Clustering Lifestyle Risk Behaviors among Vietnamese Adolescents and Roles of School: A Bayesian Multilevel Analysis of Global School-Based Student Health Survey 2019.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a vulnerable period for many lifestyle risk behaviors. In this study, we aimed to 1) examine a clustering pattern of lifestyle risk behaviors; 2) investigate roles of the school health promotion programs on this pattern among adolescents in Vietnam. METHODS: We analyzed data of 7,541 adolescents aged 13-17 years from the 2019 nationally representative Global School-based Student Health Survey, conducted in 20 provinces and cities in Vietnam. We applied the latent class analysis to identify groups of clustering and used Bayesian 2-level logistic regressions to evaluate the correlation of school health promotion programs on these clusters. We reassessed the school effect size by incorporating different informative priors to the Bayesian models. FINDINGS: The most frequent lifestyle risk behavior among Vietnamese adolescents was physical inactivity, followed by unhealthy diet, and sedentary behavior. Most of students had a cluster of at least two risk factors and nearly a half with at least three risk factors. Latent class analysis detected 23% males and 18% females being at higher risk of lifestyle behaviors. Consistent through different priors, high quality of health promotion programs associated with lower the odds of lifestyle risk behaviors (highest quality schools vs. lowest quality schools; males: Odds ratio (OR) = 0·67, 95% Highest Density Interval (HDI): 0·46 - 0·93; females: OR = 0·69, 95% HDI: 0·47 - 0·98). INTERPRETATION: Our findings demonstrated the clustering of specific lifestyle risk behaviors among Vietnamese in-school adolescents. School-based interventions separated for males and females might reduce multiple health risk behaviors in adolescence. FUNDING: The 2019 Global School-based Student Health Survey was conducted with financial support from the World Health Organization. The authors received no funding for the data analysis, data interpretation, manuscript writing, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Relationship between family functioning and health-related quality of life among methadone maintenance patients: a Bayesian approach.

PURPOSE: To examine the relationship of family functioning on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among methadone maintenance patients using the Bayesian approach. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 182 patients at Go Vap Methadone Clinic, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Family functioning and HRQoL were measured by the APGAR scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life short-form instrument (WHOQoL-BREF), respectively. Directed Acyclic Graphs were used to present the conceptual framework and to identify a set of confounders of the relationship between family functioning and HRQoL. Bayesian multivariable linear regressions were fitted with four different priors to determine the effect size of the relationship of interest. RESULTS: The mean score of APGAR was 6.0 (SD = 3.3), and the mean scores of HRQoL were from 47.1 (SD = 17.6) in the social relationships dimension to 69.0 (SD = 10.3) in the environment dimension. Patients with a higher score of family functioning were likely to have a higher score of HRQoL, with coefficients and 95% highest density interval (HDI) greater than 0 in all priors. Family functioning had the most substantial impact on the psychological health dimension, with 99.9% to 100% and 44.6% to 83.7% of posterior distribution greater than 1 and 2, in different priors, respectively. CONCLUSION: Family functioning is intimately associated with HRQoL. Treatment plans for patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment should aim to involve the families appropriately and effectively to maximize the benefits for patients and improve their overall well-being.

Analgesic effect of non-nutritive sucking in term neonates: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Newborns commonly experience pain due to a variety of reasons. Non-nutritive sucking (NNS) is thought to be an effective non-pharmacological method of pain-relief. However, the significant heterogeneity in some systematic reviews limited the certainty of the findings about NNS. Hence, this study was aimed at evaluating the analgesic effect and safety of NNS in healthy term neonates during the heel prick test, using the Neonatal Pain Agitation and Sedation Scale (N-PASS). METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 42 term infants were included: 22 infants in the intervention group (receiving NNS) and 20 infants in the control group (not receiving NNS). In the intervention group, neonates were given a silicone pacifier 120 s before, during, and 120 s after the heel puncture, while neonates in the control group received routine care. Pain-related outcomes were assessed using the N-PASS at 30s, 60s, 90s, and 120s after the heel prick. Any adverse events during the procedure were noted. The Spearman correlation coefficients between the pain scores on the N-PASS and two other scales (NFCS and NIPS) were calculated at all four moments of evaluation. RESULTS: The mean N-PASS pain scores at 30s, 60s, 90s, and 120s after heel prick were significantly lower in the NNS group than in the control group: 4.73 ± 2.78 vs. 7.90 ± 1.52 (p = 0.0002); 3.64 ± 3.06 vs. 5.55 ± 2.95 (p = 0.052); 2.59 ± 3.08 vs. 5.25 ± 3.51 (p = 0.011); and 2.05 ± 2.94 vs. 4.90 ± 3.99 (p = 0.013), respectively. No adverse events were detected in either group. Our findings revealed a strong positive correlation between the pain scores on the N-PASS and two other scales (NFCS and NIPS), which was statistically significant (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: NNS is considered a safe and effective pain-relief method during the heel prick procedure in term neonates, demonstrated using the N-PASS. These findings were correlated with the pain evaluation by NFCS and NIPS.