PLoS medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Cardiovascular outcomes 50 years after antenatal exposure to betamethasone: Follow-up of a randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Antenatal corticosteroids for women at risk of preterm birth reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality, but there is limited evidence regarding their effects on long-term health. This study assessed cardiovascular outcomes at 50 years after antenatal exposure to corticosteroids. ⋯ There is no evidence that antenatal corticosteroids increase the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors or incidence of cardiovascular events up to 50 years of age. Established benefits of antenatal corticosteroids are not outweighed by an increase in adult cardiovascular disease.
-
Several intergovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization and United Nations, are urging countries to use well-being indicators for policymaking. This trend, coupled with increasing recognition that positive affect is beneficial for health/well-being, opens new avenues for intervening on positive affect to improve outcomes. However, it remains unclear if positive affect in adolescence shapes health/well-being in adulthood. We examined if increases in positive affect during adolescence were associated with better health/well-being in adulthood across 41 outcomes. ⋯ Enhanced positive affect during adolescence is linked with a range of improved health/well-being outcomes in adulthood. These findings suggest the promise of testing scalable positive affect interventions and policies to more definitively assess their impact on outcomes.
-
Acute neurological manifestation is a common complication of acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. This retrospective cohort study investigated the 3-year outcomes of patients with and without significant neurological manifestations during initial COVID-19 hospitalization. ⋯ Patients with COVID-19 with neurological manifestations had worse long-term outcomes compared to matched controls. These findings raise awareness and the need for closer monitoring and timely interventions for patients with COVID-19 with neurological manifestations, as their disease course involving initial neurological manifestations is associated with enhanced morbidity and mortality.
-
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to cause significant hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Its continued burden and the impact of annually reformulated vaccines remain unclear. Here, we present projections of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the United States for the next 2 years under 2 plausible assumptions about immune escape (20% per year and 50% per year) and 3 possible CDC recommendations for the use of annually reformulated vaccines (no recommendation, vaccination for those aged 65 years and over, vaccination for all eligible age groups based on FDA approval). ⋯ COVID-19 is projected to be a significant public health threat over the coming 2 years. Broad vaccination has the potential to substantially reduce the burden of this disease, saving tens of thousands of lives each year.
-
Older adults with diabetes are at high risk of severe hypoglycemia (SH). Many machine-learning (ML) models predict short-term hypoglycemia are not specific for older adults and show poor precision-recall. We aimed to develop a multidimensional, electronic health record (EHR)-based ML model to predict one-year risk of SH requiring hospitalization in older adults with diabetes. ⋯ Our novel-ML model demonstrated good discrimination and high precision in predicting one-year risk of SH requiring hospitalization. This may be integrated into EHR decision support systems for preemptive intervention in older adults at highest risk.