Compliance analysis of oral nutritional supplements in hospitalized postsurgical patients with colorectal cancer: A prospective study.

PURPOSE: There are few reports on compliance with oral nutritional supplements (ONS) after surgery in hospitalized patients. This study aimed to investigate the compliance with ONS and its influencing factors after surgery in colorectal cancer patients. METHODS: STROBE checklist was used during the preparation of this paper. A total of 103 postoperative colorectal cancer patients were selected from November 2020 to April 2021 from the Department of Anorectal Surgery in our institution, which is a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou, China. The compliance with ONS was recorded by a self-record sheet, and sociodemographic and disease-related information of these patients was gathered through a self-designed questionnaire. RESULTS: The overall ONS compliance rate of patients with colorectal cancer was 57.6%. Results of univariate analysis revealed that ONS compliance rate was related to sex, admission body mass index, abdominal distension, attitude towards ONS, and satisfaction with ONS. Multi-factor analysis showed that age, sex, and perceived benefits of nutrition therapy independently influenced the ONS compliance rate. CONCLUSIONS: The postoperative ONS compliance rate of colorectal cancer patients needs to be further improved. Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to the postoperative ONS compliance and acknowledging the influence of age, gender, and attitudes towards ONS on ONS compliance. Notably, patients' perspectives towards ONS play a crucial and modifiable role in determining ONS compliance. Nurses ought to assist patients in cultivating a positive attitude towards ONS. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Dosage form and delivery method are also influence factors that deserves further exploration in the future. Future research endeavours should endeavour to craft tailored, meticulous nutritional intervention strategies tailored to the diverse factors that influence ONS compliance, ultimately leading to enhanced ONS adherence. Our findings could serve as valuable evidence for the development of strategies aimed at enhancing ONS usage practices.

Non-Contact Detection of Vital Signs Based on Improved Adaptive EEMD Algorithm (July 2022).

Non-contact vital sign detection technology has brought a more comfortable experience to the detection process of human respiratory and heartbeat signals. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) is a noise-assisted adaptive data analysis method which can be used to decompose the echo data of frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar and extract the heartbeat and respiratory signals. The key of EEMD is to add Gaussian white noise into the signal to overcome the mode aliasing problem caused by original empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Based on the characteristics of clutter and noise distribution in public places, this paper proposed a static clutter filtering method for eliminating ambient clutter and an improved EEMD method based on stable alpha noise distribution. The symmetrical alpha stable distribution is used to replace Gaussian distribution, and the improved EEMD is used for the separation of respiratory and heartbeat signals. The experimental results show that the static clutter filtering technology can effectively filter the surrounding static clutter and highlight the periodic moving targets. Within the detection range of 0.5 m~2.5 m, the improved EEMD method can better distinguish the heartbeat, respiration, and their harmonics, and accurately estimate the heart rate.

A longitudinal analysis of fatigue in colorectal cancer patients during chemotherapy.

PURPOSE: The aim of this longitudinal study was to analyze trends in fatigue among colorectal cancer patients during chemotherapy and examine the predictors of multidimensional fatigue. METHODS: A mixed sample of colorectal cancer patients who were receiving chemotherapy (N = 200) was recruited in China. The patients completed the Cancer Fatigue Scale (CFS) at baseline (before chemotherapy) and after 3 and 6 months of chemotherapy. Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the effect of time on the CFS score. The data on violations of the statistical assumptions (independence, normality, and sphericity) from the repeated measures ANOVAs were examined. Stepwise regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the associations of the potential predictor variables at baseline on the total fatigue score and subscale scores at follow-up. RESULTS: As chemotherapy progressed, significant increases in the three subscale scores and total scores were observed. Physical fatigue and total fatigue scores increased continuously during chemotherapy (P < 0.001). However, affective fatigue and cognitive fatigue scores increased significantly in the first 3 months (P < 0.001) and basically remained stable thereafter (P > 0.05). Multiple stepwise regression was used to analyze the predictors. The results showed that the baseline fatigue subscale score was the strongest predictor of each dimension of fatigue. In addition, age affected physical fatigue, and monthly income and education affected cognitive fatigue. CONCLUSION: Fatigue increased during chemotherapy. Early assessment and intervention may be better for controlling fatigue, especially in patients with higher baseline fatigue level, older age, and lower economic and educational levels.