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• Home-visiting interventions have positive effects on child cognitive development, parenting beliefs and parenting practices of caregivers in rural China. • Home-visiting interventions have null effects on child social-emotional development in rural China. • Three mechanisms are identified through which interventions are able to raise child cognitive development. • Shifting parenting beliefs; increasing parenting practices; and shifting parenting beliefs thus fostering better parenting practices of primary caregivers are the three mechanisms that are driving our overall results of the impact of home-visiting interventions on early child development. To better understand the impacts of parenting interventions (e.g., parental training of psychosocial stimulating activities) on child developmental outcomes and design effective policies to benefit young children, it is essential to identify the mechanisms through which the interventions work. To this end, this paper presents the results of two randomized controlled trials that offered home visitation, parenting trainings to 435 households (with 527 households as the control group) in 174 villages across three provinces in China. The findings from the randomized controlled trials showed that the interventions significantly improved child cognitive development and had a positive effect on the primary caregivers' parenting practices and their parenting beliefs. The analysis suggests three possible mechanisms through which the parenting interventions affected child cognitive development: changing the parenting beliefs of the primary caregivers, shifting the parenting practices of the primary caregivers, and improving the primary caregivers' parenting beliefs, thus fostering better parenting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of a nutrition education and a precise information (awareness-raising) intervention on dietary quality. • A significant and positive association between intervention and dietary quality is found. • The intervention effects are stronger for households with more than 25% and 50% of overweight people. Nutrition education interventions are widely used globally but with mixed results. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of a nutrition education and a precise message (awareness-raising) intervention on nutrition knowledge and dietary quality of households in rural China. Treatment groups first received a lecture on the Chinese Food Guide Pagoda, and then all family members were measured for height and weight and informed of household overweight status. We analyzed 358 households before and after this intervention. Participants in the treatment group increased their dietary knowledge by 6% and improved their dietary quality by 8% after the intervention. The intervention effects were stronger for households with more than 25% and 50% of overweight people. Our study provides evidence that an intervention based on general nutrition information and delivery of a precise message to households can effectively improve dietary quality. Our findings inform the food policy debate on whether nutrition information interventions are effective. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition information intervention to improve dietary quality in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central venous catheters are widely used in clinical practice, and the incidence of central venous catheter occlusion is between 25 % and 38 %. The turbulence caused by the pulsatile flushing technique is harmful to the vascular endothelium and may lead to phlebitis. The low-speed continuous infusion catheter technique is a new type of continuous infusion that ensures that the catheter is always in a keep-vein-open state by continuous low-speed flushing; hence, avoiding the problem of catheter occlusion. To investigate the effectiveness of the low-speed continuous infusion catheter technique and the routine care of double-lumen central venous catheters. This was a prospective, randomized, controlled, open-label trial. Patients were recruited from 14 medical institutions in China between February and June 2023. In total, 251 patients were recruited, with 125 in the intervention group and 126 in the control group. Patients who used double-lumen central venous catheters for infusion treatment were selected, and those who met the sampling criteria were randomly divided into intervention and control groups using the random envelope method. The intervention group used the low-speed continuous infusion catheter technique to maintain catheter patency, whereas the control group used routine care with a trial period of 7 days. The primary outcome was the occlusion rate. The secondary outcomes included nursing satisfaction and complication rates of the two groups. After 7 days, the rate of catheter occlusion was 28.0 % (35/125, 95 % confidence interval (CI):0.203, 0.367) in the intervention group and 53.97 % (68/126, 95 % CI: 0.449–0.629) in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 17.488, p < 0.001); at 3 days of intervention, the rate of catheter blockage was 8.0 % (10/125, 95 % CI: 0.039–0.142) in the intervention group and 23.8 % (30/126, 0.167–0.322) in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 11.707, p < 0.001). Nurse satisfaction was significantly higher in the intervention group (115/125, 92.0 %, 95 % CI: 0.858–0.961) than in the control group (104/126, 82.54 %, 95 % CI: 0.748–0.887) (χ2 = 5.049, p = 0.025). There were no statistically significant complication rates in either group (p = 0.622). The low-speed continuous infusion catheter technique helps maintain catheter patency, improves nurse satisfaction, and provides a high level of safety. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2200064007, www.chictr.org.cn). The first recruitment was conducted in February. https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=177311. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although swallowing exercises are a fundamental treatment for dysphagia, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of swallowing training in patients with Alzheimer's disease. We recruited 93 patients with Alzheimer's disease from three hospitals in Guangdong, China. This was a parallel armed randomized controlled trial that randomly assigned patients to intervention (n = 48) and control (n = 45) groups. The intervention group adopted systematic stepwise swallowing training for four weeks based on routine dysphagia care. The control group implemented routine dysphagia care, including diet and posture management and health education about swallowing dysfunction. The swallowing function was the primary outcome, which was assessed using the Water Swallowing Test and Standard Swallowing Assessment. An abnormal eating behavior questionnaire was used to assess the incidence of aberrant eating behavior in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form and Barthel index were adopted to evaluate the nutritional status and ability to carry out daily activities between groups. SPSS software was used to perform the chi-square test, t -test, and generalized estimation equation for data analysis. We analyzed the effects of the stepwise swallowing training program using the generalized estimating equation method. The intervention group exhibited greater improvements in their swallowing function (Water Swallowing Test: β = − 3.133, 95 % CI: − 4.113, − 2.154, P < 0.001; Standard Swallowing Assessment: β = − 5.813, 95 % CI: − 7.782, − 3.844, P < 0.001), abnormal eating behaviors (abnormal eating behavior questionnaire: β = − 13.324, 95 % CI: − 21.643, − 5.005, P = 0.002), daily function (Barthel index: β = 11.280, 95 % CI: 4.021, 18.540, P = 0.002), and nutritional status (Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form: β = 2.402, 95 % CI: 1.313, 3.490, P < 0.001) over time than the routine-care group in the fourth week. Stepwise swallowing training is a safe and effective intervention for managing dysphagia and other related symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]