Academic literature on the topic 'Diabetes Pacific Area; Epidemiology'

Introduction: Neuromelioidosis is a rare complication of melioidosis caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative bacterium commonly found in soil and surface water. Although cerebral involvement of melioidosis comprises only 4% of total complications, it significantly impacts mortality and morbidity. This study aims to perform a systematic review on various neurological complications of melioidosis in the Asia-Pacific region within the previous 5 years. Method: Systematic search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science databases and Google Scholar on neuromelioidosis complications published from 2015-2019. Results: Central nervous system (CNS) complications comprise 5% of all cases of melioidosis. 16 selected articles were analysed based on its risk factors like diabetes mellitus, chronic renal and lung disease, alcohol abuse, and immunosuppression. Neuromelioidosis is detected 6-14 days after the first presentation and confirmed by detailed investigations. Radioimaging helps to differentiate neuromelioidosis from other diagnoses such as meningitis or brain abscess. The majority of literature recommended 2-week intensive Ceftazidime or Meropenem therapy, followed by 3–6 months Trimethoprim and Sulfamethoxazole oral eradication therapy. Conclusion: Neuromelioidosis is rare, with relatively nonspecific CNS clinical features. Patients or travelers from endemic areas with risk factors should be treated cautiously. Radioimaging modalities aid early microbiological sampling and appropriate antibiotic therapy.

Introduction. Melioidosis is a severe infection disease with the high mortality rate due to saprophytic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. For the time present, the area of the distribution of the pathogen is much wider than in the case of the traditionally endemic Southeast Asia and Northern Australia and covers the humid tropics and subtropics of all continents. Methods. The search for data and analysis of disease cases in non-endemic areas for the period from 2003 to April 2017. Results. Over the past 15 years, 120 cases of melioidosis in non-endemic countries were described, that is 5,5 times higher than in the same previous period. There is no direct dependence of infection probability on the age and risk factors, but the presence of diabetes or chronic diseases doubles the risk of a fatal outcome of melioidosis. Southeast Asia still prevails as the origin of infection (62.5% of cases), however, the number of imported cases of melioidosis from Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, East Africa, Madagascar, China and the Pacific region begins to increase.

Introduction. Melioidosis is a severe infection disease with the high mortality rate due to saprophytic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. For the time present, the area of the distribution of the pathogen is much wider than in the case of the traditionally endemic Southeast Asia and Northern Australia and covers the humid tropics and subtropics of all continents. Methods. The search for data and analysis of disease cases in non-endemic areas for the period from 2003 to April 2017. Results. Over the past 15 years, 120 cases of melioidosis in non-endemic countries were described, that is 5,5 times higher than in the same previous period. There is no direct dependence of infection probability on the age and risk factors, but the presence of diabetes or chronic diseases doubles the risk of a fatal outcome of melioidosis. Southeast Asia still prevails as the origin of infection (62.5% of cases), however, the number of imported cases of melioidosis from Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, East Africa, Madagascar, China and the Pacific region begins to increase.

ObjectivesIn 2019, under the World Kidney Day theme of ‘Kidney health for everyone everywhere’, the National Kidney Foundation of Samoa undertook an extensive community screening campaign to detect the estimated prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated risk factors in the community.SettingFifteen screening sites, with 11 urban and rural sites on the main island of Upolu, and 4 in different rural areas on the island of Savaii.ParticipantsAll participants were self-referrals to the various screening sites. In total, 1163 Samoans were screened, with similar numbers from both urban and rural areas and similar numbers of female and male.Screening activitiesAll participants were screened for CKD using point of care serum creatinine determinations, with calculation of estimated glomerular filtration rate using the CKD-EPI formula and dipstix urinalysis. A standardised screening survey was used to capture demographic and medical history with associated risk factors of obesity, diabetes, using point of care determination of HbA1c and hypertension. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association of CKD with risk factors.ResultsIn total, 1163 people were screened for CKD within the month of March 2019. The prevalance of CKD (grades 1–5) was 44.5% (95% CI 41.6% to 47.4) with individual grade prevalence CKD 1: 3.7%, CKD 2: 6.1%, CKD 3: 30.7%, CKD 4: 2.9% and CKD 5: 1.0%. The prevalence of obesity (body mass index ≥32), diabetes and hypertension was 66.3%, 30.8% and 54.3%, respectively.ConclusionsThis is the first paper to report the estimated prevalence of CKD in Samoa or any other Pacific Island nation. It reveals an urgent need for further studies on the epidemiology of CKD in Samoa, to develop country-specific prevention strategies to mitigate this growing burden and prevent subsequent CKD associated complications including development of kidney failure and premature death.

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Epidemics of chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) are occurring on the Pacific coast of Central America, in Sri Lankan and Indian agricultural communities, and in other hotspots around the world. CKDu primarily affects male agricultural workers, and traditional risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension are not involved in the pathogenesis. Although a causal factor has not yet been identified, culprits include repeated volume depletion-induced kidney injury, as well as exposure to agrichemicals, heavy metals and nephrotoxins contained in drugs, beverages, and traditional medications. Multiple risk factors may interact in a synergistic fashion thus resulting in chronic kidney damage. The absence of undefined protective factors may amplify the risk. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> This review focuses on the current understanding of CKDu by analyzing epidemiology, potential risk factors, and clinical and pathological features as well as geographical peculiarities of each disease. We also focus our attention on the etiology of these conditions in which multiple factors may synergistically contribute to the development and progression of the disease. The last part of the manuscript is dedicated to the research agenda and practical recommendations. <b><i>Key Messages:</i></b> Since renal replacement therapy is not extensively available in areas where CKDu is widespread, prevention by avoiding all known potential risk factors is crucial. Innovative healthcare solutions and social policies in endemic areas along with collaborative clinical research projects are needed to better identify factors involved in disease promotion and progression.

Thyroid disorders are among the most prevalent of medical conditions. Their manifestations vary considerably from area to area and are determined principally by the availability of iodine in the diet. The limitations of epidemiological studies of thyroid disorders should therefore be borne in mind when considering the purported frequency of thyroid diseases in different communities (1). Almost one-third of the world’s population live in areas of iodine deficiency and risk the consequences despite major national and international efforts to increase iodine intake, primarily through the voluntary or mandatory iodization of salt (2). The ideal dietary allowance of iodine recommended by the WHO is 150 μ‎g iodine/day, which increases to 250 μ‎g in pregnancy and 290 μ‎g when lactating. The WHO estimates that two billion people, including 285 million school-age children still have iodine deficiency, defined as a urinary iodine excretion of less than 100 μ‎g/l. This has substantial effects on growth and development and is the most common cause of preventable mental impairment worldwide. In areas where the daily iodine intake is below 50 μ‎g, goitre is usually endemic, and when the daily intake falls below 25 μ‎g, congenital hypothyroidism is seen. The prevalence of goitre in areas of severe iodine deficiency can be as high as 80%. Iodization programmes are of proven value in reducing goitre size and in preventing goitre development and cretinism in children. Goitrogens in the diet, such as thiocyanate in incompletely cooked cassava or thioglucosides in Brassica vegetables, can explain some of the differences in prevalence of endemic goitre in areas with similar degrees of iodine deficiency. Autonomy can develop in nodular goitres leading occasionally to hyperthyroidism, and iodization programmes can also induce hyperthyroidism, especially in those aged over 40 years with nodular goitres. Autoimmune thyroiditis or hypothyroidism has not been reported to complicate salt iodization programmes. Relatively little prevalence data exist for autoimmune thyroid disease in areas of iodine deficiency (3). In iodine-replete areas, most people with thyroid disorders have autoimmune disease, ranging through primary atrophic hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, to hyperthyroidism caused by Graves’ disease. Cross-sectional studies in Europe, the USA, and Japan have determined the prevalence of hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and the frequency and distribution of thyroid autoantibodies in different, mainly white, communities (1, 4–6). Recent US data have revealed differences in the frequency of thyroid dysfunction and serum antithyroid antibody concentrations in different ethnic groups (6), whereas studies from Europe have revealed the influence of dietary iodine intake on the epidemiology of thyroid dysfunction (7). Studies of incidence of autoimmune thyroid disease have only been conducted in a small number of developed countries (8–11). Following a review of the available epidemiological data, the value of screening adult populations for autoimmune thyroid disease will be considered.

Epidemiological research into the health effects of transportation noise has during the last decades focused on investigating effects on the cardiovascular system. These studies have consistently shown that exposure to road traffic and aircraft noise is associated with elevated blood pressure, prevalent arterial hypertension, as well as a higher risk of ischaemic heart disease. Moreover, recent studies have found exposure to road traffic and aircraft noise to be associated with a higher risk for stroke, and possibly atrial fibrillation. Lastly, new studies point towards transportation noise as a risk factor for metabolic disease, showing an association with obesity and development of diabetes. This chapter examines the epidemiological studies within this research area, with a focus on describing the level of evidence for each outcome, the size of the associations, and research gaps.

A cohort study is one in which the outcome (usually disease status) is ascertained for groups of individuals defined on the basis of their exposure. At the time exposure status is determined, all must be free of the disease. All eligible participants are then followed up over time. Since exposure status is determined before the occurrence of the outcome, a cohort study can clarify the temporal sequence between exposure and outcome, with minimal information bias. The historical and the population cohort study (Box 9.1) are efficient variants of the classical cohort study described above, which nevertheless retain the essential components of the cohort study design. The exposure can be dichotomous [i.e. exposed (to obstetric complications at birth) vs. not exposed], or graded as degrees of exposure (e.g. no recent life events, one to two life events, three or more life events). The use of grades of exposure strengthens the results of a cohort study by supporting or refuting the hypothesis that the incidence of the disease increases with increasing exposure to the risk factor; a so-called dose–response relationship. The essential features of a cohort study are: ♦ participants are defined by their exposure status rather than by outcome (as in case–control design); ♦ it is a longitudinal design: exposure status must be ascertained before outcome is known. The classical cohort study In a classical cohort study participants are selected for study on the basis of a single exposure of interest. This might be exposure to a relatively rare occupational exposure, such as ionizing radiation (through working in the nuclear power industry). Care must be taken in selecting the unexposed cohort; perhaps those working in similar industries, but without any exposure to radiation. The outcome in this case might be leukaemia. All those in the exposed and unexposed cohorts would need to be free of leukaemia (hence ‘at risk’) on recruitment into the study. The two cohorts would then be followed up for (say) 10 years and rates at which they develop leukaemia compared directly. Classical cohort studies are rare in psychiatric epidemiology. This may be in part because this type of study is especially suited to occupational exposures, which have previously been relatively little studied as causes of mental illness. However, this may change as the high prevalence of mental disorders in the workplace and their negative impact upon productivity are increasingly recognized. The UK Gulf War Study could be taken as one rather unusual example of the genre (Unwin et al. 1999). Health outcomes, including mental health status, were compared between those who were deployed in the Persian Gulf War in 1990–91, those who were later deployed in Bosnia, and an ‘era control group’ who were serving at the time of the Gulf war but were not deployed. There are two main variations on this classical cohort study design: they are popular as they can, depending on circumstances, be more efficient than the classical cohort design. The population cohort study In the classical cohort study, participants are selected on the basis of exposure, and the hypothesis relates to the effect of this single exposure on a health outcome. However, a large cohort or panel of subjects are sometimes recruited and followed up, often over many years, to study multiple exposures and outcomes. No separate comparison group is required as the comparison group is generally an unexposed sub-group of the panel. Examples include the British Doctor's Study in which over 30,000 British doctors were followed up for over 20 years to study the effects of smoking and other exposures on health (Doll et al. 1994), and the Framingham Heart Study, in which residents of a town in Massachusetts, USA have been followed up for 50 years to study risk factors for coronary heart disease (Wolf et al. 1988). The Whitehall and Whitehall II studies in the UK (Fuhrer et al. 1999; Stansfeld et al. 2002) were based again on an occupationally defined cohort, and have led to important findings concerning workplace conditions and both physical and psychiatric morbidity. Birth cohort studies, in which everyone born within a certain chronological interval are recruited, are another example of this type of study. In birth cohorts, participants are commonly followed up at intervals of 5–10 years. Many recent panel studies in the UK and elsewhere have been funded on condition that investigators archive the data for public access, in order that the dataset might be more fully exploited by the wider academic community. Population cohort studies can test multiple hypotheses, and are far more common than any other type of cohort study. The scope of the study can readily be extended to include mental health outcomes. Thus, both the British Doctor's Study (Doll et al. 2000) and the Framingham Heart Study (Seshadri et al. 2002) have gone on to report on aetiological factors for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease as the cohorts passed into the age groups most at risk for these disorders. A variant of the population cohort study is one in which those who are prevalent cases of the outcome of interest at baseline are also followed up effectively as a separate cohort in order (a) to study the natural history of the disorder by estimating its maintenance (or recovery) rate, and (b) studying risk factors for maintenance (non-recovery) over the follow-up period (Prince et al. 1998). Historical cohort studies In the classical cohort study outcome is ascertained prospectively. Thus, new cases are ascertained over a follow-up period, after the exposure status has been determined. However, it is possible to ascertain both outcome and exposure retrospectively. This variant is referred to as a historical cohort study (Fig. 9.1). A good example is the work of David Barker in testing his low birth weight hypothesis (Barker et al. 1990; Hales et al. 1991). Barker hypothesized that risk for midlife vascular and endocrine disorders would be determined to some extent by the ‘programming’ of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis through foetal growth in utero. Thus ‘small for dates’ babies would have higher blood pressure levels in adult life, and greater risk for type II diabetes (through insulin resistance). A prospective cohort study would have recruited participants at birth, when exposure (birth weight) would be recorded. They would then be followed up over four or five decades to examine the effect of birth weight on the development of hypertension and type II diabetes. Barker took the more elegant (and feasible) approach of identifying hospitals in the UK where several decades previously birth records were meticulously recorded. He then traced the babies as adults (where they still lived in the same area) and measured directly their status with respect to outcome. The ‘prospective’ element of such studies is that exposure was recorded well before outcome even though both were ascertained retrospectively with respect to the timing of the study. The historical cohort study has also proved useful in psychiatric epidemiology where it has been used in particular to test the neurodevelopmental hypothesis for schizophrenia (Jones et al. 1994; Isohanni et al. 2001). Jones et al. studied associations between adult-onset schizophrenia and childhood sociodemographic, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and behavioural factors in the UK 1946 birth cohort; 5362 people born in the week 3–9 March 1946, and followed up intermittently since then. Subsequent onsets of schizophrenia were identified in three ways: (a) routine data: cohort members were linked to the register of the Mental Health Enquiry for England in which mental health service contacts between 1974 and 1986 were recorded; (b) cohort data: hospital and GP contacts (and the reasons for these contacts) were routinely reported at the intermittent resurveys of the cohort; (c) all cohort participants identified as possible cases of schizophrenia were given a detailed clinical interview (Present State examination) at age 36. Milestones of motor development were reached later in cases than in non-cases, particularly walking. Cases also had more speech problems than had noncases. Low educational test scores at ages 8,11, and 15 years were a risk factor. A preference for solitary play at ages 4 and 6 years predicted schizophrenia. A health visitor's rating of the mother as having below average mothering skills and understanding of her child at age 4 years was a predictor of schizophrenia in that child. Jones concluded ‘differences between children destined to develop schizophrenia as adults and the general population were found across a range of developmental domains. As with some other adult illnesses, the origins of schizophrenia may be found in early life’. Jones' findings were largely confirmed in a very similar historical cohort study in Finland (Isohanni et al. 2001); a 31 year follow-up of the 1966 North Finland birth cohort (n = 12,058). Onsets of schizophrenia were ascertained from a national hospital discharge register. The ages at learning to stand, walk and become potty-trained were each related to subsequent incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses. Earlier milestones reduced, and later milestones increased, the risk in a linear manner. These developmental effects were not seen for non-psychotic outcomes. The findings support hypotheses regarding psychosis as having a developmental dimension with precursors apparent in early life. There are many conveniences to this approach for the contemporary investigator. ♦ The exposure data has already been collected for you. ♦ The follow-up period has already elapsed. ♦ The design maintains the essential feature of the cohort study, namely that information bias with respect to the assessment of the exposure should not be a problem. ♦ As with the Barker hypothesis example, historical cohort studies are particularly useful for investigating associations across the life course, when there is a long latency between hypothesized exposure and outcome. Despite these important advantages, such retrospective studies are often limited by reliance on historical data that was collected routinely for other purposes; often these data will be inaccurate or incomplete. Also information about possible confounders, such as smoking or diet, may be inadequate.