Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Screen addiction among children and adolescents and the self-efficacy of mothers in screen use management during the COVID-19 lockdown in Sri Lanka(Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists, 2023) Baminiwatta, A.; Nanayakkara, T.D.; Fernando, A.; Wijethunga, S.BACKGROUND: The prevalence of problematic screen use (PSU) or “screen addiction” among children and adolescents may have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The self-efficacy of the mothers in managing screen use in their children may play an important preventive role in children developing PSU. AIMS: This study aimed to assess PSU among children aged 4-18 years during the lockdown period imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the association between PSU and self-efficacy of mothers in managing screen use. METHODS: An online survey was conducted using social media groups among mothers of children aged 4-18 years. The PSU in their children was measured using the Problematic Media Use Measure (PMUM), and maternal self-efficacy in managing screen use was assessed using the Parental Screen Use Management Scale (PSUMS). The two questionnaires were translated and validated into Sinhala prior to this study. RESULTS: A total of 320 mothers responded to the survey. Based on the PMUM cut-off score, 25.3% of the children were found to have PSU. PSU was inversely correlated with maternal self-efficacy in managing screen use (r=-0.63, p<0.001). All three subscales of the PSUMS; reactive management (r=-0.56, p<0.001), proactive management (r=-52, p<0.001), and monitoring (r =-45, p<0.001), were significantly correlated with PSU. Younger age at screen use onset showed a marginal correlation (rho=-0.11, p=0.05) with PSU. The child’s age, gender and the educational level of the mother were not associated with PSU. CONCLUSION: Maternal self-efficacy in managing screen use among children was associated with lower PSU in children.Item Violence against children(Samudra Medical Publications, 2022) Fernando, A.; Randeny, S.No abstract availableItem North Colombo diverticular disease snap shot audit (VISTA study): a collaborative research initiative(The College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka, 2023) Chandrasinghe, P.; Ediriweera, E.P.D.S.; Niriella, M.; Ranwaka, C.; Fernando, A.; Gunawardena, H.; Kumarage, S.INTRODUCTION Diverticulosis and diverticular disease (DD) is a common occurrence in clinical practice in the local setting with a lack of documented literature. A snapshot audit was conducted at North Colombo Teaching Hospital (NCTH) to ascertain the disease burden in clinical practice as a pilot study to assess feasibility and response rate for a nation wide snapshot audit. METHODOLOGY All surgical and gastroenterology units at NCTH were requested to enter the data between 1st January 2022 to 30th of June 2022 on all patients presenting with DD or those detected with diverticulosis during screening colonoscopy. Prospective data collection was done using RedCap© data capturing platform. RESULTS Out of the 8 units invited (general surgery – 5, GI surgery – 1, gastroenterology – 2), 5 units participated (general surgery – 2, GI surgery – 1, gastroenterology – 2); response rate is 62%. A total of 46 patient records (median age- 68 years; range 29- 86; female 51%) were received within 6 months. Of the total 54.3% had symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease (SUDD) while 33% were detected with diverticulosis at screening. Only 13% (n=6) required inward care (bleeding – 3, diverticulitis – 2, perforation – 1) and detected using colonoscopy in 4 and CT scan in 2. In the DD group, 20% (6/31) had complicated DD while 80% had Symptomatic Uncomplicated Diverticular Disease (SUDD). CONCLUSION In this pilot study, a majority of the patients with DD presented with SUDD while around 20% came with complicated DD. The response rate from collaborators was satisfactory. The secure online database usage is feasible and will be used for a national level study in the future to assess the disease burden in the healthcare setting in Sri Lanka.Item Psychometric properties of the Sinhala version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham rating scale (SNAP-IV) parent form in healthy children and children with ADHD(Elsevier, 2023) Abhayaratna, H.C.; Ariyasinghe, D.I.; Ginige, P.; Chandradasa, M.; Hansika, K.S.; Fernando, A.; Wijetunge, S.; Dassanayake, T.L.OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to translate and adapt the Parent Form of the MTA Version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham ADHD/ODD rating scale (SNAP-IV) into Sinhala and examine its psychometric properties. METHOD: The MTA version of the SNAP-IV was translated into the Sinhala language by adhering to the WHO translation and adaptational process. The final Sinhala SNAP-IV (S-SNAP-IV) was administered to parents of 412 healthy children and adolescents (age: 6-18 years), and 272 children and adolescents with ADHD (age: 4-19 years). Internal consistency and factor structure of the S-SNAP-IV were determined in each sample. RESULTS: Conforming to that of the original English version, the S-SNAP-IV showed a three-factor structure (inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and oppositional defiant disorder) in each sample, except for three item deviations (10,11, and 13) in the healthy sample. The S-SNAP-IV showed excellent internal consistency in the total sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97), healthy sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90), and the clinical sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94). The S-SNAP-IV also showed good discriminative validity: Only 1.5% of the healthy sample exceeded the cut-off scores in any domain, whereas all newly diagnosed, unmedicated children were S-SNAP-IV positive in at least one domain. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the three-factor model fits the S-SNAP-IV, and it clearly distinguishes children with ADHD from non-ADHD children. We conclude that the S-SNAP-IV possesses satisfactory psychometric properties-consistent with the MTA English version and its translations into other languages-making it a reliable and valid instrument for screening children with ADHD.Item Prevalence of asthma and its symptoms in Sri Lankan adults.(BioMed Central, London, 2022) Gunasekera, K.D.; Amarasiri, W.A.D.L.; Undugodage, U.C.M.; Silva, H.K.M.S.; Sadikeen, A.; Gunasinghe, W.; Fernando, A.; Perera, B.P.R.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.BACKGROUND: Data on adult asthma is scarce in Sri Lanka. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of asthma and its symptoms in adult Sri Lankans. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a translated version of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey screening questionnaire on subjects ≥ 18 years from 7 provinces in Sri Lanka was conducted. The asthma was defined as "wheezing in the past 12 months (current wheeze)", self-reported asthma attack in the past 12 months or on current asthma medication use. RESULTS: Among 1872 subjects (45.1% males, 48.8% between 18-44 years of age), the prevalence of current wheeze was 23.9% (95%CI: 22.0%-25.9%), self-reported asthma was 11.8% (95%CI: 10.3%-13.2%) and current asthma medication use was 11.1% (95% CI: 9.6%-12.5%). The prevalences were higher in adults > 44 years, 31.4% positively responded to any of the above questions (95%CI: 29.3%-33.4%) and 60.9% of current wheezers did not report having asthma whilst 38.2% used asthma medication. Among current wheezers, 80.1% had at least one other symptom, cough being the commonest. Those with no current wheeze, self-reported asthma and on current asthma medication use, 30%, 35.9% and 36.6%, respectively, reported at least one other symptom. Smokers comprises 22% current wheezers, 20.6% of self-reported asthmatics and 18.7% of current asthma medication users. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of asthma in Sri Lankan adults is higher than the other South Asian countries and higher in the older age group. A significant percentage of symptomatic individuals did not report having asthma or being on medication.Item Measuring antenatal depressive symptoms across the world: A validation and cross-country invariance analysis of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in eight diverse low-resource settings(American Psychological Association, 2022) Murray, A.L.; Hemady, C.L.; Do, H.; Dunne, M.; Foley, S.; Osafo, J.; Sikander, S.; Madrid, B.; Baban, A.; Taut, D.; Ward, C.L.; Fernando, A.; Thang, V.V.; Eisner, M.; Hughes, C.; Fearon, P.; Valdebenito, S.; Tomlinson, M.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Walker, S.Measures that produce valid and reliable antenatal depressive symptom scores in low-resource country contexts are important for efforts to illuminate risk factors, outcomes, and effective interventions in these contexts. Establishing the psychometric comparability of scores across countries also facilitates analyses of similarities and differences across contexts. To date, however, few studies have evaluated the psychometric properties and comparability of the most widely used antenatal depressive symptom measures across diverse cultural, political, and social contexts. To address this gap, we used data from the Evidence for Better Lives Study-Foundational Research (EBLS-FR) project to examine the internal consistency reliability, nomological network validity, and cross-country measurement invariance of the nine-item version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in antenatal samples across eight low-resource contexts. We found that the PHQ-9 scores had good internal consistency across all eight countries. Correlations between PHQ-9 scores and constructs conceptually associated with depression were generally consistent, with a few exceptions. In measurement invariance analyses, only partial metric invariance held and only across four of the countries. Our results suggest that the PHQ-9 yields internally consistent scores when administered in culturally diverse antenatal populations; however, the meaning of the scores may vary. Thus, interpretation of PHQ-9 scores should consider local meanings of symptoms of depression to ensure that context-specific conceptualizations and manifestations of antenatal depressive symptoms are adequately reflected. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).Item Associations between ADHD symptoms and maternal and birth outcomes: An exploratory analysis in a multi-country cohort of expectant mothers(SAGE Publications, 2022) Murray, A.L.; Taut, D; Baban, A.; Hemady, C.L.; Walker, S.; Osafo, J.; Sikander, S.; Tomlinson, M.; Toit, S.D.; Marlow, M.; Ward, C.L.; Fernando, A.; Madrid, B.; Van, T.V.; Tuyen, H.D.; Dunne, M.; Hughes, C.; Fearon, P.; Valdebenito, S.; Eisner, M.OBJECTIVE: ADHD symptoms can adversely impact functioning in a range of domains relevant for maternal well-being and fetal development; however, there has been almost no research examining their impact during pregnancy. We aimed to address this gap. METHOD: We used data (n = 1,204) from a longitudinal birth cohort study spanning eight countries to address this gap. RESULTS: ADHD symptoms in the third trimester of pregnancy were associated with lower social support from family (b = -0.16, p = .031), friends (b = -0.16, p = .024), and significant others (b = -0.09, p = .001); higher stress (b = 0.34, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (b = 0.31, p < .001), and increased likelihood of an unwanted pregnancy (b = 0.30, p = .009). Significant associations with tobacco use (b = 0.36, p = .023) and premature birth (b = 0.35, p = .007) did not survive correction for multiple comparisons and there were no significant associations with alcohol use, low birth weight, or unplanned pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that women with ADHD symptoms could benefit from earlier, more regular screening for mental health difficulties and greater mental health support during pregnancy.Item Patterns of adverse childhood experiences and associations with prenatal substance use and poor infant outcomes in a multi-country cohort of mothers: a latent class analysis(BioMed Central,London, 2022) Hemady, C.L.; Speyer, L.G.; Murray, A.L.; Brown, R.H.; Meinck, F.; Fry, D.; Do, H.; Sikander, S.; Madrid, B.; Fernando, A.; Walker, S.; Dunne, M.; Foley, S.; Hughes, C.; Osafo, J.; Baban, A.; Taut, D.; Ward, C.L.; Thang, V.V.; Fearon, P.; Tomlinson, M.; Valdebenito, S.; Eisner, M.Background: This paper enumerates and characterizes latent classes of adverse childhood experiences and investigates how they relate to prenatal substance use (i.e., smoking, alcohol, and other drugs) and poor infant outcomes (i.e., infant prematurity and low birthweight) across eight low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Methods: A total of 1189 mother-infant dyads from the Evidence for Better Lives Study cohort were recruited. Latent class analysis using the Bolck, Croon, and Hagenaars (BCH) 3-step method with auxiliary multilevel logistic regressions was performed. Results: Three high-risk classes and one low-risk class emerged: (1) highly maltreated (7%, n = 89), (2) emotionally and physically abused with intra-familial violence exposure (13%, n = 152), (3), emotionally abused (40%, n = 474), and (4) low household dysfunction and abuse (40%, n = 474). Pairwise comparisons between classes indicate higher probabilities of prenatal drug use in the highly maltreated and emotionally abused classes compared with the low household dysfunction and abuse class. Additionally, the emotionally and physically abused with intra-familial violence exposure class had higher probability of low birthweight than the three remaining classes.Conclusion: Our results highlight the multifaceted nature of ACEs and underline the potential importance of exposure to childhood adversities on behaviors and outcomes in the perinatal period. This can inform the design of antenatal support to better address these challenges.Item Postdischarge outcomes of COVID-19 patients from South Asia: a prospective study(Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2022) Abeysuriya, V.; Seneviratne, S.L.; de Silva, A.P.; Mowjood, R.; Mowjood, S.; de Silva, T.; de Mel, P.; de Mel, C.; Wijesinha, R.S.; Fernando, A.; de Mel, S.; Chandrasena, L.Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may cause clinical manifestations that last for weeks or months after hospital discharge. The manifestations are heterogeneous and vary in their frequency. Their multisystem nature requires a holistic approach to management. There are sparse data from the South Asian region on the outcomes of hospital-discharged COVID-19 patients. We assessed the posthospital discharge outcomes of a cohort of Sri Lankan COVID-19 patients and explored the factors that influenced these outcomes. Methods: Data were prospectively collected from patients who were discharged following an admission to the Nawaloka Hospital, Sri Lanka with COVID-19 from March to June 2021. At discharge, their demographic, clinical and laboratory findings were recorded. The patients were categorised as having mild, moderate and severe COVID-19, based on the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health COVID-19 guidelines. Following discharge, information on health status, complications and outcomes was collected through clinic visits and preplanned telephone interviews. A validated (in Sri Lanka) version of the Short Form 36 health survey questionnaire (SF-36) was used to assess multi-item dimensions health status of the patients at 1, 2 and 3 mo postdischarge. Results: We collected data on 203 patients (male, n=111 [54.7%]). The level of vaccination was significantly associated with disease severity (p<0.001). Early recovery was seen in the mild group compared with the moderate and severe groups. At 3 mo, on average 98% of mild and 90% of moderate/severe patients had recovered. Based on the SF-36, physical functioning dimensions, role limitation due to physical and emotional health, energy/ fatigue, emotional well-being, social functioning, pain and general health were significantly different in the moderate/severe vs mild COVID-19 groups at 1, 2 and 3 mo postdischarge (p<0.05). Twenty-three patients developed complications, of which the most common were myocardial infarction with heart failure (n=6/23; 26.1%), cerebrovascular accident (n=6/23; 26.1%) and respiratory tract infections (n=3/23; 13.01%) and there were six deaths. Conclusions: In our cohort, receiving two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was associated with reduced disease severity. Those with mild disease recovered faster than those with moderate/severe disease. At 3 mo posthospital discharge, >90% had recovered.Item Combination of cycle threshold time, absolute lymphocyte count and neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio is predictive of hypoxia in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection(Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2022) Abeysuriya, V.; Seneviratne, S.L.; de Silva, A.P.; Mowjood, R.; Mowjood, S.; de Silva, T.; de Mel, P.; de Mel, C.; Chandrasena, L.; Wijesinha, R.S.; Fernando, A.; de Mel, S.Background: There is currently no clinically validated biomarker to predict respiratory compromise in sudden acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Cycle threshold time (Ct), absolute lymphocyte count (AL) and neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been previously evaluated for this purpose. We hypothesized that the combination of these parameters at presentation may be predictive of hypoxia (oxygen saturation <92%). Methods: Data were collected on 118 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection between May 2020 and April 2021. Demographics, clinical parameters and laboratory and radiological investigation results were recorded. Respiratory compromise (RC) was defined based on symptoms and signs, hypoxia and chest X-ray abnormalities. Results: RC occurred in 61 (51.7%) of patients. The Ct, AL and NLR at median day 3 of illness were significantly different between patients with and without RC (Ct, RC vs not: 19.46±2.64 vs 22.62±3.37, p=0.0001; AL, RC vs not: 531.49±289.09 vs 764.69±481.79, p=0.0001; NLR, RC vs not: 3.42±0.75 vs 2.59±0.55, p=0.0001). Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed that a Ct <19.9, AL <630.8×103/μL and NLR >3.12 at median day 3 of symptoms was predictive of hypoxia on day 7 of illness (area under the curve 0.805, sensitivity 96.7%, specificity 69.1%). The predictive value for the parameters combined was significantly superior to their individual predictive power. Conclusions: Ct, AL and NLR used in combination on day 3 of symptoms are predictive of hypoxia on day 7 of SARS-CoV-2 illness.
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