Articles

Building a learning community of Australian clinical genomics: a social network study of the Australian Genomic Health Alliance

Adopting clinical genomics represents a major systems-level intervention requiring diverse expertise and collective learning. The Australian Genomic Health Alliance (Australian Genomics) is strategically linki...

Authors: Janet C. Long, Chiara Pomare, Stephanie Best, Tiffany Boughtwood, Kathryn North, Louise A. Ellis, Kate Churruca and Jeffrey Braithwaite

HBV vaccination and PMTCT as elimination tools in the presence of HIV: insights from a clinical cohort and dynamic model

Sustainable Development Goals set a challenge for the elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection as a public health concern by the year 2030. Deployment of a robust prophylactic vaccine and enhanced inte...

Authors: Anna L. McNaughton, José Lourenço, Louise Hattingh, Emily Adland, Samantha Daniels, Anriette Van Zyl, Connie S. Akiror, Susan Wareing, Katie Jeffery, M. Azim Ansari, Paul Klenerman, Philip J. R. Goulder, Sunetra Gupta, Pieter Jooste and Philippa C. Matthews

Cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide protects against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury

Cathelicidins are a major group of natural antimicrobial peptides which play essential roles in regulating host defense and immunity. In addition to the antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities, recent st...

Authors: Yihua Bei, Li-Long Pan, Qiulian Zhou, Cuimei Zhao, Yuan Xie, Chengfei Wu, Xiangmin Meng, Huanyu Gu, Jiahong Xu, Lei Zhou, Joost P. G. Sluijter, Saumya Das, Birgitta Agerberth, Jia Sun and Junjie Xiao

Factors associated with requesting and receiving euthanasia: a nationwide mortality follow-back study with a focus on patients with psychiatric disorders, dementia, or an accumulation of health problems related to old age

Recently, euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) in patients with psychiatric disorders, dementia, or an accumulation of health problems has taken a prominent place in the public debate. However, limited is kno...

Authors: Kirsten Evenblij, H. Roeline W. Pasman, Agnes van der Heide, Trynke Hoekstra and Bregje D. Onwuteaka-Philipsen

Thymic size is increased by infancy, but not pregnancy, nutritional supplementation in rural Gambian children: a randomized clinical trial

Thymic size in early infancy predicts subsequent survival in low-income settings. The human thymus develops from early gestation, is most active in early life and is highly sensitive to malnutrition. Our objec...

Authors: Sophie E. Moore, Anthony J. C. Fulford, Fatou Sosseh, Patrick Nshe, Momodou K. Darboe and Andrew M. Prentice

Correction to: A randomised controlled trial of a mitochondrial therapeutic target for bipolar depression: mitochondrial agents, N-acetylcysteine, and placebo

The original article [1] contained two minor errors.

Authors: Michael Berk, Alyna Turner, Gin S. Malhi, Chee H. Ng, Susan M. Cotton, Seetal Dodd, Yuval Samuni, Michelle Tanious, Claire McAulay, Nathan Dowling, Jerome Sarris, Lauren Owen, Astrid Waterdrinker, Deidre Smith and Olivia M. Dean

A systematic review of multi-level stigma interventions: state of the science and future directions

Researchers have long recognized that stigma is a global, multi-level phenomenon requiring intervention approaches that target multiple levels including individual, interpersonal, community, and structural lev...

Authors: Deepa Rao, Ahmed Elshafei, Minh Nguyen, Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, Sarah Frey and Vivian F. Go

Advancing health equity through cross-cutting approaches to health-related stigma

Health-related stigma remains a major barrier to improving health and well-being for vulnerable populations around the world. This collection on stigma research and global health emerged largely as a result of...

Authors: Gretchen L. Birbeck, Virginia Bond, Valerie Earnshaw and Musah Lumumba El-Nasoor

Participatory praxis as an imperative for health-related stigma research

Participatory praxis is increasingly valued for the reliability, validity, and relevance of research results that it fosters. Participatory methods become an imperative in health-related stigma research, where...

Authors: Laurel Sprague, Rima Afifi, George Ayala and Musah Lumumba El-nasoor

The Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework: a global, crosscutting framework to inform research, intervention development, and policy on health-related stigmas

Stigma is a well-documented barrier to health seeking behavior, engagement in care and adherence to treatment across a range of health conditions globally. In order to halt the stigmatization process and mitig...

Authors: Anne L. Stangl, Valerie A. Earnshaw, Carmen H. Logie, Wim van Brakel, Leickness C. Simbayi, Iman Barré and John F. Dovidio

Stigma in health facilities: why it matters and how we can change it

Stigma in health facilities undermines diagnosis, treatment, and successful health outcomes. Addressing stigma is fundamental to delivering quality healthcare and achieving optimal health. This correspondence ...

Authors: Laura Nyblade, Melissa A. Stockton, Kayla Giger, Virginia Bond, Maria L. Ekstrand, Roger Mc Lean, Ellen M. H. Mitchell, La Ron E. Nelson, Jaime C. Sapag, Taweesap Siraprapasiri, Janet Turan and Edwin Wouters

A scoping review of health-related stigma outcomes for high-burden diseases in low- and middle-income countries

Stigma is associated with health conditions that drive disease burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including HIV, tuberculosis, mental health problems, epilepsy, and substance use disorders. Ho...

Authors: Jeremy C. Kane, Melissa A. Elafros, Sarah M. Murray, Ellen M. H. Mitchell, Jura L. Augustinavicius, Sara Causevic and Stefan D. Baral

Out of the silos: identifying cross-cutting features of health-related stigma to advance measurement and intervention

Many health conditions perceived to be contagious, dangerous or incurable, or resulting in clearly visible signs, share a common attribute – an association with stigma and discrimination. While the etiology of...

Authors: Wim H. van Brakel, Janine Cataldo, Sandeep Grover, Brandon A. Kohrt, Laura Nyblade, Melissa Stockton, Edwin Wouters and Lawrence H. Yang

Challenges and opportunities in examining and addressing intersectional stigma and health

‘Intersectional stigma’ is a concept that has emerged to characterize the convergence of multiple stigmatized identities within a person or group, and to address their joint effects on health and wellbeing. Wh...

Authors: Janet M. Turan, Melissa A. Elafros, Carmen H. Logie, Swagata Banik, Bulent Turan, Kaylee B. Crockett, Bernice Pescosolido and Sarah M. Murray

Implementation science and stigma reduction interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Interventions to alleviate stigma are demonstrating effectiveness across a range of conditions, though few move beyond the pilot phase, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Implementation sc...

Authors: Christopher G. Kemp, Brooke A. Jarrett, Churl-Su Kwon, Lanxin Song, Nathalie Jetté, Jaime C. Sapag, Judith Bass, Laura Murray, Deepa Rao and Stefan Baral

High-throughput, non-invasive prenatal testing for fetal rhesus D status in RhD-negative women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

High-throughput non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for fetal Rhesus D (RhD) status could avoid unnecessary treatment with anti-D immunoglobulin for RhD-negative women found to be carrying an RhD-negative fet...

Authors: Huiqin Yang, Alexis Llewellyn, Ruth Walker, Melissa Harden, Pedro Saramago, Susan Griffin and Mark Simmonds

Disaggregating catastrophic health expenditure by disease area: cross-country estimates based on the World Health Surveys

Financial risk protection (FRP) is a key objective of national health systems and a core pillar of universal health coverage (UHC). Yet, little is known about the disease-specific distribution of catastrophic ...

Authors: Annie Haakenstad, Matthew Coates, Andrew Marx, Gene Bukhman and Stéphane Verguet

Leukemia relapse after transplantation – a consensus on monitoring, prevention, and treatment in China

Authors: Huichun Zhan

Does regulation increase the rate at which doctors leave practice? Analysis of routine hospital data in the English NHS following the introduction of medical revalidation

In 2012, the UK introduced medical revalidation, whereby to retain their licence all doctors are required to show periodically that they are up to date and fit to practise medicine. Early reports suggested tha...

Authors: Nils Gutacker, Karen Bloor, Chris Bojke, Julian Archer and Kieran Walshe

On the estimation of population cause-specific mortality fractions from in-hospital deaths

Almost all countries without complete vital registration systems have data on deaths collected by hospitals. However, these data have not been widely used to estimate cause of death (COD) patterns in populatio...

Authors: Gail M. Williams, Ian Douglas Riley, Riley H. Hazard, Hafizur R. Chowhury, Nurul Alam, Peter Kim Streafield, Veronica Tallo, Diozele Sanvictores, Marilla Lucero, Tim Adair and Alan D. Lopez

Deferred and referred deliveries contribute to stillbirths in the Indian state of Bihar: results from a population-based survey of all births

The India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) aims for < 10 stillbirths per 1000 births by 2030. A population-based understanding of risk factors for stillbirths compared with live births that could assist with reducti...

Authors: Rakhi Dandona, G. Anil Kumar, Md. Akbar, Debarshi Bhattacharya, Priya Nanda and Lalit Dandona

Prenatal cadmium exposure is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length in Chinese newborns

Newborn telomere length (TL) is considered a potential marker for future disease and lifelong health, but few epidemiological studies have examined the determinants of TL in early life. The study aim was to in...

Authors: Lina Zhang, Lulu Song, Bingqing Liu, Mingyang Wu, Lulin Wang, Bin Zhang, Chao Xiong, Wei Xia, Yuanyuan Li, Zhongqiang Cao, Youjie Wang and Shunqing Xu

Adverse events and nocebo phenomena: treatment or disease specific?

Authors: Panagiotis Zis and Panagiota Sykioti

The potential impact and cost-effectiveness of tobacco reduction strategies for tuberculosis prevention in Canadian Inuit communities

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant public health problem in Canadian Inuit communities. In 2016, Canadian Inuit had an incidence rate 35 times the Canadian average. Tobacco use is an important risk factor...

Authors: Dieynaba S. N’Diaye, Ntwali Placide Nsengiyumva, Aashna Uppal, Olivia Oxlade, Gonzalo G. Alvarez and Kevin Schwartzman

Are China’s oldest-old living longer with less disability? A longitudinal modeling analysis of birth cohorts born 10 years apart

China has transitioned from being one of the fastest-growing populations to among the most rapidly aging countries worldwide. In particular, the population of oldest-old individuals, those aged 80+, is project...

Authors: Zuyun Liu, Ling Han, Qiushi Feng, Matthew E. Dupre, Danan Gu, Heather G. Allore, Thomas M. Gill and Collin F. Payne

Discontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy among breast cancer patients not previously attending mammography screening

Breast cancer patients who have not previously attended mammography screening may be more likely to discontinue adjuvant hormone therapy and therefore have a worse disease prognosis.

Authors: Wei He, Louise Eriksson, Sven Törnberg, Fredrik Strand, Per Hall and Kamila Czene

Antibody responses to merozoite antigens after natural Plasmodium falciparum infection: kinetics and longevity in absence of re-exposure

Antibodies against merozoite antigens are key components of malaria immunity. The naturally acquired antibody response to these antigens is generally considered short-lived; however, the underlying mechanisms ...

Authors: Victor Yman, Michael T. White, Muhammad Asghar, Christopher Sundling, Klara Sondén, Simon J. Draper, Faith H. A. Osier and Anna Färnert

Disparities in access to diagnosis and care in Blantyre, Malawi, identified through enhanced tuberculosis surveillance and spatial analysis

A sizeable fraction of tuberculosis (TB) cases go undiagnosed. By analysing data from enhanced demographic, microbiological and geospatial surveillance of TB registrations, we aimed to identify modifiable pred...

Authors: Peter MacPherson, McEwen Khundi, Marriott Nliwasa, Augustine T. Choko, Vincent K. Phiri, Emily L. Webb, Peter J. Dodd, Ted Cohen, Rebecca Harris and Elizabeth L. Corbett

Mortality after inpatient treatment for diarrhea in children: a cohort study

There is an increasing recognition that children remain at elevated risk of death following discharge from health facilities in resource-poor settings. Diarrhea has previously been highlighted as a risk factor...

Authors: Alison Talbert, Moses Ngari, Evasius Bauni, Martha Mwangome, Neema Mturi, Mark Otiende, Kathryn Maitland, Judd Walson and James A. Berkley

A randomised controlled trial of a mitochondrial therapeutic target for bipolar depression: mitochondrial agents, N-acetylcysteine, and placebo

A phasic dysregulation of mitochondrial bioenergetics may operate in bipolar disorder, increased in mania and decreased in depression. We aimed to examine efficacy of two add-on treatments in bipolar depression:

Authors: Michael Berk, Alyna Turner, Gin S. Malhi, Chee H. Ng, Susan M. Cotton, Seetal Dodd, Yuval Samuni, Michelle Tanious, Claire McAulay, Nathan Dowling, Jerome Sarris, Lauren Owen, Astrid Waterdrinker, Deidre Smith and Olivia M. Dean

The association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and hepatic steatosis: cross-sectional analysis of two independent studies, the UK Fenland Study and the Swiss CoLaus Study

The risk of hepatic steatosis may be reduced through changes to dietary intakes, but evidence is sparse, especially for dietary patterns including the Mediterranean diet. We investigated the association betwee...

Authors: Saman Khalatbari-Soltani, Fumiaki Imamura, Soren Brage, Emanuella De Lucia Rolfe, Simon J Griffin, Nicholas J Wareham, Pedro Marques-Vidal and Nita G Forouhi

Clinical and economic outcomes of remotely delivered cognitive behaviour therapy versus treatment as usual for repeat unscheduled care users with severe health anxiety: a multicentre randomised controlled trial

It is challenging to engage repeat users of unscheduled healthcare with severe health anxiety in psychological help and high service costs are incurred. We investigated whether clinical and economic outcomes w...

Authors: Richard Morriss, Shireen Patel, Sam Malins, Boliang Guo, Fred Higton, Marilyn James, Mengjun Wu, Paula Brown, Naomi Boycott, Catherine Kaylor-Hughes, Martin Morris, Emma Rowley, Jayne Simpson, David Smart, Michelle Stubley, Joe Kai…

From high to low malaria transmission in Zanzibar—challenges and opportunities to achieve elimination

Substantial global progress in the control of malaria in recent years has led to increased commitment to its potential elimination. Whether this is possible in high transmission areas of sub-Saharan Africa rem...

Authors: A. Björkman, D. Shakely, A. S. Ali, U. Morris, H. Mkali, A. K. Abbas, A-W Al-Mafazy, K. A. Haji, J. Mcha, R. Omar, J. Cook, K. Elfving, M. Petzold, M. C. Sachs, B. Aydin-Schmidt, C. Drakeley…

The effect of a lifestyle intervention in obese pregnant women on gestational metabolic profiles: findings from the UK Pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial (UPBEAT) randomised controlled trial

Pregnancy is associated with widespread change in metabolism, which may be more marked in obese women. Whether lifestyle interventions in obese pregnant women improve pregnancy metabolic profiles remains unkno...

Authors: Harriet L. Mills, Nashita Patel, Sara L. White, Dharmintra Pasupathy, Annette L. Briley, Diana L. Santos Ferreira, Paul T. Seed, Scott M. Nelson, Naveed Sattar, Kate Tilling, Lucilla Poston and Deborah A. Lawlor

The democratization of scientific publishing

Where should I submit my paper? This is a question that young scientists and trainees frequently ask. In this Commentary, we advise on how to make such a decision whilst balancing the risks and benefits. We ar...

Authors: Clare Fiala and Eleftherios P. Diamandis

Association of mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum Kelch13 gene (Pf3D7_1343700) with parasite clearance rates after artemisinin-based treatments—a WWARN individual patient data meta-analysis

Plasmodium falciparum infections with slow parasite clearance following artemisinin-based therapies are widespread in the Greater Mekong Subregion. A molecular marker of the slow clearance phenotype has been iden...

Authors:

Real-world data and the patient perspective: the PROmise of social media?

Understanding the patient perspective is fundamental to delivering patient-centred care. In most healthcare systems, however, patient-reported outcomes are not regularly collected or recorded as part of routin...

Authors: Laura McDonald, Bill Malcolm, Sreeram Ramagopalan and Hayley Syrad

Serious adverse events reported in placebo randomised controlled trials of oral naltrexone: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist used in many different conditions, both licensed and unlicensed. It is used at widely varying doses from 3 to 250 mg. The aim of this review was to extensively evaluate the s...

Authors: Monica Bolton, Alex Hodkinson, Shivani Boda, Alan Mould, Maria Panagioti, Sarah Rhodes, Lisa Riste and Harm van Marwijk

Effects of a lifestyle intervention during pregnancy to prevent excessive gestational weight gain in routine care – the cluster-randomised GeliS trial

Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) leads to obstetric complications, maternal postpartum weight retention and an increased risk of offspring obesity. The GeliS study examines the effect of a lifestyle int...

Authors: Julia Kunath, Julia Günther, Kathrin Rauh, Julia Hoffmann, Lynne Stecher, Eva Rosenfeld, Luzia Kick, Kurt Ulm and Hans Hauner

Morbidity, mortality and missed appointments in healthcare: a national retrospective data linkage study

Recently, studies have examined the underlying patient and practice factors for missed appointments, but less is known about the impact on patient health. People with one or more long-term conditions who fail ...

Authors: Ross McQueenie, David A. Ellis, Alex McConnachie, Philip Wilson and Andrea E. Williamson

The impact of repeated vaccination on influenza vaccine effectiveness: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Conflicting results regarding the impact of repeated vaccination on influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) may cause confusion regarding the benefits of receiving the current season’s vaccine.

Authors: Lauren C. Ramsay, Sarah A. Buchan, Robert G. Stirling, Benjamin J. Cowling, Shuo Feng, Jeffrey C. Kwong and Bryna F. Warshawsky

Safety, activity, and molecular heterogeneity following neoadjuvant non-pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, paclitaxel, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer (Opti-HER HEART): an open-label, single-group, multicenter, phase 2 trial

The Opti-HER HEART trial aimed to optimize activity while minimizing cardiac risk by combining trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and paclitaxel with non-pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in the treatment of HER2-positive...

Authors: Joaquín Gavilá, Mafalda Oliveira, Tomás Pascual, Jose Perez-Garcia, Xavier Gonzàlez, Jordi Canes, Laia Paré, Isabel Calvo, Eva Ciruelos, Montserrat Muñoz, Juan A. Virizuela, Isabel Ruiz, Raquel Andrés, Antonia Perelló, Jerónimo Martínez, Serafín Morales…

HIV-1 molecular transmission clusters in nine European countries and Canada: association with demographic and clinical factors

Knowledge of HIV-1 molecular transmission clusters (MTCs) is important, especially in large-scale datasets, for designing prevention programmes and public health intervention strategies. We used a large-scale ...

Authors: Dimitrios Paraskevis, Apostolos Beloukas, Kostantinos Stasinos, Nikos Pantazis, Carmen de Mendoza, Norbert Bannert, Laurence Meyer, Robert Zangerle, John Gill, Maria Prins, Antonella d’Arminio Montforte, Anne-Marte Bakken Kran, Kholoud Porter and Giota Touloumi

NMR-based metabolomics identifies patients at high risk of death within two years after acute myocardial infarction in the AMI-Florence II cohort

Risk stratification and management of acute myocardial infarction patients continue to be challenging despite considerable efforts made in the last decades by many clinicians and researchers. The aim of this s...

Authors: Alessia Vignoli, Leonardo Tenori, Betti Giusti, Panteleimon G. Takis, Serafina Valente, Nazario Carrabba, Daniela Balzi, Alessandro Barchielli, Niccolò Marchionni, Gian Franco Gensini, Rossella Marcucci, Claudio Luchinat and Anna Maria Gori

The SMILES trial: do undisclosed recruitment practices explain the remarkably large effect?

The SMILES trial showed substantial improvement of depressive symptoms following seven consultations on healthy dieting. The very large effect size on depression reduction seems remarkable and we suggest that ...

Authors: Marc L. Molendijk, Eiko I. Fried and Willem Van der Does

Correction to: Small contribution of gold mines to the ongoing tuberculosis epidemic in South Africa: a modeling-based study

The original article [1] did not contain comprehensive information regarding two authors’ affiliations that may be considered a potential competing interest.

Authors: Stewart T. Chang, Violet N. Chihota, Katherine L. Fielding, Alison D. Grant, Rein M. Houben, Richard G. White, Gavin J. Churchyard, Philip A. Eckhoff and Bradley G. Wagner

Correction to: Mapping malaria by combining parasite genomic and epidemiologic data

The original article [1] contained an error in the presentation of Figure 1; this error has now been rectified and Figure 1 is now presented correctly.

Authors: Amy Wesolowski, Aimee R. Taylor, Hsiao-Han Chang, Robert Verity, Sofonias Tessema, Jeffrey A. Bailey, T. Alex Perkins, Daniel E. Neafsey, Bryan Greenhouse and Caroline O. Buckee

The SMILES trial: an important first step

The SMILES trial was the first intervention study to test dietary improvement as a treatment strategy for depression. Molendijk et al. propose that expectation bias and difficulties with blinding might account...

Authors: Felice N. Jacka, Adrienne O’Neil, Catherine Itsiopoulos, Rachelle Opie, Sue Cotton, Mohammadreza Mohebbi, David Castle, Sarah Dash, Cathrine Mihalopoulos, Mary Lou Chatterton, Laima Brazionis, Olivia M. Dean, Allison Hodge and Michael Berk

Correction to: A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the ‘SMILES’ trial)

The original version of this paper [1] did not specify that a website was used in the final year of recruitment, in addition to the other stated recruitment methods.

Authors: Felice N. Jacka, Adrienne O’Neil, Rachelle Opie, Catherine Itsiopoulos, Sue Cotton, Mohammedreza Mohebbi, David Castle, Sarah Dash, Cathrine Mihalopoulos, Mary Lou Chatterton, Laima Brazionis, Olivia M. Dean, Allison M. Hodge and Michael Berk

Addressing ethnic inequalities in the pathways to care for psychosis

Delays in accessing appropriate care affect patients with most major health conditions, including psychosis. These delays may also be affected by pathways to care. In a recent article in BMC Medicine, Bhui and co...

Authors: James B. Kirkbride