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Background: This paper investigates the properties and performance of the two generic measures, EQ-5D and SF-12, for Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) assessments of pregnant women living with HIV in Kunming City, Yiliang County, Daguan County, Longchuan County, Tengchong County, Longling County and Fengqing County in Yunnan Province, China.Methods: As part of a screening programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), a retrospective cross-sectional survey was conducted in the seven Maternal and Infant Health Care centers in Yunnan Province, China, between April and June of 2016. The demographic and HIV infection-related information used in the study was collected through questionnaires designed by the study's staff. HRQoL information was collected using two generic scales: EQ-5D and SF-12.Results: A total sample of one hundred and one pregnant women with a mean age of 30.4 ± 5.1 years was investigated. Average time elapsed since infection diagnoses was 5.8 ± 3.4 years. Only one infant (1.0%) was HIV positive, and 56 (55.4%) infants were HIV negative. The HIV status of 44 (43.6%) infants was unknown. The relationship between the EQ-5D functional dimensions and the PCS-12 and the relationship between the EQ-5D anxiety/depression dimension and the MCS-12 were stronger. Those whose PCS-12 and MCS-12 scores were at the median or lower were classified as being in worse health, while those over the median were classified as being in better health. Respondents who reported no problem on each of the EQ-5D dimensions was divided according to the median SF-12 component scores. Those who scored at the median or lower than the median were classified as being in worse health, while those higher than the median were classified as being in better health. The VAS scores were also significantly different than the median split of the SF-12 scores for these subjects.Conclusion: EQ-5D and SF-12 showed a discrimination ability in measuring the HRQoL of pregnant women living with HIV. The construct validity was identified for EQ-5D and SF-12 in the study. The respective constructs of EQ-5D and EQ-VAS may not overlap. Pregnant women living with HIV in the study gave more weight to their mental health when they provided a total health rating in EQ-VAS. EQ-VAS could explain the limitations of the EQ-5D dimension scores with ceiling effects in the survey. The results of our study could help to determine the suitable HRQoL instruments for pregnant women living with HIV and provide evidence for the proper comparison of EQ-5D and SF-12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is defined as a condition of inflammation in the paranasal sinus mucosa persisting for more than 12 weeks. We previously reported that the prevalence of CRS was about 8 % in China. Here, we aim to investigate the occupational and environmental risk factors associated with CRS.Methods: Data were collected from seven Chinese cities: Urumqi, Changchun, Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu, Huaian and Guangzhou. CRS was diagnosed according to the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EP(3)OS) document. Participants were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire, which was developed by the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA(2)LEN) project and covered sociodemographic characteristics, CRS-related symptoms and occupational and environmental exposures. We evaluated the association between CRS and various occupational and environmental factors using odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs).Results: The total study population consisted of 10,633 subjects, 850 (7.99 %) of whom were defined as having CRS according to the EP(3)OS criteria. We found that there were significant associations between occupational and environmental factors and CRS. Specifically, having a clearance-related job, occupational exposure to dust, occupational exposure to poisonous gas, a pet at home or carpet at home or at the workplace were risk factors for CRS. Additionally, the method used to keep warm in winter, the duration of time spent using air conditioning in summer and the frequency of exposure to mouldy or damp environments were significantly different in subjects with and without CRS.Conclusions: Our data showed that some occupational and environmental exposures are strongly associated with CRS, which aids in understanding the epidemiology of CRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Master of public health (MPH) plays an important role in Chinese medical education, and the dissertations is an important part of MPH education. In MPH dissertations, most are observational studies. Compared with randomized controlled trial (RCT), observational studies are more prone to information bias. So, the reporting of the observational studies should be transparent and standard. But, no research on evaluating the reporting quality of the MPH dissertation has been found.Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in the Wanfang database from January 1, 2014 to May 31, 2019. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observation Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement was adopted to evaluate the reporting quality of the selected studies. Articles that met the following criteria were selected: (1) observational studies, including cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, and cohort studies; (2) original articles; (3) studies on humans, including both adults and children.Results: The Median of compliance to individual STROBE items was 74.79%. The mean (standard deviation) of STROBE score was 14.29 (1.84). Five items/sub-items were 100% reported ("reported" and "partly reported" were combined): background, objectives, study design, report numbers of individuals at each stage, and key result. Fifteen items/sub-items were reported by 75% or more. Reporting of methods and results was often omitted: missing data (6.67%), sensitivity analyses (3.63%), flow diagram (15.15%), and absolute risk (0%). Logistic regression analysis indicated that cohort studies (OR = 3.41, 95% CI = 1.27-9.16), funding support (OR = 4.37, 95% CI = 1.27-9.16) and more published papers during postgraduate period (OR = 3.46, 95% CI = 1.40-8.60) were related to high reporting quality.Conclusion: In short, the reporting quality of observational studies in MPH's dissertations in China is suboptimal. However, it's necessary to improve the reporting of method and results sections. We recommend that authors should be stricter to adhere STROBE statement when conducting observational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]