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Background: For patients with sepsis receiving non-invasive ventilation (NIV), early rehabilitation is crucial. The Sitting Baduanjin (SBE) is an efficient early rehabilitation exercise suitable for bed patients. There is no consensus about the effect of SBE on the early rehabilitation of septic patients with NIV. This study focused on how the SBE affected the early rehabilitation of sepsis patients with NIV. Methods: 96 sepsis patients with NIV were randomly assigned to either an Baduanjin group that received the SBE based on the routine rehabilitation exercise (n = 48) or a control group (n = 48) that received routine rehabilitation exercise. The primary outcome was the Medical Research Council(MRC)score, and the Barthel Index score, the duration of NIV, length of ICU stay, length of total stay, hospitalization expense as secondary outcomes. Results: A total of 245 sepsis patients were screened, with 96 randomly assigned. The study was completed by 90 patients out of the 96 participants.Results revealed that the MRC score increased in both groups, but the improvement of muscle strength in Baduanjin group was more obvious, with statistical significance (p < 0.001).There was statistically significantly difference between the two groups in Barthel Index at the day of transfer out of ICU(P = 0.028).The patients in the Baduanjin group had an average reduction of 24.09 h in the duration of NIV and 3.35 days in total length of hospital stay compared with the control group (p < 0.05).Of note, the Baduanjin group had significantly reduction the total hospitalization expense. No serious adverse events occurred during the intervention period. Conclusions: In patients with sepsis, the SBE appears to improve muscle strength and activities of daily living (ADL), and lowed the duration of NIV, the length of the total stay, and the hospitalization expense. Trial registration: The study registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (www.chictr.org.cn), Clinical Trials identifier ChiCTR1800015011 (28/02/2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The fragility index (FI), which is the minimum number of changes in status from "event" to "non-event" resulting in a loss of statistical significance, serves as a significant supplementary indicator for clinical physicians in interpreting clinical trial results and aids in understanding the outcomes of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In this systematic literature survey, we evaluated the FI for RCTs evaluating Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and explored potential associations between study characteristics and the robustness of RCTs. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in four databases in Chinese and four databases in English from their inception to January 1, 2023. RCTs encompassed 1:1 ratio into two parallel arms and reported at least one binary outcome that demonstrated statistical significance were included. FI was calculated by the iterative reduction of a target outcome event in the treatment group and concomitant subtraction of a non-target event from that group, until positive significance (defined as P < 0.05 by Fisher's exact test) is lost. The lower the FI (minimum 1) of a trial outcome, the more fragile the positive result of the outcome was. Linear regression models were adopted to explore influence factors of the value of FI. Results: A total of 30 trials from 2 4118 potentially relevant citations were finally included. The median FI of total trials included was 1.5 (interquartile range [IQR], 1–5), and half of the trials (n = 15) had a FI equal to 1. In 12 trials (40%), the total number of participants lost to follow-up surpassed the respective FI. The study also identified that increased FI was significantly associated with no TCM syndrome differentiation for inclusion criteria of the patients, larger total sample size, low risk of bias, and larger numbers of events. Conclusions: The majority of CHM IBS RCTs with positive results were found to be fragile. Ensuring adequate sample size, scientifically rigorous study design, proper control of confounding factors, and a quality control calibration for consistency of TCM diagnostic results among clinicians should be addressed to increase the robustness of the RCTs. We recommend reporting the FI as one of the components of sensitivity analysis in future RCTs to facilitate the assessment of the fragility of trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Child and adolescent mental health is a major public health concern worldwide. The development of children's social and emotional skills helps to improve mental health and wellbeing, and prevent anxiety and depression. The school-based social emotional learning (SEL) programmes have proved effective in a number of countries. But in Mainland China, there has been no empirical research of the effectiveness on children's mental health. The study conducted a SEL programme in China during the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to determine whether: (1) a SEL programme can reduce anxiety and depression, (2) the intervention effect is influenced by sociodemographic characteristics, (3) the programme effects change children's emotion management and communication. Methods: Participants were 230 children aged 8–12 years in the intervention school and 325 in the control school in two poor villages in central China. The study was a quasi-experimental trial, comprising 16 weekly 90-minute sessions. It used a mixed-methods design, with a quantitative survey administered at baseline, post-intervention, and 5-month follow-up, and qualitative interviews. Linear mixed effects regression modeling was used to analyse the intervention effectiveness, linear models were conducted to examine the moderation effect of sociodemographic variables, and the inductive thematic analysis approach was used for interview data. Results: The intervention had no significant effect on anxiety or depression, except that intervention school children who lived with neither parent (left behind children) reported lower depression scores than control school at post-intervention and 5-month follow-up. Qualitative interviews showed after intervention children were more able to control tempers and better communicated their thoughts and feelings, improving their relationships with family and friends. Conclusions: The programme was cheap, easy to implement, and warmly welcomed by children, schools and caregivers, suggesting it was feasible and potentially sustainable. More research is needed on the adaptation of the SEL programme in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intra-operative anaesthesia management should be optimised to reduce the occurrence of postoperative nausea and vomiting in high-risk patients; however, a single intervention may not effectively reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting in such patients. This study assessed the effect of an optimised anaesthetic protocol versus a conventional one on postoperative nausea and vomiting in patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Methods: A single-centre randomised trial was conducted at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital from June 2021 to December 2022. Among 168 patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, 116 qualified, and 103 completed the study with available data. Patients were categorized into the conventional group (received sevoflurane and standard fluids) and the optimised group (underwent propofol-based anaesthesia and was administered goal-directed fluids). The primary endpoints were postoperative nausea and vomiting incidence and severity within 24 h. Results: Postoperative nausea and vomiting assessment at 0–3 h post-surgery revealed no significant differences between groups. However, at 3–24 h, the optimised anaesthetic protocol group showed lower postoperative nausea and vomiting incidence and severity than those of the conventional group (P = 0.005). In the conventional group, 20 (37.04%) patients experienced moderate-to-severe postoperative nausea and vomiting, compared to six (12.25%) patients in the optimised group (odds ratio = 0.237; 95% CI = 0.086, 0.656; P = 0.006). No significant differences were noted in antiemetic treatment, moderate-to-severe pain incidence, anaesthesia recovery, post-anaesthetic care unit stay, or postoperative duration between the groups. While the total intra-operative infusion volumes were comparable, the optimised group had a significantly higher colloidal infusion volume (500 mL vs. 0 mL, P = 0.014) than that of the conventional group. Conclusions: The incidence and severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting 3–24 h postoperatively in patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy were significantly lower with propofol-based total intravenous anaesthesia and goal-directed fluid therapy than with sevoflurane anaesthesia and traditional fluid management. Total intravenous anaesthesia is an effective multimodal antiemetic strategy for bariatric surgery. Trial registration: This trial was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-TRC- 2,100,046,534, registration date: 21 May 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with intellectual disabilities often face challenges in balance ability and lower limb muscle strength, which negatively impact their daily lives and motor function. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance the balance ability and lower limb muscle strength of children with intellectual disabilities. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 12-week aquatic exercise and floor curling intervention on the balance ability and lower limb muscle strength of children with intellectual disabilities. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to the aquatic exercise group, floor curling group, and control group. The aquatic exercise and floor curling groups received a 12-week intervention, while the control group engaged in supervised free activities. The participants' balance ability and lower limb muscle strength were assessed using the Berg Balance Scale and a muscle strength testing device before and after the intervention. The results showed significant improvements in balance ability and lower limb muscle strength for both the aquatic exercise group and the floor curling group after the intervention. The aquatic exercise group demonstrated an average improvement of 10.84% in balance ability and an overall average improvement of 16.28% in lower limb muscle strength. The floor curling group showed an average improvement of 9.04% in balance ability and an overall average improvement of 15.67% in lower limb muscle strength. These improvement results were statistically significant (p < 0.05) and ranged from medium to large effect sizes (d = 0.5~0.8). The findings of this study validate the positive effects of aquatic exercise and floor curling on the balance ability and lower limb muscle strength of children with intellectual disabilities. These interventions can be considered effective approaches for functional rehabilitation in children with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]