Pregnancy outcomes and perinatal complications of Asian mothers with juvenile idiopathic arthritis - a case-control registry study.

BACKGROUNDS: In order to provide juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients with better pre-conceptional and prenatal counselling, we investigated the obstetrical and neonatal outcomes among women with Asian descent. METHODS: Through the linkage of Taiwan National Health Insurance database and National Birth Registry, we established a population-based birth cohort in Taiwan between 2004 and 2014. In a case control study design, first children born to mothers with JIA are identified and matched with 5 non-JIA controls by maternal age and birth year. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios for maternal and neonatal outcomes crude and with adjustment. RESULTS: Of the 2,100,143 newborn, 778 (0.037%) were born to JIA mothers. Among them, 549 first-born children were included in this research. Our result suggested that babies born to mothers with JIA were more likely to have low birth body weight, with an adjusted OR of 1.35(95% CI: 1.02 to 1.79) when compared to babies born to mothers without. No differences were observed in other perinatal complications between women with and without JIA including stillbirth, prematurity, or small for gestational age. The rate of adverse obstetrical outcomes such as caesarean delivery, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, postpartum hemorrhage and mortality were also similar between the two. CONCLUSIONS: Adverse obstetrical and neonatal outcomes were limited among Asian mothers with JIA. Intensive care may not be necessary for JIA mothers and their newborns.

Effect of Rehabilitation Intensity on Mortality Risk After Stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relation between rehabilitation intensity and poststroke mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Nationwide claims data. PARTICIPANTS: From Taiwan's National Health Insurance claims databases, patients (N=6737; mean age, 66.9y; 40.3% women) hospitalized between 2001 and 2013 for a first-ever stroke who had mild to moderate stroke and survived the first 90 days of stroke were enrolled. INTERVENTIONS: The intensity of rehabilitation therapy within 90 days after stroke was categorized into low, medium, or high based on the tertile distribution of the number of rehabilitation sessions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Long-term all-cause mortality. The Cox proportional hazard models with Bonferroni correction were used to assess the association between rehabilitation intensity and mortality, adjusting for age, comorbidities, stroke severity, and other covariates. RESULTS: Patients in the high-intensity group were younger but had a higher burden of comorbidities and greater stroke severity. During follow-up, the high-intensity group was associated with a significantly lower adjusted risk (hazard ratio [HR], .73; 95% confidence interval [CI], .63-.84) of mortality than the low-intensity group, whereas the medium-intensity group carried a similar risk of mortality (HR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.84-1.06) compared with the low-intensity group. This association was not modified by stroke severity. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with mild to moderate stroke severity, high-intensity rehabilitation therapy within the first 90 days was associated with a lower mortality risk than low-intensity therapy. Efforts to promote high-intensity rehabilitation therapy for this group of patients with stroke should be encouraged.

"Weekend effect" on stroke mortality revisited: Application of a claims-based stroke severity index in a population-based cohort study.

Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results on whether weekend admission is associated with increased mortality after stroke, partly because of differences in case mix. Claims-based studies generally lack sufficient information on disease severity and, thus, suffer from inadequate case-mix adjustment. In this study, we examined the effect of weekend admission on 30-day mortality in patients with ischemic stroke by using a claims-based stroke severity index.This was an observational study using a representative sample of the National Health Insurance claims data linked to the National Death Registry. We identified patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke, and examined the effect of weekend admission on 30-day mortality with vs without adjustment for stroke severity by using multilevel logistic regression analysis adjusting for patient-, physician-, and hospital-related factors. We analyzed 46,007 ischemic stroke admissions, in which weekend admissions accounted for 23.0%. Patients admitted on weekends had significantly higher 30-day mortality (4.9% vs 4.0%, P < 0.001) and stroke severity index (7.8 vs 7.4, P < 0.001) than those admitted on weekdays. In multivariate analysis without adjustment for stroke severity, weekend admission was associated with increased 30-day mortality (odds ratio (OR), 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.34). This association became null after adjustment for stroke severity (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.95-1.20).The "weekend effect" on stroke mortality might be attributed to higher stroke severity in weekend patients. While claims data are useful for examining stroke outcomes, adequate adjustment for stroke severity is warranted.