A quantile regression approach to explain the relationship of Fatigue and Cortisol, Cytokine among Koreans with Hepatitis B

Factors affecting Hemoglobin A1c in the longitudinal study of the Iranian population using mixed quantile regression

Diabetes, a major non-communicable disease, presents challenges for healthcare systems worldwide. Traditional regression models focus on mean effects, but factors can impact the entire distribution of responses over time. Linear mixed quantile regression models (LQMMs) address this issue. A study involving 2791 diabetic patients in Iran explored the relationship between Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels and factors such as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), disease duration, cholesterol, triglycerides, ischemic heart disease, and treatments (insulin, oral anti-diabetic drugs, and combination). LQMM analysis examined the association between HbA1c and the explanatory variables. Associations between cholesterol, triglycerides, ischemic heart disease (IHD), insulin, oral anti-diabetic drugs (OADs), a combination of OADs and insulin, and HbA1c levels exhibited varying degrees of correlation across all quantiles (p < 0.05), demonstrating a positive effect. While BMI did not display significant effects in the lower quantiles (p > 0.05), it was found to be significant in the higher quantiles (p < 0.05). The impact of disease duration differed between the low and high quantiles (specifically at the quantiles of 5, 50, and 75; p < 0.05). Age was discovered to have an association with HbA1c in the higher quantiles (specifically at the quantiles of 50, 75, and 95; p < 0.05). The findings reveal important associations and shed light on how these relationships may vary across different quantiles and over time. These insights can serve as guidance for devising effective strategies to manage and monitor HbA1c levels.

Development and Pilot Testing of a Smartphone-Based Self-Care Program for Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

The purpose of this study is to develop a smartphone-based self-care program (Hep B Care^®) for patients with the chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV). To pilot test the feasibility of Hep B Care^®, 63 participants with chronic HBV were recruited from an outpatient clinic at S hospital, Seoul, South Korea (experimental group [EG]: n = 30, control group [CG]: n = 33) between February and July 2016. Hep B Care^® was developed based on the theory of self-care whilst having a chronic illness. During the 12-week intervention period, the application: (1) provided information about the disease, medication, nutrition, and exercise; (2) encouraged taking medication and exercise using alarms; and (3) enabled the exchange of messages between healthcare providers and patients. Salivary cortisol, fatigue, depression, anxiety, knowledge of the HBV, quality of life, and medication adherence were all measured as outcomes. Cortisol levels were significantly increased, knowledge of the HBV was improved, and the mean anxiety score was significantly decreased in the EG. Thus, Hep B Care ^® partially improved health outcomes in the EG. We recommend that large trials be conducted among patients with the HBV. The smartphone-based self-care program for providing education and coaching is effective for improving knowledge and reducing anxiety among patients with the HBV.

Comparing quantile regression methods for probabilistic forecasting of NO2 pollution levels

High concentration episodes for NO2 are increasingly dealt with by authorities through traffic restrictions which are activated when air quality deteriorates beyond certain thresholds. Foreseeing the probability that pollutant concentrations reach those thresholds becomes thus a necessity. Probabilistic forecasting, as oposed to point-forecasting, is a family of techniques that allow for the prediction of the expected distribution function instead of a single future value. In the case of NO₂, it allows for the calculation of future chances of exceeding thresholds and to detect pollution peaks. However, there is a lack of comparative studies for probabilistic models in the field of air pollution. In this work, we thoroughly compared 10 state of the art quantile regression models, using them to predict the distribution of NO₂ concentrations in a urban location for a set of forecasting horizons (up to 60 hours into the future). Instead of using directly the quantiles, we derived from them the parameters of a predicted distribution, rendering this method semi-parametric. Amongst the models tested, quantile gradient boosted trees show the best performance, yielding the best results for both expected point value and full distribution. However, we found the simpler quantile k-nearest neighbors combined with a linear regression provided similar results with much lower training time and complexity.

Genetic polymorphisms of interleukin-6 influence the development of hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis in the Han Chinese population

BACKGROUND

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) plays an important role in chronic inflammation. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of IL-6 polymorphisms on predicting the progression of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-r elated liver cirrhosis.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted to analyse IL-6 polymorphisms and serum levels of IL-6 in HBV-infected patients at different clinical phases and in healthy controls. IL-6 polymorphisms were detected by the TaqMan PCR method, and plasma IL-6 levels were assessed by ELISA.

RESULTS

Our analysis included 182 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients, 190 HBV-infected liver cirrhosis cases, 125 inactive HBsAg carriers, and 246 healthy controls. Seven SNPs in IL-6 including rs10499563, rs17147230, rs1800796, rs2069837, rs1524107, rs2066992, and rs2069852 were analysed. In a haplotype analysis between HBV-infected liver cirrhosis cases and CHB patients, inactive HBV carriers or healthy controls, haplotype CT in block 1 and haplotype GGCGG in block 2 were associated with liver cirrhosis (P <0.05). Moreover, the genotype or allele frequencies were significantly different in IL-6 rs10499563 and rs2069837 when HBV-infected liver cirrhosis patients were compared with CHB patients, inactive HBV carriers or healthy controls. A further study found that compared with that in the healthy controls, inactive HBV carriers or CHB patients, plasma IL-6 was elevated in HBV-infected liver cirrhosis patients.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the IL-6 rs10499563 and rs2069837 polymorphisms are associated with incidence of liver cirrhosis may through their effects on IL-6 expression and these two single nucleotide polymorphisms can be used as potential prognostic markers of HBV-related liver cirrhosis.

Psychometric evaluation of the Korean version of the Hepatitis B Quality of Life Questionnaire

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to conduct a psychometric evaluation of the Korean version of the Hepatitis B Quality of Life Questionnaire (K-HBQOL), which is designed to assess the quality of life of patients with the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

METHODS

The K-HBQOL was developed by converting the original English version to Korean using a back-and-forth translation method. The translated questionnaire was distributed to 168 adults with HBV. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographic characteristics of these participants. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory principal components analysis (CFA and PCA) were performed, applying varimax rotation and using Kaiser's eigenvalue-greater-than-one rule to examine the factor structure. The minimum average partial rule was also used to identify the number of components.

RESULTS

The original factor model was not confirmed by CFA in this sample. Six components (Psychological Well-being, Stigmatization, Anticipation Anxiety, Weakness, Vitality, and Vulnerability) were extracted by PCA, with 69.11% of the total variance explained. In this process, one component present in the original factor model (Transmission) was not found, while another component (Weakness) was extracted.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed the psychometric characteristics of the Korean version of the HBQOL for patients with hepatitis B. We suggest a study with a larger sample is needed to evaluate validity and reliability of the K-HBQOL for other Korean populations.