Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines/immunology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Health Personnel/statistics & numerical data , Immunogenicity, Vaccine , Vaccines, Synthetic/immunology , Adult , Antibodies, Neutralizing/blood , BNT162 Vaccine , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19 Vaccines/administration & dosage , Female , Hong Kong/epidemiology , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/blood , Logistic Models , Male , Middle Aged , SARS-CoV-2 , Serologic Tests/methods , Serologic Tests/statistics & numerical data , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology , Vaccines, Inactivated/administration & dosage , Vaccines, Inactivated/immunology , Vaccines, Synthetic/administration & dosage , mRNA VaccinesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A simple and meaningful health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients is lacking. AIM: To develop and validate a disease-specific HRQoL instrument (GERD-QOL) for GERD patients. METHODS: An 18-item questionnaire was generated to measure the impact of GERD on sleep, exercise, diet, need for medication, sex life, work, social activity and psychological well-being. GERD patients were invited to complete the GERD-QOL, a visual analogue scale (VAS) and a validated Chinese generic QoL (SF-36) questionnaire before and after esomeprazole treatment. Factor analysis was performed for item selection and psychometric properties were measured. An English version was developed by a forward-backward translation process. RESULTS: A final 16-item GERD-QOL questionnaire was developed. The items were grouped into four subscales (Daily activity, Treatment effect, Diet, and Psychological well-being) after factor analysis. GERD-QOL had good item-internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.64-0.88), high test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.73-0.94, P < 0.001). Its subscale scores were correlated with SF-36 and VAS, which demonstrated high construct validity (P < 0.001). Discriminant validity was verified by correlating GERD-QOL scores with symptom severity (P < 0.001). Responsiveness after esomeprazole treatment was significant (paired-t-test P < 0.001). An English version of GERD-QOL was developed. CONCLUSION: The instrument, GERD-QOL, is valid and reliable.
Subject(s)
Gastroesophageal Reflux/psychology , Quality of Life/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires/standards , Female , Gastroesophageal Reflux/diagnosis , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychometrics , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Combinations of Child-Pugh classification and Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan/Tumor-Node-Metastasis (LCSGJ/TNM) have been reported as Japan Integrated Staging (JIS). We previously modified the 6th AJCC/TNM to serve as a better staging system than the 5th and 6th AJCC/TNM. AIMS: To develop a modified TNM-based JIS to predict the survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients more accurately. METHODS: 3764 HCC patients were enrolled from 1986 to 2002 (2882 patients from 1986 to 2000 and 882 patients from 2001 to 2002). We compared the performance of original JIS, modified TNM-based JIS, modified TNM-based JIS combined alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), BCLC, and CLIP. Lower Akaike information criteria (AIC) values indicated better discriminatory abilities. RESULTS: AIC value was lowest in CLIP during all periods. However, during 2001-2002, when early-stage HCC patients were predominant, AIC value was lowest when modified TNM-based JIS combined AFP was used. CONCLUSION: The CLIP system provided the best prognostic stratification in the present cohort of HCC patients who were mainly at late stages. However, early detection of HCCs has become more common in Taiwan in recent years, which has led to the predominance of early-stage HCC patients. Therefore, modified TNM-based JIS combined AFP may now be the most applicable system in recent years.
