Introduction Earlier, we designed and evaluated an educational mass media intervention for improving people’s ability to think more critically and to assess the trustworthiness of claims (assertions) about ...

Background There is a need for validated clinical risk scores to identify patients at risk of severe disease and to guide decision-making during the covid-19 pandemic. The National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) is widely ...

Background Prevalence of HIV infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) has been reported to be higher than that of the general population. The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection and ...

Background The aim was to investigate if fatty acid profile and estimated desaturase activities; stearoyl CoA-desaturase (SCD), delta-5-desaturase and delta-6-desaturase (D5D; D6D), differ between individuals with ...

Background Mental health professionals usually decide patients’ access to inpatient care to ensure the rational and fair distribution of care based on need and prognosis. The purpose of the current study ...

This article contributes with a novel systematic theoretical and empirical exploration of why states find a nonpermanent seat in the UN Security Council attractive. Three conceptualizations of power—to influence, to network, ...

Background The development of automatic tools based on acoustic analysis allows to overcome the limitations of perceptual assessment for patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic ...

Oxygen consumption measurement was used to study potential oxidative degradation reactions occurring in wooden artefacts from the Viking age Oseberg collection in Norway. Model samples of fresh birch were impregnated with ...

Background The Feeling Word Checklist (FWC) is a self-report questionnaire designed to assess therapists’ countertransference (CT) feelings. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric ...

The concept of school climate has received much attention as a predictor of educational outcomes, including students’ well-being, academic achievement, and motivation. To measure this concept, international large-scale ...

Background Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) poses diagnostic challenges due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease. The immunochemistry-based MPT64 antigen detection test (MPT64 test) has shown promising results for ...

Background Knowledge about the high rates of depression in people with visual impairment (VI) remains unclear. The study aimed to examine whether depressive symptoms in people with VI were associated with ...

Background There are several treatment modalities for unresectable neuroendocrine tumors. Traditionally, the aim of these treatments has been to reduce the tumor load; referred to as objective response (OR). Less emphasis ...

Background Interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) are common in participants of lung cancer screening trials and broad population-based cohorts. They are associated with increased mortality, but less is known about disease ...

Background Existing literature shows that there is an inverse association between socioeconomic position and screen time among adolescents. What is less known is the mechanism behind these differences. The study aimed to ...

Background The Ethiopian law on abortion was liberalized in 2005. However, as a strongly religious country, the new law has remained controversial from the outset. Many abortion providers have religious allegiances, which ...

Background Over the last decades, due to high rates of immigration, many high-income countries have witnessed demographic shifts towards more cultural diversity in the population. Socio-economic deprivation ...

The European Union (EU) initiative on the Digital Transformation of Health and Care (Digicare) aims to provide the conditions necessary for building a secure, flexible, and decentralized digital health infrastructure. ...

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often associated with life-long medical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes. Although long-lasting disabilities are expected, research on effective ...

This paper uses detailed register information on students in lower secondary school in Norway to study the importance of the second moment of individual grade distribution: grade variance. Students receive discrete-value ...

Background Several publications have addressed the need for a systematic integration of oncological care focused on the tumor and palliative care (PC) focused on the patient with cancer. The exponential ...

Purpose The pressure on healthcare budgets remains high, partially due to the ageing population. Economic evaluation can be a helpful tool to inform resource allocation in publicly financed systems. Such evaluations ...

Background To report on our experience using a simple optional form to facilitate communication on late effects between the patients and the oncologists during outpatient follow-up and to detail on the spectrum of challenges ...

Background The relative importance of lifestyle, medical and psychosocial factors on the risk of recurrent major cardiovascular (CV) events (MACE) in coronary patients’ needs to be identified. The main objective of this ...

Background Dispensations of benzodiazepines, z-hypnotics, and gabapentinoids to patients on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) are common and have pros and cons. The objectives of the current study are to define the dispensation ...

Background Although many people experience loneliness in old age, there is little knowledge of predisposing personality factors. The aim of the present study was to explore to what extent personality traits ...

Background Immigrants and their Norwegian-born children make up approximately 18% of the total population in Norway. While several studies have been conducted on immigrants’ utilization of healthcare services, ...

Objective An inverse effect of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) on the occurrence of asthma is debated and early acquisition of H. pylori may be important. We analyzed sera from 197 children from Environment and Childhood ...

Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland form the 5 culturally uniform Nordic countries. Each of the countries owns a high-standard tradition of individual steering in cardiothoracic education aiming at securing the ...

Background The number of patients with long-term chronic diseases is increasing. These patients place a strain on health care systems and health care professionals (HCPs). Presently, we aimed to systematically review the ...

Background Well- and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (WD/DDLPS) are rare mesenchymal malignant tumors that account for 20% of all sarcomas in adults. The WD form is a low-grade malignancy with a favourable prognosis which may ...

Background Early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF) is a predetermining factor for exclusive breastfeeding, and thus a foundation for optimal breastfeeding practices. Rates of EIBF are low globally (42%) and in Tanzania ...

Background Hypoxia is pervasive in cancer and other diseases. Cells sense and adapt to hypoxia by activating hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs), but it is still an outstanding question why cell types differ ...

Background Infusion testing is a common procedure to determine whether shunting will be beneficial in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. The method has a well-developed theoretical foundation and ...

Background Understanding the resilience of healthcare is critically important. A resilient healthcare system might be expected to consistently deliver high quality care, withstand disruptive events and continually adapt, ...

Background The ocean microbiota modulates global biogeochemical cycles and changes in its configuration may have large-scale consequences. Yet, the underlying ecological mechanisms structuring it are ...

Objective The Eating Disorder Assessment for DSM-5 (EDA-5) is an electronic, semi-structured interview developed to assess feeding and eating disorders following DSM-5 criteria. The original English version has strong ...

Background VascuQoL-6 (VQ-6) is a disease-specific quality of life (QoL) instrument validated for use in clinical practice and vascular registries before and after treatment for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). To improve ...

Background Joubert syndrome (JBTS) is a genetically heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental syndromes caused by primary cilia dysfunction. Usually the neurological presentation starts with abnormal neonatal ...

T cells are major players in the immune system. These cells can recognize dangerous antigens through their specific receptors. Harnessing the power of T cells would be beneficial for not only fighting numerous infectious ...

Background The health system of Sudan has experienced several forms of decentralization, as well as, a radical reform. Authority and governance of secondary and tertiary health facilities have been shifted from federal to ...

Background Randomised trials on antibiotic treatment for patients with chronic low back pain and vertebral endplate changes visible on MRI (Modic changes) have shown mixed results. A possible explanation might be a real ...

Background The immune response during falciparum malaria mediates both harmful and protective effects on the host; however the participating molecules have not been fully defined. Interleukin (IL)-27 is a ...

Background Aggregation of amyloid β into plaques in the brain is one of the earliest pathological events in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The exact pathophysiology leading to dementia is still uncertain, but the apolipoprotein ...

Ongoing joint pain and back pain were associated with reduced quality of life and fatigue in IBD patients after 20 years of disease, whereas spondyloarthritis without ongoing joint symptoms did not have a negative impact ...

Background The study aimed to assess whether gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms at admission are associated with increased short-term mortality in patients with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). ...

Background There is a gap in the literature regarding what takes place between the announcement of a regulatory intervention, such as an external inspection of a health care organisation, and the inspecting body’s site ...

Background The quality of maternal-infant bonding is related to important child outcomes. The literature has assumed that the ability to form relationships is a relatively stable trait, and research studies have suggested ...

Background The interest in patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research is increasing. However, the experience and knowledge of PPI throughout the entire research process and especially in the analysis are ...

Background Procalcitonin is an inflammatory biomarker that is sensitive for bacterial infections and a promising clinical decision aid in antimicrobial stewardship programs. However, there are few studies of physicians’ ...

Background Dispensations of opioid analgesics to patients on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) may increase the risk of overdoses. The current study’s objectives are to investigate the dispensation rates and mean daily doses ...

Background Clinical Ethics Support (CES) services are offered to support healthcare professionals in dealing with ethically difficult situations. Evaluation of CES is important to understand if it is indeed a supportive ...

Destruction or dysfunction of limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) leads to unilateral or bilateral limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). Fifteen years have passed since the first transplantation of ex vivo cultivated oral ...

Background Cell death triggered by unmitigated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays an important role in physiology and disease, but the death-inducing signaling mechanisms are incompletely understood. ...

Purpose To determine whether unilateral acute anterior uveitis (AAU) induces ipsilateral changes in the tear fluid proteome. Methods Five patients (25–77 years old) with unilateral AAU were included. Tear fluid ...

Background Physician turnover is a concern in many health care systems globally. A better understanding of physicians’ reasons for leaving their job may inform organisational policies to retain key personnel. The aim of ...

We assess the impact of the United Kingdom’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union on the Council of the European Union, where Brexit is likely to have the clearest observable implications. Using concepts and models ...

We present a new phylogeny of the spider family Araneidae based on five genes (28S, 18S, COI, H3 and 16S) for 158 taxa, identified and mainly sequenced by us. This includes 25 outgroups and 133 araneid ingroups representing ...

Background The availability of preferred habitats determines the spatial and temporal distribution of herbivores in savanna ecosystems. Understanding habitat preference of a targeted wildlife species is ...

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multi-organ autoimmune disease with complex interactions between immune-mediated inflammatory processes and vascular pathology leading to small vessel obliteration, promoting uncontrolled ...

Population-level comparisons of prokaryotic genomes must take into account the substantial differences in gene content resulting from horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication and gene loss. However, the automated annotation ...

Background Poor mental health is an important contributor to the global burden of disease. Mental health problems are often neglected in communities, and are scarcely studied in developing countries, including ...

Background A significant proportion of ischemic strokes are caused by emboli from atherosclerotic, unstable carotid artery plaques. The selection of patients for endarterectomy in current clinical practice is primarily ...

Purpose A clinical care pathway for pain management in a palliative care unit was studied with outcomes related to patients, physicians, and health care service. Mandatory use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) ...

Background Advances in whole genome sequencing strategies have provided the opportunity for genomic and comparative genomic analysis of a vast variety of organisms. The analysis results are highly dependent on the quality ...

Background Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are among the most widely manufactured and used nanoparticles. Concerns about potential health effects of SiNPs have therefore risen. Using a 3D tri-culture model ...

Background Creating a case formulation is an important and basic skill in psychotherapy meant to guide treatment. A patient’s interpersonal pattern is an essential part of a case formulation. Core Conflictual Relationship ...

Background Economic analyses of end-of-life care often focus on single aspects of care in selected cohorts leading to limited knowledge on the total level of care required to patients at their end-of-life. ...

Background It is estimated that up to a third of patients on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Treatment by ADHD medication, including a centrally acting ...

Background Validated instruments to assess breastfeeding knowledge and attitude are non-existent in Africa including Ethiopia. We aimed to adapt and validate the Breastfeeding Knowledge Questionnaire (BFKQ) ...

Background Chronic conditions present major health problems, affecting an increasing number of individuals who experience a variety of symptoms that impact their health related quality of life. Digital tools ...

Background Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) targeting PD-1 or CTLA-4 has emerged as an important treatment modality for several cancer forms. In hormone receptor positive breast cancer (HR + BC), this ...

Background The thymus is a highly specialized organ of the immune system where T cell precursors develop and differentiate into self-tolerant CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. No studies to date have investigated how ...

Background Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is common in patients with eating disorders (EDs). There is a lack of research investigating the presence of ED symptoms among patients with OCD, despite ...

Background Cognitive impairment (CI) with mixed vascular and neurodegenerative pathologies after stroke is common. The role of amyloid pathology in post-stroke CI is unclear. We hypothesize that amyloid ...

Introduction Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) carries an 86% mortality rate in Norway. Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) is a potential adjunct in management of non-traumatic cardiac ...

Background Cervical radiculopathy is usually caused by disc herniation or spondylosis. The prognosis is expected to be good in most patients, but there is limited scientific evidence on the indications for ...

Background The ever-increasing prevalence of obesity constitutes a major health problem worldwide. A subgroup of obese individuals has been described as “metabolically healthy obese” (MHO). In contrast to ...

Background Focal cartilage defects (FCDs) in the knee joint has a high prevalence. A broad range of treatment options exists for symptomatic patients. Knowledge of patient compensation claims following surgical treatment ...

Retinal Müller cells are highly polarized macroglial cells with accumulation of the aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel and the inwardly rectifying potassium channel Kir4.1 at specialized endfoot membrane domains abutting ...

Background Multiple therapies exist for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). However, their improvement on progression-free survival (PFS) remains modest, potentially explained by tumor ...

Insurance companies are increasingly harnessing self-tracking data to innovate and create new health and life insurance schemes. These schemes are often hailed as social innovations, and a major growth opportunity for the ...

Incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) can lead to biased divergence time estimates. To explore if and how ILS has influenced the results of a recent worldwide phylogeny of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), we ...

Sixty years have passed since neurosurgeon Nils Lundberg presented his thesis about intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring, which represents a milestone for its clinical introduction. Monitoring of ICP has since become a ...

Background The increasing complexity and variability in radiology have significantly fueled the need for guidelines. There are many methods for disseminating and implementing guidelines however; and obtaining ...

Aim: Elevated total cholesterol (TC) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) are risk factors for cardiovascular disease however little is known about their determinants in infants. We aimed to describe TC and HbA1c concentrations ...

Public sector reforms often take place in heterogeneous reform environments. Key political, administrative, and societal actors often advocate different definitions of problems and solutions. A major leadership challenge ...

Defects, as determined by Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS), in the complement cascade of innate immunity have been suggested to play a key role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These defective genes encode sub-component ...

The refugee crisis of 2015 can be characterised as an exogenous shock, an immigration shock, which according to institutional theory may create a window of opportunity for path-breaking policy change. In all three Scandinavian ...

Background Attitudes towards learning clinical communication skills at the end of medical school are likely to reflect the students’ training and motivation for the continued development of their skills as doctors. Students ...

Background The standard lasso penalty and its extensions are commonly used to develop a regularized regression model while selecting candidate predictor variables on a time-to-event outcome in high-dimensional ...

Background Targeted client communication (TCC) using text messages can inform, motivate and remind pregnant and postpartum women of timely utilization of care. The mixed results of the effectiveness of TCC interventions ...

Background/aim Drug use and risky driving is associated with sensation seeking. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between use of psychoactive substances and levels of the sensation ...

Background The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) causes for unresolved reasons acute respiratory distress syndrome in vulnerable individuals. There is a need to identify key pathogenic molecules ...

Background Infliximab (INX) and other tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) have revolutionised the treatment of several immune mediated inflammatory diseases. Still, many patients do not respond sufficiently to therapy ...

Background Recent global changes have led to an increase in distribution of ticks towards higher elevation and latitude in Europe and livestock are at increasing risk of contracting tick-borne diseases, but psychological ...

Statistical solutions are time-parameterized probability measures on spaces of integrable functions, which have been proposed recently as a framework for global solutions and uncertainty quantification for multi-dimensional ...

Background/objective To reproduce the methods and results of the study by Alobeid et al. (2018) in which the efficacy of tooth alignment using conventional labial and lingual orthodontic bracket systems was assessed. ...

Background Lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) are promising vehicles for drug delivery. However, since not much was known about cellular toxicity of these nanoparticles in themselves, we have here investigated the ...