-
Journal of Autism and Developmental... Sep 2023Genetic and environmental risk factors associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) continue to be a focus of research worldwide. Consanguinity, the cultural practice...
PURPOSE
Genetic and environmental risk factors associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) continue to be a focus of research worldwide. Consanguinity, the cultural practice of marrying within a family, is common in cultures and societies of the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia. Consanguinity has been investigated as a risk factor for ASD in a limited number of studies, with mixed results. We employed registry and survey data from Qatar to evaluate the role of consanguinity as a risk factor for ASD.
METHODS
Data were sourced from a national registry and a population-based survey of autism recently conducted in Qatar. We selected a sample of 891 children (mean age: 8.3 years) with (N = 361) or without (N = 530) ASD. Data on consanguinity and covariates were collected through questionnaires and interviews.
RESULTS
The prevalence of consanguinity in the overall sample was 41.2% with no significant difference between cases and controls (42.1% vs 41.3%; p = .836). In adjusted multiple logistic regression analyses, consanguinity was not associated with risk of ASD (aOR = 1.065; 95% CI: .751-1.509; NS).
CONCLUSION
Parental consanguinity was not associated with autism risk in our study. Replication in other populations with high rates of consanguineous unions is recommended.
PubMed: 37751099
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-06137-w -
Cancer Aug 2023A couples' psycho-educational program called Oncofertility! Psycho-Education and Couple Enrichment (O!PEACE) therapy was created and its effect when provided before... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
A couples' psycho-educational program called Oncofertility! Psycho-Education and Couple Enrichment (O!PEACE) therapy was created and its effect when provided before cancer treatment was examined.
METHODS
This multicenter randomized controlled trial with nonmasking, parallel two-group comparison enrolled women aged 20 to 39 years with early-stage breast cancer and their partners. They were randomly assigned to receive O!PEACE (37 couples) or usual care (37 couples). Primary end points were cancer-related posttraumatic stress symptoms, symptoms of depression, and anxiety. Secondary end points were stress-coping strategies, resilience, and marital relationship.
RESULTS
Women receiving psycho-educational therapy had significantly reduced Impact of Event Scale-revised version for Japanese scores (p = .011, η = = .089). For patients with Impact of Event Scale-revised version for Japanese scores at baseline ≥18.27, O!PEACE therapy improved these scores when compared with usual care (U = 172.80, p = .027, r = 0.258). A >5-point reduction was present in 59.3% and 30% of women in the O!PEACE therapy and usual-care groups, respectively. For partners, O!PEACE therapy significantly improved stress-coping strategies (95% CI, -0.60 to -0.05; p = .018, η = = .074) and escape-avoidance marital communication (95% CI, -0.33 to -0.08; p = .001, η = .136). O!PEACE therapy significantly improved the partners' support (95% CI, 0.10-0.50; p = .001, η = .127), the rate of receiving fertility preservation consultations, and knowledge levels.
CONCLUSIONS
O!PEACE therapy before cancer treatment can improve posttraumatic stress symptoms, stress-coping behavior, and marital relationships. Larger sample sizes and longer term follow-up are required.
PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY
A psycho-educational program, the Oncofertility! Psycho-Education and Couple Enrichment (O!PEACE) therapy program was developed and evaluated for women diagnosed with breast cancer and their partners. A multicenter randomized controlled trial showed that the O!PEACE psycho-educational therapy, with only two precancer treatment sessions, can reduce cancer-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and improve oncofertility knowledge and marital relationships in young adult patients with breast cancer. The therapy could also improve stress-coping strategies in marital communications with their partners. Couples may use O!PEACE psycho-educational therapy to consider fertility preservation and improve their psychosocial aspects.
Topics: Humans; Female; Young Adult; Breast Neoplasms; Fertility Preservation; Adaptation, Psychological; Anxiety; Marriage
PubMed: 37082910
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.34796 -
ACS Chemical Biology Oct 2023New technologies are required to combat the challenges faced with manufacturing commercial quantities of oligonucleotide drug substances which are required for treating...
New technologies are required to combat the challenges faced with manufacturing commercial quantities of oligonucleotide drug substances which are required for treating large patient populations. Herein we report a convergent biocatalytic synthesis strategy for an Alnylam model siRNA. The siRNA chemical structure includes several of the unnatural modifications and conjugations typical of siRNA drug substances. Using Almac's 3-2-3-2 hybrid RNA ligase enzyme strategy that sequentially ligates short oligonucleotide fragments (blockmers), the target siRNA was produced to high purity at 1 mM concentration. Additional strategies were investigated including the use of polynucleotide kinase phosphorylation and the use of crude blockmer starting materials without chromatographic purification. These findings highlight a path toward a convergent synthesis of siRNAs for large-scale manufacture marrying both enzymatic liquid and classical solid-phase synthesis.
Topics: Humans; RNA, Small Interfering; Biocatalysis; Oligonucleotides; Phosphorylation
PubMed: 37061926
DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.3c00071 -
Cureus Dec 2023Background There are multiple studies that indicate that the psychological well-being of a couple and their life satisfaction depend on the family and society. Various...
Background There are multiple studies that indicate that the psychological well-being of a couple and their life satisfaction depend on the family and society. Various factors such as family, family values, marriage style, married life, and education have a great impact on people's lives both directly and indirectly. It is important to understand the effects of these factors on married individuals' lives that lead to depression so that appropriate measures can be taken for its prevention. Objectives This research aims to find the relationship of depressive symptoms among married individuals with various factors such as their marriage style, education, and having children. Materials and methods The study included 433 married individuals from Istanbul who met the criteria for depression. The early identification and prediction of depression in married individuals have been demonstrated to benefit significantly from machine learning techniques. In this study, we used decision tree (DT) and random forest (RF) predictive modeling techniques to create a model to predict the occurrence of depression among married individuals. Results The accuracy of the DT approach was found to be 80%, and the RF approach was 60%. Our results showed that as compared to conventional statistical methods, machine learning models performed better for classifying couples. Conclusion Future support systems that employ a range of data sources to identify individuals who are extremely susceptible to developing depression among married people may be developed using these effective models.
PubMed: 38161543
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.49797 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Feb 2024While modern family-related ideas and behaviors have become more widely accepted in contemporary China, Chinese Muslim minorities continue to hold on to traditional...
While modern family-related ideas and behaviors have become more widely accepted in contemporary China, Chinese Muslim minorities continue to hold on to traditional religious practices. Surprisingly, data from our survey conducted in Gansu province in China's northwestern borderlands reveal that Muslims of the Hui and Dongxiang ethnicities reported much higher rates of cohabitation experience than the secular majority Han. Based on follow-up qualitative interviews, we found the answer to lie in the interplay between the highly interventionist Chinese state and the robust cultural resilience of local Islamic communities. While the state maintains a high minimum legal age of marriage, the early marriage norm remains strong in Chinese Muslim communities, where religion constitutes an alternative and often more powerful source of legitimacy-at least in the private sphere of life. Using the 2000 census data, we further show that women in almost all 10 Muslim ethnic groups have higher percentages of underage births and premarital births than Han women, both nationally and in the northwest where most Chinese Muslims live. As the once-outlawed behavior of cohabitation became more socially acceptable during the reform and opening-up era, young Muslim Chinese often found themselves in "arranged cohabitations" as de facto marriages formed at younger-than-legal ages. In doing so, Chinese Muslim communities have reinvented the meaning of cohabitation. Rather than liberal intimate relationship based on individual autonomy, cohabitation has served as a coping strategy by which Islamic patriarchs circumvent the Chinese state's aggressive regulations aimed at "modernizing" the Muslim family.
Topics: Female; Humans; Asian People; China; Ethnicity; Islam; Sexual Behavior; Marriage; Culture
PubMed: 38346203
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317704121 -
Studies in Family Planning Sep 2023Eliminating child marriage is seen by policy makers and advocates as a path toward reducing births to girls below age 18, as most early births have been previously found...
Eliminating child marriage is seen by policy makers and advocates as a path toward reducing births to girls below age 18, as most early births have been previously found to occur within marriage. There has been little recent evidence, however, of the marital context in which early childbearing occurs or how this relationship varies across space and levels of development. Using survey and vital registration data covering approximately 95 percent of the world's births to mothers younger than 18 years, we estimated the share of first births that occur within marriage at the global, regional and national levels. We found that more than half of births to mothers below age 18 worldwide take place in sub-Saharan Africa, and this share will continue to grow. Globally, 76 percent of first births to mothers below age 18 occur within marriage and there are large regional differences. Over the past two decades, the share of first births to mothers below age 18 occurring within marriage declined in most countries with data available, but there are important exceptions. Although most first births to women below age 18 occur following seven months of marriage, the sequencing of child marriage and early childbearing varies widely across countries.
Topics: Female; Child; Humans; Adolescent; Marriage; Africa South of the Sahara; Fertility
PubMed: 37408105
DOI: 10.1111/sifp.12243 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jul 2023Trends in life expectancy and marriage patterns work together to determine expected lifetime years married. In 1880, adult life expectancy was short and marriages were...
Trends in life expectancy and marriage patterns work together to determine expected lifetime years married. In 1880, adult life expectancy was short and marriages were more likely to end by death than divorce. Since then, although there have been substantial life expectancy gains in adulthood, marriage has been increasingly delayed or forgone and cohabitation and divorce are far more prevalent. Whether adults today can expect to spend more or fewer years married than in the past depends on the relative magnitude of changes in mortality and marriage. We estimate trends in men's expected lifetime years married (and in other marital statuses) from 1880 to 2019 and by bachelor's degree (BA) status from 1960 to 2019. Our results show a rise in men's expected lifetime years married between 1880 and the Baby Boom era and a subsequent fall. There are large and growing differences by BA status. Men with a BA have had high and relatively stable expected lifetime years married since 1960. For men without a BA, expected lifetime years married has plummeted to lows not seen among men since 1880. Cohabitation accounts for a substantial fraction, although not all, of these declines. Our results demonstrate how increasing inequality in both life expectancy and marriage patterns combine to amplify educational differences in lifetime experiences of coresidential partnerships.
Topics: Marriage; Educational Status; Divorce; Humans; Male; Adolescent; Adult; Middle Aged; Aged; Life Expectancy; Family Characteristics
PubMed: 37406094
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301983120 -
Health Care For Women International Sep 2023We aimed to identify the actor and partner effects of health status, relationship satisfaction, and depression on the life satisfaction of married immigrant women and...
We aimed to identify the actor and partner effects of health status, relationship satisfaction, and depression on the life satisfaction of married immigrant women and their husbands in South Korea. We used a cross-sectional design that included 2865 multicultural married couples with data from the 2015 national survey of multicultural families in Korea. We analyzed the data using path analyses within the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) framework. Health status, depression, and relationship satisfaction had actor effects in both wives and husbands, while depression had no partner effects on either. Health status had partner effects only for wives, and relationship satisfaction had partner effects for both husbands and wives. Given that factors influencing life satisfaction differed in couples and since those with depression and poor health were more susceptible to lower life satisfaction, it is essential to introduce efforts to prevent depression and improve relationships considering differences of partner effects.
Topics: Humans; Female; Spouses; Cross-Sectional Studies; Marriage; Health Status; Personal Satisfaction
PubMed: 33797346
DOI: 10.1080/07399332.2021.1894151 -
Neurourology and Urodynamics Mar 2024The incidence of stroke in China ranks first in the world and is the leading cause of death and disability in adults. Urinary incontinence is an independent risk factor... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
BACKGROUND
The incidence of stroke in China ranks first in the world and is the leading cause of death and disability in adults. Urinary incontinence is an independent risk factor leading to poor prognosis of stroke. However, studies on the incidence of urinary incontinence in stroke patients and its influencing factors are different, fluctuate greatly, and there is no unified basis.
OBJECTIVE
To quantitatively analyze the incidence of urinary incontinence in stroke patients and its related influencing factors, and further make public health strategic decisions to reduce the occurrence of adverse outcomes.
METHODS
Computer searches were conducted in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, CLNAHL Complete, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical database(CBM), Wan Fang Database, VIP Database, observational studies such as cohort studies, case-control studies or cross-sectional studies on the incidence or influencing factors of urinary incontinence in stroke patients from the establishment of the database to the publication in August 2023. Studies selection, quality evaluation and data extraction were conducted independently by two researchers according to the established search strategy. Stata 14.0 statistical software was used for meta-analysis.
RESULTS
A total of 21 manuscripts were included, with a cumulative sample size of 7327 cases, including 2887 patients with urinary incontinence. Meta-analysis results showed that the incidence of urinary incontinence in stroke patients was 38% [95% confidence interval (34%, 41%)], including married patients and lacunar infarction were the protective factors for urinary incontinence in stroke patients, while age, chaperone, low educational level, chronic cough, lesion sites (parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and temporal lobe), stroke type (cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage and cerebral hemorrhage complicated with subarachnoid hemorrhage), dysfunction (aphasia dyslexia, dysphagia, eye movement abnormalities, leg muscle disorders), post-stroke depression, the higher the NIHSS score, the lower the Bachmann index (BI) score, OCSP classification (total anterior circulation infarction) and other 11 items were risk factors for urinary incontinence in stroke patients.
CONCLUSION
The incidence of urinary incontinence in stroke patients is 38%. Marriage and lacunar infarction are the protective factors of urinary incontinence. Age, carer, low educational level, chronic cough, lesion site (parietal, frontal and temporal lobes), stroke type (cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral hemorrhage combined with subarachnoid hemorrhage), dysfunction (aphasia and dysarthria syndrome, dysphagia, eye movement abnormalities, leg muscle disorders), post-stroke depression, and higher NIHSS score, Lower BI score and OCSP classification (total anterior circulation infarction) were risk factors for urinary incontinence in stroke patients.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage; Incidence; Stroke, Lacunar; Cross-Sectional Studies; Deglutition Disorders; Stroke; Urinary Incontinence; Cerebral Hemorrhage; Aphasia; Muscular Diseases
PubMed: 38247371
DOI: 10.1002/nau.25398 -
Innovation in Aging 2024We used longitudinal data to determine whether the type of marital loss is associated with the rate of cognitive change before and after divorce or widowhood. Previous...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
We used longitudinal data to determine whether the type of marital loss is associated with the rate of cognitive change before and after divorce or widowhood. Previous research found that relationship status was associated with older adults' cognitive performance: married persons performed better on memory assessments and had lower dementia risk than unmarried-cohabitating, never-married, divorced, and widowed persons. However, the end of a marriage may cause distress or reduce distress because a stressor disappears. Questions thus remain about the mechanisms by which marital change affects cognitive outcomes and, specifically, whether termination of marriage can improve cognitive performance for some.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Using data from the 1998-2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study ( = 23,393), we conducted two analyses. First, we used trajectory analysis to create clusters of participants with similar cognitive trajectories and tested the association between participants' cluster membership and marital loss type. Second, we used multilevel modeling to analyze the relationship between participants' cognitive scores while married and following divorce or widowhood and linked these to marital features.
RESULTS
Participants who divorced showed no difference in trajectory distribution; widowed participants were more likely to be in the lower-performing and more quickly declining groups. Participants had lower rates of decline following divorce (β = .136, < .001), while widowed participants had accelerated decline following spousal death (β = -0.183, < .001) and an immediate decline following spousal death (β = -0.113, = .028).
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
We found that the type of marital loss was important, and predicted improvements in cognition for some and decrements for others, with individuals who were divorced performing best while those who were widowed or separated but not divorced performing worse.
PubMed: 38660118
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igae033