Research highlights for June 2021

Published: 30 June 2021 at 09:47

Find out about research published by the Vision and Eye Research Institute (VERI) in June 2021.

In Sujan et al. (1) it was shown that diabetes related worries were strongly associated with a lack of social support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An umbrella review of systematic reviews of observational studies with meta-analyses for any physical disease, biomarkers of disease, mental health or cognitive outcomes, and/or modifiable risk factors associated with hearing impairment was performed by Trott et al. (2). The results show moderate quality evidence for associations between several types of hearing impairments and cognitive difficulties, quality of life and systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The association between far vision impairment and perceived stress among older adults from six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) was assessed in Jacob et al. (3). They found that far vision impairment was associated with increased perceived stress levels among older adults in LMICs.

Jacob et al. (4) aimed to investigate the association between problem gambling and functional disability in a UK nationally representative sample using data from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. After adjusting for control variables, both at-risk problem gambling and problem gambling were positively and significantly associated with functional disability.

A systematic review was undertaken by Pardhan et al. (5) to examine the adjusted risk of COVID-19 related hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality in patients with vs. without asthma or COPD. They found that COPD was significantly associated with COVID-19 related hospital admission, ICU admission, and mortality; while asthma was not associated with negative COVID-19 related health outcomes.

Shahabi et al. (6) aimed to find and prioritise solutions in order to facilitate and promote prosthetics and orthotics (P&O) services in the Iranian health benefits package. Their findings provide a framework for decision- and policy-makers in countries looking to curb the financial burdens of P&O users, particularly in vulnerable groups.

References

1. Sujan, M. S. H., Tasnim, R., Islam, M. S., Ferdous, M. Z., Apu, M. A. R., Musfique, M. M., Pardhan, S. 2021. COVID-19-specific diabetes worries amongst diabetic patients: The role of social support and other co-variates. Primary Care Diabetes. doi: 10.1016/j.pcd.2021.06.009

2. Trott, M., Smith, L., Xiao, T., Veronese, N., Koyanagi, A, Jacob, L, López-Sánchez, G. F., Barnett, Y., Pardhan, S. 2021. Hearing Impairment and Diverse Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses of Observational Studies. Wiener klinische Wochenschrift. doi: 10.1007/s00508-021-01893-0

3. Jacob, L., Kostev, K., Smith, L., López-Sánchez, G .F., Pardhan, S., Oh, H., Shin, J. I., Abduljabbar, A. S., Haro, J. M., Koyanagi. A. 2021. Association of objective and subjective far vision impairment with perceived stress among older adults in six low- and middle-income countries. Eye. doi: 10.1038/s41433-021-01634-7

4. Jacob, L., López-Sánchez, G. F., Oh, H., Kostev, K., Koyanagi, A., Haro, J. M., Pardhan, S., Shin, J. I., Smith, L., 2021. Association Between Problem Gambling and Functional Disability: A Nationally Representative Study Conducted in the United Kingdom. Journal of Addiction Medicine. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000880

5. Pardhan, S., Wood, S., Vaughan, M., Trott, M., 2021. The Risk of COVID-19 Related Hospitalsation, Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality in People With Underlying Asthma or COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Frontiers in Medicine. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.668808

6. Shahabi, S., Pardhan, S., Ahmadi Teymourlouy, A., Skempes, D., Shahali, S., Mojgani, P., Jalali, M., Lankarani K. B. 2021 Prioritizing solutions to incorporate Prosthetics and Orthotics services into Iranian health benefits package: Using an analytic hierarchy process. PLOS ONE, 16(6), e0253001. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253001