Search results for " quality"
showing 10 items of 3133 documents
The effects of a roundtrip trans-American jet travel on physiological stress, neuromuscular performance, and recovery.
2016
The purpose was to examine the effects of a round trip trans-American jet travel on performance, hormonal alterations, and recovery. Ten matched pairs of recreationally trained men were randomized to either a compression group (COMP) ( n = 10; age: 23.1 ± 2.4 yr; height: 174.8 ± 5.3 cm; body mass: 84.9 ± 10.16 kg; body fat: 15.3 ± 6.0%) or control group (CONT) ( n = 9; age: 23.2 ± 2.3 yr; height: 177.5 ± 6.3 cm; weight: 84.3 ± 8.99 kg; body fat: 15.1 ± 6.4%). Subjects flew directly from Hartford, CT to Los Angeles, CA 1 day before a simulated sport competition (SSC) designed to create muscle damage and returned the next morning on an overnight flight back home. Both groups demonstrated jet…
Ten-year follow-up of health-related quality of life among ambulatory persons with multiple sclerosis at baseline
2016
Purpose The aim of this 10-year follow-up study was to determine changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over time among ambulatory persons with MS (PwMS) at the baseline using generic and disease-specific instruments. Methods Of 109 independently walking PwMS included in a population-based study in 2002, 77 (70.6 %) were re-assessed in 2012. HRQoL was captured using the 36-Item Short Form Survey Instrument (RAND-36), 15D instrument (15D), and the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54). Repeated-measures ANOVA and effect size (ES) calculations (Cohen’s d) were used in the statistical analysis. Results The RAND-36 physical health composite score (p = 0.003, ES = 0.26) and…
"Baseline physical functioning status of metastatic colorectal cancer patients predicts the overall survival but not the activity of a front-line oxa…
2010
BACKGROUND: No differences in response rate (RR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and quality of life (QoL) were seen in patients randomly treated with biweekly oxaliplatin plus either fluorouracil/folinic acid or capecitabine. METHODS: We investigated the independent effect of baseline clinical characteristics and physical functioning (PF) domain on RR, PFS, and OS in 310 patients who completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Multivariate analyses stratified by treatment were performed. An exploratory analysis was done by grouping patients with a PF score superior or equal to the highest quartile (n = 111), included between the highest and the lowest quartiles (n = …
An observational study to evaluate the long-term outcomes of treatment with etanercept in patients with plaque-type psoriasis
2015
Background There is an unmet need for long-term, real-life data on the effect of a drug-free interval between treatment cycles in patients with plaque psoriasis being treated with etanercept, which is licensed for intermittent and continuous treatment. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the average duration of the drug-free interval between etanercept treatment cycles in patients with plaque psoriasis. Methods This was a non-interventional, open-label, multicentre, prospective study in patients for whom the decision had already been made to initiate treatment with etanercept during routine practice in German centres. Clinical outcomes were documented over 36 months with study …
Female obesity impairs in vitro fertilization outcome without affecting embryo quality.
2008
Objective To compare embryo quality and reproductive outcome in our IVF program according to the women's body mass index (BMI). Design Retrospective study. Setting University-affiliated infertility clinic, between January 2001 and April 2007. Patient(s) Women undergoing a total of 6,500 IVF–intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. Intervention(s) Six thousand five hundred IVF-ICSI cycles were included and divided into four groups: lean ( 2 ; n=1,070; 16.5%); normal (20–24.9 kg/m 2 ; n=3,930; 60.5%); overweight (25–29.9 kg/m 2 ; n=1,081; 16.6%); and obese (≥30 kg/m 2 ; n=419; 6.4%). Main Outcome Measure(s) Comparison of embryo quality and reproductive outcome (implantation, pregnancy,…
RhinAsthma patient perspective: a short daily asthma and rhinitis QoL assessment.
2012
Background The present study aimed to develop a short validated patient-completed questionnaire, the RhinAsthma Patient Perspective (RAPP), to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with asthma and comorbid allergic rhinitis in clinical practice. Methods A provisional RAPP questionnaire was formed from candidate items identified through retrospective analysis of 333 RHINASTHMA questionnaires. This was then tested on 150 asthma patients with allergic rhinitis. Results Psychometric analyses identified eight items fitting a unidimensional model to form RAPP. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient > 0.8) and agreement with RHINASTHMA (r = −0.31, P = 0.0001) we…
Automatic SCSB analysis of motor and autonomic nervous functions compared with sleep stages
1996
All-night recordings of respiration, ballistocardiogram, and body movements were obtained using the static charge-sensitive bed (SCSB) and automatically analysed data were compared with sleep stages. The mean sum of eight SCSB variability parameters was lowest in slow wave sleep (SWS), higher during stage 2 (S2), and highest in REM sleep. The sum scores of the parameters with the highest correlations with the EEG data were classified into quiet (QS), intermediate (IS) and active (AS) states. SCSB signals during wakefulness, stage 1 and REM sleep were mostly scored as AS, whereas in S2 and especially in SWS they were scored as QS or IS. The SCSB is an easy and inexpensive tool for conducting…
Sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures in shift-working long-haul truck drivers
2015
Driver sleepiness is a prevalent phenomenon among professional drivers working unconventional and irregular hours. For compromising occupational and traffic safety, sleepiness has become one of the major conundrums of road transportation. To further elucidate the phenomenon, an on-road study canvassing the under-explored relationship between working hours and sleepiness, sleep, and use of sleepiness countermeasures during and outside statutory rest breaks was conducted. Testing the association between the outcomes and working hours, generalized estimating equations models were fitted on a data collected from 54 long-haul truck drivers (mean 38.1 ± 10.5 years, one female) volunteering in the…
Left-hemispheric dominance for articulation: a prospective study on acute ischaemic dysarthria at different localizations.
2006
Dysarthria is a frequent symptom in cerebral ischaemia. However, speech characteristics of these patients have not previously been investigated in relation to lesion site in a prospective study. We investigated the auditory perceptual features in 62 consecutive patients with dysarthria due to a single, non-space-occupying cerebral infarction confirmed by MRI. Standardized speech samples of all patients were stored within 72 h after stroke onset using a digital tape recorder. Speech samples were assessed independently by two experienced speech therapists, who were unaware of the clinical and neuroradiological findings, using an interval scale ranging from 0 to 6. Separately assessed were fea…
Combined Strength and Endurance Training Improves Health-Related Quality of Life in Healthy Middle-Aged and Older Adults
2012
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 21 weeks of strength and/or endurance training on health related quality of life (HRQoL) in 39-77 year-old healthy subjects. 108 men and 96 women were randomized into endurance, strength, or combined training groups and controls. Strength-group performed high-intensity strength training while endurance-group performed cycle training. Combined-group completed both training protocols. Leg extension strength and maximal oxygen uptake were measured. HRQoL was assessed with a Finnish version of SF-36 questionnaire. A significant training-induced difference was observed between groups (p=0.038) in the vitality dimension of HRQoL, which was …