Age and Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Chronic Pain and Dementia Among Older Australians.

OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain is a highly debilitating condition that affects older adults and has the potential to increase their odds of experiencing cognitive impairment. The primary objective of this study was to examine the correlation between chronic pain and dementia. Additionally, this research endeavors to ascertain whether the association between chronic pain and dementia differs by age and gender. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were derived from the Survey of Disability, Ageing, and Carers. A total of 20 671 and 20 081 participants aged 65 years and older in 2015 and 2018, respectively, were included in this study. The pooled association between chronic pain and dementia was assessed using a multivariable logistic regression model. Furthermore, the study also examined the multiplicative interaction effects between chronic pain and age, as well as chronic pain and gender, with dementia. RESULTS: The pooled analysis demonstrated that chronic pain was associated with a heightened odds of dementia (adjusted odds ratio 1.95; 95% CI 1.85-2.05) among older Australians compared with their counterparts without chronic pain. The interaction effect indicated that individuals with chronic pain across all age groups exhibited increased odds of living with dementia. Additionally, women with chronic pain had higher odds of dementia compared with their counterparts without chronic pain and being male. CONCLUSIONS: A continuous, coordinated, and tailored healthcare strategy is necessary to determine the pain management goals and explore early treatment options for chronic pain in older adults, particularly in groups with the greatest need.

A cost-effectiveness evaluation of a dietitian-delivered telephone coaching program during pregnancy for preventing gestational diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a telehealth coaching intervention to prevent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to calculate the breakeven point of preventing GDM. METHODS: Data to inform the economic evaluation model was sourced directly from the large quaternary hospital in Brisbane, where the Living Well during Pregnancy (LWdP) program was implemented, and further supplemented with literature-based estimates where data had not been directly collected in the trial. A cost-effectiveness model was developed using a decision tree framework to estimate the potential for cost savings and quality of life improvement. A total of 1,315 pregnant women (49% with a BMI 25-29.9, and 51% with a BMI ≥ 30) were included in the analyses. RESULTS: The costs of providing routine care and routine care plus LWdP coaching intervention to pregnant women were calculated to be AUD 20,933 and AUD 20,828, respectively. The effectiveness of the LWdP coaching program (0.894 utility) was slightly higher compared to routine care (0.893). Therefore, the value of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was negative, and it indicates that the LWdP coaching program is a dominant strategy to prevent GDM in pregnant women. We also performed a probabilistic sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation through 1,000 simulations. The ICE scatter plot showed that the LWdP coaching intervention was dominant over routine care in 93.60% of the trials using a willingness to pay threshold of AUD 50,000. CONCLUSION: Findings support consideration by healthcare policy and decision makers of telehealth and broad-reach delivery of structured lifestyle interventions during pregnancy to lower short-term costs associated with GDM to the health system.

An investigation of the longitudinal trajectory patterns of health-related quality of life among Australians with disabilities: explaining disability types and properties.

BACKGROUND: Research on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) trajectory patterns for people with disabilities (PwD) is scant. Understanding the HRQoL trajectory patterns for PwDs and investigating their relationship with disability types and socioeconomic factors can have important implications for Australia's welfare policy. METHODS: We analysed data from waves 11 to 21 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey of respondents aged 15 + years of the PwDs. The analytic sample consists of 3724 self-reported disabled individuals and 34,539 observations in total. The SF-6D utility score is our HRQoL measure. Group-based trajectory modelling was utilised to identify trajectory groups, and multinomial logistic regression was employed to determine the baseline factors associated with trajectory group membership. RESULTS: The study identified four distinct types of HRQoL trajectories (high, moderate improving, moderate deteriorating and low HRQoL trajectories). Psychosocial disability types followed by physical disability types had a high Relative Risk Ratio (RRR) in the low group compared with high trajectory group membership of PwDs (psychosocial: 6.090, physical: 3.524). Similar, results followed for the moderate improving group albeit with lower RRR (psychosocial: 2.868, Physical: 1.820). In the moderate deteriorating group, the disability types were not significant as this group has a similar profile to high group at the baseline. Compared with males, females had a higher RRR in low and moderate versus high improving HRQoL trajectories (low: 1.532, moderate improving: 1.237). Comparing the richest class to the poorest class, socioeconomic factors (income and education) predicted significantly lower exposure for the richer class to the low and medium HRQoL trajectories groups (RRR < 1). CONCLUSION: Different forms of disability, demographic and socioeconomic factors have distinct effects on the HRQoL trajectories of disabled individuals. Healthcare and economic resource efficiency might be improved with targeted government policy interventions based on disability trajectories.

Multimorbidity and health-related quality of life amongst Indigenous Australians: A longitudinal analysis.

BACKGROUND: The burden of multimorbidity has been observed worldwide and it has significant consequences on health outcomes. In Australia, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is comparatively low amongst Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders, yet no studies have examined the effect of multimorbidity on HRQoL within this at-risk population. This study seeks to fill that gap by employing a longitudinal research design. METHODS: Longitudinal data were derived from three waves (9, 13, and 17) of the household, income and labour dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. A total of 1007 person-year observations from 592 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander individuals aged 15 years and above were included. HRQoL was captured using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and multimorbidity was defined using self-reports of having been diagnosed with two or more chronic health conditions. Symmetric fixed-effects linear regression models were used to assess how intraindividual changes in multimorbidity were associated with intraindividual changes in HRQoL. RESULTS: Approximately 21% of Indigenous Australians were classified as experiencing multimorbidity. Respondents had statistically significantly lower HRQoL on the SF-36 sub-scales, summary measures, and health-utility index in those observations in which they experienced multimorbidity. Among others, multimorbidity was associated with lower scores on the SF-36 physical-component scale (ß = - 6.527; Standard Error [SE] = 1.579), mental-component scale (ß = - 3.765; SE = 1.590) and short-form six-dimension utility index (ß = - 0.075; SE = 0.017). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that having multiple chronic conditions is statistically significantly associated with lower HRQoL amongst Indigenous Australians. These findings suggest that comprehensive and culturally sensitive health strategies addressing the complex needs of individuals with multimorbidity should be implemented to improve the HRQoL of Indigenous Australians.

Cognitive impairment and health-related quality of life amongst older Australians: evidence from a longitudinal investigation.

INTRODUCTION: Australia's population is steadily growing older, with older persons expected to make up over 20% of the population by 2066. Ageing is strongly associated with a significant drop in cognitive ability, ranging from mild cognitive impairment to severe cognitive impairment (dementia). This study examined the association between cognitive impairment and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older Australians. METHODS: Two waves of longitudinal data from the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were utilised, with the age cut-off for older Australians defined as above 50. The final analysis included 10,737 person-year observations from 6892 unique individuals between 2012 and 2016. This study utilised the Backwards Digit Span (BDS) test and Symbol Digit Modalities test (SDMT) to assess cognitive function. HRQoL was measured using the physical and mental component summary scores of the SF-36 Health Survey (PCS and MCS). Additionally, HRQoL was measured using health state utility values (SF-6D score). A longitudinal random-effects GLS regression model was used to analyse the association between cognitive impairment and HRQoL. RESULTS: This study found that approximately 89% of Australian adults aged 50 or older had no cognitive impairment, 10.16% had moderate cognitive impairment, and 0.72% had severe cognitive impairment. This study also found that moderate and severe cognitive impairment were both negatively associated with HRQoL. Older Australians with moderate cognitive impairment scored worse on the PCS (ß = - 1.765, SE = 0.317), MCS (ß = - 1.612, SE = 0.326), and SF-6D (ß = - 0.024, SE = 0.004) than peers without cognitive impairment given other covariates reference categories remain constant. Older adults experiencing severe cognitive had lower PCS (ß = - 3.560, SE = 1.103), and SF-6D (ß = - 0.034, SE = 0.012) scores compared to their counterparts with no cognitive impairment given other covariates reference categories remain constant. CONCLUSION: We found evidence that HRQoL is negatively associated with cognitive impairment. Our findings will be beneficial for the future cost-effectiveness intervention targeted at reducing cognitive impairment since it provides information on the disutility associated with moderate and severe cognitive impairment.

Clustering of lifestyle and health behaviours in Australian adolescents and associations with obesity, self-rated health and quality of life.

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study was to identify clusters of lifestyle and health behaviours and explore their associations with health outcomes in a nationally representative sample of Australian adolescents. METHODS: The study participants were 3127 adolescents aged 14-15 years who participated in the eighth wave of the birth cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). A latent class analysis (LCA) was performed to identify clusters based on the behaviours of physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, diet, eating disorders, sleep problems and weight consciousness. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the following health outcome variables: obesity, self-rated general health and pediatric health-related quality of life, to investigate their associations with LCA clusters. RESULTS: Based on the prevalence of health behaviour related characteristics, LCA identified gender based distinct clusters of adolescents with certain outward characteristics. There were five clusters for male and four clusters for female participants which are named as: healthy lifestyle, temperate, mixed lifestyle, multiple risk factors, and physically inactive (male only). Adolescents in the healthy lifestyle and temperate clusters reported low and moderately active health risk behaviours, for example, low physical activity, inadequate sleep and so on, while these behaviours were prevailing higher among adolescents of other clusters. Compared to adolescents of healthy lifestyle clusters, male members of physically inactive (OR = 3.87, 95% CI: 1.12 - 13.33) or mixed lifestyle (OR = 5.57, 95% CI: 3.15 - 9.84) clusters were over three to five times more likely to have obesity; while for female adolescents, members of only multiple risk factors clusters (OR = 3.61, 95% CI: 2.00 - 6.51) were over three time more likely to have obesity compared to their counterpart of healthy lifestyle clusters. Adolescents of physically inactive (b = -9.00 for male only), mixed lifestyle (b = -2.77 for male; b = -6.72 for female) or multiple risk factors clusters (b = -6.49 for male; b = -6.59 for female) had a stronger negative association with health-related quality of life scores compared to adolescents of healthy lifestyle clusters. CONCLUSION: The study offers novel insights into latent class classification through the utilisation of different lifestyles and health-related behaviours of adolescents to identify characteristics of vulnerable groups concerning obesity, general health status and quality of life. This classification strategy may help health policy makers to target vulnerable groups and develop appropriate interventions.

Frequency of watching television, owning a mobile phone and risk of being overweight/obese among reproductive-aged women in low- and lower-middle-income countries: A pooled analysis from Demographic and Health Survey data.

People who are overweight and obese suffer from significant health impacts that have increased globally. Concurrently, usage of information and communication devices such as television and mobile phones have also been growing, affecting people's weight. This study examined the association between watching television and owning a mobile phone with overweight and obesity among reproductive-aged women in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). Data of 21 LLMICs reported between 2015 and 2020 were collected from the Demographic and Health Surveys. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine the association into three pooled segments: a group of 21 countries, the World Bank income classification and the regional categorisation of the countries. The all-inclusive prevalence of overweight or obesity was found at 27.1% among 175,370 reproductive-aged women, and this prevalence varied among countries. Overall, the odds of being overweight or obese were 1.20 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15-1.24), 1.40 (AOR=1.40, 95% CI: 1.35-1.44) and 1.18 (AOR=1.18, 95% CI: 1.03-1.35) times higher among those who watched television less than once a week, at least once a week and almost every day, respectively, compared with those who did not watch television. Besides, women's mobile phone ownership is more likely to experience overweight or obesity (AOR=1.72, 95% CI: 1.67-1.77). Consistent results were found for the countries categorised according to the World Bank income and regional classification. Focus on sedentary behaviour, such as television watching and mobile phone use, of women and regional or country-specific innovative strategies and programs are of great immediate importance to decrease the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

The risk and protective factors for suicidal burden among 251 763 school-based adolescents in 77 low- and middle-income to high-income countries: assessing global, regional and national variations.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent suicide is a global public health concern and the second leading cause of adolescent death worldwide. This study aimed to estimate the burden of adolescent suicidal behaviours and its association with violence and unintentional injury, psychosocial, protective, lifestyle and food security-related factors amongst school-based adolescents across 77 countries in the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. METHODS: This study comprised a sample of 251 763 adolescents drawn from the latest Global School-based Student Health Survey of school-based adolescents, aged 11-17 years, across 77 countries. Logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the adjusted effect of independent factors on adolescent suicidal behaviours. RESULTS: The population-weighted 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI), suicidal planning (SP) and suicidal attempts (SA) amongst school-based adolescents was 18, 18 and 16%, respectively. Adolescent suicidal behaviours (i.e. SI, SP and SA) were respectively associated with being physically attacked, physical fighting, high levels of anxiety, feeling lonely, being bullied, lack of parental support, poor peer support, not having close friends and high levels of sedentary behaviours. Overall, these associations also extended to the context of food insecurity across regions and country income groups, where the magnitude of association slightly varied from odds ratios of 1.25 times to 3.13. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of school-going adolescent suicidal thoughts, suicide planning and suicide attempts is of particular concern in low-resource countries. Comprehensive suicide prevention programmes for school-going adolescents in LMICs are needed that address socio-cultural inequities related to violence and unintentional injury, social support and psychological factors, protective, and lifestyle-related factors.

Estimating the effects of physical violence and serious injury on health-related quality of life: Evidence from 19 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effect of physical violence and serious injury on health-related quality of life in the Australian adult population. METHODS: This study utilised panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. HRQoL was measured through the physical component summary (PCS), mental component summary (MCS), and short-form six-dimension utility index (SF-6D) of the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Longitudinal fixed-effect regression models were fitted using 19 waves of the HILDA Survey spanning from 2002 to 2020. RESULTS: This study found a negative effect of physical violence and serious injury on health-related quality of life. More specifically, Australian adults exposed to physical violence and serious injury exhibited lower levels of health-related quality of life. Who experienced physical violence only had lower MCS (ß = -2.786, 95% CI: -3.091, -2.481) and SF-6D (ß = -0.0214, 95% CI: -0.0248, -0.0181) scores if switches from not experiencing physical violence and serious injury. Exposed to serious injury had lower PCS (ß = -5.103, 95% CI: -5.203, -5.004), MCS (ß = -2.363, 95% CI: -2.480, -2.247), and SF-6D (ß = -0.0585, 95% CI: -0.0598, -0.0572) score if the adults not experiencing physical violence and serious injury. Further, individuals exposed to both violence and injury had substantially lower PCS (ß = -3.60, 95% CI: -4.086, -3.114), MCS (ß = -6.027, 95% CI: -6.596, -5.459), and SF-6D (ß = -0.0716, 95% CI: -0.0779, -0.0652) scores relative to when the individuals exposed to none. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that interventions to improve Australian adults' quality of life should pay particular attention to those who have experienced physical violence and serious injury. Our findings suggest unmet mental health needs for victims of physical violence and serious injuries, which calls for proactive policy interventions that provide psychological and emotional therapy.

Multilevel exploration of individual- and community-level factors contributing to overweight and obesity among reproductive-aged women: a pooled analysis of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2004-2018.

OBJECTIVES: Overweight and obesity have been related to a variety of adverse health outcomes. Understanding the overweight and obesity epidemic in Bangladesh, particularly among reproductive-aged women, is critical for monitoring and designing effective control measures. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in reproductive-aged women and to identify the risk factors of overweight and obesity. DESIGN: A total of 70 651 women were obtained from the five most recent and successive Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS). The multilevel logistic regression model was used to explore the individual- and community-level factors of overweight and obesity. SETTING: Five most recent nationally representative household surveys across all regions. PARTICIPANTS: Reproductive-aged (15-49 years) non-pregnant women. RESULTS: Approximately 35·2 % (95 % CI: 34·9-35·6 %) of women were either overweight or obese in Bangladesh. At the individual- and community-level, higher age (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 5·79, 95 % CI: 5·28-6·34), secondary or higher education (aOR = 1·69 [1·60-1·78]), relatively wealthiest households (aOR = 4·41 [4·10-4·74]), electronic media access (aOR = 1·32 [1·26-1·37]) and community high literacy (aOR = 1·10 [1·04-1·15]) of women were significantly positively associated with being overweight or obese. Whereas, rural residents (aOR = 0·79 [0·76-0·82]) from larger-sized households (aOR = 0·80 [0·73-0·87]) and have high community employment (aOR = 0·92 [0·88-0·97]) were negatively associated with the probability of being overweight or obese. CONCLUSION: Individual- and community-level factors influenced the overweight and obesity of Bangladeshi reproductive-aged women. Interventions and a comprehensive public health plan aimed at identifying and addressing the growing burden of overweight and obesity should be a top focus.

Wealth-related inequalities of women's knowledge of cervical cancer screening and service utilisation in 18 resource-constrained countries: evidence from a pooled decomposition analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Resource-constrained countries (RCCs) have the highest burden of cervical cancer (CC) in the world. Nonetheless, although CC can be prevented through screening for precancerous lesions, only a small proportion of women utilise screening services in RCCs. The objective of this study was to examine the magnitude of inequalities of women's knowledge and utilisation of cervical cancer screening (CCS) services in RCCs. METHODS: A total of 1,802,413 sample observations from 18 RCC's latest national-level Demographic and Health Surveys (2008 to 2017-18) were analysed to assess wealth-related inequalities in terms of women's knowledge and utilisation of CCS services. Regression-based decomposition analyses were applied in order to compute the contribution to the inequality disparities of the explanatory variables for women's knowledge and utilisation of CCS services. RESULTS: Overall, approximately 37% of women had knowledge regarding CCS services, of which, 25% belonged to the poorest quintile and approximately 49% from the richest. Twenty-nine percent of women utilised CCS services, ranging from 11% in Tajikistan, 15% in Cote d'Ivoire, 17% in Tanzania, 19% in Zimbabwe and 20% in Kenya to 96% in Colombia. Decomposition analyses determined that factors that reduced inequalities in women's knowledge of CCS services were male-headed households (- 2.24%; 95% CI: - 3.10%, - 1.59%; P < 0.01), currently experiencing amenorrhea (- 1.37%; 95% CI: - 2.37%, - 1.05%; P < 0.05), having no problems accessing medical assistance (- 10.00%; 95% CI: - 12.65%, - 4.89%; P < 0.05), being insured (- 6.94%; 95% CI: - 9.58%, - 4.29%; P < 0.01) and having an urban place of residence (- 9.76%; 95% CI: - 12.59%, - 5.69%; P < 0.01). Similarly, factors that diminished inequality in the utilisation of CCS services were being married (- 8.23%;95% CI: - 12.46%, - 5.80%; P < 0.01), being unemployed (- 14.16%; 95% CI: - 19.23%, - 8.47%; P < 0.01) and living in urban communities (- 9.76%; 95% CI: - 15.62%, - 5.80%; P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Women's knowledge and utilisation of CCS services in RCCs are unequally distributed. Significant inequalities were identified among socioeconomically deprived women in the majority of countries. There is an urgent need for culturally appropriate community-based awareness and access programs to improve the uptake of CCS services in RCCs.

Distribution and predictors associated with the use of breast cancer screening services among women in 14 low-resource countries.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the leading public health problem globally, especially in low-resource countries (LRCs). Breast cancer screening (BCS) services are an effective strategy for early determining of breast cancer. Hence, it is imperative to understand the utilisation of BCS services and their correlated predictors in LRCs. This study aims to determine the distribution of predictors that significantly influence the utilisation of BCS services among women in LRCs. METHODS: The present study used data on 140,974 women aged 40 years or over from 14 LRCs. The data came from country Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) between 2008 and 2016. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to investigate the significant predictors that influence the use of BCS services. RESULTS: The utilisation of BCS services was 15.41%, varying from 81.10% (95% CI: 76.85-84.73%) in one European country, to 18.61% (95% CI: 18.16 to 19.06%) in Asian countries, 14.30% (95% CI: 13.67-14.96%) in American countries, and 14.29% (95% CI: 13.87-14.74%). Factors that were significantly associated to increase the use of BCS services include a higher level of education (OR = 2.48), advanced age at first birth (> 25 years) (OR = 1.65), female-headed households (OR = 1.65), access to mass media communication (OR = 1.84), health insurance coverage (OR = 1.09), urban residence (OR = 1.20) and highest socio-economic status (OR = 2.01). However, obese women shown a significantly 11% (OR = 0.89) lower use of BSC services compared to health weight women. CONCLUSION: The utilisation of BCS services is low in many LRCs. The findings of this study will assist policymakers in identifying the factors that influence the use of BCS services. To increase the national BCS rate, more attention should be essential to under-represented clusters; in particular women who have a poor socioeconomic clusters, live in a rural community, have limited access to mass media communication, and are have a low level educational background. These factors highlight the necessity for a new country-specific emphasis of promotional campaigns, health education, and policy targeting these underrepresented groups in LRCs.

Obesity, Long-Term Health Problems, and Workplace Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study of Australian Workers.

This study investigates the impact of obesity, long-term health problems and their interaction on three specific aspects of job satisfaction among Australian adult workers. Exploiting longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey for the years 2006-2017, this study estimates overall job satisfaction, pay satisfaction and job security satisfaction using a common set of explanatory variables. Results from both random effects generalized least squares estimation and random effects ordered probit model confirm that obesity has a significant negative impact on workers' pay and job security satisfaction. The results indicate that overweight workers are dissatisfied about their job security compared to normal weight peers. The study results reveal that long-term health problems significantly reduce all aspects of job satisfaction of the workers. However, the results indicate that the interaction of obesity and long-term health problems positively influences workers' overall job satisfaction. Overall, the study findings are in line with the hypothesis that obese workers with long-term health problems have low expectations about their job.

Socio-economic inequalities in health-related quality of life and the contribution of cognitive impairment in Australia: A decomposition analysis.

BACKGROUND: The distributional effects of cognitive impairment on inequalities in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are not well studied. This relationship has not been studied in any Australian health inequality literature. Therefore, this study aims to examine how cognitive impairment affects the distribution of HRQoL across various socio-economic classes amongst older Australians. METHODS: Data for this study was collected from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The final analysis consisted of 5,247 and 5,614 unique individuals from wave 2012 and wave 2016, respectively. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model was used to investigate the relationship between cognitive impairment and HRQoL. Additionally, the Wagstaff-Doorslaer-Watanabe standard concentration index was used to examine socioeconomic inequality in HRQoL. RESULTS: The findings revealed pro-rich inequalities in HRQoL, as indicated by the concentration indices of 0.029 and 0.025 for wave 12 and wave 16, respectively. Additionally, the results showed that mild cognitive impairment accounted for 7.60% and 9.03%, respectively, of pro-rich socioeconomic inequality in HRQoL in 2012 and 2016. CONCLUSION: People from lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups tend to have lower HRQoL compared to those from higher SES. This leads to a greater disparity in HRQoL based on SES. Cognitive impairment positively contributed to this inequality in HRQoL. Therefore, it is critical to incorporate cognitive impairment into the design of interventions to reduce socioeconomic inequality in HRQoL.

Beyond the sum of their parts: The combined association of dementia and chronic pain with self-care limitations in older Australians.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dementia, chronic pain and self-care limitations. Additionally, the study sought to explore the relationship of co-occurring dementia and chronic pain with self-care limitations. METHODS: Cross-sectional data derived from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) was used to conduct this study. The pooled association between dementia, and chronic pain, with self-care limitations was assessed using ordered logistic regression model. Furthermore, the study also examined the group comparison of interaction effects between co-occurring dementia and chronic pain with self-care limitations. RESULTS: The ordered logistic regression analysis indicated that people with dementia had significantly higher odds of experiencing greater self-care limitations (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 15.12, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 12.50-18.29) compared to people without dementia. Similarly, chronic pain was independently associated with increased self-care limitations (aOR: 5.98, 95 % CI: 5.49-6.52) compared to people without chronic pain. Additionally, interaction effect analysis revealed that the co-occurrence of dementia and chronic pain substantially heightened the likelihood of self-care limitations (aOR: 66.54, 95 % CI: 52.27-84.69) relative to people without either condition. CONCLUSIONS: Disability was higher among older Australians with dementia and chronic pain, and this risk can be increased if the two conditions co-exist. A continuous, aligned, and personalised healthcare approach is needed to establish self-care priorities, especially in groups of people with the greatest need.

Cost-Consequence Analysis of Deprescribing to Optimize Health Outcomes for Frail Older People: A Within-Trial Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: The structured, clinically supervised withdrawal of medicines, known as deprescribing, is one strategy to address inappropriate polypharmacy. This study aimed to evaluate the costs and consequences of deprescribing in frail older people living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in Australia. DESIGN: A within-trial cost-consequence analysis of a deprescribing intervention-Opti-Med. The Opti-Med double-blind randomized controlled trial of deprescribing included 3 groups: blinded control, blinded intervention, and an open intervention group. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen RACFs in Western Australia and New South Wales. Participants were 303 older people living in participating RACFs from March 2014 to February 2019. METHODS: Analysis was conducted from the health sector perspective. Health economic outcomes assessed include cost saved from deprescribed medicines and the incremental quality-adjusted life-years. Costs were presented in 2022 Australian dollars. RESULTS: The total cost of the Opti-Med intervention was $239.13 per participant. The costs saved through deprescribed medicines over 12 months after adjusting for mortality within the trial period was $328.90 per participant in the blinded intervention group and $164.00 per participant in the open intervention group. On average, the cost of the intervention was more than offset by the cost saved from deprescribed medicines. Extrapolating these findings to the Australian population suggests a potential net cost saving of about $1 to $16 million per annum for the health system nationally. The incremental quality-adjusted life-years were very similar across the 3 groups within the trial period. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Deprescribing for frail older people living in RACFs can be a cost-saving intervention without reducing the quality of life. Systemwide implementation of deprescribing across RACFs in Australia has the potential to improve health care delivery through the cost savings, which could be reapplied to further optimize care within RACFs.

Informal Caregiving Provision for Disabled or Elderly in the Families and Work Productivity: Evidence from 11 Waves of an Australian Population-Based Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Informal carers are family members, friends or neighbours who care for persons in need. In 2018, around one in ten Australians offered some informal care, most of which was unpaid. It is essential to comprehend how informal caregivers' productivity at work is affected by their caregiving responsibilities. We examine the association between informal caregiving and productivity loss in Australia. METHODS: We utilised 11 waves of data drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Longitudinal random-effects logistic regression and random-effects Poisson regression techniques were used to assess the between-person differences in the association between informal caregiving and productivity loss (absenteeism, presenteeism and working hour tension). RESULTS: The results suggest informal caregiving is associated with a higher rate of absenteeism, presenteeism and working hour tension. We reveal that absence/leave rates at work are greater for those with lighter, moderate and intensive care responsibilities than those without caregiving responsibilities, given other covariates reference categories remain constant. Our findings also indicate that workers with intensive, moderate, and light caregiving responsibilities have considerably higher rates of working hour tension than their peers without caregiving commitments if other covariate reference categories are held constant. The result further shows that, on average, an individual with lighter, moderate and intensive caregiving roles had incurred AUD 276.13, AUD 246.81, and AUD 1927.16, respectively, in absenteeism costs annually compared with their counterparts without caregiving duties. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that working-age caregivers experience greater absenteeism, presenteeism and working hour tension. Adverse effects of informal caregiving are required to perform the cost effectiveness of an intervention given to caregivers to improve carer and patient health. Our findings will assist health technology assessment (HTA) practitioners in performing an economic evaluation of interventions given to caregivers by providing the indirect cost (productivity loss) of caregiving.

A multilevel analysis of individual and community-level factors associated with childhood immunisation in Bangladesh: Evidence from a pooled cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: Previous studies on childhood vaccinations in Bangladesh relied on single-level analyses and ignored the clustering and hierarchical structure of data collected from people living in different geographical units. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the association between individual and community-level factors of full childhood immunisation with an improved analytical approach. Methods: Participants were 13,752 children aged 12-59 months. Data were extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) conducted in 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017-18. A two-level multilevel logistic regression method was used to analyse the data. Results: Approximately 87% of the children were fully immunised. In the fully adjusted model, at the individual level, mothers who had primary and above education (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.78; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.57, 2.01), mass media exposure (AOR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.30), having vaccination cards (AOR = 3.65; 95% CI: 3.23, 4.14), and having at least 4 antenatal care (ANC) visits (AOR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.44) were strongly associated with full childhood immunisation. At community-level, rural residency (AOR = 1.25; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.44), community women's education (AOR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.43), and community ANC utilisation (AOR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.19, 1.61) were significantly associated with full childhood immunisation. Conclusion: Along with individual-level factors, community-level factors have a significant effect on childhood immunisation. Policymakers should target improving community-level characteristics, such as community poverty, education levels, and the number of community-level ANC visits, to increase the national level of childhood immunisation. Public health intervention programs aiming at increasing awareness of childhood immunisation should include elements at both individual and community levels.

Sleep duration, sleep quality and the risk of being obese: Evidence from the Australian panel survey.

BACKGROUND: Sleep difficulty is an unmet public health concern affecting a vast proportion of the world's population. Poor sleep duration (short or long sleep length) and quality affect more than half of older people. Sleep difficulty is associated with negative health outcomes such as obesity and reduced longevity. We aimed to assess whether poor sleep duration and quality are significant risk factors for obesity in adults aged 15 and over in Australia by examining a nationally representative panel data. METHODS: We used three waves (waves 13, 17, and 21) of the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey data. The study applied generalized estimating equations (GEE) logistic regression model to assess the relationship between sleep duration and quality with obesity. RESULTS: The study found that the odds of being obese was significantly higher amongst the study participants with poor sleep duration (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16-1.32) and poor sleep quality (aOR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.02-1.38) compared with their counterparts who had good sleep duration and quality, respectively. CONCLUSION: Having short or long sleep at night and poor sleep quality are associated with an increased risk of obesity. Obesity poses a significant threat to the health of Australian adults. Enacting policies that raise public awareness of the significance of good sleep hygiene and encouraging healthy sleeping habits should be considered to address the alarming rise in the obesity rate.