Search results for "disease cluster"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Determinants of between-hospital variations in outcomes for patients admitted with COPD exacerbations: findings from a nationwide clinical audit (AUD…
2015
Background Previous studies have demonstrated significant variability in the processes of care and outcomes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. The AUDIPOC is a Spanish nationwide clinical audit that identified large between-hospital variations in care and clinical outcomes. Here, we test the hypothesis that these variations can be attributed to either patient characteristics, hospital characteristics and/or the so-called hospital-clustering effect, which indicates that patients with similar characteristics may experience different processes of care and outcomes depending on the hospital to which they are admitted. Methods A clinical audit of 5178 COPD patients co…
Statistical power of disease cluster and clustering tests for rare diseases: A simulation study of point sources
2012
Abstract Two recent epidemiological studies on clustering of childhood leukemia showed different results on the statistical power of disease cluster and clustering tests, possibly an effect of spatial data aggregation. Eight different leukemia cluster scenarios were simulated using individual addresses of all 1,009,332 children living in Denmark in 2006. For each scenario, a number of point sources were defined with an increased risk ratio at centroid, decreasing linearly to 1.0 at the edge; aggregation levels were administrative units of Danish municipalities and squares of 5, 12.5 and 25 km 2 . Six statistical methods were compared. Generally, statistical power decreased with increasing s…
A Full-Scale Agent-Based Model to Hypothetically Explore the Impact of Lockdown, Social Distancing, and Vaccination During the COVID-19 Pandemic in L…
2021
Background The COVID-19 outbreak, an event of global concern, has provided scientists the opportunity to use mathematical modeling to run simulations and test theories about the pandemic. Objective The aim of this study was to propose a full-scale individual-based model of the COVID-19 outbreak in Lombardy, Italy, to test various scenarios pertaining to the pandemic and achieve novel performance metrics. Methods The model was designed to simulate all 10 million inhabitants of Lombardy person by person via a simple agent-based approach using a commercial computer. In order to obtain performance data, a collision detection model was developed to enable cluster nodes in small cells that can b…
Redox Regulation of Metabolic Syndrome: From Biochemical Mechanisms to Nutritional Interventions.
2021
According to its “harmonized” definition, metabolic syndrome (MetS) is described as a cluster of metabolic factors that increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes (DM) and associated morbidities such as dementia [...]
Preclinical carotid atherosclerosis enhances the global cardiovascular risk and increases the rate of cerebro- and cardiovascular events in a five-ye…
2009
AIM: To evaluate if the intima-media thickening (IMT) and asymptomatic carotid plaque (ACP), as expression of carotid preclinical atherosclerosis (pre-ATS), can provide further information on the global cardiovascular risk (GCVR). METHODS: We studied 454 asymptomatic subjects, with a cluster of risk factors (RF), and evaluated the incidence of a first cardiovascular (CV) event in a five-year follow-up. The subjects at admission were subdivided in three groups of risk. RESULTS: Events occurred in 38% of subjects at high risk, in 13% and 6% of subjects at intermediate and low risk (p<0.003). Among evaluated parameters, carotid pre-ATS was a predictive marker of CV events (OR 2.7, 95% IC 1.4-5…
Emotions and visitors’ satisfaction at a museum
2014
Purpose – This research aims to investigate whether emotions can be considered as a suitable variable to segment visitors at a museum. Furthermore, it seeks to analyse whether emotions influence visitor satisfaction and whether this depends on objective variables (such as age, gender and level of education) or not. Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire was developed and data were collected at the National Museum of Archaeology “G.A. Sanna” in Sardinia (Italy) via 410 face-to-face interviews. Hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses and a series of chi-squared tests were run for the purpose of the study. Findings – Two segments were identified. The cluster with …
In-hospital death and adverse clinical events in elderly patients according to disease clustering: The REPOSI study
2010
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to recognize clusters of diseases among hospitalized elderly and to identify groups of patients at risk of in-hospital death and adverse clinical events according to disease clustering. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 38 internal medicine and geriatric wards in Italy participating in the Registro Politerapie SIMI (REPOSI) study during 2008. The subjects were 1,332 inpatients aged 65 years or older. Clusters of diseases (i.e., two or more co-occurrent diseases) were identified using the odds ratios (OR) for the associations between pairs of conditions, followed by cluster analysis. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the …
COVID-19 and globalization
2020
The world is experiencing a major pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus causing COVID-19. This disease first entered the human population in Hubei province, China, in mid-November 2019 and manifested in Wuhan, the largest metropolitan area of Hubei, when a cluster of patients were admitted to hospital with a ‘severe pneumonia of unknown cause’ in early December. Although humanity has survived previous pandemics by infectious agents, the present one is unprecedented in its capacity to take advantage of modern globalization allowing for massive transborder spread at a surprising speed. When writing these lines, the pandemic affects 181 countries and territories, with around 1,084,000…
A Bayesian unified framework for risk estimation and cluster identification in small area health data analysis.
2020
Many statistical models have been proposed to analyse small area disease data with the aim of describing spatial variation in disease risk. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian hierarchical model that simultaneously allows for risk estimation and cluster identification. Our model formulation assumes that there is an unknown number of risk classes and small areas are assigned to a risk class by means of independent allocation variables. Therefore, areas within each cluster are assumed to share a common risk but they may be geographically separated. The posterior distribution of the parameter representing the number of risk classes is estimated using a novel procedure that combines its prior …
Association Between Clinical and Microbiologic Cluster Profiles and Peri-implantitis
2017
Purpose: The correlation between associated local factors and peri-implantitis remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the clinical and microbiologic profiles and periimplantitis to eventually categorize different groups of this disease. Materials and Methods: Subjects with at least one implant presenting signs of peri-implantitis were selected. The clinical, radiographic, occlusal, and microbiologic profiles of these infected implants were collected. Cases were classified into five peri-implantitis groups according to potential disease-triggering factors: surgically, prosthetically, biomechanically, purely plaque-associated, and a combination of th…