Abstract: Background: Thoracic aortopathy includes conditions like aortic aneurysms and dissections, posing significant management challenges. In India, care delivery is complicated by geographic... Show moreAbstract: Background: Thoracic aortopathy includes conditions like aortic aneurysms and dissections, posing significant management challenges. In India, care delivery is complicated by geographic vastness, financial constraints, and healthcare resource disparities. Telemedicine and digital health technologies offer promising solutions. Methods: A comprehensive review of literature and clinical experiences was conducted to explore the implementation of remote care strategies for thoracic aortopathy in India. The review included studies from 2000 to 2023 and insights from cardiothoracic specialists. Results: Remote care benefits include improved access to specialized expertise, enhanced patient engagement, and optimized resource utilization. Telemedicine enables consultations without travel, and remote monitoring facilitates early intervention. However, challenges like technology integration, digital literacy, patient engagement, privacy concerns, and regulatory compliance need addressing. Discussion: Telemedicine offers significant advantages but requires overcoming challenges to ensure effective, secure care. Careful planning for technology integration, patient education, robust privacy measures, and supportive regulatory policies are essential. Addressing these issues can bridge the healthcare access gap and improve outcomes in India’s diverse landscape. Show less
Grewal, S.; Theijse, R.T.; Dunlop, G.; Deurzen, D.F.P. van; Bekerom, M.P.J. van den; Klautz, R.J.M.; ... ; Grewal, N. 2024
Background: Professional athletes navigate a multitude of unique challenges associated to sport-specific factors (e.g., training, travel and competition) and non-sport factors (e.g., performance... Show moreBackground: Professional athletes navigate a multitude of unique challenges associated to sport-specific factors (e.g., training, travel and competition) and non-sport factors (e.g., performance pressure, stress and anxiety) that can interfere with healthy sleep behaviors. Sleep plays a key role in proper biopsychosocial development as well as short- and long-term biological, physical, psychological, and cognitive health. As poor sleep quality is known to impair proper brain function, this study aimed to investigate the effect of sleep quality on a professional athlete's ability to train, recover, and perform, as well as their overall emotional and physical well-being. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 40 professional male cricket athletes from the Dutch national cricket team (mean age 26.5 ± 5.1 years). The athletes were monitored across a 22 weeks in-season training period. Sleep quality and overall emotional and physical well-being were assessed using daily sleep diaries and questionnaires which scored the readiness to train, stress levels, fatigue, muscle soreness and flu symptoms respectively. Quality of sleep and subsequent association with the consecutive elements of the well-being questionnaire were assessed through statistical using the student t-test and clinical differences with the methodology of Osoba and colleagues: 20% “very much change”. Results: The results demonstrated that the professional athletes assessed their sleep quality as average with a mean score of 3.4 out of 5. Lower perceived quality of sleep (<75th percentile) was correlated with a decreased readiness to train (mean score 3.2 [IQR: 3.0–4.0] vs. 3.5 [IQR: 3.0–5.0]; P < 0.001) and increased extent of muscle soreness (2.7 [IQR: 2.0–3.0] vs. 2.3 [IQR: 2–3]; P < 0.001), stress level (mean score 2.3 [IQR: 2.0–3.0] vs. 1.9 [IQR: 1.0–2.0]; P < 0.001) and perceived fatigue (mean score 2.9 [IQR: 2.0–3.0] vs. 2.3 [IQR: 2.0–3.0]; P < 0.001). Likewise, in patients with lower perceived quality of sleep, the proportion of players presenting with flu symptoms increased over 4-fold (4.1% vs. 17%; P < 0.001). Show less
Surveys around the world report exceptionally high levels of support for the military. This is particularly relevant for countries in transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, where... Show moreSurveys around the world report exceptionally high levels of support for the military. This is particularly relevant for countries in transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, where militaries can play a vital role for democratic consolidation or autocratic backsliding. Given the sensitive nature of the issue, we suspect that figures indicating strong support for the military are at least partly driven by sensitivity bias. We explore this possibility through list experiments in two nationally representative surveys in Tunisia. We find that misreporting of support for the military in Tunisia is substantial, with respondents overreporting positive attitudes by 40–50 percentage points. Moreover, misreporting is not random, but instead varies systematically by incumbency, with supporters of governing parties misreporting support for the military to a significantly higher degree than opposition supporters or non-voters. Our results suggest that public opinion researchers should be wary of using direct questions to measure support for the military. Show less
