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This paper reports on an investigation of spatial patterns of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidence in a large American city. The purpose of this paper is to identify neighborhoods and public occupancies with highest risk in order to develop an evidence-based strategy to promote cardiac health and improve survival.

Two-tailed bivariate analysis was conducted using a Spearman correlation coefficient to check the covariance of census variables that were expected to relate to OHCA incidence. A principal component analysis was conducted on the remaining variables that statistically correlated with OHCA. Local indicators of spatial analysis was conducted to test the OHCA risk index and assess how well it predicts the observed OHCA incidence.

Clusters of OHCA events were found in neighborhoods with socially isolated older persons, as well as low-income minority populations. However, while past research has documented high-risk OHCA locations, these were not the case in this community.

The results highlight the importance of using local data to develop public health policies. Understanding neighborhood-level risks invariably guides resource allocation, service provision, and policy decisions to improve community public health and safety outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to docoment a randomized controlled trial, with follow‐up at three and six months, to determine the impact of a coronary risk factor modification program for employees.

Intervention participants received a 12‐week health promotion program involving exercise, education seminars, nutritional analysis and smoking cessation counselling. Outcome measures included differences in coronary risk factors of control and intervention participants between baseline and three and six‐month follow‐up visits.

The participants included 566 individuals employed in the Halifax area, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were between 19 and 66 years old with at least two modifiable coronary risk factors. There were statistically significant differences at three months in coronary risk score improvement, smoking cessation, physical activity level increases, body mass index reductions and serum cholesterol. At six months, improvements remained significant except for cholesterol. Reduction in blood pressure was not significantly different. Intervention participants compared to control participants showed significant differences in both cardiac and stroke risk at three and six‐month visits.

This study demonstrates that employees had a significant coronary disease risk reduction as a result of a relatively short health promotion intervention. Benefits three months post‐intervention were not sustained to the same extent as during the intervention. This underscores the need for long‐term commitment with lifestyle changes and raises the issue of the need for a comprehensive approach that also addresses environmental factors.

This paper contributes to the current research base on this topic as there are few well‐designed studies to reduce coronary risk factors for employees.

This study aims to determine the correlation of anthropometric measurements with serum lipid profile among Malay subjects in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Kuala Terengganu on a total of 193 individuals aged 18-60 years. Subjects were recruited via direct interview as per inclusion criteria and anthropometric measurements, i.e. body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio, abdominal volume index and conicity index, were taken using International Standards for Anthropometric Assessment Guidelines. Fasting blood samples were collected for serum lipid profile analysis that measures triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), TG/HDL, TC/HDL and LDL/HDL. Besides socio-demographic characteristics, means and association of anthropometric parameters with lipid profiles were performed using simple linear regression and multivariate-adjusted regression analysis.

The mean age of obese (male [39.2 ± 8.7] and female [41.1 ± 1.0]) and non-obese (male [29.8 ± 1.3] and female [33.3 ± 1.3]) respondents was compared. Means of anthropometric indices and lipid profile were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in obese than in non-obese group. Multivariate-adjusted regression showed that weight and BMI increased risks for prevalent high TC, TG, LDL, TC/HDL, TG/HDL, LDL/HDL, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and dyslipidemia. Regardless of sex, age and prevalent obese status, WHR increased risks for high prevalence of TC, TG, LDL, TC/HDL and LDL/HDL, and presents an independent risk factor for hypercholesterolemia and dyslipidemia. WC was highly associated with TG, while HC was associated with atherogenic lipid profile ratios: TC/HDL, TG/HDL and LDL/HDL.

In conclusion, the lipid profile (TC, TG and TG/HDL) of triglyceridemia and hypercholesteremia is highly correlated with anthropometric measurements (BMI, WC and WHR) of central obesity that predict obesity-associated cardiac risks.

While cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally, over 80% of the cases could be prevented through early lifestyle changes. From the perspective of quality management in healthcare, this may offer an effective prevention window if modifiable CVD risk factors are identified and treated in adolescence. The purpose of this research is to examine the negative emotions in adolescents and determine if it independently increases CVD risk later in life.

Longitudinal data from 12,350 participants of the Add Health study, which conducted a multi-wave survey for 14 years from adolescence (Wave 1) through adulthood (Wave 4), were used to test the research hypothesis. Four items (perception of life, self-reported depression, perceived loneliness and fearfulness) reflective of adolescent negative emotion were identified from the Wave 1 questionnaire, and factor analysis was conducted to confirm the hypothesized structure. The outcome variable, 30-year adulthood CVD risk category (high or low risk), was estimated using biomarkers, biological data and other factors collected during the 14-year follow-up in Wave 4. A logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the impact of adolescent negative emotions on adulthood CVD risk after adjusting for common risk factors such as sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status and medical conditions in adolescence.

The results indicated adolescent negative emotion to be significantly associated with CVD risk category (p-value < 0.0001), even after controlling for common risk factors. A unit increase in the level of adolescent negative emotion increased the chance of being in the high CVD risk group in adulthood by 8% (odds ratio = 1.08 ± 0.03).

Healthcare providers and organizations could capitalize on the research findings by screening for negative emotions early in life through individual and societal interventions. The findings also provide an opportunity for implementing quality improvement initiatives to deliver robust preventive care, which, in turn, could improve the overall population health, reduce healthcare costs and improve care quality.

Although previous studies showed a strong link between adolescent physiological factors (e.g. obesity) and adulthood cardiovascular disease (CVD), the association between adolescent outlook/attitude (negative emotion) and CVD risk has not been examined.

The origins of ischaemic heart disease are obscure. The article discusses the influence of environment, heredity and diet (especially for consumption). It is then proposed that dietary deficiencies of copper may be a factor that enhances risk of the disease. The evidence for this is discussed.

Patient safety indicators (PSIs) were developed as a tool for hospitals to identify potentially preventable complications and improve patient safety performance. The study aimed at measuring the incidence of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) PSI03 (pressure ulcer [PU] rate) and to identify the association between PSI03 and clinical outcomes including death, readmission within 30 days and length of stay (LOS) at the cardiothoracic surgery hospital at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

An exploratory prospective cohort study was conducted to follow up patients, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, from admission until one month after discharge at the cardiothoracic surgery hospital. Data were collected through basic information and follow-up sheets. The total number of included participants in the study was 330.

PSI03 incidence rate was 67.7 per 1,000 discharges. Patients aged 60 years and above had the highest risk among all age groups. In patients who developed PSI03, the risk ratio (RR) of death was 8.8 [95% CI (3.79–20.24)], RR of staying more than 30 days at the hospital was 1.5 [95% CI (1.249–1.872)] and of readmission within 30 days in patients who developed PSI03 was 1.5 [95% CI (0.38–6.15)]. In the study’s hospital, the patients who developed PSI03 were at higher risk of death and stayed longer at the hospital than patients without PSI03. This study demonstrated a clear association between PSI03 and patient outcomes such as LOS and mortality. Early detection, prevention and proper management of PSI03 are recommended to decrease unfavorable clinical outcomes.

The importance of PSIs lies in the fact that they facilitate the recognition of the adverse events and complications which occurred during hospitalization and give the hospitals a chance to improve the possible clinical outcomes. Therefore, the current study aimed at measuring the association between AHRQ PSI03 ( PU rate) and the clinical outcomes including death, readmission within 30 days and the LOS at the cardiothoracic surgery hospital at Ain Shams University. This study will provide the hospital management with baseline data for this type of adverse event and guide them to develop a system for identifying the high-risk group of patients and to upgrade relevant hospital policies and guidelines that lead to improved patient outcomes.

Integrated care models have shown to deliver efficient healthcare, but implementation has proven to be difficult. The Support Consultation is an integrated care model, which enables full integration by bundled payment, insurer involvement, predefined care pathways and strengthening of primary care. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the improvements in healthcare delivery after implementation of this proposed model and to create a base for extension to similar interfaces between primary and secondary care.

A retrospective study was used to compare the effect on the number of referred patients with non-acute cardiac complaints and the cost effectiveness before and after implementation of the Support Consultation. Patients who previously would have been referred to the cardiologist were now discussed between general practitioner and cardiologist in a primary care setting.

The first consecutive 100 patients (age 55±16 years, male 48 percent), discussed in the Support Consultation, were analyzed. Implementation of the Support Consultation resulted in a net costs (program costs and referral costs) reduction of 61 percent compared with usual care. All involved parties were positive about the program.

The Support Consultation has the ability to provide more effective healthcare delivery and to reduce net costs. The setting of the current study can be used as example for other specialties in countries with a similar healthcare system.

This study provides the potential cost savings after implementation of an integrated care model, based on real-life data.

This work shows the results of a systematic literature review on biomedical text mining. The purpose of this study is to identify the different text mining approaches used in different application areas of the biomedical domain, the common tools used and the challenges of biomedical text mining as compared to generic text mining algorithms. This study will be of value to biomedical researchers by allowing them to correlate text mining approaches to specific biomedical application areas. Implications for future research are also discussed.

The review was conducted following the principles of the Kitchenham method. A number of research questions were first formulated, followed by the definition of the search strategy. The papers were then selected based on a list of assessment criteria. Each of the papers were analyzed and information relevant to the research questions were extracted.

It was found that researchers have mostly harnessed data sources such as electronic health records, biomedical literature, social media and health-related forums. The most common text mining technique was natural language processing using tools such as MetaMap and Unstructured Information Management Architecture, alongside the use of medical terminologies such as Unified Medical Language System. The main application area was the detection of adverse drug events. Challenges identified included the need to deal with huge amounts of text, the heterogeneity of the different data sources, the duality of meaning of words in biomedical text and the amount of noise introduced mainly from social media and health-related forums.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, other reviews in this area have focused on either specific techniques, specific application areas or specific data sources. The results of this review will help researchers to correlate most relevant and recent advances in text mining approaches to specific biomedical application areas by providing an up-to-date and holistic view of work done in this research area. The use of emerging text mining techniques has great potential to spur the development of innovative applications, thus considerably impacting on the advancement of biomedical research.

This paper summarises recent evidence and consider a more constructive positioning for peanuts and peanut butter within the UK diet. It also briefly discusses the protective role that peanuts may have against certain diseases. The beneficial effects of peanuts in the prevention of coronary heart disease are discussed in detail.

To examine the determinants of smoking cessation and tobacco consumption in the European Union (EU) countries. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine the role of smoking risk perceptions and anti‐smoking regulation.

The paper utilizes multivariate analysis of an EU representative survey.

From all anti‐smoking policies examined, regulatory and information policies seem to show some influence on the cessation decision. Furthermore, once individuals decide to quit smoking they tend to perceive smoking risks differently.

The main policies influencing smoking cessation in the EU are informational campaigns and regulation policies. However, tobacco price does not seem to influence smoking cessation such as advertising.

Regulation is largely associated with smoking cessation due to the role of social interactions of smoking and thus we might expect risk regulation policies to continue to impose constraints on the capacity of smokers to freely smoke.

The use of a common questionnaire for a sample representative of EU countries. The specific consideration of regulatory variables and risk perceptions.