Utility of Spatial Point-Pattern Analysis Using Residential and Workplace Geospatial Information to Localize Potential Outbreak Sources.

Identifying the source of an outbreak facilitates its control. Spatial methods are not optimally used in outbreak investigation, due to a mix of the complexities involved (e.g., methods requiring additional parameter selection), imperfect performance, and lack of confidence in existing options. We simulated 30 mock outbreaks and compared 5 simple methods that do not require parameter selection but could select between mock cases' residential and workplace addresses to localize the source. Each category of site had a unique spatial distribution; residential and workplace address were visually and statistically clustered around the residential neighborhood and city center sites respectively, suggesting that the value of workplace addresses is tied to the location where an outbreak might originate. A modification to centrographic statistics that we propose-the center of minimum geometric distance with address selection-was able to localize the mock outbreak source to within a 500 m radius in almost all instances when using workplace in combination with residential addresses. In the sensitivity analysis, when given sufficient workplace data, the method performed well in various scenarios with only 10 cases. It was also successful when applied to past outbreaks, except for a multisite outbreak from a common food supplier.

Central Nervous System-related Conditions and Associated Healthcare Resource Use Among Japanese nmCRPC Patients Based on Retrospective Claims Data.

Background: Japanese patients with prostate cancer are typically treated with primary androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), most commonly administered as a combination of a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist and an antiandrogen (AA). Since LHRH agonists and AA therapy can be maintained for several years, the long-term effects of these treatments on patients must be carefully considered, including the risk of concomitant central nervous system (CNS) conditions which could affect treatment choices. Objective: To describe CNS-related concomitant conditions during ADT and/or AA treatment and the subsequent healthcare resource utilization in Japanese nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) patients. Methods: Patients diagnosed with nmCRPC and CNS-related conditions while on ADT and/or AA therapy between April 2009 and August 2017 were retrospectively followed up for a maximum of 2 years using a claims database. Results: A total of 455 patients (average age, 78.5 years), were included. The 3 most common concomitant CNS-related conditions were pain (~60% of events), insomnia (~30%), and headache (2%-3%). The frequency of CNS-related conditions in these patients increased approximately threefold after starting AA therapy (before, 969 events; after, 2802). On average, a patient had 10 episodes of concomitant CNS-related conditions in a year. Medical costs did not significantly increase due to CNS-related conditions. Discussion: The most frequently reported CNS-related conditions were pain, insomnia, and headaches. Furthermore, more concomitant CNS-related conditions 1 year after CRPC diagnosis and 1 year after starting AA treatment were recorded. Conclusion: Patients with nmCRPC experience an increase in the frequency of concomitant CNS-related conditions, including pain, insomnia, and headaches, after CRPC diagnosis or starting AA treatment. Future research should explore the causes of this increased frequency.