This study aimed to examine the association between cardiopulmonary function, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and cognitive function among nursing home residents aged 80 years and over.

A nursing home-based, cross-sectional study was implemented among 677 aged over 80 years in Shanghai, China. A total of 197 participants underwent effective cardiopulmonary function examinations. Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) and Short Form-36 scales (SF-36) were used to assess cognitive function and HRQOL, respectively.

Decline in left ventricular ejection fractions (LVEF) [adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 1.98; 95% confidential interval (CI), 1.03–3.81)] and vital capacity (VC) (AOR, 2.08; 95%CI, 1.07–4.04) was associated with cognitive impairment. After adjusting confounding factors, relationships between cognitive function and physical functioning (PF) (AOR, 0.98; 95%CI, 0.97–0.99) still existed.

Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to cardiopulmonary health and HRQOL in the nursing home residents. Actions of public health strategies focus on the improvement of cardiopulmonary function, and PF among older nursing home residents with cognitive impairment is required.

Given the rising burden of palliative care and the limited human resources for its facilitation in China, volunteers are becoming increasingly indispensable. In particular, there is a high demand for volunteers who can serve as spiritual caregivers. However, a volunteer’s ability to provide good spiritual care in a palliative setting may be influenced by their attitude toward palliative care. To uncover the current state of spiritual caregiving in palliative settings in China and insights into best practices for its improvement, this study measured spiritual care competence and identified its influencing factors and explored its relationship with attitudes toward palliative care among volunteers. Notably, this study is the first to consider spiritual care competence alongside attitudes toward palliative care.

A descriptive cross-sectional study using online survey methods was conducted with 385 volunteers in Shanghai, China. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire.

Volunteers demonstrated relatively low levels of spiritual care competence (58.50 ± 10.92). Statistically significant correlations were found between spiritual care competence and the following variables: age, educational background, marital status, religious beliefs, occupational status, and relevant training and practical experience. Attitude toward palliative care significantly correlated with spiritual care competence (r = 0.49, p < 0.001).

To continually improve volunteers’ spiritual care competence, diversified education and training programs about spiritual care should be designed for different kinds of volunteers; moreover, because attitude toward palliative care significantly impacted spiritual care competence, such programs should encourage positive attitudes toward palliative care.

Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are likely to be caused by multiple susceptibility genes, each with small effects in increasing the risk of illness. Identifying DNA variants associated with schizophrenia and MDD is a crucial step in understanding the pathophysiology of these disorders.

To investigate whether the SP4 gene plays a significant role in schizophrenia or MDD in the Han Chinese population.

We focused on nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring the SP4 gene and carried out case–control studies in 1235 patients with schizophrenia, 1045 patients with MDD and 1235 healthy controls recruited from the Han Chinese population.

We found that rs40245 was significantly associated with schizophrenia in both allele and genotype distributions (Pallele = 0.0005, Pallele = 0.004 after Bonferroni correction; Pgenotype = 0.0023, Pgenotype = 0.0184 after Bonferroni correction). The rs6461563 SNP was significantly associated with schizophrenia in the allele distributions (Pallele = 0.0033, Pallele = 0.0264 after Bonferroni correction).

Our results suggest that common risk factors in the SP4 gene are associated with schizophrenia, although not with MDD, in the Han Chinese population.

Common psychiatric disorders are highly heritable, indicating that genetic factors play an important role in their aetiology. The CACNA1C gene, which codes for subunit alpha-1C of the Cav1.2 voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel, has been consistently found to be the shared risk gene for several kinds of mental disorder.

To investigate whether CACNA1C is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.

We carried out a case–control study of 1235 patients with schizophrenia, 1045 with major depressive disorder and 1235 healthy controls. A tag single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1006737 along with another 10 tag SNPs in the CACNA1C gene were genotyped in all samples.

We found that rs1006737 was associated with both schizophrenia (Pallele = 0.0014, Pgenotype = 0.006, odds ratio (OR) = 1.384, 95% CI 1.134–1.690) and major depressive disorder (Pallele = 0.0007, Pgenotype = 0.003, OR = 1.425, 95% CI 1.160–1.752).

Our findings support CACNA1C being a risk gene for both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.