Digital health program improves quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective analysis of real-world data.

OBJECTIVES: Sidekick Health launched a 16-week digital support programme for people with rheumatoid arthritis in 2021. The objective of this retrospective analysis was to understand whether quality of life (QoL; sleep quality, energy and stress levels) improved for users engaged with the programme in a real-world setting. METHODS: This analysis included 635 users who engaged with the programme after the first week, out of 1541 who enrolled. Users self-reported QoL up to four times per week on their phones. Survival bias was investigated by comparing pre-post QoL scores of the full analysis set (all users) and the complete case set (programme completers). Users were divided into highly-engaged and less-engaged groups based on the weekly average number of in-app activities by iterative K-means clustering. Mixed models for repeated measures were used to estimate changes in QoL for highly-versus less-engaged groups. RESULTS: Both the full analysis set and the complete case set had significant pre-post improvements in energy and stress; this suggested that survival bias did not have a substantial effect on these real-world data. Both the highly- and less-engaged groups experienced significant longitudinal improvements in all QoL outcomes. Highly-engaged users achieved better scores in energy, stress, and sleep than less-engaged users. Moreover, a significant time-group interaction for sleep showed that highly-engaged users not only had better sleep scores, but also experienced larger improvements over time than less-engaged users. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that a 16-week digital support programme improves self-reported QoL measures, supporting the 2021 EULAR recommendations to incorporate digital healthcare into routine practice. Noteworthy is the study's relevance in the context of the increasing importance of patient empowerment in managing chronic diseases.

Exploring the association of weather variability on Campylobacter - A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Previous work has found climate change-induced weather variability is suspected to increase the transmission of enteric pathogens, including Campylobacter, a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis. While the relationship between extreme weather events and diarrheal diseases has been documented, the specific impact on Campylobacter infections remains underexplored. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize the peer-reviewed literature exploring the effect of weather variability on Campylobacter infections in humans. METHODS: The review included English language, peer-reviewed articles, published up to September 1, 2022 in PubMed, Embase, GEOBASE, Agriculture and Environmental Science Database, and CABI Global Health exploring the effect of an antecedent weather event on human enteric illness caused by Campylobacter (PROSPERO Protocol # 351884). We extracted study information including data sources, methods, summary measures, and effect sizes. Quality and weight of evidence reported was summarized and bias assessed for each article. RESULTS: After screening 278 articles, 47 articles (34 studies, 13 outbreak reports) were included in the evidence synthesis. Antecedent weather events included precipitation (n = 35), temperature (n = 30), relative humidity (n = 7), sunshine (n = 6), and El Niño and La Niña (n = 3). Reviewed studies demonstrated that increases in precipitation and temperature were correlated with Campylobacter infections under specific conditions, whereas low relative humidity and sunshine were negatively correlated. Articles estimating the effect of animal operations (n = 15) found presence and density of animal operations were significantly associated with infections. However, most of the included articles did not assess confounding by seasonality, presence of animal operations, or describe estimates of risk. DISCUSSION: This review explores what is known about the influence of weather events on Campylobacter and identifies previously underreported negative associations between low relative humidity and sunshine on Campylobacter infections. Future research should explore pathogen-specific estimates of risk, which can be used to influence public health strategies, improve source attribution and causal pathways, and project disease burden due to climate change.

SARS-CoV-2 infection among Colorado adults working outside the home: Occupation, race and ethnicity and mask use.

OBJECTIVES: The workplace is an important setting for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exposure and transmission. Using data from a large case-control study in Colorado during 2021 and 2022, we aimed to evaluate working outside the home and SARS-CoV-2 infection, the racial and ethnic distribution of workers in occupations associated with infection, and workplace face mask use. METHODS: Cases were Colorado adults with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) reported to Colorado's COVID-19 surveillance system selected from surveillance data ≤12 days after their specimen collection date. Control participants were randomly selected adult Coloradans with a RT-PCR-confirmed negative SARS-CoV-2 test result reported to the same surveillance system. RESULTS: Working outside the home was associated with infection (odds ratio [OR] = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39-1.54). Among participants working outside the home, "Food Preparation and Serving Related" (aOR = 2.35, 95% CI: 1.80-3.06), "Transportation and Material Moving" (aOR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.62-2.69), "Construction and Extraction" (aOR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.36-2.59), "Protective Service" (aOR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.15-2.24), and "Sales and Related" (aOR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.22-1.69) were occupational categories most strongly associated with infection. American Indian/Alaskan Native, Black, and Hispanic/Latino participants were more likely than others to work in occupational categories with the highest odds of infection (p < 0.05). Cases were less likely than controls to report always wearing a mask (31.9% vs. 41.5%) and wearing a KN95/N95/KF94 mask (16.8% vs. 27.2%) at work. CONCLUSIONS: These findings emphasize the importance of occupation and workplace mask use in the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate racial/ethnic impact on workers.

A Prediction Tool to Identify the Causative Agent of Enteric Disease Outbreaks Using Outbreak Surveillance Data.

Information on the causative agent in an enteric disease outbreak can be used to generate hypotheses about the route of transmission and possible vehicles, to guide environmental assessments, and to target outbreak control measures. However, only about 40% of outbreaks reported in the United States include a confirmed etiology. The goal of this project was to identify clinical and demographic characteristics that can be used to predict the causative agent in an enteric disease outbreak and to use these data to develop an online tool for investigators to use during an outbreak when hypothesizing about the causative agent. Using data on enteric disease outbreaks from all transmission routes (animal contact, environmental contamination, foodborne, person-to-person, waterborne, unknown) reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we developed random forest models to predict the etiology of an outbreak based on aggregated clinical and demographic characteristics at both the etiology category (i.e., bacteria, parasites, toxins, viruses) and individual etiology (Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, norovirus, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, and Shigella) levels. The etiology category model had a kappa of 0.85 and an accuracy of 0.92, whereas the etiology-specific model had a kappa of 0.75 and an accuracy of 0.86. The highest sensitivities in the etiology category model were for bacteria and viruses; all categories had high specificities (>0.90). For the etiology-specific model, norovirus and Salmonella had the highest sensitivity and all etiologies had high specificities. When laboratory confirmation is unavailable, information on the clinical signs and symptoms reported by people associated with the outbreak, with other characteristics including case demographics and illness severity, can be used to predict the etiology or etiology category. An online publicly available tool was developed to assist investigators in their enteric disease outbreak investigations.

Economic Burden of Foodborne Illnesses Acquired in the United States.

Foodborne disease burden estimates inform public health priorities and can help the public understand disease impact. This article provides new estimates of the cost of U.S. foodborne illness. Our research updated disease modeling underlying these cost estimates with a focus on enhancing chronic sequelae modeling and enhancing uncertainty modeling. Our cost estimates were based on U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates of the numbers of foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths caused by 31 known foodborne pathogens and unspecified foodborne agents. We augmented these estimates of illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths with more detailed modeling of health outcomes, including chronic sequelae. For health outcomes, we relied on U.S. data and research where possible, supplemented by the use of non-U.S. research where necessary and scientifically appropriate. Cost estimates were developed from large insurance or hospital charge databases, public data sources, and existing literature and were adjusted to 2023 dollars. We estimated the cost of foodborne illness in the United States circa 2023 to be $75 billion. Deaths accounted for 56% and chronic outcomes for 31% of the mean cost. The costliest pathogen was nontyphoidal Salmonella at $17.1 billion followed by Campylobacter at $11.3 billion. Toxoplasma ($5.7 billion) and Listeria ($4 billion) followed due primarily to deaths and chronic outcomes from pregnancy-associated cases. Per-case cost ranged from $196 for Bacillus cereus to $4.6 million for Vibrio vulnificus. Unspecified agents accounted for 38% of the total cost of foodborne illness, but these illnesses were generally mild (per-case cost $781). These cost estimates can help inform food safety priorities. Our pathogen-specific per-case cost estimates can also help inform benefit-cost analysis required for new federal food safety regulations.

Using Online Surveys for Routine Campylobacter Case Investigations in Colorado, September 2020-December 2021.

CONTEXT: Routine case investigations are critical for enteric disease control and surveillance. Given limited resources and staffing, public health agencies are exploring more efficient case investigation methods. OBJECTIVE: To identify and describe the advantages and disadvantages of using online surveys to supplement routine enteric disease case investigations. DESIGN: We evaluated routine Campylobacter interview data collected via telephone vs online by interviewers with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. SETTING AND PARTICIPATION: Colorado laboratory-confirmed Campylobacter cases reported from September 1, 2020, through December 31, 2021. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We calculated modality preference, response rates, and data quality (missing and unknown answers) and compared demographics (age, gender, and urban vs rural) by modality. Estimated staff time savings and investigation timeliness were compared. RESULTS: Modality preference was split among the 966 contacted Campylobacter cases (46% telephone, 50% online, and 4% refusal). Among online respondents, 57% completed the survey for an overall 63% response rate. Females and those 18 to 44 years of age were most likely to select (55%, 60%) and complete (57%, 66%) the online survey, while those under 18 and over 65 years of age were least likely to select (47%, 45%) or complete (53%, 46%). Those who identified as non-Hispanic Black were most likely to select online (62%), whereas those who identified as mixed-race non-Hispanic and non-Hispanic White had the highest completion (78%, 60%). Modality preference was comparable by geography; however, rural residents had higher completion rates (61%). Data quality and completeness were comparable between modalities. Completing the 274 online surveys via telephone would have taken an estimated 78 hours of additional staff time. CONCLUSIONS: Online surveys can increase public health efficiency and capacity while maintaining data quality. However, use should be limited to high-burden, low-resource pathogens due to reduced response rates. Understanding implementation best practices and conducting regular evaluation are critical for optimization.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the State Enteric Disease Public Health Workforce in the Western United States, March-April 2022.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state-level enteric disease workforce and routine enteric disease surveillance and outbreak investigation activities in the western United States. DESIGN AND SETTING: Key informant interviews conducted using bidirectional video from March to April 2022. PARTICIPANTS: Enteric disease epidemiologists at state public health agencies in the western states served by the Colorado and Washington Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence. MAIN OUTCOMES: Key themes were identified using grounded theory. RESULTS: Nine themes were identified including excessive workload, shifts in local and state responsibilities, challenges with retention and hiring, importance of student teams, laboratory supplies shortages, changes to case and outbreak investigation priorities, transitioning back to enterics, adoption of new methods and technology, and current and future needs. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic response had a substantial impact on state-level enteric disease activities in western states, with many staff members diverted from routine responsibilities and a de-prioritization of enteric disease work. There is a need for sustainable solutions to address staffing shortages, prioritize employee mental health, and effectively manage routine workloads when responding to emergencies.

Improving Foodborne Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Detection and Response Using Peer Networks-The Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence.

CONTEXT: Foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak investigations are foundational to the prevention and control of foodborne disease in the United States, where contaminated foods cause an estimated 48 million illnesses, 128 000 hospitalizations, and 3000 deaths each year. Surveillance activities and rapid detection and investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks require a trained and coordinated workforce across epidemiology, environmental health, and laboratory programs. PROGRAM: Under the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was called on to establish Integrated Food Safety (IFS) Centers of Excellence (CoEs) at state health departments, which would collaborate with academic partners, to identify, implement, and evaluate model practices in foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response and to serve as a resource for public health professionals. IMPLEMENTATION: CDC designated 5 IFS CoEs in August 2012 in Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, and Tennessee; a sixth IFS CoE in New York was added in August 2014. For the August 2019-July 2024 funding period, 5 IFS CoEs were designated in Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee, and Washington. Each IFS CoE is based at the state health department that partners with at least one academic institution. EVALUATION: IFS CoEs have built capacity across public health agencies by increasing the number of workforce development opportunities (developing >70 trainings, tools, and resources), supporting outbreak response activities (responding to >50 requests for outbreak technical assistance annually), mentoring students, and responding to emerging issues, such as changing laboratory methods and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Identifying Sepsis From Foodborne Hospitalization: Incidence and Hospitalization Cost by Pathogen.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis causes a major health burden in the United States. To better understand the role of sepsis as a driver of the burden and cost of foodborne illness in the United States, we estimated the frequency and treatment cost of sepsis among US patients hospitalized with 31 pathogens commonly transmitted through food or with unspecified acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI). METHODS: Using data from the National Inpatient Sample from 2012 to 2015, we identified sepsis hospitalizations using 2 approaches-explicit ICD-9-CM codes for sepsis and a coding scheme developed by Angus that identifies sepsis using specific ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes indicating an infection plus organ failure. We examined differences in the frequency and the per-case cost of sepsis across pathogens and AGI and estimated total hospitalization costs using prior estimates of foodborne hospitalizations. RESULTS: Using Explicit Sepsis Codes, sepsis hospitalizations accounted for 4.6% of hospitalizations with a pathogen commonly transmitted through food or unspecified AGI listed as a diagnosis; this was 33.2% using Angus Sepsis Codes. The average per-case cost was $35 891 and $20 018, respectively. Applying the proportions of hospitalizations with sepsis from this study to prior estimates of the number foodborne hospitalizations, the total annual cost was $248 million annually using Explicit Sepsis Codes and $889 million using Angus Sepsis Codes. CONCLUSIONS: Sepsis is a serious complication among patients hospitalized with a foodborne pathogen infection or AGI resulting in a large burden of illness. Hospitalizations that are diagnosed using explicit sepsis codes are more severe and costly, but likely underestimate the burden of foodborne sepsis.

Foodborne Illness Outbreaks Reported to National Surveillance, United States, 2009-2018.

Foodborne outbreaks reported to national surveillance systems represent a subset of all outbreaks in the United States; not all outbreaks are detected, investigated, and reported. We described the structural factors and outbreak characteristics of outbreaks reported during 2009-2018. We categorized states (plus DC) as high (highest quintile), middle (middle 3 quintiles), or low (lowest quintile) reporters on the basis of the number of reported outbreaks per 10 million population. Analysis revealed considerable variation across states in the number and types of foodborne outbreaks reported. High-reporting states reported 4 times more outbreaks than low reporters. Low reporters were more likely than high reporters to report larger outbreaks and less likely to implicate a setting or food vehicle; however, we did not observe a significant difference in the types of food vehicles identified. Per capita funding was strongly associated with increased reporting. Investments in public health programming have a measurable effect on outbreak reporting.

Trends in Outpatient Medical-Care Seeking for Acute Gastroenteritis During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020.

The rate of enteric infections reported to public health surveillance decreased during 2020 amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Changes in medical care-seeking behaviors may have impacted the diagnosis of enteric infections contributing to these declines. We examined trends in outpatient medical care-seeking behavior for acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in Colorado during 2020 compared with the that of previous 3 years using electronic health record data from the Colorado Health Observation Regional Data Service (CHORDS). Outpatient medical encounters for AGE were identified using diagnoses codes from the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision and aggregated by year, quarter, age group, and encounter type. The rate of encounters was calculated by dividing the number of AGE encounters by the corresponding total number of encounters. There were 9064 AGE encounters in 2020 compared with an annual average of 18,784 from 2017 to 2019 (p < 0.01), representing a 52% decrease. The rate of AGE encounters declined after the first quarter of 2020 and remained significantly lower for the rest of the year. Moreover, previously observed trends, including seasonal patterns and the preponderance of pediatric encounters, were no longer evident. Telemedicine modalities accounted for 23% of all AGE encounters in 2020. AGE outpatient encounters in Colorado in 2020 were substantially lower than during the previous 3 years. Decreases remained stable over the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2020 (April-December) and were especially pronounced for children <18 years of age. Changes in medical care-seeking behavior likely contributed to declines in the number of enteric disease cases and outbreaks reported to public health. It is unclear to what extent people were ill with AGE and did not seek medical care because of concerns about the infection risk during a health care visit or to what extent there were reductions in certain exposures and opportunities for disease transmission resulting in less illness.

Using Outbreak Data for Hypothesis Generation: A Vehicle Prediction Tool for Disease Outbreaks Caused by Salmonella and Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli.

Hypothesis generation about potential food and other exposures is a critical step in an enteric disease outbreak investigation, helping to focus investigation efforts and use of limited resources. Historical outbreak data are an important source of information for hypothesis generation, providing data on common food- and animal-pathogen pairs and other epidemiological trends. We developed a model to predict vehicles for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella outbreaks using demographic and outbreak characteristics from outbreaks in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (1998-2019) and Animal Contact Outbreak Surveillance System (2009-2019). We evaluated six algorithmic methods for prediction based on their ability to predict multiple class probabilities, selecting the random forest prediction model, which performed best with the lowest Brier score (0.0953) and highest accuracy (0.54). The model performed best for outbreaks transmitted by animal contact and foodborne outbreaks associated with eggs, meat, or vegetables. Expanding the criteria to include the two highest predicted vehicles, 83% of egg outbreaks were predicted correctly, followed by meat (82%), vegetables (74%), poultry (67%), and animal contact (62%). The model performed less well for fruit and poultry vehicles, and it did not predict any dairy outbreaks. The final model was translated into a free, publicly available online tool that can be used by investigators to provide data-driven hypotheses about outbreak vehicles as part of ongoing outbreak investigations. Investigators should use the tool for hypothesis generation along-side other sources, such as food-pathogen pairs, descriptive data, and case exposure assessments. The tool should be implemented in the context of individual outbreaks and with an awareness of its limitations, including the heterogeneity of outbreaks and the possibility of novel food vehicles.

Hypothesis Generation During Foodborne-Illness Outbreak Investigations.

Hypothesis generation is a critical, but challenging, step in a foodborne outbreak investigation. The pathogens that contaminate food have many diverse reservoirs, resulting in seemingly limitless potential vehicles. Identifying a vehicle is particularly challenging for clusters detected through national pathogen-specific surveillance, because cases can be geographically dispersed and lack an obvious epidemiologic link. Moreover, state and local health departments could have limited resources to dedicate to cluster and outbreak investigations. These challenges underscore the importance of hypothesis generation during an outbreak investigation. In this review, we present a framework for hypothesis generation focusing on 3 primary sources of information, typically used in combination: 1) known sources of the pathogen causing illness; 2) person, place, and time characteristics of cases associated with the outbreak (descriptive data); and 3) case exposure assessment. Hypothesis generation can narrow the list of potential food vehicles and focus subsequent epidemiologic, laboratory, environmental, and traceback efforts, ensuring that time and resources are used more efficiently and increasing the likelihood of rapidly and conclusively implicating the contaminated food vehicle.

Cost of Hospitalizations for Leading Foodborne Pathogens in the United States: Identification by International Classification of Disease Coding and Variation by Pathogen.

Foodborne illness is a continuing public health problem in the United States. Seven pathogens-Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, nontyphoidal Salmonella, norovirus, and Toxoplasma gondii-are estimated to cause >90% of the foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths attributed to 31 known pathogens. The purpose of this article was to inform estimates of the cost of hospitalizations associated with these pathogens using National Inpatient Survey data from January 2012 through September 2015. The article explored two methodological issues. First, is it more appropriate to use hospitalizations identified using principal or all diagnosis codes when estimating cost? Second, should pathogen-specific or overall mean cost estimates be used? After excluding C. perfringens because of low sample size, the remaining six pathogens included in the analysis were associated with 17,102 hospital discharge records. Of these 55% have the pathogen listed as a principal diagnosis (FBP-PD), ranging from 6% for T. gondii to 68% for nontyphoidal Salmonella. The mean per-case cost of records with the pathogen listed as a secondary diagnosis (FBP-SD) was 2.7 times higher than FBP-PD. FBP-SD were also more severe than FBP-PD with longer lengths of stay, increasing loss of function, and increasing risk of mortality. Severity was the main driver of cost. We also found severity of illness and cost of hospitalizations vary by pathogen. Based on identifying cases with a pathogen in either FBP-PD or FBP-SD, we found mean per-case hospitalization cost across the six pathogens included in this study was $17,515, ranging from $11,552 for Campylobacter to $34,206 for norovirus. In summary, if only FBP-PD cases were used to estimate cost, estimates would likely underestimate hospitalization costs among those cases with a pathogen-specific diagnosis. Because these foodborne pathogens varied in severity of illness, the mean cost of hospitalizations also varied significantly by pathogen.

Using Online Surveys for Enteric Disease Case Investigations: A Pilot Project.

Typically conducted by telephone, routine enteric disease case interviews are critical for foodborne illness surveillance, outbreak detection, and disease control. However, an increasing case load, along with the increased use of mobile telephones, has made case interviews more challenging to complete. For this reason, the Colorado Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence developed and evaluated a pilot program using online surveys to supplement routine telephone-based enteric disease case investigations. From April to September 2019, investigators offered laboratory-confirmed Giardia cases from three Colorado counties the option of either a telephone interview or an online survey. The paper-based Giardia case investigation form was mapped to an online survey in Research Electronic Data Capture. We evaluated the pilot project response rates, timeliness, data quality, demographics, and user feedback. Of the 32 Giardia cases contacted, 66% requested the online survey, and of these, 81% completed the survey. Online survey cases were slightly younger (median: 42 vs. 48 years) and the majority agreed that the survey was easy to use (93%), did not take too much time (87%), and was easy to understand (67%). Staff time decreased for online surveys compared with telephone interviews (median: 6 vs. 19 min); however, the time from case report to interview completion doubled (median: 4 vs. 2 d for telephone interview cases) and data quality decreased slightly. Given limited public health agency resources, supplementing telephone interviews with online surveys may increase the efficiency of routine enteric case investigations. The results of this pilot project indicate online surveys are popular with enteric disease cases and substantially reduce staff time. Methods to improve the timeliness and data quality of online surveys should be explored to reduce the impact on disease control and outbreak detection activities.

Influence of acute moderate- to high-intensity aerobic exercise on markers of immune function and microparticles in renal transplant recipients.

Renal transplant recipients (RTRs) and patients with nondialysis chronic kidney disease display elevated circulating microparticle (MP) counts, while RTRs display immunosuppression-induced infection susceptibility. The impact of aerobic exercise on circulating immune cells and MPs is unknown in RTRs. Fifteen RTRs [age: 52.8 ± 14.5 yr, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR): 51.7 ± 19.8 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2 (mean ± SD)] and 16 patients with nondialysis chronic kidney disease (age: 54.8 ± 16.3 yr, eGFR: 61.9 ± 21.0 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2, acting as a uremic control group), and 16 healthy control participants (age: 52.2 ± 16.2 yr, eGFR: 85.6 ± 6.1 mL·min-1·1.73 m-2) completed 20 min of walking at 60-70% peak O2 consumption. Venous blood samples were taken preexercise, postexercise, and 1 h postexercise. Leukocytes and MPs were assessed using flow cytometry. Exercise increased classical (P = 0.001) and nonclassical (P = 0.002) monocyte subset proportions but decreased the intermediate subset (P < 0.001) in all groups. Exercise also decreased the percentage of platelet-derived MPs that expressed tissue factor in all groups (P = 0.01), although no other exercise-dependent effects were observed. The exercise-induced reduction in intermediate monocyte percentage suggests an anti-inflammatory effect, although this requires further investigation. The reduction in the percentage of tissue factor-positive platelet-derived MPs suggests reduced prothrombotic potential, although further functional assays are required. Exercise did not cause aberrant immune cell activation, suggesting its safety from an immunological standpoint (ISRCTN38935454).

Cannabis-Infused Edible Products in Colorado: Food Safety and Public Health Implications.

Cannabis-infused "edibles" are a popular means of cannabis use, and the variety of edible food products available to consumers continues to grow. Although there has been much discussion on dose standardization, childproof packaging, and the prevention of overconsumption, the important topic of food safety has received less attention.We discuss potential food safety hazards associated with cannabis-infused edible food products, drawing on examples from Colorado, and describe edible-associated foodborne illness outbreaks and other contamination events.It is important for public health agencies, particularly environmental health and enteric disease programs, to be familiar with the cannabis industry, including regulatory partners, signs and symptoms of cannabis ingestion, the scope of edible products sold and consumed, and the food safety risks unique to cannabis products.

Characteristics of Campylobacter and Salmonella Infections and Acute Gastroenteritis in Older Adults in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

BACKGROUND: The early detection of enteric infections in older adults is challenging because typical signs and symptoms of disease may be less common, absent, or overlooked. Understanding illness characteristics of enteric infections among older adults could improve the timeliness and accuracy of clinical diagnoses, thereby improving patient outcomes and increasing cases reported to surveillance. METHODS: Here, we describe illness characteristics (percentage reporting bloody diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal pain; percentage hospitalized; duration of hospitalization; and duration of illness) among older adults (≥65 years) with acute gastroenteritis and culture-confirmed Campylobacter and nontyphoidal Salmonella infections in Australia, Canada, and the United States and compare these characteristics with those among younger people (<5 years, 5-24 years, and 25-64 years). RESULTS: A significant negative correlation was found between all symptoms and increasing age group, except for bloody diarrhea in cases of acute gastroenteritis. Adults aged ≥85 years reported bloody diarrhea in only 9% of nontyphoidal Salmonella and 4% of Campylobacter infections compared with 59% and 55% among children aged <5 years. Conversely, a greater percentage of older adults (≥65) than younger persons (<5, 5-24, 25-64) reported being hospitalized, with an increasing linear relationship in age groups 65 years and older. CONCLUSIONS: Although older adults are more likely to have severe illness and be hospitalized, we found that the proportion of persons reporting symptoms typically associated with enteric infections decreases with age. These findings have implications for clinical recognition and treatment of gastrointestinal illness, as well as for public health research.

Characterising skeletal muscle haemoglobin saturation during exercise using near-infrared spectroscopy in chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have reduced exercise capacity. Possible contributing factors may include impaired muscle O2 utilisation through reduced mitochondria number and/or function slowing the restoration of muscle ATP concentrations via oxidative phosphorylation. Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we explored changes in skeletal muscle haemoglobin/myoglobin O2 saturation (SMO2%) during exercise. METHODS: 24 CKD patients [58.3 (± 16.5) years, eGFR 56.4 (± 22.3) ml/min/1.73 m2] completed the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) as a marker of exercise capacity. Using NIRS, SMO2% was measured continuously before, during, and after (recovery) exercise. Exploratory differences were investigated between exercise capacity tertiles in CKD, and compared with six healthy controls. RESULTS: We identified two discrete phases; a decline in SMO2% during incremental exercise, followed by rapid increase upon cessation (recovery). Compared to patients with low exercise capacity [distance walked during ISWT, 269.0 (± 35.9) m], patients with a higher exercise capacity [727.1 (± 38.1) m] took 45% longer to reach their minimum SMO2% (P = .038) and recovered (half-time recovery) 79% faster (P = .046). Compared to controls, CKD patients took significantly 56% longer to recover (i.e., restore SMO2% to baseline, full recovery) (P = .014). CONCLUSIONS: Using NIRS, we have determined for the first time in CKD, that favourable SMO2% kinetics (slower deoxygenation rate, quicker recovery) are associated with greater exercise capacity. These dysfunctional kinetics may indicate reduced mitochondria capacity to perform oxidative phosphorylation-a process essential for carrying out even simple activities of daily living. Accordingly, NIRS may provide a simple, low cost, and non-invasive means to evaluate muscle O2 kinetics in CKD.

Tunable Infrared Metasurface on a Soft Polymer Scaffold.

The fabrication of metallic electromagnetic meta-atoms on a soft microstructured polymer scaffold using a MEMS-based stencil lithography technique is demonstrated. Using this technique, complex metasurfaces that are generally impossible to fabricate with traditional photolithographic techniques are created. By engineering the mechanical deformation of the polymer scaffold, the metasurface reflectivity in the mid-infrared can be tuned by the application of moderate strains.