Yoxas/statistical_literacy huggingface dataset:
It is well known that the course of migraine is influenced by comorbidities and that individual psychological characteristics may impact on the disease. Proper identification of psychological factors that are relevant to migraine is important to improve non-pharmacological management. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between psychological factors and migraine in subjects free of psychiatric comorbidities. A sample of women with episodic (EM) and chronic migraine (CM) without history of psychiatric comorbidities were included in this cross-sectional study. The study also included female healthy controls (HC) without migraine or other primary headaches. We evaluated sleep, anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, decision making style and tendence to pain catastrophizing by validated self-report questionnaires or scales. Comparisons among groups were performed using ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. A total of 65 women with EM (mean age ± SD, 43.9 ± 7.2), 65 women with CM (47.7 ± 8.5), and 65 HC (43.5 ± 9.0) were evaluated. In sleep domains, CM patients reported poorer overall sleep quality, more severe sleep disturbances, greater sleep medication use, higher daytime dysfunction, and more severe insomnia symptoms than HC. EM group showed better sleep quality, lower sleep disturbances and sleep medication use than CM. On the other hand, the analysis highlighted more severe daytime dysfunction and insomnia symptoms in EM patients compared to HC. In anxiety and mood domains, CM showed greater trait anxiety and a higher level of general anxiety sensitivity than HC. Specifically, CM participants were more afraid of somatic and cognitive anxiety symptoms than HC. No difference in depression severity emerged. Finally, CM reported a higher pain catastrophizing tendency, more severe feeling of helplessness, and more substantial ruminative thinking than EM and HC, whilst EM participants reported higher scores in the three above-mentioned dimensions than HC. The three groups showed similar decision-making styles, intolerance of uncertainty, and strategies for coping with uncertainty. Even in individuals without psychiatric comorbidities, specific behavioral and psychological factors are associated with migraine, especially in its chronic form. Proper identification of those factors is important to improve management of migraine through non-pharmacological strategies.
It is well known that the statistical analyses in health-science and medical journals are frequently misleading or even wrong. Despite many decades of reform efforts by hundreds of scientists and statisticians, attempts to fix the problem by avoiding obvious error and encouraging good practice have not altered this basic situation. Statistical teaching and reporting remain mired in damaging yet editorially enforced jargon of "significance", "confidence", and imbalanced focus on null (no-effect or "nil") hypotheses, leading to flawed attempts to simplify descriptions of results in ordinary terms. A positive development amidst all this has been the introduction of interval estimates alongside or in place of significance tests and P-values, but intervals have been beset by similar misinterpretations. Attempts to remedy this situation by calling for replacement of traditional statistics with competitors (such as pure-likelihood or Bayesian methods) have had little impact. Thus, rather than ban or replace P-values or confidence intervals, we propose to replace traditional jargon with more accurate and modest ordinary-language labels that describe these statistics as measures of compatibility between data and hypotheses or models, which have long been in use in the statistical modeling literature. Such descriptions emphasize the full range of possibilities compatible with observations. Additionally, a simple transform of the P-value called the surprisal or S-value provides a sense of how much or how little information the data supply against those possibilities. We illustrate these reforms using some examples from a highly charged topic: trials of ivermectin treatment for Covid-19.
It is well known that there are many countries in the world where Urogynecology is not an existing subspecialty, and women are not receiving appropriate care for their pelvic floor disorders (PFD). One of these countries is the Republic of Armenia. Given the lack of expertise in the field of Urogynecology in Armenia, we conducted a study on the prevalence of PFDs and the degree of bother among women of all ages across the country, which was published in 2020. This led to the creation of the International Urogynecology Association for Armenia, comprising seven physicians from different countries: five from the USA, one urogynecologist from Lebanon, and one urologist from Russia. We implemented hybrid teaching based on Zoom lectures, case presentations, journal clubs, and live visits of mentors to Armenia on a regular basis to see patients and operate with our five fellows. We introduced our fellows to research and statistics by assigning research topics for different projects. Our fellows presented evidence-based presentations and extensive literature reviews on a regular basis. Our program will continue to grow the next 2-3 years. The success of this project holds significance for governmental, public, and healthcare entities in Armenia and across the world, where this subspecialty is non-existent, in preparing future female pelvic surgeons to care for the growing needs of women with these conditions. Replicating this program in other parts of the world will compound the benefits and successes of Urogynecology care across different societies, cultures, and people around the globe.
It is well-documented that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with various health conditions in adulthood. Here, we examine the extent to which childhood SES is associated with COVID-19 pandemic anxiety and depression. Participants (n = 212), recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, were assessed for depression and anxiety in February 2022 for both the current context and retrospective self-perceived early pandemic depression and anxiety (April 2020). Participants also reported childhood SES and current demographics. Consistent with predated findings, we show a strong, positive correlation between depression and anxiety under both conditions. Paternal unemployment in childhood was associated with increased anxiety, while maternal occupation was not. High household education in childhood was generally associated with greater anxiety and depression, similar to past studies examining education levels and depression. However, the shift from high school to post-secondary degrees (trade school and associate's) was associated with decreased anxiety and depression, which may reflect "essential work" careers, therefore indicating a dualism. Growing up in crowded, de-individualized spaces was associated with lower anxiety and depression, suggesting better conditioning for the imposition of COVID-19 quarantines. Pandemic-related unemployment was associated with an increase in anxiety and depression. Strong political views, regardless of ideology, were associated with increased anxiety. Finally, participants in our cohort perceived their mental health to be worse in the early pandemic for anxiety and depression, up 6.6% and 7.9%, respectively. Our work suggests a complex relationship between SES, demographics, and anxiety and depression during the pandemic. These findings emphasize the importance of exploring the dynamics between early SES and mental health in adulthood, particularly during extended societal stressors.
It is well-documented that early life adversity negatively affects children academically and that these impacts magnify as the number of negative life events (NLEs) they experience increases. However, it is unclear whether the types of NLEs children are exposed to differentially relate to their levels of academic competence, a component of educational functioning. The present study addressed this question by assessing the relationships between different types of early life adversity and academic competence in 4- to 6-year-olds (N = 111) using secondary data analyses of parent reports in which respondents indicated children's levels of academic competence and exposure to NLEs. The results showed that family turmoil (b = -2.31, 95% CI [-4.05, -0.57], p = .01, f2 = .07), poverty (b = -2.92, 95% CI [-4.31, -1.53], p < .001, f2 = .16), and violence (b = -3.43, 95% CI [-5.14, -1.73], p < .001, f2 = .15) negatively predicted academic competence, whereas family separation and death/illness did not relate to academic competence. Additionally, poverty negatively predicted academic competence above and beyond family turmoil and violence (b = -2.36, 95% CI [-0.49, 0.72], p = .03, f2 = .04). These findings demonstrate that some, but not all, types of NLEs negatively predict preschoolers' academic competence, illustrating the differential relationship between different types of early life adversity and academic performance. Moreover, these findings reveal the deleterious impacts of certain types of NLEs on children's academics prior to beginning formal education, suggesting the importance of early intervention targeting family turmoil, poverty, and violence from a young age.
It is well-established that chronic exposure to environmental toxins can have adverse effects on neuropsychological health, particularly in developing youths. However, home radon, a ubiquitous radiotoxin, has been seldom studied in this context. In the present study, we investigated the degree to which chronic everyday home radon exposure was associated with alterations in transdiagnostic mental health outcomes. A total of 59 children and adolescents ages 6- to 14-years-old (M = 10.47 years, SD = 2.58; 28 males) completed the study. Parents completed questionnaires detailing aspects of attention and executive function. We used a principal components analysis to derive three domains of neuropsychological functioning: 1) task-based executive function skills, 2) self-and emotion-regulation abilities, and 3) inhibitory control. Additionally, parents completed a home radon test kit and provided information on how long their child had lived in the tested home. We computed a radon exposure index per person based on the duration of time that the child had lived in the home and their measured home radon concentration. Youths were divided into terciles based on their radon exposure index score. Using a MANCOVA design, we determined whether there were differences in neuropsychological domain scores across the three groups, controlling for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. There was a significant multivariate effect of radon group on neuropsychological dysfunction (λ = 0.77, F = 2.32, p = 0.038, ηp2 = 0.12). Examination of univariate effects revealed specific increases in self-and emotion-regulation dysfunction among the youths with the greatest degree of chronic home radon exposure (F = 7.21, p = 0.002, ηp2 = 0.21). There were no significant differences by group in the other tested domains. The data suggest potential specificity in the neurotoxic effects of everyday home radon exposure in developing youths, with significant aberrations in self-and emotion-regulation faculties. These findings support the need for better public awareness and public health policy surrounding home radon safety and mitigation strategies.
It may be possible to enhance adults' cognitive health and promote healthy aging through processing speed training using the Useful Field of View (UFOV) related activities and software. This study investigated the impact of utilizing UFOV on processing speed improvement in older adults in response to the growing global attention on cognitive health and aging issues. In this quasi-experimental study, 22 individuals (mean age ± SD = 71.9 ± 4.8) participated in the experimental group, and 20 community-based participants (mean age ± SD = 67.1 ± 4.8) were in the control group. The intervention involved ten sessions of UFOV training, each lasting 60 min, conducted twice a week for the experimental group while the control group engaged in volunteer service activities. Measurements of Counting Back, Fabrica, Double-Decision, and Hawkeye were administered to all participants before and after the intervention. The results showed significant improvements in the experimental group for the four measurements (p ≤ 0.01, 0.05, 0.001, 0.001) and non-significant gains in the control group (p ≥ 0.05) for all. Furthermore, mixed repeated-measures ANOVA analysis, with time 1 pre-test measures as the covariate, revealed significant interaction effects between time and group for all measurement indicators (p = 0.05, 0.01, 0.05) except for Fabrica (p > 0.05). In conclusion, these findings support the effectiveness of UFOV cognitive training interventions in enhancing specific cognitive abilities.
It remains essential to document the neuropsychological profile of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) dementia complex (ADC) and minor forms human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive impairment by quantifying the magnitude of impairment across eras of treatment. Indeed, with the introduction of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), there is evidence of changes in aspects of ADC. To allow quantitative and qualitative comparisons with the HAART era studies, we developed a summary of neuropsychological performance acquired in pre-HAART era studies in advanced HIV infection and ADC. Using a meta-analytical procedure and a test nomenclature that accounts for task complexity, we found that individuals with symptomatic infection (but no AIDS) demonstrated a global mild level of cognitive impairment, except for the domains complex attention/psychomotor speed, motor coordination, and learning, which showed moderate impairment. Individuals with AIDS demonstrated a global moderate level of cognitive impairment with a predominance of deficits in attention, complex attention/psychomotor speed, learning, motor coordination, with additional deficits in verbal memory and reasoning. Individuals with ADC demonstrated the most severe cognitive disturbances in domains of learning, motor coordination, with additional deficits in veibal fluency and verbal memory. Moderate impairment was evidenced in domains of complex attention/psychomotor speed, whereas naming and visuospatial functions were relatively preserved. The profile of deficits in ADC suggests that it may not be only interpreted as a worsening form of the impairment that is seen in the AIDS and symptomatic stages of HIV disease but that there are also additional deficits suggestive of an alternate pathogenetic process(es).
It remains uncertain how surgeons can safely pass the learning curve of laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy (LPD) without potentially harming patients. We aimed to develop a difficulty scoring system (DSS) to select an appropriate patient for surgeons. A total of 773 elective pancreatoduodenectomy surgeries between July 2014 and December 2019, including 346 LPD and 427 open pancreatoduodenectomy cases, were included. A 10-level DSS for LPD was developed, and an additional 77 consecutive LPD surgeries which could provide information of the learning stage I of LPD externally validated its performance between December 2019 and December 2021. The incidences of postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo≥III) gradually decreased from the learning curve stage I-III (20.00, 10.94, 5.79%, P =0.008, respectively). The DSS consisted of the following independent risk factors: (1) tumor location, (2) vascular resection and reconstruction, (3) learning curve stage, (4) prognostic nutritional index, (5) tumor size, and (6) benign or malignant tumor. The weighted Cohen's κ statistic of concordance between the reviewer's and calculated difficulty score index was 0.873. The C -statistics of DSS for postoperative complication (Clavien-Dindo≥III) were 0.818 in the learning curve stage I. The patients with DSS<5 had lower postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo≥III) than those with DSS≥5 (4.35-41.18%, P =0.004) in the training cohort and had a lower postoperative pancreatic fistula (19.23-57.14%, P =0.0352), delayed gastric emptying (19.23-71.43%, P =0.001), and bile leakage rate (0.00-21.43%, P =0.0368) in validation cohort in the learning curve stage I. We developed and validated a difficulty score model for patient selection, which could facilitate the stepwise adoption of LPD for surgeons at different stages of the learning curve.
It remains unclear how the various environmental factors are combined in practice to influence vegetable preferences in school-aged children. This study aimed to clarify the environmental factors during infancy and their association with vegetable preference in school-aged children. To find clusters of early childhood environmental factors, we conducted a factor analysis on 58 items related to early childhood environmental factors and a k-means cluster analysis using the factors obtained. The association of the extracted factors and clusters with vegetable preferences was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Twelve factors relating to vegetable eating, cooking and harvesting experience, and parental attitudes were extracted by factor analysis. Three clusters, "low awareness of experiences", "high awareness" and "low positive encouragement", were then extracted. In the multiple regression analysis, all 12 factors were found to be associated with vegetable preferences. Furthermore, it was found that the "high awareness" group had a significantly higher score for vegetable preference than the "low awareness of experiences" group (β = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.37-0.74). Thus, the study found that environmental factors during infancy, in isolation and combination, influenced vegetable preferences in school-aged children. Assessing the combination of various environmental factors during infancy may contribute to a better understanding of future vegetable preferences.
It remains unclear whether subjective and objective measures of cognitive function in Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC) are correlated. The extent of correlation has mechanistic and clinical implications. This post-hoc analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial contains baseline data of subjective and objective measures of cognition in a rigorously characterized cohort living with PCC. Herein, we evaluated the association between subjective and objective condition function, as measured by the Perceived Deficits Questionnaire, 20-item (PDQ-20) and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and Trails Making Test (TMT)-A/B, respectively. A total of 152 participants comprised the baseline sample. Due to missing data, our statistical analyses included 150 for self-reported PDQ-20, 147 individuals for combined DSST-measured cognitive function (composite z-score of the Pen/Paper plus Online CogState Version, NcombinedDSST ), 71 for in-person DSST-measured cognitive function (Pen/Paper Version), 70 for TMT-A-measured cognitive function, and 70 for TMT-B-measured cognitive function. After adjusting for age, sex, and education, PDQ-20 was significantly correlated with pen-and-paper DSST (β = -0.003, p = 0.002) and TMT-B (β = 0.003, p = 0.008) scores, but not with TMT-A scores (β = -0.001, p = 0.751). Overall, a statistically significant correlation was observed between subjective and objective cognitive functions. Clinicians providing care for individuals with PCC who have subjective cognitive function complaints may consider taking a measurement-based approach to cognition at the point of care that focuses exclusively on patient-reported measures.
It seems that one cannot find many papers relating entropy to sport competitions. Thus, in this paper, I use (i) the Shannon intrinsic entropy (S) as an indicator of "teams sporting value" (or "competition performance") and (ii) the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHi) as a "teams competitive balance" indicator, in the case of (professional) cyclist multi-stage races. The 2022 Tour de France and 2023 Tour of Oman are used for numerical illustrations and discussion. The numerical values are obtained from classical and and new ranking indices which measure the teams "final time", on one hand, and "final place", on the other hand, based on the "best three" riders in each stage, but also the corresponding times and places throughout the race, for these finishing riders. The analysis data demonstrate that the constraint, "only the finishing riders count", makes much sense for obtaining a more objective measure of "team value" and team performance", at the end of a multi-stage race. A graphical analysis allows us to distinguish various team levels, each exhibiting a Feller-Pareto distribution, thereby indicating self-organized processes. In so doing, one hopefully better relates objective scientific measures to sport team competitions. Moreover, this analysis proposes some paths to elaborate on forecasting through standard probability concepts.
It was aimed to evaluate the positive effects of health behaviors (general hygiene, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and travel restrictions) acquired during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the prevention of other infectious diseases in Ankara Province, Türkiye. This study was designed retrospectively. Among the notifiable group A infectious diseases, acute intestinal infections (AIIs) with International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision diagnosis codes A09 (diarrhea and gastroenteritis presumed to be of infectious origin), R11 (nausea and vomiting), and K52 (other noninfectious gastroenteritis and colitis), as well as influenza, tuberculosis, measles, varicella, malaria, and meningococcal meningitis were included in the scope of this study.The data of the selected infectious diseases in Ankara Province for the last 2 years before the pandemic (January 2018-December 2019) and for the 2-year period of the pandemic (January 2020-December 2021) were analyzed after checking the data. The number of cases were presented as frequencies, the 1-sample chi-squared test was used in the statistical analysis and the statistical significance level (α) was taken as 0.05. The findings for each disease/disease group were discussed under separate headings. Comparing the prepandemic period (2018-2019) with the pandemic period (2020-2021), the decreases in the number of cases of selected infectious diseases, except influenza, were statistically significant. Undoubtedly, the experience gained from the pandemic struggle will guide us in shaping our future lives. From this point forward, we should be aware that living in crowded environments and as a highly mobile population, that unhygienic habits are unfavorable for the spread of all infectious diseases, and we should take care to continuously apply the precautions for healthy living in our new lifestyle.