Population-based assessment of cardiovascular complications of rheumatic heart disease in Fiji: a record-linkage analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine population-based rates of non-fatal complications of rheumatic heart disease (RHD). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study based on multiple sources of routine clinical and administrative data amalgamated by probabilistic record-linkage. SETTING: Fiji, an upper-middle-income country, where most of the population has access to government-funded healthcare services. PARTICIPANTS: National cohort of 2116 patients with clinically apparent RHD aged 5-69 years during 2008 and 2012. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was hospitalisation for any of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic stroke and infective endocarditis. Secondary outcomes were first hospitalisation for each of the complications individually in the national cohort as well as in hospital (n=1300) and maternity (n=210) subsets. Information on outcomes was obtained from discharge diagnoses coded in the hospital patient information system. Population-based rates were obtained using relative survival methods with census data as the denominator. RESULTS: Among 2116 patients in the national cohort (median age, 23.3 years; 57.7% women), 546 (25.8%) were hospitalised for an RHD complication, a substantial proportion of all cardiovascular admissions in the country during this period in those aged 0-40 years (heart failure, 210/454, 46.3%; ischaemic stroke 31/134, 23.1%). Absolute numbers of RHD complications peaked during the third decade of life with higher population-based rates in women compared with men (incidence rate ratio 1.4, 95% CI 1.3 to 1.6, p<0.001). Hospitalisation for any RHD complication was associated with substantially increased risk of death (HR 5.4, 95% CI 3.4 to 8.8, p<0.001), especially after the onset of heart failure (HR 6.6, 95% CI 4.8 to 9.1, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study defines the burden of RHD-attributable morbidity in the general population of Fiji, potentially reflecting the situation in low-income and middle-income countries worldwide. Hospitalisation for an RHD complication is associated with markedly increased risk of death, re-emphasising the importance of effective early prevention.

Acute Kidney Injury: Incidence, aetiology, management and outcome measures of a Samoan case series.

BACKGROUND: Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a major and under-recognised cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Low and middle-income countries bear the greatest burden of AKI (85%). There is currently no published literature on AKI from the Pacific Islands. The aim of the present study was to report the incidence, aetiology, management and outcomes measures of AKI from the tertiary referral hospital of Samoa. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Single-centre prospective observational study. Participants were recruited by the lead investigator from the hospital patient information system. The inclusion criteria for participation was (1) adults (>18 years) admitted to general wards of Tupua Tamasese Meaole (TTM) Hospital with a diagnosis of AKI between December 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020, and (2) serum creatinine level of >200 µmol/L, and (3) compliance with the current Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria for AKI diagnosis. The data collection form was adapted from the International Society for Nephrology - Global Snapshot Project, and recorded demographic and baseline characteristics, precipitating causes of AKI, treatment/management, and outcomes measures. RESULTS: There was a total of 114 AKI admissions over the study period corresponding to a hospital-based AKI incidence of 26.8 per 1000 admissions per 6 months. 75% of AKI cases were community acquired. The leading causes of AKI were dehydration (79%) and sepsis (64%). More than 40% of cases presented with two or more Non-Communicable Disease co-morbidities. The in-patient mortality rate was 20.2%. In the 3 months following discharge from hospital, 25% of AKI cases had completely resolved, 25% of patients had died, and 18.7% of AKI cases had progressed to chronic kidney disease. The leading causes of mortality were cardiovascular events (35%) and sepsis (35%). CONCLUSIONS: The hospital-based incidence and unfavourable outcomes of AKI are high in Samoa. Greater awareness of this under-recognised condition is warranted among the public, government officers, and health professionals.

Uniting the Global Gastroenterology Community to Meet the Challenge of Climate Change and Nonrecyclable Waste.

Climate change has been described as the greatest public health threat of the 21st century. It has significant implications for digestive health. A multinational team with representation from all continents, excluding Antarctica and covering 18 countries, has formulated a commentary which outlines both the implications for digestive health and ways in which this challenge can be faced.

Gender, health and ageing in Fiji: a mixed methods analysis.

BACKGROUND: Women are disadvantaged by ageing: older women are more likely than older men to suffer from ill-health, have less access to health care and suffer discrimination within the health care system. Globally, there is a dearth of health research on gender and ageing with substantial knowledge gaps in low and middle-income country contexts. Part of a wider investigation on health and ageing in Fiji, our objective was to identify and describe gendered differences in healthy ageing in this Pacific Island context. We believe this to be the first such study in the Pacific region. METHODS: Applying a health systems lens, we used a mixed-methods approach, encompassing analysis of cause of death data; focus group discussion to gather community and family attitudes to health services; and policy analysis, and then used data triangulation techniques to draw out key themes and insights. RESULTS: We found that gender affects health outcomes among older persons, attitudes towards and experience of healthy ageing, and an older person's access to and use of health services. We also found that while Fiji's policy response to ageing has recognised the importance of gender, to-date there has been limited action to address gender differences. Gender (as oppose to sex differences) has direct and indirect implications for the health of older Fijians, while gendered inequalities and patriarchal norms appear to affect both men and women's experience of ageing and the health system response. Further, gender and age discrimination may be intersecting, intensifying their separate effects. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the feasibility and importance of applying a gender lens to the study of healthy ageing. Our findings from Fiji may be relevant to other island nations in the south Pacific which share similar challenges of population ageing, a constrained health budget and geographically-dispersed populations. The data triangulation methodology may be considered an efficient and insightful way to examine gendered responses to healthy ageing elsewhere.

The Human Leukocyte Antigen Locus and Rheumatic Heart Disease Susceptibility in South Asians and Europeans.

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD), an autoinflammatory heart disease, was recently declared a global health priority by the World Health Organization. Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of RHD susceptibility in 1,163 South Asians (672 cases; 491 controls) recruited in India and Fiji. We analysed directly obtained and imputed genotypes, and followed-up associated loci in 1,459 Europeans (150 cases; 1,309 controls) from the UK Biobank study. We identify a novel susceptibility signal in the class III region of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex in the South Asian dataset that clearly replicates in the Europeans (rs201026476; combined odds ratio 1.81, 95% confidence intervals 1.51-2.18, P = 3.48×10-10). Importantly, this signal remains despite conditioning on the lead class I and class II variants (P = 0.00033). These findings suggest the class III region is a key determinant of RHD susceptibility offering important new insight into pathogenesis while partly explaining the inconsistency of earlier reports.

Association between a common immunoglobulin heavy chain allele and rheumatic heart disease risk in Oceania.

The indigenous populations of the South Pacific experience a high burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of RHD susceptibility in 2,852 individuals recruited in eight Oceanian countries. Stratifying by ancestry, we analysed genotyped and imputed variants in Melanesians (607 cases and 1,229 controls) before follow-up of suggestive loci in three further ancestral groups: Polynesians, South Asians and Mixed or other populations (totalling 399 cases and 617 controls). We identify a novel susceptibility signal in the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) locus centring on a haplotype of nonsynonymous variants in the IGHV4-61 gene segment corresponding to the IGHV4-61*02 allele. We show each copy of IGHV4-61*02 is associated with a 1.4-fold increase in the risk of RHD (odds ratio 1.43, 95% confidence intervals 1.27-1.61, P=4.1 × 10-9). These findings provide new insight into the role of germline variation in the IGH locus in disease susceptibility.