signals. Finally, the features are fed to random forest and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifiers to select the best classifier. Our method has achieved the highest classification accuracy of 84.67% in classifying focal and non-focal EEG signals with LS-SVM classifier. The proposed multivariate sub-band fuzzy entropy can also be applied to measure complexity of other multivariate biomedical signals. Full article

Developing countries face a huge burden of infectious diseases, a number of which co-exist. This paper estimates the pattern and variation of malaria and diarrhea coexistence in Chikhwawa, a district in Southern Malawi using bivariate multilevel modelling with Bayesian estimation. A probit link was employed to examine hierarchically built data from a survey of individuals (n = 6,727) nested within households (n = 1,380) nested within communities (n = 33). Results show significant malaria [ ] and diarrhea [ ] variations with a strong correlation between them [ ] at household level. There are significant malaria [ ] and diarrhea [ ] variations at community level but with a small correlation [ ] between them. There is also significant correlation between malaria and diarrhea at individual level [ 0.241]. These results suggest a close association between reported malaria-like illness and diarrheal illness especially at household and individual levels in Southern Malawi. Full article