Aim To examine the longitudinal trajectory of intrinsic capacity over a 3‐year period among long‐term care recipients in Taiwan, its association with functional decline and the onset of severe dependency. Methods A total of 9448 individuals aged ≥50 years utilizing home and community‐based long‐term care services with complete data from three separate evaluations in Taiwan were included in the study. We carried out a latent class linear mixed model to identify heterogeneous patterns of intrinsic capacity over time, a mixed‐effects model to investigate their impact on activities of daily living and a Kaplan–Meier analysis to examine the onset year of severe dependency among different intrinsic capacity classes. Results The results identified four classes sharing similar longitudinal the intrinsic capacity trajectories: “high‐stable” (20.13%), “normal‐stable” (40.58%), “sensory‐dysfunction” (29.53%) and “all‐dysfunction” (9.76%). Individuals with predisposing characteristics were associated with lower activities of daily living, with the exception of age and education level. In addition, the poor intrinsic capacity class (b from −16.94 to −6.61, P < 0.001) had a worse evolution in terms of activity of daily living scores, and was associated with an earlier onset of severe dependency in 2.5 years in the all‐dysfunction class. Conclusions Heterogeneous patterns of intrinsic capacity that delay further functional decline are promising markers of function trajectories for a person‐centered care approach in long‐term care services. Targeting the needs of intrinsic capacity groups to prevent functional decline offer insights into: (i) strengthening function‐centered care modalities to delay severe dependency as individuals get older; and (ii) validating regular monitoring intrinsic capacity as an early warning system to achieve healthy aging. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2022; 22: 516–522.

Objective To investigate the associations between exposure to antenatal corticosteroids and serious infection in children during the first three, six, and 12 months of life. Design Nationwide cohort study. Setting National Health Insurance Research Database, Birth Reporting Database, and Maternal and Child Health Database, 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2019, to identify all pregnant individuals and their offspring in Taiwan. Participants 1 960 545 pairs of pregnant individuals and their singleton offspring. 45 232 children were exposed and 1 915 313 were not exposed to antenatal corticosteroids. Main outcome measures Incidence rates were estimated for overall serious infection, sepsis, pneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, pyelonephritis, meningitis or encephalitis, cellulitis or soft tissue infection, septic arthritis or osteomyelitis, and endocarditis during the first three, six, and 12 months of life in children exposed versus those not exposed to antenatal corticosteroids. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to quantify adjusted hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals for each study outcome. Results The study cohort was 1 960 545 singleton children: 45 232 children were exposed to one course of antenatal corticosteroids and 1 915 313 children were not exposed to antenatal corticosteroids. The adjusted hazard ratios for overall serious infection, sepsis, pneumonia, and acute gastroenteritis among children exposed to antenatal corticosteroids were significantly higher than those not exposed to antenatal corticosteroids during the first six months of life (adjusted hazard ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 1.47, P<0.001, for overall serious infection; 1.74, 1.16 to 2.61, P=0.01, for sepsis; 1.39, 1.17 to 1.65, P<0.001, for pneumonia; and 1.35, 1.10 to 1.65, P<0.001, for acute gastroenteritis). Similarly, the adjusted hazard ratios for overall serious infection (P<0.001), sepsis (P=0.02), pneumonia (P<0.001), and acute gastroenteritis (P<0.001) were significantly higher from birth to 12 months of life. In the sibling matched cohort, the results were comparable with those observed in the whole cohort, with a significantly increased risk of sepsis in the first six (P=0.01) and 12 (P=0.04) months of life. Conclusions This nationwide cohort study found that children exposed to one course of antenatal corticosteroids were significantly more likely to have an increased risk of serious infection during the first 12 months of life. These findings suggest that before starting treatment, the long term risks of rare but serious infection associated with antenatal corticosteroids should be carefully weighed against the benefits in the perinatal period.

Objectives Most studies of body size perception have been performed in adolescents, and most focus on gender differences in accurate perception of body size. This study investigated misperceptions of body sizes among males and females at different stages of adulthood in Taiwan. Designs In-person home interviews were used to proportionally and randomly select 2095 adult men and women to answer the East Asian Social Survey. Participants were divided into 18–39, 40–64, and 65 + age groups. The main variables analyzed were self-perceived body size and standardized BMI. Results Women, unlike men, were more likely to misperceive their body size as being overweight (OR = 2.92; p < .001). People with higher self-perceived social status were less likely to misperceive themselves as overweight (OR = 0.91; p = .01). People with college educations were 2.35 times more likely to overestimate their body size as being heavier than they were (p < .001) and less likely to underestimate it as being thinner than they were (OR = 0.45; p < .001). Women 18–35 and 36–64 years old were 6.96 and 4.31 times more likely (p < .001) to misperceive themselves as being overweight than women 65 or older, who were more likely to misperceive themselves as being too thin. There were no significant differences in body size misperceptions among the three age groups of adult men (p > .05). We found no different significant discrepancies between self-perceived body size and actual BMI between the older men and women (p = .16). However, younger and middle-aged men were 6.67 and 3.1 times more likely to misperceive themselves as being too thin than women in their same age groups (OR = 0.15 and OR = 0.32, respectively). Conclusions Age and gender affect self-perceptions of body size in Taiwan. Overall, women are more likely than men to misperceive themselves as being too big, and men are more likely than women to misperceive themselves as too thin. Older women, however, were more likely to misperceive themselves as being too thin. Clinicians and health educators should know that people’s perceptions and concerns regarding their body size vary by age and gender.

The TensorTest2D package provides the means to fit generalized linear models on secondorder tensor type data. Functions within this package can be used for parameter estimation (e.g., estimating regression coefficients and their standard deviations) and hypothesis testing. We use two examples to illustrate the utility of our package in analyzing data from different disciplines. In the first example, a tensor regression model is used to study the effect of multi-omics predictors on a continuous outcome variable which is associated with drug sensitivity. In the second example, we draw a subset of the MNIST handwritten images and fit to them a logistic tensor regression model. A significance test characterizes the image pattern that tells the difference between two handwritten digits. We also provide a function to visualize the areas as effective classifiers based on a tensor regression model. The visualization tool can also be used together with other variable selection techniques, such as the LASSO, to inform the selection results.

Objectives: In order to predict the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions three-Level (EQ-5D-3L) questionnaire utility from the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment test (CAT).Methods: The EQ-5D-3L and CAT data from 323 patients were collected. At first, response mapping under a backward elimination procedure was used for the EQ-5D score predictions from the CAT scores. A multinomial logistic regression (MLR) model was used to identify the association between the score and the covariates using a minimized quasi-information criterion (QIC). Afterwards, the predicted scores were transformed to the utility. Validation in the model selection depended on the mean absolute error (MAE) and the root mean squared error (RMSE) for the validation group. We also compared the developed formula with previous models based on an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Results: Using response mapping with the MLR model to predict EQ-5D utility from CAT in this study performed as well as OLS regression models in previous studies using MAE and RMSE evaluations (all MAEs ≤ 0.100). In addition, the overestimation for low utility patients (utility ≤ 0.6) and underestimation for near health (utility > 0.9) in previous developed OLS models was improved in this study using a bubble chart analysis. Conclusions: Response mapping with the MLR model led to performance comparable to that using the OLS model for predicting EQ-5D utility from CAT data. In addition, the bubble charts revealed that the model constructed in this study was a better predictive model than other alternatives.