Description: Objectives Many clinical studies have indicated that obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), the most common chronic sleep disorder, may affect neurocognitive function, and that treatment for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) has some neurocognitive protective effects against the adverse effects of OSA. However, the effects of CPAP treatment on neurocognitive architecture and function remain unclear. Therefore, this multicentre trial was designed to investigate whether and when neurocognitive architecture and function in patients with OSA can be improved by CPAP treatment and to explore the role of gut microbiota in improving neurocognitive function during treatment. Methods/design This study will be a multicentre, randomised, controlled trial with allocation concealment and assessor blinding. A total of 148 eligible patients with moderate to severe OSA will be enrolled from five sleep centres and randomised to receive CPAP with best supportive care (BSC) intervention or BSC intervention alone. Cognitive function, structure and function of brain regions, gut microbiota, metabolites, biochemical variables, electrocardiography, echocardiography, pulmonary function and arterial stiffness will be assessed at baseline before randomisation and at 3, 6 and 12 months. Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital (approval number 2015-79). The results from this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and at relevant conferences. Trial registration number NCT02886156; pre-results.

Description: Objective To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of HIV and syphilis infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in male sex workers (MSW). Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Hangzhou, China. Participants 259 MSW in MSM were recruited by respondent-driven sampling from May 2011 to December 2011.The inclusion criteria were: (1) age ≥18 years; (2) engaging in sex with men in the previous year and (3) willing to cooperate in the implementation of the study. Outcome measures HIV-related knowledge, high-risk behaviour and condom use. Results Among these MSW in MSM, 23.2% were infected with HIV and/or syphilis, 8.9% were infected only with HIV, 12.7% only with syphilis and 1.5% with HIV/syphilis co-infection; 96.6% sold sex to males, 8.9% bought sex from males and 15.4% sold sex to females; 49.0% had non-commercial sex behaviours with males and 24.3% with females. The rate of condom use while having commercial sex with clients was 86.9% and 53.3% (selling anal and oral sex to males, respectively), 95.5% (buying sex from males) and 77.5% (selling sex to females), respectively. Regarding their non-commercial sex behaviour, the rate of condom use was 77.2% (with males) and 49.2% (with females), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that age 〉30 years (OR 1.055; 95% CIs 1.015 to 1.095) and having ≥10 non-commercial male sex partners (OR, 1.573; 95% CI 1.018 to 2.452) were significantly associated with HIV/syphilis infection, while heterosexuality (OR, 0.238; 95% CI 0.066 to 0.855) was significantly associated with a low HIV/syphilis infection rate. Conclusions The MSW in MSM population in Hangzhou has a high prevalence of HIV/syphilis infection, poor perceived risks of HIV and more engagement in unsafe sex with its clients and partners, in addition to a low rate of condom use. These risk factors may account for their relatively high infection rate of HIV/syphilis.

Description: Objectives Time series models are effective tools for disease forecasting. This study aims to explore the time series behaviour of 11 notifiable diseases in China and to predict their incidence through effective models. Settings and participants The Chinese Ministry of Health started to publish class C notifiable diseases in 2009. The monthly reported case time series of 11 infectious diseases from the surveillance system between 2009 and 2014 was collected. Methods We performed a descriptive and a time series study using the surveillance data. Decomposition methods were used to explore (1) their seasonality expressed in the form of seasonal indices and (2) their long-term trend in the form of a linear regression model. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models have been established for each disease. Results The number of cases and deaths caused by hand, foot and mouth disease ranks number 1 among the detected diseases. It occurred most often in May and July and increased, on average, by 0.14126/100 000 per month. The remaining incidence models show good fit except the influenza and hydatid disease models. Both the hydatid disease and influenza series become white noise after differencing, so no available ARIMA model can be fitted for these two diseases. Conclusion Time series analysis of effective surveillance time series is useful for better understanding the occurrence of the 11 types of infectious disease.