Prerequisite Delivery Method and Academic Outcomes in a Physician Assistant Education Program.

PURPOSE: The Interservice Physician Assistant Program (IPAP) educates up to 169 matriculants per year. Each service branch sets the admission criteria, including all prerequisites, for their applicants. We hypothesized that prerequisites obtained online/virtual are less rigorous than coursework completed in-person. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate whether online/virtual prerequisite courses were associated with academic deceleration or attrition at any point. METHODS: Student self-reported data were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate program scores of students who took prerequisites online/virtual or in-person. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in foundational course performance between online/virtual and in-person coursework. In addition, students who took anatomy online performed better than students who completed the coursework in-person (140.6 ± 15.6 vs. 145.6 ± 14.7, P = .05). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis indicates that using the prerequisite source to predict academic difficulty may not be possible in IPAP students. Faculty will need to continue to search for other predictors of academic difficulty.

The role of sleep and heart rate variability in metabolic syndrome: evidence from the Midlife in the United States study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Poor sleep and autonomic dysregulation can both disrupt metabolic processes. This study examined the individual and combined effects of poor sleep and reduced heart rate variability (HRV) on metabolic syndrome among 966 participants in the Midlife in the United States II (MIDUS II) study. METHODS: Self-reported sleep was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). HRV was acquired from 11-minute resting heart rate recordings. Spearman correlations, general linear regression, and logistic regression models were used to examine the study hypotheses. RESULTS: Poor sleep quality was associated with metabolic syndrome when global PSQI scores were evaluated as a continuous (odds ratio [OR]: 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03 to 1.11) or categorical measure (cutoff > 5, OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.19 to 2.10), after adjustment for confounding. There also was an association between reduced HRV and metabolic syndrome (ln [HF-HRV] OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.80 to 0.99; ln [LF-HRV] OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.72 to 0.92; ln [SDRR] OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.43 to 0.79; ln [RMSSD] OR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.60 to 0.94). When the combined effects of poor sleep and low HRV were examined, the association with metabolic syndrome was further strengthened relative to those with normal sleep and HRV. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to suggest a combined effect of poor sleep and low HRV on the odds of metabolic syndrome.

Shift Work Adaptation Among Police Officers: The BCOPS Study.

Few studies have examined shiftwork adaptation among police officers or potential differences in disease biomarkers among adapted and maladapted shiftworkers. This study characterized shiftwork adaptation among 430 police officers from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study. Police officers working fixed night shifts with symptoms characteristic of adaptation and maladaptation were identified using latent class analysis (n = 242). Two approaches were applied, one with police-specific symptoms and another using more general symptoms as shiftwork adaptation indicators. Biomarkers of inflammation, heart rate variability, and cardiometabolic risk were then compared between shiftwork adaptation groups, and with officers working day shifts, after adjusting for confounding. When analyses included police-specific symptoms, maladapted shiftworkers (n = 73) had more self-reported stress, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and less social support than adapted shiftworkers (n = 169). Using more general symptoms, maladapted officers (n = 56) reported more stress and depression, and less social support than adapted officers (n = 186). In police-specific models, adjusted (least-squares) means (± standard error) of circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations in maladapted officers (0.8 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml]) were modestly elevated relative to adapted shiftworkers (0.7 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p = .09) and relative to permanent day workers (0.5 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p ≤ 0.01), and leptin levels in maladapted officers (9.6 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml]) exceeded those in the adapted (9.4 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p ≤ 0.01) and day shift groups (9.4 ± 0.1 ln[pg/ml], p = .03). In the general model, adjusted mean tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) concentrations among maladapted officers (5.6 ± 0.23 pg/ml) exceeded the adapted (4.8 ± 0.2 pg/ml, p ≤ 0.01) and day workers (5.0 ± 0.2 pg/ml, p = .04), and insulin among maladapted officers was higher (2.4 ± 0.1 ln[uu/ml]) than the adapted group (1.8 ± 0.1 ln[uu/ml], p = .03). No differences were observed for the other biomarkers. The results suggest that maladaptation among police officers working fixed night shifts may lead to increases in leptin, insulin, IL-6, and TNF-α; however, the cross-sectional design and possible residual confounding preclude interpretation of cause and effect. Prospective studies are planned to further characterize the relationship between shiftwork maladaptation and biomarkers of chronic disease risk in this police officer cohort.