Purpose It has been found that childhood obesity (CO) may play an important role in the onset and progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Thus we conducted this mendelian randomisation analysis (MR) to evaluate the causal association between childhood obesity and osteoarthritis. Methods Instrumental variables (IVs) were obtained from publicly available genome-wide association study datasets. The leave-one-out sensitivity test, MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier test (MR-PRESSO), and Cochran’s Q test were used to confirm the heterogeneity and pleiotropy of identified IVs, then five different models, including the inverse variance weighted model (IVW), weighted median estimator model (WME), weighted model-based method (WM), MR-Egger regression model (MER), and MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score (MRAPS) were applied in this MR analysis. Results After excluding all outliers identified by the MR-PRESSO test, no evident directional pleiotropy was found. Significant heterogeneity was found in the secondary MR and as a result, the multiplicative random-effect model was used. Significant causal association between CO and OA (OR 1.0075, 95% CI [1.0054, 1.0010], p = 8.12 × 10 −13 ). The secondary MR also revealed that CO was causally associated with knee OA (OR 1.1067, 95% CI [1.0769, 1.1373], p = 3.30 × 10 −13 ) and hip OA (OR 1.1272, 95% CI [1.0610, 1.1976], p = 1.07 × 10 −4 ). The accuracy and robustness of these findings were confirmed by sensitivity tests. Conclusion There appears to be a causal relationship between childhood obesity and OA. Our results indicate that individuals with a history of childhood obesity require specific clinical attention to prevent the development of knee and hip OA.

BackgroundPrevious observational studies have found an association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and psoriasis. Using the mendelian randomization (MR) approach, we aim to determine whether there was a causal association between IBD and psoriasis.MethodsWe performed a two-sample MR with the genetic instruments identified for IBD and its main subtypes, Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 25,042 cases with an IBD diagnosis and 34,915 controls. Summarized data for psoriasis were obtained from different GWAS studies which included 4510 cases and 212,242 controls without psoriasis. Causal estimates are presented as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsThe overall outcome of MR analysis was to demonstrate that genetic predisposition to IBD was associated with an increased risk of psoriasis (OR: 1.1271; 95% CI: 1.0708 to 1.1864). Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) had a significant association with total IBD (OR: 1.1202; 95% CI: 1.0491 to 1.1961). Casual relationship was also identified for CD-psoriasis (OR: 1.1552; 95% CI: 1.0955 to 1.2182) and CD-PsA (OR: 1.1407; 95% CI: 1.0535 to 1.2350). The bidirectional analysis did not demonstrate that a genetic predisposition to psoriasis was associated with total IBD, although psoriasis showed association with CD (OR: 1.2224; 95% CI: 1.1710 to 1.2760) but not with UC. A genetic predisposition to PsA had a borderline association with IBD (OR: 1.0716; 95% CI: 1.0292 to 1.1157) and a suggestive association with CD (OR: 1.0667; 95% CI: 1.0194 to 1.1162).ConclusionThere appears to be a causal relationship between IBD and psoriasis, especially for PsA, but for psoriasis and IBD, only total psoriasis and PsA were associated with CD. Understanding that specific types of psoriasis and IBD constitute mutual risk factors facilitates the clinical management of two diseases.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study aims to investigate associations between sunlight and vitamin D, using latitude as an indicator, with COVID-19 cases and related deaths in the United States. General regression and Chi-square test were used to examine the associations between latitude and COVID-19 cases and deaths. The analyses indicated that latitudes were marginally associated with cases (p = 0.0792) and deaths (p = 0.0599), with an increase of 2491 cases and 189 deaths of the total numbers in the mainland of US for every unit of increase of the latitude. When the states were classified into high latitude (>N 370) and low latitude (<N 370) groups, both the cases (702 vs 255 cases/100k population) and deaths (43 vs 11 deaths/100k population) were significantly different (p < 0.001) between the two categories. The results suggested that sunlight and vitamin D, with latitude as an indicator, might be associated with decreased risks for both COVID-19 cases and deaths. These findings warranted urgent needs of large cohort, clinical and pre-clinical studies to assess the impact of VD on the prevention of COVID-19.

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Background. Hip fractures of elderly patients are a public health problem worldwide, mostly lying in bed for a long time; therefore, the importance of life quality in such patients is an issue beyond question. Orem’s self-care model is a nursing pattern which is introduced with the purpose of improving the self-care ability of individuals, especially the patients suffering from diseases with limits on activity. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of Orem’s self-care program on life quality of senile patients with hip fractures. Methods. A randomized clinical trial study was conducted on 130 eligible old patients suffering from hip fractures who were selected using easy sampling methods and allocated randomly into two groups of experiment and control. The data were collected through validated questionnaires including visual analogue scale (VAS) and Barthel index for them. The experiment group was treated according to Orem’s self-care model, and the control group was treated on the basis of the traditional care model. The data of complications including pneumonia, deep venous thrombosis, urinary infection, wound problem, and bedsore were also gathered. Results. As revealed, mean scores of VAS and Barthel index one week after operation in the experiment group were significantly different from the control one (P<0.05, P≤0.001). The changes of VAS and Barthel index six weeks postoperatively of the two groups were also statistically significant (P<0.05, P≤0.001). Compared with the control group, the difference of complications reduced significantly in the experiment group (P<0.05). Accordingly, educational intervention according to Orem’s self-care model seemed to be effective in promoting self-care ability for these senile patients. Conclusions. According to the obtained results, a self-care program based on Orem’s model for elderly patients with hip fractures can improve life quality and reduce perioperative complications significantly. Therefore, it is recommended that this nursing program should be taken into account as a part of treatment measures for these patients.