Integrating an Ethics Advisory Committee Into Public Health Response: A Case Study of COVID-19, Infection Prevention and Control, and Essential Work in the United States.

A lack of infection prevention and control protections for essential industries in the United States led to increased risk and incidence of COVID-19 among essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the nation deems an industry essential during a disease outbreak, an ethical obligation exists to safeguard the health of workers who are at increased risk of being exposed to disease. The Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center began work to rapidly develop and disseminate infection prevention and control guidance for essential industries, such as meat processing.

The Impact of Immigration Policy Changes on Preterm Birth Rates in Texas: An Examination of Border and Nonborder Regions.

Background: Our study examined the acute and sustained impact of immigration policy changes announced in January 2017 on preterm birth (PTB) rates among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women in Texas's border and nonborder regions.

Methods: Using Texas birth certificate data for years 2008 through 2020, we used a multiple group interrupted time series approach to explore changes in PTB rates.

Results: In the nonborder region, the PTB rate among Hispanic women of any race was 8.

Data Sharing in a Decentralized Public Health System: Lessons From COVID-19 Syndromic Surveillance.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that data sharing challenges persist across public health information systems. We examine the specific challenges in sharing syndromic surveillance data between state, local, and federal partners. These challenges are complicated by US federalism, which decentralizes public health response and creates friction between different government units.

Case study on communicating with research ethics committees about minimizing risk through software: an application for record linkage in secondary data analysis.

Objective: In retrospective secondary data analysis studies, researchers often seek waiver of consent from institutional Review Boards (IRB) and minimize risk by utilizing complex software. Yet, little is known about the perspectives of IRB experts on these approaches. To facilitate effective communication about risk mitigation strategies using software, we conducted two studies with IRB experts to co-create appropriate language when describing a software to IRBs.

Maternal exposure to SSRIs or SNRIs and the risk of congenital abnormalities in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The association of maternal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) with the risk of system-specific congenital malformations in offspring remains unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine this association and the risk difference between these two types of inhibitors.

Methods: A literature search was performed from January 2000 to May 2023 using PubMed and Web of Science databases.

Travel for medical or dental care by race/ethnicity and rurality in the U.S.: Findings from the 2001, 2009 and 2017 National Household Travel Surveys.

The travel burden for medical or dental care is a well-documented barrier to healthcare access, particularly in rural areas. There is limited research providing national estimates of the travel trends for medical/dental care, particularly among racial/ethnic groups, and among rural and urban populations. We analyzed data from the 2001, 2009, and 2017 National Household Travel Surveys.

Factors associated with hospitalizations for co-occurring HIV and opioid-related diagnoses: Evidence from the national inpatient sample, 2009-2017.

There has been evidence of rising HIV incidence attributable to opioid misuse within some areas of the U.S. The purpose of our study was to explore national trends in co-occurring HIV and opioid-related hospitalizations and to identify their risk factors.

Rural healthy people 2030: New decade, new challenges.

Rural Healthy People is a companion piece to the federal Healthy People initiative released once a decade to identify the most important Healthy People priorities for rural America, as identified by rural stakeholders, for the current decade. This study reports on the findings of Rural Healthy People 2030. The study relied on a survey of rural health stakeholders collected from July 12, 2021, to February 14, 2022, and: 1) identified the 20 Healthy People priorities most frequently selected as priorities for rural America, 2) studied the priorities that were most frequently selected as a "top 3" priority within each Healthy People 2030 category, and 3) investigated Healthy People 2030 priorities in terms of ranked importance for rural Americans.

Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic.

Communicating public health guidance is key to mitigating risk during disasters and outbreaks, and ethical guidance on communication emphasizes being fully transparent. Yet, communication during the pandemic has sometimes been fraught, due in part to practical and conceptual challenges around being transparent. A particular challenge has arisen when there was both evolving scientific knowledge on COVID-19 and reticence to acknowledge that resource scarcity concerns were influencing public health recommendations.

Dental hygienists' scope of practice regulations and preventable non-traumatic dental emergency department visits: A cross-sectional study of 10 U.S. states.

Objectives: As emergency department (ED) visits for non-traumatic dental complaints continue to rise in the United States (U.S.), some states are implementing initiatives to expand access to the oral health workforce.

Racial, Rural, and Regional Disparities in Diabetes-Related Lower-Extremity Amputation Rates, 2009-2017.

Objective: To examine the racial/ethnic, rural-urban, and regional variations in the trends of diabetes-related lower-extremity amputations (LEAs) among hospitalized U.S. adults from 2009 to 2017.

Identifying and prioritizing benefits and risks of using privacy-enhancing software through participatory design: a nominal group technique study with patients living with chronic conditions.

Objective: While patients often contribute data for research, they want researchers to protect their data. As part of a participatory design of privacy-enhancing software, this study explored patients' perceptions of privacy protection in research using their healthcare data.

Materials And Methods: We conducted 4 focus groups with 27 patients on privacy-enhancing software using the nominal group technique.

Rural and Urban Differences in COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors.

Purpose: To examine whether the adoption of COVID-19-related preventive health behaviors vary in rural versus urban communities of the United States while accounting for the influence of political ideology, demographic factors, and COVID-19 experiences.

Methods: We rely on a representative survey of 5009 American adults collected from May 28 to June 8, 2020. We analyze the influence of rural status, political ideology, demographic factors, and COVID-19 experiences on self-reported adoption of 8 COVID-19-related preventive health behaviors.

Communicating With Patients About Software for Enhancing Privacy in Secondary Database Research Involving Record Linkage: Delphi Study.

Background: There is substantial prior research on the perspectives of patients on the use of health information for research. Numerous communication barriers challenge transparency between researchers and data participants in secondary database research (eg, waiver of informed consent and knowledge gaps). Individual concerns and misconceptions challenge the trust in researchers among patients despite efforts to protect data.

Emergency department visits for nontraumatic dental conditions: a systematic literature review.

Objective: To summarize the literature on factors associated with emergency department (ED) use for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs).

Methods: Following a database search, empirical studies were included if they examined factors associated with ED visits for NTDCs. The factors identified in these studies were further categorized using the Andersen Behavioral Model.

High impact nutrition and dietetics journals' use of publication procedures to increase research transparency.

Background: The rigor and integrity of the published research in nutrition studies has come into serious question in recent years. Concerns focus on the use of flexible data analysis practices and selective reporting and the failure of peer review journals to identify and correct these practices. In response, it has been proposed that journals employ editorial procedures designed to improve the transparency of published research.

Factors affecting the likelihood of a hospitalization following a diabetes-related emergency department visit: A regional and urban-rural analysis.

Background: The objective of this study is to examine place-based and individual-level predictors of diabetes-related hospitalizations that stem from emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods: We conducted a pooled cross-sectional analysis of the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) for 2009 to 2014 to identify ED-initiated hospitalizations that were driven by the need for diabetes care. The odds of an ED-initiated diabetes-related hospitalization were assessed for the United States as a whole and separately for each census region.

Congestive heart failure-related hospital deaths across the urban-rural continuum in the United States.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a growing public health problem that affects nearly 6.5 million individuals nationwide. Access to quality outpatient care and disease management programs has been shown to improve disease treatment and prognosis.

Healthy People 2020: Rural Areas Lag In Achieving Targets For Major Causes Of Death.

For the period 2007-17 rural death rates were higher than urban rates for the seven major causes of death analyzed, and disparities widened for five of the seven. In 2017 urban areas had met national targets for three of the seven causes, while rural areas had met none of the targets.

Diabetes-related hospital mortality in the U.S.: A pooled cross-sectional study of the National Inpatient Sample.

Aims: Despite advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes in the U.S., place-based disparities still exist.

Texting-While-Driving Bans and Motor Vehicle Crash-Related Emergency Department Visits in 16 US States: 2007-2014.

Objectives: To examine the impact of state texting bans on motor vehicle crash (MVC)-related emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods: We used ED data from 16 US states between 2007 and 2014. We employed a difference-in-difference approach and conditional Poisson regressions to estimate changes in counts of MVC-related ED visits in states with and without texting bans.

The Changing Landscape of Diabetes Mortality in the United States Across Region and Rurality, 1999-2016.

Purpose: This brief report examines place-based differences in diabetes mortality in order to understand whether disparities in diabetes mortality have changed across United States Census regions and levels of rurality over time.

Methods: We use data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 1999 to 2016 to analyze changes in diabetes mortality over time and across geographical regions of the United States.

Findings: We find evidence that diabetes mortality has declined in the United States over the past 2 decades, but that improvements in mortality vary considerably by place.