(1) Background: Sleep disorders are a common problem for public health since they are considered potential triggers and predictors of some mental and physical diseases. Evaluating the sleep quality of a person may be a first step to prevent further health issues that diminish their independence and quality of life. Polysomnography (PSG) is the “gold standard” for sleep studies, but this technique presents some drawbacks. Thus, this study intends to assess the capability of the new Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 to be used as a tool for sleep self-assessment. (2) Methods: This study will be an observational and prospective study set at the sleep unit of a hospital in A Coruña, Spain. Forty-three participants who meet the inclusion criteria will be asked to participate. Specific statistical methods will be used to analyze the data collected using the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 and PSG. (3) Discussion: This study offers a promising approach to assess whether the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 correctly records our sleep. Even though these devices are not expected to replace PSG, they may be used as an initial evaluation tool for users to manage their own sleep quality and, if necessary, consult a health professional. Further, the device may help users make simple changes to their habits to improve other health issues as well. Trial registration: NCT04568408 (Registered 23 September 2020).

Background: Lower quantity and poorer sleep quality are common in most older adults, especially for those who live in a nursing home. The use of wearable devices, which measure some parameters such as the sleep stages, could help to determine the influence of sleep quality in daily activity among nursing home residents. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the influence of sleep and its changes concerning the health status and daily activity of older people who lived in a nursing home, by monitoring the participants for a year with Xiaomi Mi Band 2. Methods: This is a longitudinal study set in a nursing home in [Details omitted for double-anonymized peer reviewed]. The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 will be used to measure biomedical parameters and different assessment tools will be administered to participants for evaluating their quality of life, sleep quality, cognitive state, and daily functioning. Results: A total of 21 nursing home residents participated in the study, with a mean age of 86.38 ± 9.26. The main outcomes were that sleep may influence daily activity, cognitive state, quality of life, and level of dependence in activities of daily life. Moreover, environmental factors and the passage of time could also impact sleep. Conclusions: Xiaomi Mi Band 2 could be an objective tool to assess the sleep of older adults and know its impact on some factors related to health status and quality of life of older nursing homes residents. Trial Registration: NCT04592796 (Registered 16 October 2020) Available on: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04592796.

(1) Background: Work stress is one of the most relevant issues in public health. It has a significant impact on health, especially the development of mental disorders, causing occupational imbalance. There is a growing interest in the development of tools with a positive effect on workers. To this end, wearable technology is becoming increasingly popular, as it measures biometric variables like heartbeat, activity, and sleep. This information may be used to assess the stress a person is suffering, which could allow the development of stress coping strategies, both at a professional and personal level. (2) Methods: This paper describes an observational, analytical, and longitudinal study which will be set at a research center in A Coruña, Spain. Various scales and questionnaires will be filled in by the participants throughout the study. For the statistical analysis, specific methods will be used to evaluate the association between numerical and categorical variables. (3) Discussion: This study will lay the foundation for a bigger, more complete study to assess occupational stress in different work environments. This will allow us to begin to understand how occupational stress influences daily life activity and occupational balance, which could directly enhance the quality of life of workers if the necessary measures are taken.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for the Tuberculosis (TB) disease, remains a leading global infectious disease killer, and genomic epidemiology is essential for understanding its transmission dynamics. Computational limitations prevent comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the publicly available Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes. Here, we create UShER-TB, a comprehensive pipeline for scalable phylogenomic MTB analysis. We processed 129,312 MTB genomes to construct a comprehensive global phylogeny capturing unprecedented genomic diversity. UShER-TB achieved high accuracy in transmission cluster reconstruction. The comprehensive phylogeny also facilitated identification of putative novel lineages and sublineages, and successful placement of ancient DNA samples. The UShER-TB platform enables real-time phylogenomic analysis of new genomes, revealing transmission hotspots and introduction patterns at global scales. Our approach overcomes longstanding computational barriers, providing researchers with efficient tools for TB genomic surveillance especially for resource-limited settings where TB burden is highest.

Polysomnography (PSG) is currently the accepted gold standard for sleep studies, as it measures multiple variables that lead to a clear diagnosis of any sleep disorder. However, it has some clear drawbacks, since it can only be performed by qualified technicians, has a high cost and complexity and is very invasive. In the last years, actigraphy has been used along PSG for sleep studies. In this study, we intend to assess the capability of the new Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 to be used as an actigraphy tool. Sleep measures from PSG and Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 recorded in the same night will be obtained and further analysed to assess their concordance. For this analysis, we perform a paired sample t-test to compare the different measures, Bland–Altman plots to evaluate the level of agreement between the Mi Band and PSG and Epoch by Epoch analysis to study the ability of the Mi Band to correctly identify PSG-defined sleep stages. This study belongs to the research field known as participatory health, which aims to offer an innovative healthcare model driven by the patients themselves, leading to civic empowerment and self-management of health.

The impact of COVID-19 in Africa has been a big concern since the beginning of the pandemic. However, low incidence of COVID-19 case severity and mortality has been reported in many African countries, although data are highly heterogeneous and, in some regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa, very scarce. Many of these regions are also the cradle of endemic infectious diseases like malaria. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity and origin of circulating variants as well as the frequency of co-infections with malaria in Equatorial Guinea. For this purpose, we conducted antigen diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2, and microscopy examinations for malaria of 1,556 volunteers at six health centres in Bioko and Bata from June to October 2021. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were also taken for molecular detection of SARS-COV-2 by RT-qPCR and whole genome viral sequencing. We report 3.0% of SARS-CoV-2 and 24.4% of malaria prevalence over the sampling in Equatorial Guinea. SARS-CoV-2 cases were found at a similar frequency in all age groups, whereas the age groups most frequently affected by malaria were children (36.8% [95% CI 30.9-42.7]) and teenagers (34.7% [95% CI 29.5-39.9]). We found six cases of confirmed co-infection of malaria and SARS-CoV-2 distributed among all age groups, representing a 0.4% frequency of co-infection in the whole sampled population. Interestingly, the majority of malaria and SARS-CoV-2 co-infections were mild. We obtained the genome sequences of 43 SARS-CoV-2 isolates, most of which belong to the lineage Delta (AY.43) and that according to our pandemic-scale phylogenies were introduced from Europe in multiple occasions (7 transmission groups and 17 unique introductions). This study is relevant in providing first-time estimates of the actual prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in this malaria-endemic country, with the identification of circulating variants, their origin, and the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 and malaria co-infection.