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ion to prevent future RA.

In Ethiopia, little is known about the association between substance use disorders and adherence to antituberculosis (anti-TB) medications. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of substance use disorders on adherence to anti-TB medications in Southwest Ethiopia.

Prospective cohort study.

Patients were recruited from 22 health centres and four hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia.

This study was conducted among 268 patients with TB, aged 18-80 in Southwest Ethiopia between October 2017 and October 2018. At baseline, patients who were exposed substance use disorders (134 patients) and unexposed to substance use disorders (134 patients) were recruited. Patients were followed for 6 months, and data were collected on three occasions.

Adherence to anti-TB medications.

Patients with substance use disorders had consistently higher prevalence of non-adherence than those without, 16.4% versus 3.0% at baseline, 41.7% versus 14.4% at 2-month follow-up and 45.7% versus 10.8% at 6-month follow-up assessments. Patients with khat use disorder were 3.8 times more likely to be non-adherent to anti-TB medications than patients without khat use disorder (Adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=3.8, 95% CI 1.8 to 8.0). Patients who had alcohol use disorder (AUD) were also 3.2 times likely to have poor adherence compared with their counterparts (aOR=3.2, 95% CI 1.6 to 6.6). In addition, being educated (aOR=4.4, 95% CI 1.7 to 11.3), and being merchant (aOR=6.1, 95% CI 1.2 to 30.8) were associated with non-adherence to anti-TB medications.

Khat and AUDs predict greater likelihood of non-adherence to anti-TB medication. This implies the need to integrate the management for substance use disorders into the existing TB treatment services.

Khat and AUDs predict greater likelihood of non-adherence to anti-TB medication. This implies the need to integrate the management for substance use disorders into the existing TB treatment services.

Social isolation and loneliness in older adults are significant public health issues. Various interventions such as exercise programmes or social activities are used in the management of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Network meta-analysis (NMA) provides effect estimates for all comparisons by considering the relative efficacy of multiple intervention alternatives. Iodoacetamide Therefore, this study will determine the comparative efficacy of intervention to alleviate social isolation and loneliness of older adults in community dwelling by comparing direct and indirect interventions through systematic review and NMA.

We will include all relevant randomised controlled trials for interventions of social isolation and loneliness in older adults written in English without any limitation of publication date through electronic databases MEDLINE via OVID, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsycINFO and CINAHL. Independent teams of reviewers will screen trial eligibility, collect data, identify duplication and assess risk of bias, by using the Cochrane revised risk of bias tool. The interventions for the management of social isolation and loneliness will be included. The primary outcome is social isolation. The secondary outcomes are loneliness and health-related quality of life. We will conduct an NMA through a Bayesian hierarchical model, by testing assumption (ie, transitivity) for NMA. We will also estimate the ranking probabilities for all interventions at each possible rank for each intervention. For estimation of each intervention efficacy, we will assess the certainty and credibility using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.

Ethics approval will not be obtained for this systematic review as it will be conducted with published papers. The review results will be presented at a field-specific conference and published in a relevant peer-reviewed journal.

CRD42020155789.

CRD42020155789.

The overall goal of the Kentucky Viral Hepatitis Treatment Study (KeY Treat) is to eliminate hepatitis C transmission from a county in Appalachian Kentucky by removing the barriers to accessing hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment.

KeY Treat is a phase IV, open-label, single-arm clinical trial of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) for the treatment of viraemic HCV infections. Those eligible for KeY Treat are at least 18 years of age, viraemic and are residents of the target county. Pregnant women are not eligible. Rapid HCV RNA screening is used to determine eligibility, and those with a quantifiable viral load (VL) consenting to participate initiate SOF/VEL on the same day. All pharmacologic treatment and related medical care is provided free of charge using a non-specialist provider model. Follow-up visits occur at 2, 6 and 12 weeks during treatment to assess medication adherence (measured via VL and self-report), side effects and engagement in risk behaviours. Post-treatment visits occur at 12 weeks (sustained virologic response (SVR12) visit), 6 months and 12 months post-treatment completion to assess re-infection. A control county has also been identified, and prevalence and incidence of chronic HCV infections will be compared with the target community longitudinally. The primary outcome to assess elimination is SVR12. However, several outcomes will be measured to assess the effectiveness of removing the barriers to HCV treatment, including treatment entry, completion and re-infection. Analyses will be conducted via a generalised linear model framework that can incorporate flexible covariate adjustment and multiple outcome types with a compatible link function. Mathematical modelling will be completed assessing the impact and cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

KeY Treat has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Kentucky. Results from KeY Treat will be presented at conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.

NCT03949764.

NCT03949764.

An understanding of differences in clinical phenotypes and outcomes COVID-19 compared with other respiratory viral infections is important to optimise the management of patients and plan healthcare. Herein we sought to investigate such differences in patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared with influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of hospitalised adults and children (≤15 years) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus A/B, RSV, rhinovirus, enterovirus, parainfluenza viruses, metapneumovirus, seasonal coronaviruses, adenovirus or bocavirus in a respiratory sample at admission between 2011 and 2020.

A total of 6321 adult (1721 SARS-CoV-2) and 6379 paediatric (101 SARS-CoV-2) healthcare episodes were included in the study. In adults, SARS-CoV-2 positivity was independently associated with younger age, male sex, overweight/obesity, diabetes and hypertension, tachypnoea as well as better haemodynamic measurements, white cell count, platelet count and creatinine values.