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Introduction: Smoking significantly burdens human health, contributing to an increasing incidence of mortality and morbidity. This study aims to explore the prevalence of smoking, cessation, and the association between various risk factors and smoking intensity measured in pack-years among Chinese adults. Methods: During 2020-2021, the China Stroke High-risk Population Screening and Intervention Program (CSHPSIP) invited participants aged ≥ 40 from 31 provinces in mainland China. This cross-sectional study presented the standardized prevalence of smoking and cessation across various demographics, including age, sex, residence, income, education, BMI, and geographical region. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to examine the associations between smoking pack-years and related factors. Results: Among 524,741 participants (mean age: 61.9±10.9; 41.1% male; 58.9% female), standardized smoking prevalence was 19.3% (95% CI=19.2-19.4%), with men (37.2%; 95% CI=37.0-37.4%) displaying significantly higher rates than women (1.3%; 95% CI=1.2-1.3%). Smoking cessation rate stood at 11.2% (95% CI: 11.0-11.4%), with figures of 11.3% (95% CI: 11.1-11.5%) for men and 8.4% (95% CI: 7.5-9.2%) for women. Urban residents and those with advanced education had lower smoking rates and higher cessation rates. Additionally, the dose-response relationship indicated a more pronounced association between higher smoking pack-years and elevated health risks, including hypertension (aOR=1.30, 95% CI: 1.24-1.36), diabetes (aOR=1.26, 95% CI: 1.20-1.33), hyperlipidemia (aOR=1.22, 95% CI: 1.16-1.28), heart disease (aOR=1.40, 95% CI: 1.26-1.54), and stroke (aOR=1.23, 95% CI: 1.10-1.36). Conclusions: This comprehensive study emphasizes the profound impact of smoking on health in Chinese adults, indicating the critical need for tailored cessation programs, particularly for middle-aged individuals, men, rural residents, and those with lower educational backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Migrant workers are a unique phenomenon in the process of China's economic transformation. The household registration system classifies them as temporary residents in cities, putting them in a vulnerable state with an unfair share of urban infrastructure and social public welfare. The amount of pressure inflicted by migrant workers in Beijing, as one of the major migration destinations, is currently at a threshold. This study was designed to assess the factors associated with health-seeking behavior and to explore feasible solutions to the obstacles migrant workers in China faced with when accessing health-care. Methods A sample of 2,478 migrant workers in Beijing was chosen by the multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews between investigators and subjects. The multilevel methodology (MLM) was used to demonstrate the independent effects of the explanatory variables on health seeking behavior in migrant workers. Results The medical visitation rate of migrant workers within the past two weeks was 4.8%, which only accounted for 36.4% of those who were ill. Nearly one-third of the migrant workers chose self-medication (33.3%) or no measures (30.3%) while ill within the past two weeks. 19.7% of the sick migrants who should have been hospitalized failed to receive medical treatment within the past year. According to self-reported reasons, the high cost of health service was a significant obstacle to health-care access for 40.5% of the migrant workers who became sick. However, 94.0% of the migrant workers didn't have any insurance coverage in Beijing. The multilevel model analysis indicates that health-seeking behavior among migrants is significantly associated with their insurance coverage. Meanwhile, such factors as household monthly income per capita and working hours per day also affect the medical visitation rate of the migrant workers in Beijing. Conclusion This study assesses the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on the migrant workers' decision to seek health care services when they fall ill, and it also indicates that the current health service system discourages migrant workers from seeking appropriate care of good quality. Relevant policies of public medical insurance and assistance program should be vigorously implemented for providing affordable health care services to the migrants. Feasible measures need to be taken to reduce the health risks associated with current hygiene practices and equity should be assured in access to health care services among migrant workers.

Evidence on the effectiveness of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection screening and vaccination programs remains rare in China. We used a quasi-experimental method, propensity score matching, to evaluate the effects of a community-based HBV infection detection combined with vaccination (HBVIDV) program in a pilot. Data were retrieved from the HBVIDV program implemented between July 2019 and June 2020. Outcomes were the difference between the treatment and control groups in hepatitis B vaccination (≥1 dose), hepatitis B vaccine series completion (≥3 doses), and serologic evidence of vaccine-mediated immunity. Altogether, 26,180 individuals were included, where 6160 (23.5%) individuals were assigned to the treatment group, and 20,020 (76.5%) individuals were assigned to the control group. After propensity score matching, 5793 individuals were matched. The rates of hepatitis B vaccination, hepatitis B vaccine series completion, and prevalence of vaccine-mediated immunity in the treatment and control groups were 29.0% vs. 17.8%, 22.1% vs. 13.1%, and 38.2% vs. 27.6%, respectively. The HBVIDV program was significantly associated with increased hepatitis B vaccination rate (OR, 1.884, 95% CI 1.725–2.057), hepatitis B vaccine series completion rate (OR, 1.872, 95% CI 1.696–2.065), and prevalence of vaccine-mediated immunity (OR, 1.623, 95% CI 1.501–1.755). The greater magnitude of association between HBVIDV program and outcomes was observed among adults aged 35–54 years and adults who live in rural areas. The HBVIDV program was effective in increasing the hepatitis B vaccination rate, hepatitis B vaccine series completion rate, and prevalence of vaccine-mediated immunity among adults in the pilot. Further focusing the program on special populations and regions may produce more effective results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We presented the running state of rural basic medical insurance system in Henan and discussed the enforcements and development experiences of underdeveloped areas. We provided data evidence to support the improvement and development of a basic rural medical insurance system., Methods: We selected Henan Province, China as a sample, using the method of cluster sampling, from policy documents published in the national and provincial level of the new rural cooperative medical policy and work documents, data from 2004 to 2014, the National Health Statistical Yearbook of health statistics yearbook of Henan Province and relevant statistical data of the province., Results: The new rural cooperative policy has covered the whole population in Henan Province. The number of individual received benefits is increasing. In 2013, the number of persons counted has reached to 270 million, funds raised and expenditures reached 38.5 billion and 26 billion, respectively. The operational task force has been developed rapidly. In 2013, on average each staff managed the cases for 16.4 thousand rural residents., Conclusion: The major implementation and development experience from the new rural cooperative policy of Henan province include: education of related knowledge, optimization of compensation plan, development of operational system and framework, improvement of management rules, reinforcement of information system development and financial supervision and increment of investment in rural medical healthcare., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interests The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.

Background: Compared to the rigid image registration task, the non-rigid image registration task faces much more challenges due to its high degree of freedom and inherent requirement of smoothness in the deformation field. The purpose was to propose an efficient coarse-to-fine non-rigid medical image registration algorithm based on a multilevel deformable model., Methods: In this paper, a robust and efficient coarse-to-fine non-rigid medical image registration algorithm is proposed. It contains three level deformation models, i.e., the global homography model, the local mesh-level homography model, and the local B-spline FFD (Free-Form Deformation) model. The coarse registration is achieved by the first two level models. In the global homography model, a robust algorithm for simultaneous outliers (error matched feature points) removal and model estimation is applied. In the local mesh-level homography model, a new similarity measure is proposed to improve the robustness and accuracy of local mesh based registration. In the fine registration, a local B-spline FFD model with normalized mutual information gradient is employed., Results: We verified the effectiveness of each stage of the proposed registration algorithm with many non-rigid transformation image pairs, and quantitatively compared our proposed registration algorithm with the HBFFD method which is based on the control points of multi-resolution. The experimental results show that our algorithm is more accurate than the hierarchical local B-spline FFD method., Conclusion: Our algorithm can achieve high precision registration by coarse-to-fine process based on multi-level deformable model, which ourperforms the state-of-the-art methods., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.