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To describe the diagnostic and prognostic performance, and longitudinal trajectories, of potential biomarkers of neuroaxonal degeneration and neuroinflammation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This case-control study included 192 incident ALS patients, 42 ALS mimics, 114 neurological controls, and 117 healthy controls from Stockholm, Sweden. Forty-four ALS patients provided repeated measurements. We assessed biomarkers of (1)neuroaxonal degeneration: neurofilament light (NfL) and phosphorylated neurofilament heavy (pNfH) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and NfL in serum, and (2)neuroinflammation: chitotriosidase-1 (CHIT1) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) in CSF. To evaluate diagnostic performance, we calculated the area under the curve (AUC). To estimate prognostic performance, we applied quantile regression and Cox regression. We used linear regression models with robust standard errors to assess temporal changes over time. Neurofilaments performed better at differentiating ALS patients from mimics (AUC: pNfH 0.92, CSF NfL 0.86, serum NfL 0.91) than neuroinflammatory biomarkers (AUC: CHIT1 0.71, MCP-1 0.56). Combining biomarkers did not improve diagnostic performance. Similarly, neurofilaments performed better than neuroinflammatory biomarkers at predicting functional decline and survival. The stratified analysis revealed differences according to the site of onset: in bulbar patients, neurofilaments and CHIT1 performed worse at predicting survival and correlations were lower between biomarkers. Finally, in bulbar patients, neurofilaments and CHIT1 increased longitudinally but were stable in spinal patients. Biomarkers of neuroaxonal degeneration displayed better diagnostic and prognostic value compared with neuroinflammatory biomarkers. However, in contrast to spinal patients, in bulbar patients neurofilaments and CHIT1 performed worse at predicting survival and seemed to increase over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of COVID‐19 brought unparalleled changes in people's lifestyle, including sleep. We aimed to assess the bidirectional association between sleep quality and mental health and describe how sleep and mental health were affected in Sweden during the COVID‐19 pandemic (between June 2020 and September 2021). Data were obtained from the Omtanke2020 study. Participants who completed the baseline survey and each of the 8 monthly follow‐up surveys were included (N = 9035). We described the distribution of sleep and mental health in the different Swedish regions using maps and over the study period with longitudinal graphs adjusting for sex, age, recruitment type (self‐recruitment or invitation), and COVID‐19 status. The inner relationships between mental health, sleep and Covid infection were described through relative importance networks. Finally, we modelled how mental health affects sleep and vice versa using generalized estimating equations with different adjustments. Seasonal and north‐south regional variations were found in sleep and mental health outcomes at baseline and attenuated over time. The seasonal variation of sleep and mental health correlated moderately with the incidence rate of COVID‐19 in the sample. Networks indicate that the relationship between COVID‐19 incidence and mental health varies over time. We observed a bidirectional relationship between sleep quality and quantity at baseline and mental health at follow‐up and vice versa. Sleep quality and quantity at baseline was associated with adverse symptom trajectories of mental health at follow‐up, and vice versa, during the COVID‐19 pandemic. There was also a weak relationship between COVID‐19 incidence, sleep, and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To unravel disease impact in early RA by separately quantifying patient-reported (PRF), clinical (CF) and laboratory (LF) factors. We propose a new indicator, the discordance score (DS), for early identification and prediction of patient's unmet needs and of future achievement of sustained remission (SR) and RA-related quality of life (QoL). Methods Factor-scores obtained by factor analysis in the CareRA trial, allowed to compute DS, reflecting the difference between PRF and the mean of CF and LF. Improvement from baseline to week 104 (%) and area-under-the-curve (AUC) across time points per factor-score were calculated and compared between patients achieving/not achieving sustained (week 16–104) remission (DAS28CRP < 2.6) with ANOVA. Logistic and linear regressions were used to predict SR based on previous factor and discordance scores, and QoL at year 1 and 2 based on DS at week 16. Results PRF, CF and LF scores improved rapidly within 8 weeks. PRF improved 57%, CF 90% and LF 27%, in those achieving SR, compared with 32% (PRF: P  = 0.13), 77% (CF: P  < 0.001) and 9% (LF: P  = 0.36) in patients not achieving SR. Patients achieving SR had an AUC of 15.7, 3.4 and 4.8 for PRF, CF and LF, respectively, compared with 33.2, 10.1 and 7.2 in participants not achieving SR (P  < 0.001 for all). Early discordance was associated with later factor scores, QoL and self-efficacy. Conclusions All factor scores improved rapidly, especially in patients achieving sustained remission. Patient-reported burden improved less. Discordance scores could help predicting the need for additional non-pharmacological interventions to achieve sustained remission and decrease disease impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the psychometric properties of the ten-item version of the Big Five Inventory as a subset of the original BFI in a Flemish sample. The data come from the Divorce in Flanders study and consist of a full sample of 7533 individuals from 4460 families. Factor analysis shows the presence of the Big Five factor structure with very high primary loadings for most items. However, one of the Agreeableness items loads exclusively on the Extraversion factor and within-factor correlations are also low. Despite this, the BFI-10 correlates well with the BFI. Therefore, while more research is needed before validity and reliability of the Dutch-language version of the test can be concluded, it is clear that the BFI-10 may prove very effective in the assessment of the Big Five factors in the Flemish and Dutch cultures when assessment with longer questionnaires is not feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of COVID-19 brought unparalleled changes in people's lifestyle, including sleep. We aimed to assess the bidirectional association between sleep quality and mental health and describe how sleep and mental health were affected in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic (between June 2020 and September 2021). Data were obtained from the Omtanke2020 study. Participants who completed the baseline survey and each of the 8 monthly follow-up surveys were included (N = 9035). We described the distribution of sleep and mental health in the different Swedish regions using maps and over the study period with longitudinal graphs adjusting for sex, age, recruitment type (self-recruitment or invitation), and COVID-19 status. The inner relationships between mental health, sleep and Covid infection were described through relative importance networks. Finally, we modelled how mental health affects sleep and vice versa using generalized estimating equations with different adjustments. Seasonal and north-south regional variations were found in sleep and mental health outcomes at baseline and attenuated over time. The seasonal variation of sleep and mental health correlated moderately with the incidence rate of COVID-19 in the sample. Networks indicate that the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and mental health varies over time. We observed a bidirectional relationship between sleep quality and quantity at baseline and mental health at follow-up and vice versa. Sleep quality and quantity at baseline was associated with adverse symptom trajectories of mental health at follow-up, and vice versa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was also a weak relationship between COVID-19 incidence, sleep, and mental health., (© 2023 The Authors. Stress and Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)