BACKGROUND: Activity trackers such as the Fitbit Charge 2 enable users and researchers to monitor physical activity in daily life, which could be beneficial for changing behaviour. However, the accuracy of the Fitbit Charge 2 in a free-living environment is largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the agreement between Fitbit Charge 2 and ActiGraph GT3X for the estimation of steps, energy expenditure, time in sedentary behaviour, and light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity under free-living conditions, and further examine to what extent placing the ActiGraph on the wrist as opposed to the hip would affect the findings.

METHODS: 41 adults (n = 10 males, n = 31 females) were asked to wear a Fitbit Charge 2 device and two ActiGraph GT3X devices (one on the hip and one on the wrist) for seven consecutive days and fill out a log of wear times. Agreement was assessed through Bland-Altman plots combined with multilevel analysis.

RESULTS: The Fitbit measured 1,492 steps/day more than the hip-worn ActiGraph (limits of agreement [LoA] = -2,250; 5,234), while for sedentary time, it measured 25 min/day less (LoA = -137; 87). Both Bland-Altman plots showed fixed bias. For time in light physical activity, the Fitbit measured 59 min/day more (LoA = -52;169). For time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, the Fitbit measured 31 min/day less (LoA = -132; 71) and for activity energy expenditure it measured 408 kcal/day more than the hip-worn ActiGraph (LoA = -385; 1,200). For the two latter outputs, the plots indicated proportional bias. Similar or more pronounced discrepancies, mostly in opposite direction, appeared when comparing to the wrist-worn ActiGraph.

CONCLUSION: Moderate to substantial differences between devices were found for most outputs, which could be due to differences in algorithms. Caution should be taken if replacing one device with another and when comparing results.

A few studies have shown a direct association between maternal and child hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), but the potential correlations within paternal-child and maternal-paternal dyads are not clear from the current evidence. Thus, we aimed to thoroughly examine associations between family members HCC. We conducted a cross-sectional study based on 159 children and their parents (159 mothers and 159 fathers) participating in the Danish Healthy Start Study. Information was available on HCC from both children, mothers and fathers, as well as on several sociodemographic factors. First, Pearson's correlation coefficients were applied to assess crude correlations between family members' HCC. Secondly, analysis of covariance, adjusted for covariates, was applied to estimate child mean HCC in quartiles of maternal and paternal HCC, and mean paternal HCC in quartiles of maternal HCC. Our results showed direct associations between HCC of all family members. We found statistically robust correlations between maternal and child HCC (r = 0.33; P < 0.001), paternal and child HCC (r = 0.37; P < 0.001) and between maternal and paternal HCC (r = 0.31; P < 0.001). Similar results were found when adjusting for covariates in analyses of covariance. Our data provides evidence of associations between family members' HCC. However, we were unable to determine the extent to which these associations were due to shared genetics, assortative mating or environmental factors.

Background: Prenatal exposures may contribute to male infertility in adult life, but large-scale epidemiological evidence is still lacking. The Fetal Programming of Semen quality (FEPOS) cohort was founded to provide means to examine if fetal exposures can interfere with fetal reproductive development and ultimately lead to reduced semen quality and reproductive hormone imbalances in young adult men.

Methods: Young adult men at least 18 years and 9 months of age born to women in the Danish National Birth Cohort living in relative proximity to Copenhagen or Aarhus and for whom a maternal blood sample and two maternal interviews during pregnancy were available were invited to FEPOS. Recruitment began in March 2017 and ended in December 2019. The participants answered a comprehensive questionnaire and underwent a physical examination where they delivered a semen, urine, and hair sample, measured their own testicular volume, and had blood drawn.

Results: In total 21,623 sons fulfilled eligibility criteria of whom 5697 were invited and 1058 participated making the response rate 19%. Semen characteristics did not differ between sons from the Copenhagen and Aarhus clinics. When comparing the FEPOS semen parameters to similar cohorts, the median across all semen characteristics was slightly lower for FEPOS participants, although with smaller variation.

Conclusion: With its 1058 young adult men, the FEPOS cohort is the largest population-based male-offspring cohort worldwide specifically designed to investigate prenatal determinants of semen quality. Wide-ranging information on maternal health, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, occupation, and serum concentrations of potential reproductive toxicants during pregnancy combined with biological markers of fertility in their sons collected after puberty allow for in-depth investigations of the 'fetal origins of adult disease hypothesis'.

OBJECTIVE: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard in clinical research due to credible causality. Their results, however, may not be generalizable to real-world populations. While glucocorticoids (GCs) remain a mainstay of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment, it is unclear whether the results of GC-RCTs are generalizable to current real-world RA patients.

METHODS: MEDLINE was searched for RCTs and, as comparators, cohort studies (CSs) in RA evaluating systemic GCs. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed for descriptive baseline characteristics (including general demographics, comorbidities, and disease activity) that have been shown to be able to modify the benefit-risk-ratio of various RA therapeutics. These meta-analyses were stratified by study type (RCT and CS). Stratified estimates were subsequently compared. Further sensitivity analyses were performed stratifying by disease duration.

RESULTS: 56 RCTs (7053 participants) and 10 CSs (14,688 participants) were included. 12 characteristics were reported frequently enough to allow for comparative analysis. In 10/12 characteristics (83%), RCT estimates did not appear to differ from CS estimates. However, RCT participants were younger (-4.7 years [95% CI -7.2 to -2.1]; p < 0.001) and had higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates (11.8 mm/h [5.7 to 17.8]; p < 0.001) than CS participants. Comorbidities could not be assessed due to insufficient reporting.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that evidence from GC trials in RA is of acceptable generalizability to current real-world patients - especially compared to findings from biologic agents in RA. However, RCT participants were younger than real-world patients, potentially limiting the generalizability of trial results to elderly patients.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO (CRD42019134675).

OBJECTIVES: The main study aim was to examine the applicability of a novel method to assess the criterion of values and preferences within the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation evidence to decision framework. The group concept mapping (GCM) approach was applied to identify, organise and prioritise values and preferences in the example of health professionals' choice of analgesia for patients with acute trauma pain.

SETTING: Prehospital and emergency care centres in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

PARTICIPANTS: Acute care health professionals with qualifications to administer analgesic agents to patients in emergency and prehospital settings, including advanced ambulance assistants, rescue officers, paramedics, emergency physicians and emergency nurses, participated in an online survey in which statements were generated (n=40) and structured (n=11) and finally analysed and interpreted in a validation meeting (n=4).

RESULTS: Using GCM, ideas were generated and structured through online participation. Results were interpreted at a validation meeting. In total, 111 unique ideas were identified and organised into seven clusters: drug profile, administration, context, health professionals' preferences and logistics, safety profile, patient's medical history and acute clinical situation.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on GCM, a conceptual model was developed, and values and preferences around choice of analgesia in emergency care were revealed. Health professionals within acute care can apply the conceptual model to support their decision-making when choosing the best available treatment for pain for their patients in emergency care.

Interhospital transport of sick newborn infants is dangerous, but the risk of adverse events can be reduced, when transport is being performed by trained neonatal retrieval teams. In this review, we describe the current organisation of neonatal retrieval service in Denmark. The services are based at the neonatal intensive care units of the four university hospitals. Improved cooperation and harmonisation of operations between the teams is needed, as this is a prerequisite for the development of a national clinical consensus guideline and national quality metrics enabling benchmarking both within Denmark and abroad.

OBJECTIVES: Synovitis is one of the possible pain generators in osteoarthritis (OA) and is associated with upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, which can lead to worsening of the postoperative pain. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the association between perioperative synovitis and self-reported pain 12 months after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in patients with OA.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six knee OA patients were included in this analysis. The perioperative volume of synovitis in predefined locations was assessed by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Perioperative synovitis was assessed histologically from biopsies of the synovium. Highest pain intensity within the last 24 hours (Visual Analog Scale, VAS, 0 to 100) was assessed before and 12 months after TKA. Patients were divided into a low-pain intensity (VAS≤30) and a high-pain intensity (VAS>30) group on the basis of 12 months postoperative VAS.

RESULTS: The high-pain intensity group had significantly lower perioperative contrast-enhanced-synovitis (P=0.025), DCE-synovitis (P<0.04), and a trend toward lower histologically assessed synovitis (P=0.077) compared with the low-pain intensity group. Perioperative synovitis scores were inversely correlated with pain intensity 12 months after TKA (P<0.05), indicating that more severe perioperative synovitis is associated with less severe pain intensity at 12 months.

DISCUSSION: Higher degrees of perioperative synovitis scores are found to be associated with less postoperative pain 12 months after TKA. Further, correlation analysis revealed that less severe perioperative CE-MRI and DCE-MRI synovitis was associated with higher pain intensity 12 months after TKA, suggesting that CE-MRI and DCE-MRI synovitis grades could be used as imaging markers for prediction of chronic postoperative pain after TKA.

BACKGROUND: In the general population, body mass index (BMI = weight (kg)/(height (m))2) shows a U-shaped relation to mortality, which is attributable to a combination of an inverse association with fat-free mass index (FFMI) and a direct association with fat mass index (FMI). However, preceding changes in body composition related to diseases, health behaviors, or social conditions that are also influencing later mortality may confound these associations.

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations of FFMI and FMI, adjusted for preceding changes in FFMI and FMI over a 6 years period, with all-cause mortality in a healthy general population.

METHODS: The study population was a random subset of adult Danes, participating in the Danish MONICA project; 989 men and 962 women, born 1922, 1932, 1942, and 1952, and examined in 1987-88 and 1993-94. They had no known major co-morbidities until start of follow-up in 1993-94, and were followed up for 18 years. Measures included height, weight, and bio-impedance, from which BMI, FFMI, and FMI were calculated, and information on educational level, smoking, alcohol drinking, leisure-time physical activity, which were obtained by questionnaires. We analyzed the relation between body composition and all-cause mortality by Cox proportional hazards model with splines, stratified by birth cohorts, and with adjustment for preceding changes in body composition and for the covariates including gender. We estimated hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) relative to HR = 1.00 at the median values of BMI, FMI, and FFMI.

RESULTS: During 18 years of follow-up, 286 men and 200 women died. BMI showed the well-known U-shaped association with mortality, and FMI was directly and FFMI inversely associated with mortality. Associations were not significantly modified by gender. Preceding changes in BMI, FMI, and FFMI were only weakly and not significantly associated with mortality. Associations for FMI and FFMI were monotonic, but curve-linear with a higher mortality above and below the respective median values of FMI and FFMI: at the 5th percentiles of FMI and FFMI, HRs were 0.80 (CI 0.57-1.13) and 2.01 (1.24-3.27), and at the 95th percentiles, HRs were 2.16 (1.38-3.38) and 0.81 (0.52-1.27), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: In an apparently healthy general population, a large fat mass and a small fat-free mass are associated with greater risk of early mortality, also after adjusting for preceding changes in body composition, health behaviors, and educational level.