Purpose To present an overview of the evidence of the effect of job loss prevention interventions, aiming to improve work ability and decrease absenteeism and/or job loss in persons with inflammatory arthritis (IA). Method A systematic literature search in the databases PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library was conducted. A search strategy used in a review from 2014 was copied and additional keywords were added with no time restriction. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (RoB 1) was used for quality assessment and the overall quality of each study was determined using predetermined cut-off criteria, categorising studies to be of good-, acceptable- or low quality. Results were summarised narratively. Results Six randomised controlled trials (published in seven articles) were included, one of good quality and five of acceptable quality. One study identified significant improvements in work ability, while three found no significant difference between groups. One study identified significant difference in absenteeism, while two studies identified no difference between the intervention and control groups. Two studies identified significant reduction in job loss, while two studies identified no group difference. The inconsistent results may be due to heterogeneity in interventions and outcome measures used, and the results should therefore be interpreted with caution. Conclusion The results indicate that job loss prevention interventions may have an effect on work ability, absenteeism and in particular job loss among persons with IA. Further good-quality studies regarding job loss prevention interventions for people with IA are still recommended.

BACKGROUND: Many weight loss programs show short-term effectiveness, but subsequent weight loss maintenance is difficult to achieve. Digital technologies offer a promising means of delivering behavior change approaches at low costs and on a wide scale. The Navigating to a Healthy Weight (NoHoW) project, which was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, aimed to develop, test, and evaluate a digital toolkit designed to promote successful long-term weight management. The toolkit was tested in an 18-month, large-scale, international, 2×2 factorial (motivation and self-regulation vs emotion regulation) randomized controlled trial that was conducted on adults with overweight or obesity who lost ≥5% of their body weight in the preceding 12 months before enrollment into the intervention.

OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to describe the development of the NoHoW Toolkit, focusing on the logic models, content, and specifications, as well as the results from user testing.

METHODS: The toolkit was developed by using a systematic approach, which included the development of the theory-based logic models, the selection of behavior change techniques, the translation of these techniques into a web-based app (NoHoW Toolkit components), technical development, and the user evaluation and refinement of the toolkit.

RESULTS: The toolkit included a set of web-based tools and inputs from digital tracking devices (smart scales and activity trackers) and modules that targeted weight, physical activity, and dietary behaviors. The final toolkit comprised 34 sessions that were distributed through 15 modules and provided active content over a 4-month period. The motivation and self-regulation arm consisted of 8 modules (17 sessions), the emotion regulation arm was presented with 7 modules (17 sessions), and the combined arm received the full toolkit (15 modules; 34 sessions). The sessions included a range of implementations, such as videos, testimonies, and questionnaires. Furthermore, the toolkit contained 5 specific data tiles for monitoring weight, steps, healthy eating, mood, and sleep.

CONCLUSIONS: A systematic approach to the development of digital solutions based on theory, evidence, and user testing may significantly contribute to the advancement of the science of behavior change and improve current solutions for sustained weight management. Testing the toolkit by using a 2×2 design provided a unique opportunity to examine the effect of motivation and self-regulation and emotion regulation separately, as well as the effect of their interaction in weight loss maintenance.

This study reports age- and sex-specific incidence rates of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in complete Danish birth cohorts from 1992 through 2002. Data were obtained from the Danish registries. All persons born in Denmark, from 1992-2002, were followed from birth and until either the date of first diagnosis recording, death, emigration, 16th birthday or administrative censoring (17 May 2017), whichever came first. The number of incident JIA cases and its incidence rate (per 100,000 person-years) were calculated within sex and age group for each of the birth cohorts. A multiplicative Poisson regression model was used to analyze the variation in the incidence rates by age and year of birth for boys and girls separately. The overall incidence of JIA was 24.1 (23.6-24.5) per 100,000 person-years. The rate per 100,000 person-years was higher among girls (29.9 (29.2-30.7)) than among boys (18.5 (18.0-19.1)). There were no evident peaks for any age group at diagnosis for boys but for girls two small peaks appeared at ages 0-5 years and 12-15 years. This study showed that the incidence rates of JIA in Denmark were higher for girls than for boys and remained stable over the observed period for both sexes.

OBJECTIVE: Numerous patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) exist for the measurement of physical function for psoriatic arthritis (PsA), but only a few are validated comprehensively. The objective of this project was to prioritize PROM for measuring physical function for potential incorporation into a standardized outcome measurement set for PsA.

METHODS: A working group of 13 members including 2 patient research partners was formed. PROM measuring physical function in PsA were identified through a systematic literature review and recommendations by the working group. The rationale for inclusion and exclusion from the original list of existing PROM was thoroughly discussed and 2 rounds of Delphi exercises were conducted to achieve consensus.

RESULTS: Twelve PROM were reviewed and discussed. Six PROM were prioritized: Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and 4 modifications (HAQ-Disability Index, HAQ-Spondyloarthritis, modified HAQ, multidimensional HAQ), Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form survey physical functioning domain, and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) physical functioning module.

CONCLUSION: Through discussion and Delphi exercises, we achieved consensus to prioritize 6 physical function PROM for PsA. These 6 PROM will undergo further appraisal using the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Filter 2.1.

Non-negative matrix factorization is a relatively new method of matrix decomposition which factors an m×n data matrix X into an m×k matrix W and a k×n matrix H, so that X≈W×H. Importantly, all values in X, W, and H are constrained to be non-negative. NMF can be used for dimensionality reduction, since the k columns of W can be considered components into which X has been decomposed. The question arises: how does one choose k? In this paper, we first assess methods for estimating k in the context of NMF in synthetic data. Second, we examine the effect of normalization on this estimate's accuracy in empirical data. In synthetic data with orthogonal underlying components, methods based on PCA and Brunet's Cophenetic Correlation Coefficient achieved the highest accuracy. When evaluated on a well-known real dataset, normalization had an unpredictable effect on the estimate. For any given normalization method, the methods for estimating k gave widely varying results. We conclude that when estimating k, it is best not to apply normalization. If underlying components are known to be orthogonal, then Velicer's MAP or Minka's Laplace-PCA method might be best. However, when orthogonality of the underlying components is unknown, none of the methods seemed preferable.

Pickiness is an eating behavior that many families with young children face. Having joint family meals may impact the child's pickiness, for instance by influencing their willingness to try novel foods. Moreover, picky children have been shown to display greater emotionality. The aim of this study was to investigate if children's mental well-being and parent-reported conflicts during mealtime were associated with pickiness among obesity-prone children. Data was obtained from the baseline examination of the Healthy Start intervention study, the Danish Medical Birth registry and the Danish Health Visitor's Child Health Database, and included 635 children aged 2-6 years that were all at high risk for becoming overweight later in life. Children's mental well-being was measured by the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Crude and adjusted ordinal logistic regressions were used to investigate the cross-sectional associations. Children had a higher odds associated with changing from a category of less pickiness to a category of more pickiness for each one point higher SDQ score (ORadj. = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.14; 1.61) and lower odds (ORadj. = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.38; 0.86) associated with changing pickiness category towards more pickiness for each one point higher SDQ prosocial score. Moreover, children with conflicts during mealtime had higher odds of being in a worse pickiness category compared to children without conflicts (ORadj. = 3.37, 95% CI = 2.27; 5.01). This study showed that among obesity-prone children, behavioral problems, as well as conflicts during mealtime, were associated with more picky behaviors. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the findings, as are studies including general child population subsets.