0000000000300423
AUTHOR
Daniel Wollschlaeger
Inhibition and Switching in Healthy Aging: A Longitudinal Study
AbstractObjectives: Discrepant findings of age-related effects between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on executive function (EF) have been described across different studies. The aim of the present study was to examine longitudinal age effects on inhibition and switching, two key subfunctions of EF, calculated from results on the Color Word Interference Test (CWIT). Methods: One hundred twenty-three healthy aging individuals (average age 61.4 years; 67% women) performed the CWIT up to three times, over a period of more than 6 years. Measures of inhibition, switching, and combined inhibition and switching were analyzed. A longitudinal linear mixed effects models analysis was run in…
Longitudinal Changes in Familiarity, Free and Cued Odor Identification, and Edibility Judgments for Odors in Aging Individuals.
This longitudinal study investigated changes in olfaction as assessed by a set of tasks requiring different aspects of semantic information in normal aging individuals. Using 16 odorous items from a standardized olfactory test, the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test, 107 middle aged and older adults were assessed up to three times over a period of 6.5 years, requesting them to rate familiarity and edibility for each odorous item before identifying it with or without presenting verbal cues. Using linear mixed models, the longitudinal analyses revealed significant correlations between all olfactory measures. Furthermore, we found an almost parallel age-related decline in all olfactory task…
Cognitive Deficits in Chronic Stroke Patients: Neuropsychological Assessment, Depression, and Self-Reports
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Following stroke, clinicians are challenged to detect and untangle symptoms of cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders. Additionally, they need to evaluate the informative value of self-reports to identify patients in need of further attendance. <b><i>Aims:</i></b> To examine the association between neuropsychological measures, symptoms of depression, and self-reported cognitive function. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> One-hundred and five chronic stroke patients underwent assessment covering 6 cognitive domains and answered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Memory and Thinking Scale f…
The Link Between Local Recurrence and Distant Metastases in Patients With Rectal Cancer.
BACKGROUND/AIM The relationships between local recurrence (LR), the development of distant metastases (DM) and prognosis in patients with rectal cancer remain unclear. PATIENTS AND METHODS In 606 patients who underwent curative resection, the role of LR was assessed retrospectively by time-dependent multivariate Cox models with inverse probability of treatment weighting taking into account competing risks. RESULTS Patients with LR had more DM than patients without LR (49/79, 62% vs. 86/524, 16.4%; p<0.001); 37% of LR-associated DM developed before or at LR, 63% after diagnosis of LR. Fifty-five percent of patients without DM at diagnosis of LR later developed DM. In these patients, the inci…
Sociodemographic factors associated with time to discharge for hospitalised patients with asthma and asthma exacerbation using the Ghana Health Service District Information Management System 2 (DHIMS-2) database, 2012–2017
ObjectiveData on asthma hospitalisations are a useful source of patient morbidity information. In Ghana, the length of stay (LoS) and sociodemographic factors of patients hospitalised for asthma and its exacerbation are understudied. We aimed to investigate the time to discharge and assessed factors associated with length of hospital stays of asthmatics in Ghana.MethodsRetrospective analysis of hospitalised patient with asthma records between 2012 and 2017 from the nationwide Ghana Health Service District Health Information Management System 2 database. We calculated the cumulative incidence function for discharge stratified by age group and sex. Multivariable Cox regression was used to inv…
Trends in hospitalization of patients with diabetes mellitus in Ghana from 2012 to 2017 with predictions to 2032
Abstract Background This study explores sociodemographic and health factors associated with hospitalizing diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and estimates the number of future hospitalizations for DM in Ghana. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis using nationally representative patient hospitalization data provided by the Ghana Health Service and projected population counts from the Ghana Statistical Service. Data were stratified by year, age, sex and region. We employed Poisson regression to determine associations between sociodemographic and health factors and hospitalization rates of DM patients. Using projected population counts, the number of DM-related hospitalizations for 2018 thro…
Longitudinal changes in odor identification performance and neuropsychological measures in aging individuals.
To examine changes in odor identification performance and cognitive measures in healthy aging individuals. While cross-sectional studies reveal associations between odor identification and measures of episodic memory, processing speed, and executive function, longitudinal studies so far have been ambiguous with regard to demonstrating that odor identification may be predictive of decline in cognitive function.One hundred and 7 healthy aging individuals (average age 60.2 years, 71% women) were assessed with an odor identification test and nonolfactory cognitive measures of verbal episodic memory, mental processing speed, executive function, and language 3 times, covering a period of 6.5 year…
Time trends, sociodemographic and health factors associated with discharge and length of stay of hospitalised patients with sickle cell disease in Ghana: a retrospective analysis of national routine health database
ObjectivePatients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are prone to multiple episodes resulting in frequent hospital visits. We determined the time trends, sociodemographic and health factors associated with length of stay (LoS) for patients with SCD in Ghana.Design, participants, settingWe retrospectively analysed SCD hospitalisation records of 22 680 patients from a nationwide database of the Ghana Health Service from 2012 to 2017.Outcome measuresFactors associated with LoS were estimated using Cox regression, while the cumulative incidence of being discharged alive was estimated with in-hospital death as a competing risk.ResultsPatients admitted for SCD over 6 years constituted 22 680 (0.8%) o…
Long-term Oncologic Outcome After Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery for Rectal Carcinoma
Transanal endoscopic microsurgery is superior to other methods of local excision of rectal cancer, but few studies report long-term follow-up data.This study investigated the use of transanal endoscopic microsurgery alone as curative and compromise therapy based on long-term disease recurrence and mortality.This was a retrospective review of prospectively collected data.The study was conducted at a tertiary care university medical center.The study included 133 patients treated between 1985 and 2007. There were 3 groups, including transanal endoscopic microsurgery in curative intent (low-risk rectal carcinoma, including pT1, G1/2, L0, and LX with clear margins and a minimal distance between …