Tai Chi for Chronic Illness Management: Synthesizing Current Evidence from Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials
An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the existing evidence of Tai Chi as a mind-body exercise for chronic illness management. MEDLINE/PubMed and Embase databases were searched from inception until March 31, 2019, for meta-analyses of at least two RCTs that investigated health outcomes associated with Tai Chi intervention. Evidence of significant outcomes (P value < 0.05) was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. This review identified 45 meta-analyses of RCTs and calculated 142 summary estimates among adults living with 16 types of chronic …
Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Mental Health Outcomes Among Chinese College Students During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic.
Objectives: To investigate the prevalence and risk factors for poor mental health of Chinese university students during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Method: Chinese nation-wide on-line cross-sectional survey on university students, collected between February 12th and 17th, 2020. Primary outcome was prevalence of clinically-relevant posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Secondary outcomes on poor mental health included prevalence of clinically-relevant anxiety and depressive symptoms, while posttraumatic growth was considered as indicator of effective coping reaction. Results: Of 2,500 invited Chinese university students, 2,038 completed the survey. Prevalence of clin…
Prevalence of erectile dysfunction in male survivors of cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies.
BackgroundPrevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in male survivors of cancer across cancer types has not been systematically analysed.AimTo estimate the prevalence of ED in all types of cancer and identify characteristics associated with ED in survivors of cancer.Design and settingSystematic review and meta-analysis (MA) of cross-sectional studies.MethodMEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and EMBASE were searched, targeting reports published from inception to 1 February 2020. All retrospective or prospective studies reporting prevalence of ED in male patients with cancer and using a validated tool for detection of ED were included. A random-effects MA model was used to pool prevalence of ED as abso…
Hearing impairment and diverse health outcomes: An umbrella review of meta-analyses of observational studies
Background: Globally, it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of hearing impairment. Major causes of hearing loss include infection/disease, age-related factors, and occupational factors. Numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have attempted to synthesise literature on these topics. To date there has not been a systematic evaluation of the relationships between hearing impairment and diverse physical, mental, and social outcomes. Objective: We performed an umbrella review of systematic reviews of observational studies with meta-analyses for any physical disease, biomarkers of disease, mental health or cognitive outcomes, and/or modifiable risk factor…
Prevalence of erectile dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Growing evidence reports that chronic kidney diseases (CKD) might play a role in erectile dysfunction (ED), but limited knowledge is available. Therefore, we performed a systematic review up to 21/08/2019 to investigate the associations between CKD and ED. The main analysis reported the prevalence of ED as absolute estimates (in %) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and across CKD stages (when specified), hemodialysis and transplant, calculating the p for interaction across strata. Among 291 studies, we included 34 articles with 5986 men. We found an overall prevalence of 76% (95%CI: 72–79) with a high degree of heterogeneity (I2 = 84.2%; p < 0.0001). Analyzing the data by CKD sta…
Correlation between Cognition and Balance among Middle-Aged and Older Adults Observed through a Tai Chi Intervention program
Background: Age-associated decline in cognition and balance may cause severe ability loss for daily living activities among middle-aged and older adults. The relationship between cognition and balance in this aging population remains to be explored. Objective: The present study Is exploratory in nature and aimed to examine the relationship between balance (both static and dynamic components) and global cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults through Tai Chi (TC) practice as a research avenue. Methods: A short-term (12 weeks) intervention of TC was conducted among middle-aged and older adults in the community setting. Global cognitive function (using the Chinese version of the …