Healthy by Design: Using a Gender Focus to Influence Complete Streets Policy.

Background: Public health leaders in Yellowstone County, Montana, formed an alliance to address community-wide issues. One such issue is Complete Streets, with its vision of safe streets for all. This case study focuses on development and adoption of a Complete Streets policy.

The effectiveness of screening with interferon-gamma release assays in a university health care setting with a diverse global population.

Objective: This analysis examined the effectiveness of utilizing interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) technology in a TB (TB) screening program at a university.

Participants: Participants were 2299 students at a Montana university who had presented to the university health center for TB screening during 2012 and 2013.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted utilizing data from student health center medical records.

Using gender-based analyses to understand physical inactivity among women in Yellowstone County, Montana.

Physical inactivity contributes to many health problems. Gender, the socially constructed roles and activities deemed appropriate for men and women, is an important factor in women's physical inactivity. To better understand how gender influences participation in leisure-time physical activity, a gender analysis was conducted using sex-disaggregated data from a county-wide health assessment phone survey and a qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts.

Telemonitoring improves home health utilization outcomes in rural settings.

We have examined the hypothesis that home telemonitoring, when added to conventional home care in rural settings, results in less acute care hospitalization and more discharge to the community. Five US rural home health agencies of different types participated in the study. All agencies were not-for-profit and served low-income patients in designated health professional shortage areas or medically underserved areas/populations.

Cost factors in implementing telemonitoring programs in rural home health agencies.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine costs and implementation factors associated with development of telemonitoring programs in eight rural home health agencies. although the telemonitoring group (n = 1,513) averaged fewer visits per episode than the control group (n = 1,573), cost analysis data, including labor, travel, and equipment costs, failed to support the hypothesis that decreased utilization of skilled nursing visits alone could offset the costs of the telemonitoring technology. this study indicates that agencies must achieve savings through improved outcome performance to offset telemonitoring expenses.