Quantitative exploration of factors influencing psychotic disorder ailments in Nigeria

Evaluating the association of vitamin D3, parathyroid hormone, and C-reactive protein serum levels in patients with an acute psychotic episode: a cross-sectional study in tertiary centre in Iran

BACKGROUND

The high impact of vitamin D on brain development and its relationship with inflammatory markers in the clinical course of psychiatric disorders have compelled researchers to investigate the potential association between vitamin D levels, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and the incidence of mental disorders. In the present study, we aimed to compare the serum levels of vitamin D and its related markers, including calcium, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone (PTH), along with CRP, in 3 groups of patients with acute psychotic episodes, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and methamphetamine-induced psychosis, with a standard control group of the Iranian population.

METHODS

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at a psychiatric hospital in Tehran, Iran, and involved a total of 185 subjects. The subjects included four groups: acute phase of schizophrenia (n = 49), acute manic episodes of bipolar disorder (n = 43), methamphetamine-induced psychotic disorder (n = 46), and control group (n = 47). Among 138 patients in acute psychotic episodes, 33 patients were in their first episode of psychosis, while 105 patients were in acute exacerbation of their chronic psychotic disorders. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was measured by an expert attending psychiatrist for all patients. Then, serum levels of calcium, phosphorus, parathormone, vitamin D, and CRP were assessed in all study groups.

RESULTS

Among our 185 study subjects, it was observed that individuals with higher education levels and those who were married had a lower prevalence of mental disorders. In all patient groups, the serum levels of CRP were significantly higher, and PTH levels were significantly lower than in the control group (p < 0.001). The serum levels of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D were not statistically significantly different between the patient and control groups of the study. In chronic psychotic patients, CRP levels were significantly higher (p < 0.031), and vitamin D levels were significantly lower (p < 0.044) compared to first-episode psychotic patients.

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that CRP levels are significantly higher and PHT level is significantly lower in acute psychotic patients. Moreover, vitamin D levels were significantly lower in chronic psychotic patients compared to first-episode psychotic patients.

Single-label machine learning classification revealed some hidden but inter-related causes of five psychotic disorder diseases

Psychotic disorder diseases (PDD) or mental illnesses are group of illnesses that affect the minds and impair the cognitive ability, retard emotional ability and obstruct the process of communication and relationship with others and are characterized by delusions, hallucinations and disoriented or disordered pattern of thinking. Prognosis of PDD is not sufficient because of the nature of the diseases and as such adequate form of diagnosis is required to detect, manage and treat the illness. This paper applied the single-label classification (SLC) machine learning approach in mining of electronic health records of people with PDD in Nigeria using eleven independent (demographic) variables and five PDD as target variables. The five PDDs are Insomnia, Schizophrenia, Minimal Brain dysfunction (MBD), which is also known as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Vascular Dementia (VD) and Bipolar Disorder (BD). The aim of using SLC is that it would be easier to detect some PDDs that are related to each other without the loss of information, which is a plus over multi-label classification (MLC). ReliefF algorithm was used at each experiment to precipitate the order of importance of the independent variables and redundant variables were excluded from the analysis. The order of the variables in feature selection was matched with feature importance after the classifications and quantified using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The data was divided into: 70% for training and 30% for testing. Four new performance metrics adapted from the root mean square (RMSE) were proposed and used to measure the differences between the performance results of the 10 Machine learning models in terms of the training and testing and secondly, feature and without feature selection. The new metrics are close to zero which is an indication that the use of feature selection and cross validation may not greatly affects the accuracy of the SLC. When the PDDs are included as predictors for classifying others, there was a tremendous improvement as revealed by the four new metrics for classification accuracy (CA), precision and recall. Analysis of variance showed the four different metrics differs significantly for classification accuracy (CA) and precision. However, there were no significant difference between the CA and precision when the duo are compared together across the four evaluation metrics at p value less than 0.05.

Log-Linear Modelling of Effect of Age and Gender on the Spread of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Lagos State, Nigeria

BACKGROUND:

The effect of age and gender on the transmission of any infectious disease can be of great important because the age at which the host contact the disease may be a determinant on the rate at which the disease will spread.

AIM:

The purpose of this research is to model the significant effect of age and gender on the spread of hepatitis B virus using data collected from Lagos State, Nigeria.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The data that was used for this research is a ten years data covering the period of 2006 to 2015, which was collected from Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). A log-linear modelling approach was employed using R programming language software. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) method of model selection was used in selecting the best model.

RESULTS:

It was discovered from the analysis that both factors (age and gender) have a significant effect on the spread of hepatitis B infection. This means that the age at which an individual is tested positive to hepatitis B virus will affect the spread of the disease. In choosing the best model among the four models that were developed, model AY: GY (age & year: gender and year) was found to be the best model.

CONCLUSION:

Age and gender were found to act as a risk influencer that could have a great effect on the transmission of hepatitis B virus infections in Lagos state, Nigeria.

Hepatitis E Infection in Nigeria: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND:

Research done globally on hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is far fewer compared with other types of hepatitis virus infection. Little is known on the prevalence of HEV in Nigeria.

AIM:

The present study presents the prevalence of HEV infection in Nigeria from a few available research papers on HEV. The detailed statistical analysis was used to analyse the prevalence of HEV in humans and animals.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

A literature search in Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed databases was done, and a final 7 articles were selected. Minitab 17.0 was used to perform the correlational and binary logistic analyses.

RESULTS:

Serum and faecal analysis of blood and stool samples of 1178 humans and 210 pigs (animals) were done, and the presence of anti-HEV IgG or HEV RNA in the study samples were 127 and 138 respectively. Further analysis showed the prevalence of HEV are 10.8% and 65.7% in humans and animals, respectively. Weak positive non-significant association (r = 0.327, p-value = 0.474) was obtained between the target (humans and animal) and the HEV infection (positive) groups. The application of binary logistic regression yielded an equation that can be used to predict the target group from the HEV positive humans or animals. Generally, the logistic model was not statistically significant (p-value = 0.376), and the model was able to explain 9.3% of the deviation or variability of the model. The odds ratio is OR = 1.0344 with 0.9550, 1.204 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Thus, in Nigeria, the odds of prevalence of HEV in animals are 1.0344 higher than humans.

CONCLUSION:

The risk factors obtained from the few available articles are consistent with the global epidemiology of HEV infection. Food and animal handlers and those that consume unsafe water are the key people at risk of HEV infection in Nigeria.

Systematic Review of Prevalence of Antepartum Depression during the Trimesters of Pregnancy

BACKGROUND

Depression is prevalent during antenatal and postnatal stages of pregnancy. The effect of depression can be seen in complications during and after pregnancy, fetal growth retardation, abortions and preterm births. The literature abounds on postpartum depression (PD) while few studies are on antepartum depression (AD).

AIM

The systematic review aims to compute the prevalence of AD from published articles.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The published articles (26) used in this review were obtained from the search of the search keywords "Depressive conditions in pregnancy AND trimesters". All the articles were considered irrespective of language and their citation status as of the time of the query. Only articles that presented the prevalence mean and sample size were included. Articles on questionnaires filled by nonpregnant women and men were excluded. Articles that presented the prevalence of depression for the postpartum period only were excluded but were included if they addressed depression at both postpartum and trimester(s) of pregnancy. P-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

Analysis of the 26 articles showed that 4,303 subjects tested positive for depression in a sample of 28,248 pregnant mothers, giving the prevalence rate as 15%. Confounding was removed, and the sample size was adjusted to be 25,771 and 4,223 were screened to have depressive symptoms, thereby giving a new prevalence rate as 16.4%. It was also revealed that AD is most prevalent in the last trimester of pregnancy and least in the second trimester. Pregnancy duration and PD are not correlated with AD. This implies that AD can be observed in any period of the pregnancy and cannot predict the incidence of PD.

CONCLUSION

Efforts must be intensified to monitor pregnant women during the third trimester to reduce the incidence of maternal depression during pregnancy, thereby reducing the prevalence.

Survival Analysis of Cancer Patients in North Eastern Nigeria from 2004 - 2017 - A Kaplan - Meier Method

BACKGROUND:

Cancer is a deadly malignant disease and is prevalent in Sub Saharan Africa. The North East part of Nigeria in particular and the country, in general, are struggling to cope with the increasing burden of cancer and other communicable and non-communicable diseases. The situation is worsened by the ongoing insurgency and terrorist activities in the area.

AIM:

The aim of this paper is to present the research findings from a cohort study aimed at the analysis of the estimation of the survivorship time of the real data of cancer patients in the North-eastern part of Nigeria and to establish if the insurgency in the region has contributed negatively to the life expectancy of its inhabitants.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The record of 1,090 patients from medical records departments of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), located in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State in northeast Nigeria was obtained. The record showed patients that were diagnosed and died of one type of cancer or the other from 2004 to 2017. All the cancer cases included in the present study were grouped into sex, age, marital status, occupation, date admitted and date of death/discharge. Descriptive statistics and Kaplan-Meier method were used to analyse the data using SPSS version 23 while Microsoft EXCEL and Minitab 16.0 were used for data cleansing and organisation.

RESULTS:

Of the 1,090 patients analysed, 920 (84.40%) experienced the event, i.e. death, while 170 (15.60%) patients were censored. The data were analysed based on the ages and sex of the patients. 50.20% of the patients were of ages 21-50 years. The proportions of patients in this age bracket surviving past 7 days are 75%, while those between ages 80 years and above is 12 days. Others are of survival time of 5 days (ages 0-20 years) and 7 days (51-79 years). Using sex, 75% of the patients’ survival time is 7 days in the case of male and 6 days for females. It is safe to say that the survival time for cancer patients of the university the Maiduguri is 6 days and the result reflects the Northeastern part of Nigeria. This is because the hospital is one of few tertiary healthcare facilities in that area and consequently, cancer cases are often referred there.

CONCLUSION:

Cancer incidence is high, and the probability of survival reduces as the survival time increases. This is a dire situation in need of urgent intervention from the government, groups and individuals to tackle the scourge of cancer, thereby improving on the life expectancy battered by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in that region.

Chitinase-3-like protein 1 levels in bipolar disorder

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the relationship between the expression level and biologic role of YKL-40 in bipolar disorder (BD).

METHODS

This case-control study was conducted in the Faculty of Medicine, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey in 2015. One hundred and four patients diagnosed as having bipolar disorder (DSM5 criteria), and 96 participants were included as healthy controls in this study. A human YKL-40 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit was used to measure the serum YKL-40 levels. As independent variables, we collected data on C-reactive protein (CRP), demographic variables, and medications. Results: The mean YLK-40 levels for the BD was 2723.5±543.8 pg/ml and control groups was 2132.5±576.3 pg/ml (t=7.42, p less than 0.001). The mean CRP levels for the BD was 0.4±0.6 mg/dl and control groups was 0.4±0.7 mg/dl (t=0.02, p=0.985). The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of YKL-40 in the diagnosis of BD as 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.72-0.85) with a sensitivity of 82.7% and specificity of 68.1% at a cutoff level of 2307.1 pg/ml. The use of antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood modifiers, and the presence of any comorbidity was not related to the YKL-40 levels (p greater than 0.05). Conclusion: With acceptable sensitivity and specificity levels, the YKL-40 can be utilized as a marker in the diagnosis and follow-up of BD.

Analysis of selected crime data in Nigeria

Crime is an act that brings about offences and it is punishable under the law. Major crimes in Nigeria include rape, kidnapping, murder, burglary, fraud, terrorism, robbery, cyber-crimes, bribery and corruption, money laundering and so on. According to the statistics released by the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics in 2016, Lagos, Abuja, Delta, Kano, Plateau, Ondo, Oyo, Bauchi, Adamawa and Gombe States made the top ten list of states with high number of crimes. Crime is an important topic and it is of interest to us because of the consequences and penalties it attracts (which ranges from fine to death). This data article contains the partial analysis (both descriptive and inferential) of crime data set obtained between 1999 and 2013. The aim of the study is to show the pattern and rate of crime in Nigeria based on the data collected and to show the relationships that exist among the various crime types. Analyzing this data set can provide insight on crime activities within Nigeria.

On the Epidemiology and Statistical Analysis of HIV/AIDS Patients in the Insurgency Affected States of Nigeria

BACKGROUND:

The effect of insurgencies on a nation regarding the economy, education, health and infrastructure cannot be overemphasised.

AIM:

This research is therefore focused on analysing the incidence of HIV/AIDS disease in states affected by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The data collected refer to the period from 2004 to 2017, reporting information on 16,102 patients and including the age, gender, year of diagnosing and status of the patients. Descriptive, Chi-square test of independence and Correlation analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.

RESULTS:

It was discovered that the majority of those living with HIV/AIDS in these Boko Haram ravaged areas are females between the age group of 30 years to 39 years. Reported cases of HIV/AIDS started increasing significantly from age 20, and the highest number of reported cases of HIV/AIDS was recorded in the year 2017.

CONCLUSION:

The status of the patient was found to be dependent on both the gender and age of the patients’ treatment, though the strength of the linear relationship between status and age is not significantly different from zero.

Survey datasets on patterns of utilization of mental healthcare services among people living with mental illness

The data was obtained from a field survey aimed at measuring the patterns of utilization of mental healthcare services among people living with mental illness. The data was collected using a standardized and structured questionnaire from People Living with Mental Illness (PLMI) receiving treatment and the care-givers of People Living with Mental Illness. Three psychiatric hospitals in Ogun state, Nigeria were the population from which the samples were taken. Chi-square test of independence and correspondence analysis were used to present the data in analyzed form.

Statistical data analysis of cancer incidences in insurgency affected states in Nigeria

This article provides details about the various cancer types recorded in Northeastern states of Nigeria currently being affected by insurgency in Nigeria. The dataset was described and chi-square test was used to determine the dependency of the variables under consideration on each other. Also, linear, logarithmic, inverse, quadratic, cubic, power, growth, exponential and logistic regression models were fitted to the dataset to show the relationship between them.

Data in support of high rate of pregnancy related deaths in Maiduguri, Borno State, Northeast Nigeria

Pregnancy related deaths (PRD) are public health concern in most developing countries and Nigeria in particular. Despite the efforts put in by the concerned authorities, PRD remains an integral part of maternal mortality or maternal deaths in Nigeria in general and Borno state in particular, as evidenced from the records obtained from Umaru Shehu Hospital, Maiduguri (a state hospital in the state capital. The data contains frequency of PRD in months and grouped into gynaecology, ante-natal and post-natal, and labour obtained from mid-2009 to mid - 2017. The statistical analysis of the data may reveal the extent of incidence or epidemiology of PRD is in the state.

Quantitative evaluation of pregnant women delivery status' records in Akure, Nigeria

In this data article, monthly records (datasets) of total delivery, normal delivery, delivery through Caesarean section and number of still births from pregnant women in Akure, the capital city of Ondo state Nigeria, for a period of ten years, between January 2007 and December 2016 were considered. Correlational and time series analyses were conducted on the monthly records of total delivery, normal delivery (delivery through woman virginal), delivery through Caesarean section, and number of still births, in order to observe the patterns each of these indicators follows and to recommend appropriate model for forecasting their future values. The data were obtained in raw form from State Specialist Hospital (SSH), Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. A clear description and variation in each of these indicators (total delivery, normal delivery, caesarean section, and still births) were considered separately using descriptive statistics and box plots. Different models were also proposed for each of these indicators using time series models.