Nutritional Profile, Disease Severity, and Quality of Life of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case-Control Study.

INTRODUCTION: Diet is thought to play an important role in the clinical course and quality of life (QOL) of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, dietary habits of patients with IBD are still unknown. This case-control study aims to compare the dietary habits of patients with IBD to healthy controls and evaluate differences in disease severity and QOL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Food frequency, severity scores using the Harvey-Bradshaw and Ulcerative colitis activity index, and QOL were assessed using online questionnaires. Dietary habits were compared for patients with active disease and remission and for those with low QOL (LQOL) and high QOL (HQOL). RESULTS: We recruited 61 patients with IBD and 101 controls. Significance was set at p = 0.05. Controls consumed significantly more daily calories (2546 vs. 1641, p = 0.001). However, patients with IBD consumed a higher percentage of carbohydrates (50% vs. 45%, p = 0.001), more red meat (p = 0.024), and less fiber, sucrose, and lactose (p = 0.001, 0.001, and 0.036). Patients with active disease had higher lipid intake, lower protein intake, and lower QOL (47 vs. 58, p = 0.001). Dietary differences between LQOL and HQOL mirrored those between active disease and remission. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to provide valuable insights into the nutritional profile of Lebanese patients with IBD.

LASIK Videos on TikTok: A Content Analysis of the Top 100 Videos.

Introduction: Social media has increasingly become a prominent source of health information. Platforms like TikTok that allow for videos to reach millions of viewers have become among the most common platforms to share and receive health information. Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) videos and patients' experiences are commonly discussed on social media. The quality of these videos remains to be assessed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the content, quality, and reach of the top 100 videos related to LASIK eye surgery on TikTok. Methods: Video quality was assessed using the DISCERN, JAMA, and GQS instruments which have all been proven to be both reliable and valid. Results: 100 videos were included in the study. Results showed that the videos have an immense reach with a total view count of 245 million views and 21.9 million likes. Two thirds of the videos were posted by personal accounts as compared ophthalmologists that only constituted 26% of the content. Healthcare professionals produced higher quality videos compared to nonhealthcare professionals (p < 0.0001) although there was no significant difference in video duration (p=0.18). Increased duration, view count, comments, shares, saves, and views/day were all associated with increased DISCERN score and quality of the videos. Educational videos were of higher quality compared to entertainment videos, and videos outlining the procedure details had the highest quality score. Conclusions: LASIK videos on TikTok have established a wide reach, whereby viewers are highly interacting and viewing these videos. It appeared that viewers interacted more with the higher quality videos. Ophthalmologists approximately only contributed to a quarter of the videos analyzed in this study. This highlights the need for ophthalmologists to establish a presence on TikTok and produce high quality videos.

Performance of ChatGPT on Ophthalmology-Related Questions Across Various Examination Levels: Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: ChatGPT and language learning models have gained attention recently for their ability to answer questions on various examinations across various disciplines. The question of whether ChatGPT could be used to aid in medical education is yet to be answered, particularly in the field of ophthalmology. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to assess the ability of ChatGPT-3.5 (GPT-3.5) and ChatGPT-4.0 (GPT-4.0) to answer ophthalmology-related questions across different levels of ophthalmology training. METHODS: Questions from the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) steps 1 (n=44), 2 (n=60), and 3 (n=28) were extracted from AMBOSS, and 248 questions (64 easy, 122 medium, and 62 difficult questions) were extracted from the book, Ophthalmology Board Review Q&A, for the Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program and the Board of Ophthalmology (OB) Written Qualifying Examination (WQE). Questions were prompted identically and inputted to GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.0. RESULTS: GPT-3.5 achieved a total of 55% (n=210) of correct answers, while GPT-4.0 achieved a total of 70% (n=270) of correct answers. GPT-3.5 answered 75% (n=33) of questions correctly in USMLE step 1, 73.33% (n=44) in USMLE step 2, 60.71% (n=17) in USMLE step 3, and 46.77% (n=116) in the OB-WQE. GPT-4.0 answered 70.45% (n=31) of questions correctly in USMLE step 1, 90.32% (n=56) in USMLE step 2, 96.43% (n=27) in USMLE step 3, and 62.90% (n=156) in the OB-WQE. GPT-3.5 performed poorer as examination levels advanced (P<.001), while GPT-4.0 performed better on USMLE steps 2 and 3 and worse on USMLE step 1 and the OB-WQE (P<.001). The coefficient of correlation (r) between ChatGPT answering correctly and human users answering correctly was 0.21 (P=.01) for GPT-3.5 as compared to -0.31 (P<.001) for GPT-4.0. GPT-3.5 performed similarly across difficulty levels, while GPT-4.0 performed more poorly with an increase in the difficulty level. Both GPT models performed significantly better on certain topics than on others. CONCLUSIONS: ChatGPT is far from being considered a part of mainstream medical education. Future models with higher accuracy are needed for the platform to be effective in medical education.

Content analysis of social media regarding obesity as a chronic disease.

Background: Social media is an effective online communication channel. Obesity has been classified as a chronic disease; yet, social media rarely portrays it as such. This study aims to explore the perception of obesity as a chronic disease through content analysis of social media content of obesity-related health organizations and weight loss commercial applications. Methods: Using a codebook adapted from the definition of chronic disease, content analysis was conducted to evaluate a set of posts sampled from 11 health-related organizations and 10 weight loss applications Facebook and Twitter accounts. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the extent obesity was portrayed as a chronic disease. Results: A total of 8,106 posts were extracted: 3,019 posts by organizations and 5,087 by weight loss commercial applications. Only 401 (4.5%) posts/tweets were related to obesity as a chronic disease and were posted by obesity-related health organizations. Only 69 (2.0%) posts from all the organizations' posts directly addressed the idea that obesity is a chronic disease. Almost none of the weight loss commercial apps' social media accounts tackled any aspect of obesity as a disease. Commercial applications' posts revolved mainly around recipes, exercise regimens, and behavioral advice, whereas organizations tackled more complications, treatment, and obesity bias. Conclusion: Using content analysis of social media content, obesity-related health organizations and weight loss applications did not emphasize obesity as a chronic disease on their social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter. Weight-loss commercial applications on social media should include more posts to modify the public's perception regarding obesity as a disease, contributing to health promotion. Further research should explore other social media platforms and posts with specific hashtags posted by the general population.