Author Interviews, Respiratory, Social Issues, University of Michigan / 31.01.2024
People Sick With Contagious Respiratory Viruses Often Conceal Illness for Personal or Professional Reasons, Regardless of Effects on Others
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Wilson N. Merrell
Ph.D. Student
Department of Psychology
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: From the common cold to COVID-19, people get sick all the time. Because our social worlds don’t pause just because we are feeling ill, we often still need to navigate in-person events ranging from work and school to first dates and family dinners even while we’re feeling under the weather. In these kinds of social situations, do we always tell others when we’re feeling sick, or are there times when we may want to downplay our illness? After all, we tend to react negatively to, find less attractive, and steer clear of people who are sick with infectious illness. To the extent that we want to avoid these negative social outcomes while sick, it therefore makes sense that we may take steps to cover up our sickness in social situations. Given that this concealment could serve individual social goals (like allowing you to connect with others) at the cost of broader harms to public health (through the spread of infectious disease), we found this behavior both theoretically novel and practically timely.
Wilson N. Merrell
Ph.D. Student
Department of Psychology
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: From the common cold to COVID-19, people get sick all the time. Because our social worlds don’t pause just because we are feeling ill, we often still need to navigate in-person events ranging from work and school to first dates and family dinners even while we’re feeling under the weather. In these kinds of social situations, do we always tell others when we’re feeling sick, or are there times when we may want to downplay our illness? After all, we tend to react negatively to, find less attractive, and steer clear of people who are sick with infectious illness. To the extent that we want to avoid these negative social outcomes while sick, it therefore makes sense that we may take steps to cover up our sickness in social situations. Given that this concealment could serve individual social goals (like allowing you to connect with others) at the cost of broader harms to public health (through the spread of infectious disease), we found this behavior both theoretically novel and practically timely.
Dr. Di Ciano[/caption]
Patricia Di Ciano, PhD
Lauren C. Davis, MBS
Department of Medical Education
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Scranton, PA 19409
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Financial conflicts of interest (COIs) resulting from ties between academia and industry have been under scrutiny for their potential to hinder the integrity of medical research. COIs can lead to implicit bias, compromise the research process, and erode public trust (1-6). The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), standardizes symptom criteria and codifies psychiatric disorders. This manual contributes to the approval of new drugs, extensions of patent exclusivity, and can influence payers and mental health professionals seeking third-party reimbursements. Given the implications of the DSM on public health, it is paramount that it is free of industry influence. Previous research has shown a high prevalence of industry ties among panel and task force members of the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5, despite the implementation of a disclosure policy for the DSM-5 (7,8). This study (9) determined the extent and type of COIs received by panel and task-force members of the DSM-5-TR (2022) (10). As the DSM-5-TR did not disclose COI, we used the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments (OP) database (11) to quantify them.
Kalli Koukounas[/caption]
Kalli Koukounas, MPH
Dr. Lu Qi[/caption]
Lu Qi, MD, PhD, FAHA
Interim Chair, Department of Epidemiolog
HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
Director, Tulane University Obesity Research Center
Director, Tulane Personalized Health Institute
New Orleans, LA 70112
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Adding salt to foods is a behavior reflecting long-term preference to salty diets. High sodium intake is a major risk factor for chronic kidney disease.
In our previous studies, we have found that adding salt to foods at the table is related to various disorders including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and mortality. 
Dr. Angélica Cifuentes Kottkamp[/caption]
Angélica
Prof. Rong Xu[/caption]
Rong Xu, PhD
Dr. Davaasambuu[/caption]
Dr Ganmaa Davaasambuu MD PhD
Associate Professor
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The crucial role of vitamin D in facilitating calcium absorption from the diet and promoting calcium deposition in bones (known as 'mineralization') has been a long-established understanding. Furthermore, some observational studies have reported an association between low vitamin D levels and a heightened risk of bone fractures in children. This raised the possibility that vitamin D supplements could potentially play a role in decreasing fracture risk in children with initially low baseline levels. However, clinical trials assessing the causal link between low vitamin D status and reduced fracture risk were necessary, and such trials had not been conducted before.
Dr. Dolatshahi[/caption]
Mahsa Dolatshahi, M.D., M.P.H.
Post-doctoral research fellow
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR)
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Obesity at midlife is recognized as a risk factor for developing Alzheimer disease decades afterwards. However, body mass index on its own does not adequately represent the risks associated with obesity.
In this study, we went beyond BMI and considered anatomical distribution of body fat, including the metabolically active visceral fat in the belly, and showed its association with Alzheimer pathology in the form of amyloid proteins. In addition, visceral fat along with obesity and insulin resistance were associated with thinning of brain cortex, as early as midlife.
Dr. Mohyuddin[/caption]
Hira Mohyuddin, PGY-2
Psychiatry Residency Training Program
The George Washington University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Frailty has become increasingly significant as the global population grows older, as this syndrome is linked with a higher mortality and morbidity in aging. Causes contributing to frailty are poorly understood, but it seems that the role of inflammation is very likely.
While other chronic infections were shown to precipitate and perpetuate inflammation that contributes to the development of frailty, no prior study has previously focused on possible links between Toxoplasma gondii and geriatric frailty. Benefiting from a collaboration with Spanish and Portuguese researchers, we have now tested, for the first time to our knowledge, this possible association.
Dr. Traverso[/caption]
Giovanni Traverso MD PhD
Karl Van Tassel (1925) Career Development Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research
Division of Gastroenterology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: I think its always important to acknowledge that this is a big team effort. We have the teams from MIT, Celero Systems, West Virgnia University (WVU) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) all working together on this. For this study, Celero prototyped the devices that we tested in pre-clinical (Swine) models and in a first-in-human study with the team at WVU.
Our lab focuses on the development of ingestible devices for drug delivery and sensing and these have informed the development of these efforts as you can see.
Lisa-Marie Smale, PharmD
Dr. Minneci[/caption]
Peter C. Minneci, MD
Chair of Surgery at Nemours Children’s Health
Delaware Valley
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain the symptoms/course of pilonidal disease?
Response: Pilonidal disease is relatively common and affects up to 1% of the population starting in adolescence and up until young adulthood. Pilonidal disease occurs when cysts or sinuses form between the buttocks. It is believed to be an inflammatory reaction to hair or debris that gets caught in the crease of the buttocks. Risk factors for the condition include a sedentary lifestyle, hygiene and obesity.
[caption id="attachment_61062" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Pilonidal Cyst
Prof. Durazzo[/caption]
Timothy C. Durazzo, PhD
Clinical Neuropsychologist and Research Scientist
Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Centers
VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
-There are a limited number of studies investigating changes in human brain structure, in individuals with an alcohol use disorder, with longer term abstinence after treatment.
-Our study was the first to assess for change in cortical thickness over approximately 7 months of abstinence in those seeking treatment of alcohol use disorder.
-Cortical thickness in humans is genetically and phenotypically distinct from other brain structural measures such as cortical volume and surface area.
-Therefore, assessment of changes in cortical thickness with longer-term abstinence provides additional information on how human brain structure recovers with sobriety.
Dr. Belloy[/caption]
Michael E. Belloy, PhD
Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Stanford University, Stanford, California
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Apolipoprotein E (APOE)*2 and APOE*4 are, respectively, the strongest protective and risk-increasing, genetic variants for late-onset Alzheimer disease. As such, one’s APOE genotype is highly relevant towards clinical trial design and Alzheimer’s disease research. However, most insights so far are focused on the associations of these APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk in non-Hispanic white individuals.
One important aspect of our work is that we really increased sample sizes for non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and East Asian individuals, so that we now have better understanding of the associations of APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk in these groups. In complement, we also did the largest investigation to date on the role of ancestry on the associations of APOE genotypes with Alzheimer’s disease risk. The scale of our study was thus a critical factor in generating novel insights.
Dr. Gaba[/caption]
Prakriti Gaba, MD
Cardiovascular Medicine Fellow
Brigham and Women's Hospital
[caption id="attachment_31114" align="alignleft" width="120"]
Dr. Deepak Bhatt[/caption]
Deepak L. Bhatt MD MPH
Director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital
Dr. Valentin Fuster Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Accurate classification of acute myocardial infarction is instrumental for the appropriate diagnosis and effective management of patients suffering from this widely prevalent cardiovascular condition.
In the past, there have been a variety of clinical scores published to advise clinicians on the best classifications schemes for patients with acute MI. These have included the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score, the HEART score, and the Killip classification. The strength of these traditional scores includes their practicality, as they can be implemented at the bedside to rapidly assist with prognostication. Nonetheless, as technologic advancements have made imaging and tissue identification more accessible, national and international committees are looking to revise traditional classification schemes of acute MI with novel ones leveraging multimodal approaches.
Dr. Mallbris[/caption]
Lotus Mallbris, M.D., Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President of Immunology Development