Search

Determination of modifiable factors associated with changes in health perception can be beneficial for improvement in health perception and health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine if changes in physical symptoms, functional status, and depressive symptoms were associated with changes in health perception at three months and the mediator effect of physical symptoms. Data were collected at baseline and three months later (N = 65). Process Macro for SPSS was used to analyze the data. Only changes in depressive symptoms (p <.001) were associated with changes in physical symptoms. Then, only changes in physical symptoms (p =.026) were significantly associated with changes in health perception. Changes in physical symptoms played significant roles in changes in health perception directly and also through the mediator role. Clinicians and researchers need to assess and manage these two modifiable factors to improve health perception in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the GenoType MTBDRplusassay in detecting drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) by using acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear-negative specimens with positive TB-PCR results.MethodsThe MTBDRplusassay was performed with 2 different categories of 117 samples, including AFB smear-positive specimens (n = 53) and AFB smear-negative specimens (n = 64), which exhibited positive TB-PCR results, at a single institution. The results were retrospectively compared with the results of the phenotypic drug susceptibility test (DST), for reference.ResultsA total of 105 tests were finally analyzed. Of these, 54 tests were conducted using AFB smear-negative specimens with positive TB-PCR results. The MTBDRplusassay for these 54 samples demonstrated a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 98%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 75%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 100% in detecting rifampicin resistance. With these same species, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV values for the MTBDRplusassay were 83.3%, 97.9%, 83.3%, and 97.9%, respectively, for the detection of isoniazid resistance. The overall correlation between the MTBDRplusassay and phenotypic DST demonstrated excellent agreement for detection of rifampicin resistance (κ = 0.847) and for detection of INH resistance (κ = 0.812), respectively.ConclusionsThe MTBDRplusassay can be used effectively even on AFB smear-negative specimens from TB patients, when the TB-PCR is positive. This result might help clinicians to manage patients with suspected DR-TB in difficult situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]