When the Going Gets Tough: Multimorbidity and Heavy and Binge Drinking Among Adults.

INTRODUCTION: Multimorbidity, the presence of two or more long-term health conditions in the same individual, is an emerging epidemic associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Continued drinking concurrent with alcohol-related chronic conditions, particularly with multimorbidity, is likely to further elevate health risk. This study aimed to examine the associations of multimorbidity among diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer with drinking, and moderation of these associations by age. METHODS: Logistic regression modeling was performed in 2023 using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults from the 2015-19 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Multimorbidity was assessed using (1) a count of these conditions and (2) disease-specific categories. The outcomes were past month heavy drinking (7+/14+ drinks weekly) and binge drinking (4+/5+ drinks per occasion) for women and men. RESULTS: A pattern of reduced odds for drinking outcomes associated with a greater degree of multimorbidity was found. This pattern was more apparent in models using the continuous measure of multimorbidity than in those using the categorical measure, and more consistent for binge drinking than for heavy drinking and for women than for men. Significant age interactions were found: the log odds of heavy drinking and binge drinking for both men and women decreased as the number of conditions increased, and more steeply for those ages 50+ than the younger. The log odds of heavy drinking varied little among men under age 50 regardless of multimorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol interventions to reduce drinking with multimorbidity, particularly among heavy-drinking men under age 50, are warranted.

Trends in inflammatory bowel disease and pancreatic cancer: an analysis of the National Inpatient Sample database.

Background: An association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and pancreatic cancer has been suggested in the literature. We aimed to determine the trend in prevalence of pancreatic cancer amongst patients hospitalized for Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) in the United States. Methods: An analysis of the National Inpatient Sample database was performed to identify adults diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and CD or UC, using validated ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, from 2003-2017. Age, sex, and racial demographics were also collected. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registry (SEER) data were analyzed for trends in the incidence and mortality of pancreatic cancer amongst the general population in the United States. Results: From 2003-2017, there was a significant increase in the hospitalizations related to pancreatic cancer, from 0.11% to 0.19% (PTrend<0.001), representing a 72.73% increase, in CD patients, and from 0.08% to 0.38% (PTrend<0.001), representing a 375.00% increase, in UC patients. According to the SEER 13 data on pancreatic cancer in the general population, the incidence of pancreatic cancer increased from 11.34 per 100,000 cases in 2003 to 12.74 per 100,000 cases in 2017, thus representing only a 12.35% increase over the study period. Conclusions: Our study indicates a trend for increasing prevalence of pancreatic cancer in patients hospitalized with CD and UC from 2003-2017 in the United States. This increasing trend observed in the IBD population parallels the increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer reported among the general population, but at a much greater rate.

Association of ITM2A rs1751094 polymorphism on X chromosome in Korean pediatric patients with autoimmune thyroid disease.

BACKGROUND: Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) manifests with a female predominance, and much attention has been directed towards the integral membrane protein 2 A (ITM2A) gene located on the X chromosome. METHODS: In a study of 166 pediatric patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), the ITM2A rs1751094 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was genotyped. The sample comprised 143 females and 23 males, with 67 patients diagnosed with Hashimoto chronic thyroiditis (HD) and 99 with Graves' disease (GD). In the 99 GD patients, 49 (49.5%) exhibited thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). Among the 85 GD patients, 70.6% (60/85) were considered intractable GD. The results were compared to those from 198 healthy Korean individuals, including 97 females and 101 males. RESULTS: The frequency of the rs1751094 C allele and CC/AC genotype were higher in AITD, GD and HD patients compared to controls, while the frequency of the A allele and AA genotype were lower. The results were more pronounced in female AITD and GD patients compared to male patients. The association was also found in intractable GD and TAO patients. Target SNP fits Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the ITM2A gene polymorphism on the X chromosome may contribute to the immunological basis of female-predominant AITD in Korean children.

High Intensity Drinking (HID) Assessed by Maximum Quantity Consumed Is an Important Pattern Measure Adding Predictive Value in Higher and Lower Income Societies for Modeling Alcohol-Related Problems.

Adjusting for demographics and standard drinking measures, High Intensity Drinking (HID), indexed by the maximum quantity consumed in a single day in the past 12 months, may be valuable in predicting alcohol dependence other harms across high and low income societies. The data consisted of 17 surveys of adult (15,460 current drinkers; 71% of total surveyed) in Europe (3), the Americas (8), Africa (2), and Asia/Australia (4). Gender-disaggregated country analyses used Poison regression to investigate whether HID (8-11, 12-23, 24+ drinks) was incrementally influential, beyond log drinking volume and HED (Heavy Episodic Drinking, or 5+ days), in predicting drinking problems, adjusting for age and marital status. In adjusted models predicting AUDIT-5 for men, adding HID improved the overall model fit for 11 of 15 countries. For women, 12 of 14 countries with available data showed an improved fit with HID included. The results for the five Life-Area Harms were similar for men. Considering the results by gender, each country showing improvements in model fit by adding HID had larger values of the average difference between high intensity and usual consumption, implying variations in amounts consumed on any given day. The amount consumed/day often greatly exceeded HED levels. In many societies of varying income levels, as hypothesized, HID provided important added information on drinking patterns for predicting harms, beyond the standard volume and binging indicators.

Alcohol Policy Scores and Alcohol-Attributable Homicide Rates in 150 Countries.

INTRODUCTION: More comprehensive state-level alcohol policy environments are associated with lower alcohol-attributable homicide rates in the U.S., but few studies have explored this internationally. This study tests whether 3 national-level alcohol policy scores are associated with alcohol-attributable homicide rates. METHODS: Data were from the 2016 WHO Global Survey on Alcohol and Health and the 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study (N=150 countries). In 2020, the authors calculated domain-specific alcohol policy scores for physical availability, marketing, and pricing policies. Higher scores represented more comprehensive/restrictive alcohol policy environments. Negative binomial regressions with Benjamini-Simes-Hochberg multiple testing correction measured the associations between policies and alcohol-attributable homicide rates. Authors stratified countries by World Bank income group to determine whether the associations differed among low- and middle-income countries. RESULTS: A 10% increase in the alcohol policy score for pricing was associated with an 18% lower alcohol-attributable homicide rate among all the countries (incidence rate ratio=0.82, adjusted p-value or q<0.001) and with a 14% (incidence rate ratio=0.86, q=0.01) decrease among 107 low- and middle-income countries. More controls on days and times of retail sales (incidence rate ratio=0.96, q=0.01) and affordability of alcohol (incidence rate ratio=0.95, q=0.04) as well as adjusting excise taxes for inflation (incidence rate ratio=0.96, q<0.01) were associated with a 4%-5% lower alcohol-attributable homicide rate in the full sample. CONCLUSIONS: Countries with policies that reduce alcohol's affordability or days/hours of sales tend to have fewer alcohol-attributable homicides, regardless of their income level. Alcohol-attributable homicide rates are highest in low- and middle-income countries; policies that raise alcohol-relative prices may hold promise for curbing these harms.

Association between the lactate/albumin ratio and mortality in pediatric septic shock patients with underlying chronic disease: retrospective pilot study.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the ability of the lactate/albumin ratio to predict mortality in pediatric septic shock patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the medical records of a pediatric intensive care unit. The study cohort comprised 90 pediatric septic shock patients admitted from February 2012 to May 2015. RESULTS: The serum lactate and albumin levels and lactate/albumin ratio were compared between survivors and non-survivors. We assessed whether the lactate/albumin ratio could be used to predict mortality. The 28-day hospital mortality was 26.7% (24/90). The lactate level was higher (2.5±2.2 vs. 8.1±5.1 mmol/L, P<0.001) and the albumin level was lower (2.9±0.5 vs. 2.7±0.5 mg/dL, P=0.063) in non-survivors than in survivors. The lactate/albumin ratio was 0.9±0.8 in survivors and 3.2±2.4 in non-survivors (P<0.001). According to the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), the lactate/albumin ratio showed good discriminatory power for predicting mortality (AUC=0.867). A lactate/albumin ratio exceeding 1.016 led to a 7.636-fold increase in mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The lactate/albumin ratio is a useful predictor of mortality in pediatric septic shock patients.

Young men's behavioral competencies and risk of alcohol use disorder in emerging adulthood: Early protective effects of parental education.

We investigate how early exposure to parental externalizing behaviors (EB) may contribute to development of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in young adulthood, testing a developmental cascade model focused on competencies in three domains (academic, conduct, and work) in adolescence and emerging adulthood, and examining whether high parental education can buffer negative effects of parental EB and other early risk factors. We use data from 451,054 Swedish-born men included in the national conscript register. Structural equation models showed parental EB was associated with academic and behavioral problems during adolescence, as well as with lower resilience, more criminal behavior, and reduced social integration during emerging adulthood. These pathways led to elevated rates of AUD in emerging and young adulthood. Multiple groups analysis showed most of the indirect pathways from parental EB to AUD were present but buffered by higher parental education, suggesting early life experiences and competencies matter more for young men from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families than from higher SES families. Developmental competencies in school, conduct, and work are important precursors to the development of AUD by young adulthood that are predicted by parental EB. Occupational success may be an overlooked source of resilience for young men from low-SES families.

Corrigendum: Characterization of Two Novel Bacteriophages Infecting Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii and Evaluation of Their Therapeutic Efficacy in vivo.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00696.].

Are Countries' Drink-Driving Policies Associated With Harms Involving Another Driver's Impairment?

INTRODUCTION: International drink-driving policy research generally focuses on aggregate outcomes (e.g., rates of crashes, fatalities) without emphasizing secondhand alcohol-related vehicular harms. In contrast, we investigate associations between drink-driving policies and harms involving another driver's impairment. METHODS: Alcohol's harms to others (AHTO) survey data from 12 countries (analytic N = 29,616) were linked to national alcohol policy data from the World Health Organization. We examined separately associations of two 12-month driving-related AHTOs (passenger with an impaired driver; vehicular crash involving someone else's drink driving) with 3 national drinking-driving policies-legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits, use of random breath testing, use of sobriety checkpoints, and comprehensive penalties for drink-driving (community service, detention, fines, ignition interlocks, license suspension/revocation, mandatory alcohol treatment, vehicle impoundment, and penalty point system), plus 2 alcohol tax variables (having excise taxes and value-added tax [VAT] rate). Multilevel logistic regression addressed clustering of individuals within countries and subnational regions, while adjusting for individuals' gender, age, marital status, risky drinking, and regional drinking culture (% male risky drinkers in sub-national region). RESULTS: Controlling for national-, regional-, and individual-level covariates, comprehensive penalties were significantly and negatively associated with both outcomes; other vehicular policy variables were not significantly associated with either outcome. A society's VAT rate was negatively associated with riding with a drunk driver. Regional male drinking culture was positively associated with riding with an impaired driver, but was not significantly associated with being in a vehicular crash due to someone else's drinking. In both models, being male, being younger, and engaging in risky drinking oneself each were positively associated with vehicular harms due to someone else's drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Although results are associational and not causal, comprehensive penalties may be promising policies for mitigating driving-related harms due to another drinker. Higher VAT rate might reduce riding with a drunk driver.

Racial/Ethnic Variations in Clustered Risk Behaviors in the U.S.

INTRODUCTION: Alcohol misuse, cigarette smoking, poor diet, and physical inactivity, known as the "big four" contributors to chronic conditions and mortality, typically co-occur or cluster together, with their synergistic effect more detrimental to health than their cumulative individual effects. Little research has been reported on race/ethnicity-specific analyses of the clustering of these behaviors in the U.S. This study identified clustered risk behaviors among whites, blacks, and Hispanics and examined whether unhealthy clusters were associated with lower SES (assessed by education level and family income) and poor health status. METHODS: A nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 30-69 years (n=9,761) from the 2010 and 2015 National Alcohol Surveys was used to perform latent class analysis and multinomial and logistic regression modeling in 2018-2019. Obesity was used as a proxy for unhealthy diet. RESULTS: Three lifestyle classes were identified in each group. The relatively healthy lifestyle class was identified among whites and Hispanics. The nonsmoking and low risky drinking class among blacks, though showing a healthier lifestyle than the other 2 classes, still had relatively high prevalence of inactivity and obesity. The inactive and obese class was found in all 3 groups. Also identified were the smoking and risky drinking class among whites; the smoking and inactive class among blacks; and the smoking, inactive, and risky drinking class among Hispanics. For all 3 groups, unhealthy lifestyle classes mostly were associated with lower SES. Unhealthy lifestyle classes were also associated with poorer health status. CONCLUSIONS: Multi-behavior interventions are warranted to address inactivity and obesity in all 3 groups and unhealthy clusters involving smoking in each group.

The novel HLA-C*04:387 allele is likely generated by intra-locus recombination event.

The new HLA-C*04:387 allele was found and characterized in a Korean hematopoietic stem cell donor.

The Relationship Between the U.S. State Alcohol Policy Environment and Individuals' Experience of Secondhand Effects: Alcohol Harms Due to Others' Drinking.

BACKGROUND: Although restrictive state alcohol policy environments are protective for individuals' binge drinking, research is sparse on the effect of alcohol policies on alcohol's harms to others (AHTO). We examined the lagged associations between efficacy of U.S. state alcohol policies and number of harms from others' drinking 1 year later. METHODS: Individuals with AHTO data in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (analytic sample n = 26,744) that pooled the 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 National Alcohol Surveys and a 2015 National Alcohol's Harm to Others Survey were linked with prior-year state policy measures. We used 2 measures from the Alcohol Policy Scale (APS)-effectiveness in reducing (i) binge drinking and (ii) impaired driving, based on experts' efficacy judgments regarding 29 state alcohol policies. Three 12-month AHTO measures (due to another drinker) were experiencing: (i) either family/marriage difficulties or financial troubles; (ii) being assaulted or vandalized; and (iii) passenger with drunk driver or traffic accident. Multilevel models accounting for clustering within states and stratified by age-groups (<40 vs. ≥40) examined associations between the APS and AHTO measures, controlling for individual covariates (gender, race, education, employment and marital status, family problem-drinking history) of the victim. RESULTS: Only for those aged <40, the lagged APS-Binge drinking and APS-Impaired driving scores were each inversely associated with aggression-related harms and, separately, with drunk driving-related harm from someone else's drinking (ps < 0.05 to < 0.01). Family/financial harms were not associated with APS scores for either age-group. Composite AHTO measures (any of 3 harm-types) also were inversely associated with stronger state alcohol policy environments (ps < 0.05 to <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: State alcohol policies may be effective in reducing, to a meaningful degree, aggression-related harms and vehicular hazards due to other drinkers, but mainly in those under 40.

End-stage renal disease is associated with increased post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography adverse events in hospitalized patients.

AIM: To determine if end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a risk factor for post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) adverse events (AEs). METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2011-2013. We identified adult patients who underwent ERCP using the International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision (ICD-9-CM). Included patients were divided into three groups: ESRD, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and control. The primary outcome was post-ERCP AEs including pancreatitis, bleeding, and perforation determined based on specific ICD-9-CM codes. Secondary outcomes were length of hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, and admission cost. AEs and mortality were compared using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: There were 492175 discharges that underwent ERCP during the 3 years. The ESRD and CKD groups contained 7347 and 39403 hospitalizations respectively, whereas the control group had 445424 hospitalizations. Post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) was significantly higher in the ESRD group (8.3%) compared to the control group (4.6%) with adjusted odd ratio (aOR) = 1.7 (95%CI: 1.4-2.1, a P < 0.001). ESRD was associated with significantly higher ERCP-related bleeding (5.1%) compared to the control group 1.5% (aOR = 1.86, 95%CI: 1.4-2.4, a P < 0.001). ESRD had increased hospital mortality 7.1% vs 1.15% in the control OR = 6.6 (95%CI: 5.3-8.2, a P < 0.001), longer hospital stay with adjusted mean difference (aMD) = 5.9 d (95%CI: 5.0-6.7 d, a P < 0.001) and higher hospitalization charges aMD = $+82064 (95%CI: $68221-$95906, a P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: ESRD is a risk factor for post-ERCP AEs and is associated with higher hospital mortality. Careful selection and close monitoring is warranted to improve outcomes.

Transfemoral Implantation of the Acurate neo for the Treatment of Aortic Regurgitation.

OBJECTIVES: We report an international experience of transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) using the self-expanding Acurate neo valve (Boston Scientific) in aortic regurgitation. METHODS: This series comprises 20 patients with pure aortic regurgitation undergoing transfemoral TAVR with the Acurate neo prosthesis at nine centers in Europe and Israel. RESULTS: Mean age was 79 ± 8 years and mean STS score was 8.3 ± 9.3%. Leaflet calcification was none/minimal in 19 patients (95%). Prosthesis size selection was based on perimeter-derived annular diameter, with a tendency to over-size in cases of borderline annuli. One patient required implantation of a second valve. Device success rate was 18/20 (90%). At discharge, aortic regurgitation was none in 14 patients (70%), mild in 5 patients (25%), and moderate in 1 patient (5%). Left ventricular end-diastolic diameter decreased from 58 ± 7 mm at baseline to 53 ± 7 mm before discharge (P<.001). At 30-day follow-up, there was no mortality, no stroke, and 3 patients (15%) had received a permanent pacemaker. New York Heart Association class had improved significantly compared to baseline (85% in class I/II compared to 15% at baseline; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: In a selected patient population, transfemoral TAVR using the Acurate neo transcatheter heart valve was successful in treating aortic regurgitation, significantly reduced left ventricular dimensions, and improved clinical symptoms.

Age-dependent prognostic value of body mass index for non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma: A large multicenter retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The prognostic value of obesity is unestablished for renal cell carcinoma. We assessed the age-dependent prognostic value of body mass index (BMI) in a large multicenter cohort of patients with non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nm-cRCC). METHODS: This study evaluated 2092 patients with nm-cRCC who underwent surgery with curative intent at five Korean institutions between 2001 and 2014. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in BMI between the young (<45 years) and older patients (≥45 years) (P = 0.398). Among older patients, high BMI (≥25 kg/m2 ) was associated with better 5-year rates of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) (P = 0.003 and 0.004, respectively), and multivariate analysis confirmed that high BMI was independently associated with better RFS and CSS (RFS hazard ratio [HR]: 0.617, P = 0.005; CSS HR: 0.588, P = 0.024). However, among young patients, there were no significant BMI-related differences in the 5-year RFS and CSS rates (P = 0.457 and 0.420, respectively), and high BMI was not independently associated with RFS or CSS (P = 0.822 and 0.749, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with nm-cRCC, high BMI was associated with a favorable prognosis among older patients but not among young patients. Therefore, the relationship between obesity and nm-cRCC prognosis might vary according to age.

Characterization of Two Novel Bacteriophages Infecting Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii and Evaluation of Their Therapeutic Efficacy in Vivo.

Acinetobacter baumannii is emerging as a challenging nosocomial pathogen due to its rapid evolution of antibiotic resistance. We report characterization of two novel bacteriophages, PBAB08 and PBAB25, infecting clinically isolated, multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii strains. Both phages belonged to Myoviridae of Caudovirales as their morphology observed under an electron microscope. Their genomes were double stranded linear DNAs of 42,312 base pairs and 40,260 base pairs, respectively. The two phages were distinct from known Acinetobacter phages when whole genome sequences were compared. PBAB08 showed a 99% similarity with 57% sequence coverage to phage AB1 and PBAB25 showed a 97% similarity with 78% sequence coverage to phage IME_AB3. BLASTN significant alignment coverage of all other known phages were <30%. Seventy six and seventy genes encoding putative phage proteins were found in the genomes of PBAB08 and PBAB25, respectively. Their genomic organizations and sequence similarities were consistent with the modular theory of phage evolution. Therapeutic efficacy of a phage cocktail containing the two and other phages were evaluated in a mice model with nasal infection of MDR A. baumannii. Mice treated with the phage cocktail showed a 2.3-fold higher survival rate than those untreated in 7 days post infection. In addition, 1/100 reduction of the number of A. baumannii in the lung of the mice treated with the phage cocktail was observed. Also, inflammatory responses of mice which were injected with the phage cocktail by intraperitoneal, intranasal, or oral route was investigated. Increase in serum cytokine was minimal regardless of the injection route. A 20% increase in IgE production was seen in intraperitoneal injection route, but not in other routes. Thus, the cocktail containing the two newly isolated phages could serve as a potential candidate for therapeutic interventions to treat A. baummannii infections.

Comparison of stratum corneum thickness between two proposed methods of calculation using Raman spectroscopic depth profiling of skin water content.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The stratum corneum (SC) is the most important layer for the barrier function of skin, so investigation of the SC is very important in cosmetic and medical research. Here, we calculated the SC thickness using the depth profile of the skin's water concentration based on previously described methods, and then compared the results. METHODS: Seven Korean women in their 30s participated in this study. Raman spectroscopy was used to measure the in vivo depth profile of skin water concentration. A total of 21 areas were measured at forearm. Microsoft Excel 2007 was used to calculate SC thickness based on the slope and intersection methods. RESULTS: The slope method and the intersection method gave a forearm SC thickness calculated at 21.3 ± 2.6 µm and 17.6 ± 2.8 µm, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two calculation methods but the two methods showed strong correlation of SC thickness results (r = .899). CONCLUSION: Although there was a difference in calculated SC thickness of about 20% between the two methods, these results reveal that the two SC thickness calculation methods using Raman spectroscopy were suitable for measuring SC thickness, a finding consistent with other published results.

Chains of risk for alcohol use disorder: Mediators of exposure to neighborhood deprivation in early and middle childhood.

Our goal was to test a cascade model to identify developmental pathways, or chains of risk, from neighborhood deprivation in childhood to alcohol use disorder (AUD) in young adulthood. Using Swedish general population data, we examined whether exposure to neighborhood deprivation during early and middle childhood was associated with indicators of social functioning in adolescence and emerging adulthood, and whether these were predictive of AUD. Structural equation models showed exposure to neighborhood deprivation was associated with lower school achievement during adolescence, poor social functioning during emerging adulthood, and the development of AUD for both males and females. Understanding longitudinal pathways from early exposure to adverse environments to later AUD can inform prevention and intervention efforts.