Lies Lahousse

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Verified

Lies verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Doctor of Medicine - Master Pharmaceutical Sciences - Master Clinical Epidemiology
• Professor (Associate) at Ghent University

Background COPD is an established risk factor for lung cancer. Sleep apnoea is prevalent in COPD and the inflammation caused by intermittent hypoxaemia may increase this lung cancer risk. Females have more systemic inflammation for a similar apnoea-hypopnoea index than males. Therefore, this study aims to investigate sex-specific associations betwe...

Background In Belgium, age-standardised hospital admission and mortality rates for asthma and COPD are higher than the European average. Understanding the factors that lead to a hospitalised exacerbation and/or mortality is needed to optimize patient management. Methods Patients ≥18 years old obtaining 2 claims for drugs for obstructive airway dis...

Background The policy shift towards person-centred integrated primary care systems drives interest in primary care across higher education programs. In Flanders, the Primary Care Academy (PCA) is established to support this policy shift. The PCA focusses on the concepts of goal-oriented care, self-management, and interprofessional collaboration to...

Frailty is associated with increased susceptibility to medication-related harm, highlighting the importance of medication review for frail older adults. Community pharmacists are increasingly involved in the initiation of medication reviews. Yet, current frailty measurement methods are impractical in this setting. Alternative approaches, leveraging...

Background The application of polygenic risk score (PRS) in breast cancer (BC) screening presents promising opportunities. Developing recommendations for future use and research on this topic is a key focus of the EU4Health project: Building the EU cancer and public health genomics platform (Can.Heal). We aim to provide these recommendations based...

Introduction: To minimise the potential negative effects of using medicinal products, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issues regulatory risk communication. These consist of routine risk minimisation measures (rRMM), such as specific product information, and when necessary additional RMMs (aRMM) such as pregnancy prevention programmes (PPPs), or...

Background & Aims Bleeding events are a well-known complication of oral anticoagulant (OAC) use in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). While these are undesirable, bleedings could have a warning potential for underlying tumoral lesions. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between anticoagulant-related bleeding and newly-diagnosed...

Rationale: Research suggests that respiratory and cardiovascular drugs can ameliorate the rate of lung function decline. Objectives: To investigate the impact of respiratory and cardiovascular pharmacotherapy on lung function trajectories in the general population. Methods: Repeated spirometry was performed in the Rotterdam Study, a population-base...

Background Assessing medication adherence is crucial in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management to prevent exacerbations. However, it is unclear whether this association between adherence and exacerbations is influenced by the adherence assessment methods or thresholds used. Electronic healthcare databases are valuable to study exac...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already a reality in health systems, bringing benefits to patients, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders in the health care. To further leverage AI in health, Belgium is advised to make policy-level decisions about how to fund, design and undertake actions focussing on data access and inclusion, IT-infrastruc...

Background: Community pharmacy-delivered interventions for smoking cessation are effective. The impact of behavioural interventions on short-term health benefits remains unclear. Objective: We aimed to evaluate a community pharmacy-delivered motivational interview for smoking cessation with characterization of the population that can be reached and...

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is caused by interactions between many factors across the life course, including genetics. A proportion of COPD may be due to reduced lung growth in childhood. We hypothesized that a polygenic risk score (PRS) for COPD is associated with lower lung function already in childhood and up to adult...

Introduction Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are increasingly used and can be involved in clinically relevant drug-drug interactions (DDIs) that increase the risk of major bleeding or thromboembolism. Skilled drug interaction management is essential to ensure safe and effective use of DOACs. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of t...

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma associate with high morbidity and mortality. High levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) were found in tissue and plasma of COPD patients but their role in COPD and asthma is unclear. Methods In the Rotterdam Study (n = 2577), AGEs (by skin autofluorescence (SAF)), FEV1 a...

Background Medication errors (MEs) are a major public health concern which can cause harm and financial burden within the healthcare system. Characterizing MEs is crucial to develop strategies to mitigate MEs in the future. Objectives To characterize ME‐associated reports, and investigate signals of disproportionate reporting (SDRs) on MEs in the...

Background: The healthcare system is faced by an increase in chronic conditions and multimorbidity. People with chronic conditions (i.e., ‘patients’) are often confronted with an overload of tasks (e.g., medication management, control visits) prescribed by multiple providers to manage their conditions. As a result, they are at risk of fragmented ca...

Background: Skin cancer is a leading form of cancer in Belgium. The increasing incidence and associated economic and societal burden require more investments in population-based prevention strategies. Pharmacists can play a role in increasing awareness and promoting sun protection given their expertise and proximity. However, which persons could be...

Background: Pharmaceutical care interventions have shown to improve health outcomes in specific patient populations. However, which smokers could be reached by community pharmacists in Belgium is unknown. Moreover, the impact of behavioural interventions for smoking cessation (such as brief motivational interviewing) on short term health outcomes r...

Background Asthma exacerbations reflect disease severity, affect morbidity and mortality, and may lead to declining lung function. Inflammatory endotypes ( e.g. T2-high (eosinophilic)) may play a key role in asthma exacerbations. We aimed to assess whether genetic susceptibility underlies asthma exacerbation risk and additionally tested for an inte...

Background Preserved Ratio Impaired Spirometry (PRISm) is defined as FEV 1 <80% predicted, FEV 1 /FVC ≥0.70. PRISm is associated with respiratory symptoms and co-morbidities. Our objective was to discover novel genetic signals for PRISm and see if they provide insight into the pathogenesis of PRISm and associated co-morbidities. Methods We underto...

Background Skin cancer is a leading form of cancer in Belgium. Prevention of skin cancer by community pharmacists can play a role in increasing awareness and promoting sun protection. However, which persons could be reached by community pharmacists for skin cancer awareness in Belgium and whether this increased awareness is associated with increase...

Background The determinants and health outcomes of lung function trajectories in adults among the general population are poorly understood. We aimed to identify and characterize clusters of lung function trajectories in adults aged 45 years and older. Methods Gaussian finite mixture modelling was applied to baseline and annualized change of FEV 1...

Polypharmacy in multimorbid older patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) is a risk factor for potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP). We aimed to systematically assess the evidence on the prevalence of PIP and its impact on adverse health outcomes in this patient group. A systematic search of the published peer-reviewed literature describing t...

Background Poor adherence to non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) may raise thromboembolic risks in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the minimal adherence to maintain the protective effects of NOACs is currently unknown. Purpose To investigate thresholds of NOAC adherence in association with thromboembolic and morta...

Purpose Pharmacodynamic drug-drug interactions (PD DDIs) may influence the safety of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs), but the extent to which PD DDIs increase bleeding risks, remains unclear. Therefore, the impact of PD DDIs on bleeding outcomes in NOAC-treated patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was investigated. Methods U...

Aims The clinical relevance of common pharmacokinetic interactions with non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) often remains unclear. Therefore, the impact of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and CYP3A4 inhibitors and inducers on clinical outcomes in NOAC-treated patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was investigated. Methods and results AF pa...

Background The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 2023 report recommends medication adherence assessment in COPD as an action item. Healthcare databases provide opportunities for objective assessments; however, multiple methods exist. We aimed to systematically review the literature to describe existing methods to assess adheren...

Purpose Poor adherence to non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) may raise thromboembolic risks in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the minimal adherence to maintain the protective effect of NOACs is currently unknown. Therefore, we investigated thresholds of NOAC adherence in association with thromboembolic and mortal...

Most patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have at least one additional, clinically relevant chronic disease. Those with the most severe airflow obstruction will die from respiratory failure, but most patients with COPD die from non-respiratory disorders, particularly cardiovascular diseases and cancer. As many chronic diseases...

Background The prevalence and clinical profile of asthma with airflow obstruction (AO) remain uncertain. We aimed to phenotype AO in population- and clinic-based cohorts. Methods This cross-sectional multicohort study included adults ≥50 years from nine CADSET cohorts with spirometry data (N=69 789). AO was defined as ever diagnosed asthma with pr...

Sarcopenia is characterized by two major phenotypic components: low handgrip strength (HGS) and low appendicular lean mass index (ASMI). Oral corticosteroid (OCS) use is an important medication for acute respiratory exacerbations in patients with COPD and asthma. However, the association of OCS and sarcopenia components in older people are largely...

Background: Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been implemented to monitor surges of COVID-19. Yet, multiple factors impede the usefulness of WBE and quantitative adjustment may be required. Aim: We aimed to model the relationship between WBE data and incident COVID-19 cases, while adjusting for confounders and autocorrelation. Methods: T...

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Differential miRNA expression, which is widely shown to be associated with the pathogenesis of various diseases, can be influenced by lifestyle factors, including smoking. This study aimed to investigate the plasma miRNA signature of smoking habits, the potential...

Frailty is a complex, multidimensional syndrome characterised by a loss of physiological reserves that increases a person's susceptibility to adverse health outcomes. Most knowledge regarding frailty originates from geriatric medicine, however, awareness of its importance as a treatable trait for people with chronic respiratory disease (including a...

Altered DNA methylation (DNAm) might be a biological intermediary in the pathway from smoking to cancer. In this study, we investigated the contribution of differential blood DNAm to explain the association between smoking and lung cancer incidence. Blood DNAm was measured in 2321 Strong Heart Study (SHS) participants. Incident lung cancer was asse...

Background The Quintuple aim explicitly includes ‘health and wellbeing of the care team’ as requirement for the care of patients. Therefore, we examined working conditions, work engagement and health status of professionals active in primary care in Belgium (Flanders), and how these are interrelated. Methods Data of the cross-sectional ‘Health pro...

Background: Polypharmacy may affect outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) or vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) due to interactions or reduced adherence, but comparative data are lacking. Therefore, the impact of polypharmacy on AF-related outcomes and benefit-risk profiles of NOACs...

People with respiratory disease have increased risk of developing frailty, which is associated with worse health outcomes. There is growing evidence of the role of rehabilitation in managing frailty in people with respiratory disease. However, several challenges remain regarding optimal methods of identifying frailty and delivering rehabilitation f...

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Research Foundation Flanders (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, FWO). Background Although non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are recommended over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in atrial fibrillation (AF) management, di...

Background: Data on non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) use in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and a history of falls are limited. Therefore, we investigated the impact of a history of falls on AF-related outcomes, and the benefit-risk profiles of NOACs in patients with a history of falls. Methods: Using Belgian nationwide...

Abstract Background The use of antibiotics in mild to severe acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains controversial. Aim To explore in-hospital antibiotic use in severe acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD), to analyze determinants of in-hospital antibiotic use, and to investigate its association with hospital leng...

Asthma exacerbations reflect disease severity, affect morbidity and mortality, and may lead to declining lung function. Inflammatory endotypes (e.g.:T2 high (eosinophilic)) may play a key role in asthma exacerbations. We aimed to assess whether genetic susceptibility underlies asthma exacerbation risk and additionally tested for an interaction betw...

Aims: Data on non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) use in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and frailty are scarce. Therefore, the impact of frailty on AF-related outcomes and benefit-risk profiles of NOACs in patients with frailty were investigated. Methods and results: AF patients initiating anticoagulation between 2013-20...

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with cognitive decline, with anticoagulated subjects potentially having a reduced risk compared with non-anticoagulated subjects. However, whether non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) may reduce the risk of dementia compared with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) is unclear yet. Therefore...

Only a few therapies have been shown to prolong survival in specific patients with COPD. In recent years, the IMPACT and the ETHOS trials suggested that triple therapy (a combination of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) and long-acting β 2 -agonist (LABA) given in a single inhaler) may reduce mortality compared...

Lung-function impairment underlies chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicts mortality. In the largest multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of lung function to date, comprising 580,869 participants, we identified 1,020 independent association signals implicating 559 genes supported by ≥2 criteria from a systematic va...

Background: Although non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are recommended over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in atrial fibrillation (AF) management, direct long-term head-to-head comparisons are lacking. Therefore, their risk-benefit profiles were investigated compared to VKAs and between NOACs. Methods: AF patients initiating antico...

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) includes the analysis of human metabolic biomarkers of xenobiotics in influent wastewater. WBE complements existing drug utilization approaches and provides objective, spatio-temporal information on the consumption of pharmaceuticals in the general population. This approach was applied to 24-h composite influent...

Background To address the many challenges health systems and communities face, primary care is constantly searching for new strategies to improve quality of care. One of the strategies is to focus on patients’ personal goals to direct the care process. To adopt an explicit focus on patients’ personal goals, actions at different levels are required....

Aim Non‐vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are increasingly preferred over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in atrial fibrillation (AF) management. However, differences in oral anticoagulant (OAC) prescribing according to patient's age, sex and physician's specialty may be present. Therefore, incident and prevalent use of OACs, NOACs and...

Objective To understand the concept of goal-oriented care (GOC) through the experiences of people with chronic conditions. Method Interviews with people living with chronic conditions (n = 50) were analyzed in two ways. A deductive approach based on GOC attributes generated in a concept analysis on GOC: goal-elicitation, goal-setting, goal-evaluat...

Background: The ageing population and its burden on health-care systems warrant early detection of patients at risk of functional decline and mortality. We aimed to assess frailty transitions and its accuracy for mortality prediction in subjects with impaired spirometry (Preserved Ratio Impaired Spirometry [PRISm] or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary...

Background Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are increasingly preferred over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in atrial fibrillation (AF) management. However, differences in oral anticoagulant (OAC) prescribing according to patient's age, patient's sex and physician's specialty may be present. Purpose To investigate the incident and...

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a complementary approach to monitor alcohol consumption in the general population. This method measures concentrations of xenobiotic biomarkers (e.g., ethyl sulphate) in influent wastewater (IWW) and converts these to population-normalized mass loads (PNML, in g/day/1000 inhabitants) by multiplying with the fl...

Background: Since non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) do not require coagulation monitoring, concerns of lower adherence and persistence to NOACs than vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) have been raised. Moreover, little is known on the frequency of permanent cessation and switching between anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrilla...

Background Personalized medicine is an emerging field, aiming to improve the safety and efficacy of pharmacotherapy. The field’s implementation in clinical care is steadily increasing. Pharmacogenomics are one example of personalized approaches in the clinic and direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmacogenomic tests have become publicly available. We aimed...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous disease with variable mortality risk. The aim of our investigation was to validate a simple clinical algorithm for long-term mortality previously proposed by Burgel et al. in 2017. Subjects with COPD from two cohorts, the Swedish PRAXIS study (n = 784, mean age (standard deviation (SD)...

Wastewater-based surveillance was conducted by the national public health authority to monitor SARS-CoV-2 circulation in the Belgian population. Over 5 million inhabitants representing 45% of the Belgian population were monitored throughout 42 wastewater treatment plants for 15 months comprising three major virus waves. During the entire period, a...

Atrial fibrillation and non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants: from clinical trials to real-world clinical practice. For decades, vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) were the only oral anticoagulants available for the prevention of thromboembolism in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Since 2012, non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (N...

Keywords: primary care, caregiver, interprofessional collaboration, integrated care Purpose and theory: Interprofessional collaboration is considered a necessary strategy to overcome issues when treating persons with chronic diseases. In this study, we aimed to measure how Flemish primary caregivers collaborate in an interprofessional way. Methods:...

Purpose and theory: Biopsychosocial working helps caregivers to combine biological and psychosocial components of illnesses, and improves the relationship between caregivers and their patients. In this research, we aimed to evaluate if and to what extent Flemish primary care (PC) professionals work in a bio-psychosocial way. Methods: A cross-sectio...

Purpose: Oral anticoagulants are crucial for preventing systemic thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation (AF), with guidelines preferring non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) over vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in the general AF population. However, as NOACs are administered in fixed doses, concerns of unintentional underdosing in morb...

Objective To investigate the association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Preserved Ratio Impaired Spirometry (PRISm) with cognitive performance and presence of vascular brain lesions (VBL). Methods We determined both cross-sectional and longitudinal association of lung function impairment with cognition, as well as cross-sectio...

Background Persistent airflow limitation (PAL) occurs in a subset of patients with asthma. Previous studies on PAL in asthma have included relatively small populations, mostly restricted to severe asthma, or have no included longitudinal data. The aim of this post-hoc analysis was to investigate the determinants, clinical implications, and outcome...

Introduction Immunoglobulins (Igs) play a pivotal role in host defense and prevention of pneumonia. Aging influences serum Ig levels, but the association between Igs and pneumonia in community-dwelling older individuals remains unknown. We evaluated the association of serum IgA, IgG, and IgM with pneumonia and lung function in middle-aged and older...

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) Background P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and CYP3A4-interacting drugs influence plasma levels of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs). However, the clinical relevance is questioned. Purpose A...

In twee recent gepubliceerde meta-analyses en een retrospectieve cohorte studie werd het risico-baten profiel van de individuele directe orale anticoagulantia (DOAC’s) onderling vergeleken bij patiënten met voorkamerfibrillatie. Ondanks een gelijkaardige effectiviteit demonstreerden deze studies dat het bloedingsrisico van de individuele DOAC’s mog...