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A robust instrument for measuring the educational environment in a pharmacy patient care setting is currently lacking. The authors aimed to develop a person-reported outcome measure to gauge trainee pharmacists' perceptions of their clinical workplace-based educational environment. This paper reports the various sources of validity evidence. A preliminary, three-domain (system, relationship, and personal), 36-item measurement instrument was developed by incorporating results from literature review, focus group interviews, iterative discussions among educators, and cognitive interviews. The preliminary instrument, together with the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) and Orientation to Happiness Scale (OHS), were administered to trainee pharmacists recruited from one pharmacy school and one healthcare cluster in Singapore. Rasch analysis was conducted on the overall instrument as well as three domains: System, Relationship, and Personal. The 36-item instrument was administered to 145 learners, of which 66 were trainee pharmacists and 79 undergraduate interns. Upon removal of the middle "neutral" category to resolve poorly functioning categories and removal of five poorly functioning items, the overall instrument and its domains generally showed good fit with the Rasch model. Moreover, the overall 31-item Singapore Pharmacy Educational Environment Questionnaire (SPEEQ) and its three domains showed moderate to high convergent correlation with all the five DREEM domains and low to non-significant divergent correlation with the OHS Pleasure of Life subscale. Among one sample of pharmacy trainees, the 31-item SPEEQ and its three component domains demonstrated notable validity evidence to gauge trainees' perceptions of their learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is little information about cancer‐related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in adolescent and young adults (AYA, 15–39 years old) due to its rare incidence. Here, we present the pre‐treatment (before chemotherapy or radiotherapy) evaluation of cognitive function and ability of AYA with cancer (AYAC) in a multicentered cohort study. Methods: Newly diagnosed AYAC and age‐matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited between 2018 and 2021. The primary outcome was the comparison of pre‐treatment cognitive impairment defined as 2 standard deviations (SDs) below the HC on ≥1 cognitive test, or >1.5 SDs below on ≥2 tests using CANTAB® between AYAC and HC. Secondary outcomes included self‐perceived cognitive ability assessed by FACT‐Cog v3 and biomarkers (inflammatory cytokines and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF]). Results: We recruited 74 AYAC (median age = 34) and 118 HC (median age = 32). On objective cognitive testing, we observed three times more AYAC patients performed poorly on at least 2 cognitive tests compared to HC (40.5% vs. 13.6%, p < 0.001). AYAC self‐perceived less degree of cognitive impairment than HC (p < 0.001). However, AYAC perceived a greater impact of cognitive changes on their quality of life compared to HC (p = 0.039). Elevated baseline inflammatory markers (IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐10 and IFN‐γ) were observed among AYAC compared to HC, and baseline BDNF was lower in AYAC compared to HC. Interaction effects between cancer diagnosis and biomarkers were observed in predicting cognitive function. Conclusion: With the pre‐existence of CRCI and risk factors of neuroinflammation even prior to systemic therapy, AYAC should receive early rehabilitation to prevent further deterioration of cognitive function after initiation of systemic therapies. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03476070). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Life‐threatening infections significantly impact the care of children undergoing therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who are at risk of severe sepsis due to both host and treatment factors. Our aim was to develop a life‐threatening infection risk prediction model that would allow remote rapid triage of patients to reduce time to first dose of antibiotics and sepsis‐related mortality. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 2068 fever episodes during ALL therapy was used for model building and subsequent internal validation. Results: Three hundred and seventy‐seven patients were treated for ALL in two institutions with comparable critical and supportive care resources. A total of 55 patients accounted for 71 admissions to the critical care unit for sepsis that led to eight septic deaths during a 16‐year study period. A retrospective analysis of risk factors for sepsis enabled us to build a model focused on 13 variables that discriminated admissions requiring critical care well: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of.82; 95% CI.76–.87, p<.001, and Brier score of.033. Significant univariate predictors included neutropenia, presence of symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever during induction or steroid‐based phases, and the lack of any localizing source of infection at time of presentation. Conclusion: We have developed a risk prediction model that can reliably identify ALL patients undergoing treatment who are at a higher risk of life‐threatening sepsis. Clinical applicability can potentially be extended to low‐middle income settings, and its utility should be further studied in real‐world settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer‐related fatigue (CRF) is subjective and has wide inter‐individual variability. Given that leptin is commonly associated with fatigue syndrome, its use as a potential biomarker for CRF is being investigated. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the association between leptin and CRF in early‐stage breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. In a prospective cohort study, patients completed assessments at baseline (T1), during chemotherapy (T2) and after chemotherapy (T3). Levels of plasma leptin and adipokines were measured using a Luminex bead‐immunoassay and CRF was measured using the Multi‐Dimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory‐Short Form (MFSI‐SF). Data were analysed longitudinally using a generalised estimating equation incorporating clinically relevant parameters and pro‐inflammatory adipokines. The analysis included 136 patients (mean age ± SD = 51.5 ± 8.8 years; 69.1% receiving anthracycline‐based chemotherapy). More patients experienced CRF at T3 (23.8%) than at T2 (13.8%) compared to baseline. An increase was observed in the median plasma leptin level at T2, followed by a decrease at T3 (T1: 4.07 ng/mL, T2: 4.95 ng/mL and T3: 3.96 ng/mL). In the multivariate model, the change in leptin levels over time was significantly associated with the total MFSI‐SF score (β = −0.15, P = 0.003) after adjusting for the tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) level, anxiety, depression, insomnia, age, menopausal status and type of chemotherapy. This is the first study to report leptin as a biomarker that predicts the onset of CRF over time. Future studies are required to validate the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Currently, there are no studies that have established the self-perceived cognitive trajectories experienced by breast cancer patients (BCPs) post-chemotherapy. Therefore, we characterized the long-term trajectory of self-perceived cognitive function among Asian early-stage BCPs using the minimal clinically important difference of a subjective measure of cognitive function.Methods: Early-stage BCPs who received chemotherapy were recruited and assessed at 4 time points: Before chemotherapy initiation (T1), 6 weeks post-chemotherapy initiation (T2), 12 weeks post-chemotherapy initiation (T3), and 15-months post-chemotherapy initiation (T4). All assessments were performed approximately within 2 weeks post-chemotherapy. Subjective and objective cognitive function were assessed using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive (version 3) and Headminder™.Results: A total of 166 BCPs were recruited, of whom 131 completed assessment at all time points. Using the minimal clinically important difference of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive, 5 distinct cognitive trajectories were established. Of the 131 patients, 70 (53.4%) did not report any clinically significant cognitive impairment. Twenty-one (16.0%) patients reported acute cognitive changes during chemotherapy (T2 and/or T3) but not at T4. Forty patients (30.5%) reported clinically significant cognitive impairment at T4, of whom 18 did not report any cognitive impairment at earlier time points. Fifteen (11.5%) patients reported persistent cognitive impairment throughout all time points, while 7 (5.3%) patients reported intermittent cognitive impairment at T2 and T4 but not at T3.Conclusion: This is the first study to establish the existence of heterogeneous cognitive trajectories based on clinically significant thresholds of self-perceived cognitive impairment. The findings have important implications on the window for screening and management of post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]