Ignite Creation Date:
2024-05-06 @ 7:01 PM
Last Modification Date:
2024-10-26 @ 2:58 PM
Study NCT ID:
NCT05860998
Status:
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Last Update Posted:
2023-05-18
First Post:
2023-04-26
Brief Title:
Measuring the Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis and Its Socio-economic Consequences
Sponsor:
University of Zurich
Organization:
University of Zurich
Study Overview
Official Title:
Measuring the Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis and Its Socio-economic Consequences
Status:
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Status Verified Date:
2023-05
Last Known Status:
None
Delayed Posting:
No
If Stopped, Why?:
Not Stopped
Has Expanded Access:
False
If Expanded Access, NCT#:
N/A
Has Expanded Access, NCT# Status:
N/A
Acronym:
EconToxo
Brief Summary:
The investigators propose a fast and inexpensive procedure to determine the prevalence of the Toxoplasmosis infection Toxoplasma Gondii in the general population using response times in a cognitive task instead of costly medical tests Therefore the investigators aim to measure the prevalence of Toxoplasmosis and its socio-economic consequences in the general population
Detailed Description:
An estimated 2 billion humans worldwide are affected by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii The resulting Toxoplasmosis is considered one of the most important but most neglected parasitic infections Toxoplasmosis has been linked to behavioral alterations in humans While rarely resulting in an acute pathology latent infections have been associated with non-clinical outcomes such as car accidents impulsiveness and suicides through the pathologys influence on personality and risk-taking behaviors
Given the economic and social impact of these consequences it is important to have reliable estimates of Toxoplasmosis prevalence However current methods involve costly time-expensive medical tests which are not always available especially in developing countries Therefore simpler inexpensive and easily-scalable diagnostic methods would be highly valuable For this reason both the CDC and the WHO consider it a priority to improve diagnostic testing of Toxoplasmosis This includes obtaining reliable and easily-implementable estimates at the population level which is essential to gauge the magnitude of the problem and to inform and design health policy aimed at reducing the number of infections in the population
Therefore the investigators aim to determine the frequency of latent Toxoplasmosis infections in the general population in a simple quick and inexpensive way
The key idea of simplifying the diagnosis of this infection is that Toxoplasmosis induces specific behavioral and physiological changes It alters the levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and causes a delay in muscle response time In particular people with RhD-negative blood type become slower when afflicted by Toxoplasmosis while the RhD-positive sub-population does not experience a change in response times This relation is important because while the distribution of blood types can be determined in an inexpensive way and is already commonly known at the aggregate level RhD-negative are 15 in Caucasians 8 in Africans and 1 in Asians the actual prevalence of the Toxoplasmosis infection is underinvestigated and the respective tests are costly and not easily deployable in large numbers especially in developing countries The investigators aim to leverage on the differential effects of Toxoplasmosis on response times across blood types to estimate its latent diffusion
Response times RT are known to be log-normally distributed 22 This is crucial because mixtures of log-normally distributed variables are identifiable through standard statistical methods as eg finite mixture models 23 The distribution of RTs in the population is a mixture of two different types afflicted vs non-afflicted and the first group should show a systematic delay in RTs compared to the latter group A finite mixture model can then be applied to a sample of RhD-negative individuals to estimate the characteristics of the two distributions and hence quantify both the magnitude of the delay in response times as well as the size of the afflicted group
The investigators already obtained data showing that the proposed method is able to capture interesting and economically-relevant individual characteristics between those who are imputed to be afflicted by this parasite compared to those who do not This first investigation also passed some preliminary validation For example those estimated to be afflicted by Toxoplasmosis are also those who are more likely to have a cat which is the main vector of contagion for this parasite
In this study the investigators propose a systematic validation of the proposed method In particular the investigators aim to compare it agrees with a standard medical test for Toxoplasmosis infection eg compare it to the presence of Toxoplasma gondii IgG Antibodies The latter medical test requires a blood sample
Given the economic and social impact of these consequences it is important to have reliable estimates of Toxoplasmosis prevalence However current methods involve costly time-expensive medical tests which are not always available especially in developing countries Therefore simpler inexpensive and easily-scalable diagnostic methods would be highly valuable For this reason both the CDC and the WHO consider it a priority to improve diagnostic testing of Toxoplasmosis This includes obtaining reliable and easily-implementable estimates at the population level which is essential to gauge the magnitude of the problem and to inform and design health policy aimed at reducing the number of infections in the population
Therefore the investigators aim to determine the frequency of latent Toxoplasmosis infections in the general population in a simple quick and inexpensive way
The key idea of simplifying the diagnosis of this infection is that Toxoplasmosis induces specific behavioral and physiological changes It alters the levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and causes a delay in muscle response time In particular people with RhD-negative blood type become slower when afflicted by Toxoplasmosis while the RhD-positive sub-population does not experience a change in response times This relation is important because while the distribution of blood types can be determined in an inexpensive way and is already commonly known at the aggregate level RhD-negative are 15 in Caucasians 8 in Africans and 1 in Asians the actual prevalence of the Toxoplasmosis infection is underinvestigated and the respective tests are costly and not easily deployable in large numbers especially in developing countries The investigators aim to leverage on the differential effects of Toxoplasmosis on response times across blood types to estimate its latent diffusion
Response times RT are known to be log-normally distributed 22 This is crucial because mixtures of log-normally distributed variables are identifiable through standard statistical methods as eg finite mixture models 23 The distribution of RTs in the population is a mixture of two different types afflicted vs non-afflicted and the first group should show a systematic delay in RTs compared to the latter group A finite mixture model can then be applied to a sample of RhD-negative individuals to estimate the characteristics of the two distributions and hence quantify both the magnitude of the delay in response times as well as the size of the afflicted group
The investigators already obtained data showing that the proposed method is able to capture interesting and economically-relevant individual characteristics between those who are imputed to be afflicted by this parasite compared to those who do not This first investigation also passed some preliminary validation For example those estimated to be afflicted by Toxoplasmosis are also those who are more likely to have a cat which is the main vector of contagion for this parasite
In this study the investigators propose a systematic validation of the proposed method In particular the investigators aim to compare it agrees with a standard medical test for Toxoplasmosis infection eg compare it to the presence of Toxoplasma gondii IgG Antibodies The latter medical test requires a blood sample
Study Oversight
Has Oversight DMC:
None
Is a FDA Regulated Drug?:
False
Is a FDA Regulated Device?:
False
Is an Unapproved Device?:
None
Is a PPSD?:
None
Is a US Export?:
None
Is an FDA AA801 Violation?:
None