Travel Health-Related Preparation Practices of Institutions of Higher Education and Occurrence of Health-Related Events among Undergraduate Students Studying Abroad, 2018-2021.

Background: Knowledge of specific health-related events encountered by students studying abroad and the availability and use of pre-travel healthcare for these students is lacking. Methods: Anonymous web-based questionnaires were sent to study abroad offices, student health centers, and undergraduate students after studying abroad at eight institutions of higher education in the United States and Ireland from 2018-2021. Analyses were descriptive; relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for health-related events. Results: One study abroad office required a pre-travel consultation. All student health centers had pre-travel counseling available. Among 686 students, there were 307 infectious and 1,588 non-infectious health-related issues; 12 students (2%) were hospitalized. Duration of travel and timing of a pre-travel consultation impacted the risk of health-related events. Certain mental health conditions were associated with increased risk of alcohol and drug use. Conclusion: Future studies should address the optimal timing and best practices to optimize health for students studying abroad.

[Deprescribing of antipsychotic drugs for dementia : Recommendations for action on dose reduction and discontinuation attempts]. / "Deprescribing" von Antipsychotika bei Demenz : Handlungsempfehlungen zu Dosisreduktion und Absetzversuchen.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines for the treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) recommend that if antipsychotics are necessary, these should be used only for a limited time and with the lowest possible dose. OBJECTIVE: In order to raise awareness of the risks of antipsychotic treatment in patients with dementia and the resulting need for time-limited and as low-dose antipsychotic treatment as possible, recommendations for deprescribing of antipsychotics in people with dementia have been developed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The recommendations were developed in a multistage process: 1. Literature search with special appreciation of agreed guideline recommendations and results of an intervention study (READY study) 2. Discussion and consensus in a panel of experts, 3. Online survey of medical dementia experts working in Germany. RESULTS: From the 51 statements that were initially drafted 32 statements on antipsychotic deprescribing were formulated after the discussion in the multiprofessional expert panel. Of the 32 statements 25 were finally implemented after agreement by the experts in the online survey. DISCUSSION: In Germany, there are so far no specific recommendations for the reduction and discontinuation of antipsychotics used to treat BPSD in people with dementia. The article is intended as recommendations for general practitioners and specialists. The recommendations are not guidelines and do not replace personal responsibility. The individual approach always depends on the individual treatment situation.

What do we know about travel for children with special health care needs? A review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Children travel with their families, including children with chronic illness. We know that adults with chronic illness who travel are more likely than their healthy peers to become sick while traveling. A review of the literature was undertaken to identify what is known about traveling with children with special health care needs and to identify gaps in our knowledge. METHODS: An Online search of the PubMed, CINAHL and Google databases of English language literature was conducted June 2016, October 2017, June 2018 and April 2019 using the terms children and travel, air travel, travel health, disabled child, children with special healthcare needs, parents of disabled children, vacations, recreation, international, wheelchairs, planning techniques, asthma, diabetes, altitude, cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, sickle cell disease, depression, food allergies, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and seizures. The search was limited to years 2000-2019. A secondary search of relevant articles was conducted using the reference sections of articles identified in the primary search. RESULTS: 185 papers were examined for travel health related outcomes for children and adults with chronic diseases. Articles were excluded if they addressed the educational needs of students with disabilities traveling abroad, did not directly address travel health (e.g travel skills, travel itineraries), contained outdated policy statements, or were case reports of a single patient. The remaining 84 papers were organized and reviewed by organ systems. The articles were primarily descriptive and did not lend themselves to a systematic review. CONCLUSION: Children traveling with chronic and complex health conditions are a heterogeneous group of vulnerable travelers. Closing the knowledge gap about how to best help these travelers requires a multipronged approach. Research is urgently needed to identify best practices for five of the most common chronic childhood diseases: asthma, depression, ADHD, food allergies and autism. For less common illnesses, ones typically cared for in specialty clinics, expert consensus opinion and multi-center studies are needed. Families and disease advocacy societies should be included in the research as they may have already identified the most pressing travel-related health concerns and solutions for these problems.

An Explorative Note on Apraxia Tests.

Apraxia is stated independent of primary motor disorders. However, patient groups suffering from stroke or dementia can reveal motor impairments. In this study we examined the dependence of apraxia tests of imitation and pantomime on a latent motor component using a principal component analysis. With samples sizes of 11 patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer's type and 15 healthy control subjects, clear limitations concerning the validity of the results are given. Nevertheless, we could observe strong dependence of the three apraxia tests, especially the imitation of finger and hand gestures, on a latent motor component in this preliminary examination. We suggest confirmation by larger samples sizes and to control for the basic motor capacity when testing for signs of apraxia in such patient samples.

Step by Step: Kinematics of the Reciprocal Trail Making Task Predict Slowness of Activities of Daily Living Performance in Alzheimer's Disease.

Dementia impairs the ability to perform everyday activities. Reduced motor capacity and executive functions as well as loss of memory function and forms of apraxia and action disorganization syndrome can be reasons for such impairments. In this study, an analysis of the hand trajectories during the sequential movements in an adapted version of the trail making task, the reciprocal trail making task (RTMT), was used to predict performance in activities of daily living (ADL) of patients suffering from mild cognitive impairment and dementia. 1 patient with dementia of the Alzheimer's type and 15 healthy, age-matched adults were tested in the standardized ADL of tea making and document filing. The characteristics of the kinematic performance in the RTMT were assessed, and models of multiple linear regression were computed to predict the durations of the ADL. Patients showed increased trial durations (TDs) in the ADL (Cohen's d: tea making 1.64, document filing 1.25). Parameters and explained variability differed across patients and control as well as between different activities. The models for the patient sample were stronger and particularly high for the document filing task for which kinematics explained 71% of the variance ([Formula: see text]: tea making 0.62, document filing 0.71; both tasks combined patients 0.55, controls 0.25). The most relevant factors for the models were the TD and a parameter characterizing movement fluency and variability ("movement harmonicity") in the RTMT. The models of multiple linear regression suggested that the patients' activity of daily living performance was limited by cognitive demands, namely, identifying the varying targets during sequencing and the healthy controls' performance by their motor capacity. Such models could be used to estimate the severity of ADL impairments in patients.

[Impaired recognition of environmental sounds in patients with dementia : I can hear but I do not understand]. / Störung des Erkennens von Umweltgeräuschen bei Demenz : Ich höre aber ich verstehe nicht.

BACKGROUND: Impairment of central auditory processing is a well-known symptom of neurodegenerative dementia; however, whilst numerous studies have examined verbal processing impairment, to date few have attempted to describe impairments of non-verbal, environmental sound recognition in patients with dementia. As these impairments may have direct implications on patient support and care, such studies are urgently necessary. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the study was to determine whether the recognition of meaningful environmental sounds is impaired in patients with mild or early stage neurodegenerative dementia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We developed a test of non-verbal sound recognition consisting of 16 sound sequences from the familiar and unfamiliar environments. We included 18 patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, as well as 20 cognitively healthy controls. RESULTS: Patients and controls were given the test of recognizing 16 meaningful sounds from the familiar and unfamiliar environments. Patients with dementia performed significantly worse in comparison to cognitively healthy controls. Whilst healthy controls correctly recognized on average 12.1 ± 2.2 out of 16 sounds, cognitively impaired patients recognized 9.2 ± 2.5. Correlation analysis showed that the mini mental state examination (MMSE) scores were positively correlated with the number of correctly recognized sounds (MMSE: r = 0.556, p = 0.017). DISCUSSION: The fact that even in mild stages of Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal dementia patients either do not recognize or misinterpret environmental sounds must be taken into consideration not only in everyday life but in particular when patients need to leave their familiar living environment, whether temporarily (e. g. hospitalization) or permanently (e. g. nursing home admission).

Twitter for travel medicine providers.

Travel medicine practitioners, perhaps more so than medical practitioners working in other areas of medicine, require a constant flow of information to stay up-to-date, and provide best practice information and care to their patients. Many travel medicine providers are unaware of the popularity and potential of the Twitter platform. Twitter use among our travellers, as well as by physicians and health providers, is growing exponentially. There is a rapidly expanding body of published literature on this information tool. This review provides a brief overview of the ways Twitter is being used by health practitioners, the advantages that are peculiar to Twitter as a platform of social media, and how the interested practitioner can get started. Some key points about the dark side of Twitter are highlighted, as well as the potential benefits of using Twitter as a way to disseminate accurate medical information to the public. This article will help readers develop an increased understanding of Twitter as a tool for extracting useful facts and insights from the ever increasing volume of health information.