Search

Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among people who use drugs (PWUD). The positive psychological intervention (PPI) is a newly developed method which has been applied successfully in the general populations to improve mental health status. In this study, we designed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the feasibility and efficacy of the PPI in improving mental health status of PWUD attending methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). A total of 140 MMT users were randomly allocated into the intervention group (n = 70) which carried on the intervention (documenting "Three Good Things" every day for 2 weeks) and the control group (n = 70) which received booklets about mental health. Baseline, 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-up interviews were conducted. Generalized estimating equations for repeated measurements were used to examine the efficacy of intervention. Data showed that at baseline, the prevalence of probable depression was 75.4% and 73.9% in the two groups respectively, while the prevalence of anxiety was 56.5% and 45.7%, and the prevalence of low satisfaction with life was 70.0% and 52.2%. About 60% of the intervention group members adhered to at least 50% of intervention. In the multivariate model, PPI was not significantly associated with probable depression (ORa = 0.75, 95% CI 0.27–2.12), anxiety (ORa = 0.99, 95% CI 0.47–2.06), or low satisfaction with life (ORa = 1.54, 95% CI 0.65–3.65). Efficacy of PPI was not observed in this study while PPI intervention is potentially feasible among some PWUD. Efficacy of PPI could be further test in studies with other innovative ways and longer intervention period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV (PLWH) benefits both individuals and societies. However, little is known about the intention to initiate ART among PLWH in China in the context of a scaling-up of treatment or how the recommendations of healthcare workers affect this intention.Methods: A total of 451 ART-naïve PLWH were recruited from communities in Guangzhou, China for this study. Data were collected by trained physicians via face-to-face interviews. Logistic regression models were fitted for the data analyses.Results: Of the participants, 93.8% were male, 72.7% were infected via homosexual behaviour and 68.5% reported an intention to initiate ART. In the latter category, 77.8, 41.9 and 20.0% of respondents received strong recommendations to initiate ART from healthcare workers at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), community healthcare centres and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, depression, anxiety and strong recommendations from healthcare workers at the CDC and NGOs correlated significantly with ART intention. In the adjusted final hierarchical logistic regression model, the duration of infection [multivariate odds ratio (ORm) = 0.30, p < 0.001], route of HIV infection (ORm = 0.18, p < 0.01), infection status of the current spouse/regular sex partner (ORm = 0.21-0.23, p < 0.01), anxiety (ORm = 2.44-2.65, p < 0.05) and strong recommendations from CDC physicians (ORm = 3.67, p < 0.01) or NGOs workers (ORm = 3.67, p < 0.01) were independently associated with the ART intention, whereas a recommendation from a community healthcare centre physician was not.Conclusions: In Guangzhou, the prevalence of ART intention was below the 90-90-90 targets. Further studies aimed at an in-depth understanding and encouragement of health care workers' perceptions regarding early ART are warranted as a means of scaling up new ART strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiyear inventories of vehicular emissions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 1995 through 2005 have been developed in this paper to study the vehicle emissions trends in China''s mega cities during the past decade. The results show that the vehicular emissions of CO, HC, NO x and PM10 have begun to slow their growth rates and perhaps even to decline in recent years due to the implementation of measures to control vehicular emissions in these cities. However, vehicular CO2 emissions have substantially increased and still continue to grow due to little fuel economy improvement. Passenger cars and large vehicles (including heavy duty trucks and buses) are the major sources of vehicular CO2 and CO emissions while large vehicles were responsible for nearly 70% and 80% of the vehicular NO x and PM10 emissions in these mega cities. Motorcycles are also important contributors to vehicular emissions in Guangzhou and Shanghai. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]