A mixed-methods study on the pharmacological management of pain in Australian and Japanese nursing homes.

BACKGROUND: Understanding how analgesics are used in different countries can inform initiatives to improve the pharmacological management of pain in nursing homes. AIMS: To compare patterns of analgesic use among Australian and Japanese nursing home residents; and explore Australian and Japanese healthcare professionals' perspectives on analgesic use. METHODS: Part one involved a cross-sectional comparison among residents from 12 nursing homes in South Australia (N = 550) in 2019 and four nursing homes in Tokyo (N = 333) in 2020. Part two involved three focus groups with Australian and Japanese healthcare professionals (N = 16) in 2023. Qualitative data were deductively content analysed using the World Health Organization six-step Guide to Good Prescribing. RESULTS: Australian and Japanese residents were similar in age (median: 89 vs 87) and sex (female: 73% vs 73%). Overall, 74% of Australian and 11% of Japanese residents used regular oral acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or opioids. Australian and Japanese healthcare professionals described individualising pain management and the first-line use of acetaminophen. Australian participants described their therapeutic goal was to alleviate pain and reported analgesics were often prescribed on a regular basis. Japanese participants described their therapeutic goal was to minimise impacts of pain on daily activities and reported analgesics were often prescribed for short-term durations, corresponding to episodes of pain. Japanese participants described regulations that limit opioid use for non-cancer pain in nursing homes. CONCLUSION: Analgesic use is more prevalent in Australian than Japanese nursing homes. Differences in therapeutic goals, culture, analgesic regulations and treatment durations may contribute to this apparent difference.

Gender differences in adherence and retention in Mediterranean diet interventions with a weight-loss outcome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The Mediterranean diet has been shown to be effective in improving health outcomes and for weight loss. Adherence and retention in dietary interventions are critical to ensure the benefits of the exposure. No studies to date have assessed the role of gender in understanding participants who remain engaged and adhere to Mediterranean diet interventions. AIMS: This study aimed to explore gender differences in recruitment, adherence, and retention for Mediterranean diet interventions and whether these were associated with differences in weight-loss outcomes. METHODS: A systematic search was completed in EMBASE, Medline, Cochrane, and clinicaltrials.gov from inception to March 2023. A meta-analysis of studies reporting retention by gender was completed using odds ratios comparing female to male dropout numbers. A second meta-analysis was completed for adherence comparing standardized mean difference of Mediterranean diet scores stratified by gender. Newcastle Ottawa score was used to assess risk of bias. RESULTS: A total of 70 articles were included in the systematic review with six articles included in the adherence meta-analysis and nine in the dropout meta-analysis. No statistically significant difference was shown for adherence or retention by gender. Weight-loss outcomes were inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study suggest a higher adherence and lower dropout for women although these results were not statistically significant. Future studies of Mediterranean diet interventions should include adherence, retention, and weight-loss data stratified by gender to allow further investigation of this relationship.

Targeted Depletion of Primary Cilia in Dopaminoceptive Neurons in a Preclinical Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease.

Multiple pathomechanisms triggered by mutant Huntingtin (mHTT) underlie progressive degeneration of dopaminoceptive striatal neurons in Huntington's disease (HD). The primary cilium is a membrane compartment that functions as a hub for various pathways that are dysregulated in HD, for example, dopamine (DA) receptor transmission and the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The roles of primary cilia (PC) for the maintenance of striatal neurons and in HD progression remain unknown. Here, we investigated PC defects in vulnerable striatal neurons in a progressive model of HD, the mHTT-expressing knock-in zQ175 mice. We found that PC length is affected in striatal but not in cortical neurons, in association with the accumulation of mHTT. To explore the role of PC, we generated conditional mutant mice lacking IFT88, a component of the anterograde intraflagellar transport-B complex lacking PC in dopaminoceptive neurons. This mutation preserved the expression of the dopamine 1 receptor (D1R), and the survival of striatal neurons, but resulted in a mild increase of DA metabolites in the striatum, suggesting an imbalance of ciliary DA receptor transmission. Conditional loss of PC in zQ175 mice did not trigger astrogliosis, however, mTOR signaling was more active and resulted in a more pronounced accumulation of nuclear inclusions containing mHTT. Further studies will be required of aged mice to determine the role of aberrant ciliary function in more advanced stages of HD.