Examining Participation Disparities in Cancer Clinical Trials.

Objectives: To examine factors that account for disparities in cancer clinical trial participation.

Sample & Setting: Pooled data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys between 2010 and 2017.

Methods & Variables: Univariate and binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations between participation in clinical trials and demographic and health characteristics, using SAS® procedures to account for complex sample features.

Uptake of HIV testing among aging adults in Agincourt, South Africa: perception of community, social network, and individual characteristics.

This cross-sectional study examined the impact of perception of community, social network and individual variables on the likelihood of voluntary HIV testing of people 40 years and older living in Agincourt, South Africa. The data came from We applied three logistic regression models. Results showed that voluntary uptake of HIV testing was significantly associated with two network factors, namely friendships within the network and frequency of fighting in the network.

Trusting Sources of Information on Quality of Physician Care.

Reporting healthcare quality has become an important factor in healthcare delivery. Prior research has shown that patient-consumers do not frequently use information on websites reporting physician quality to guide their choice of physicians. Our aim is to understand the contextual and personal characteristics that influence patient-consumers' decisions to trust or ignore information sources about healthcare quality.

Correlates of Single Versus Multiple Functional Disabilities Among Aging Americans: Race/Ethnicity and Region of Birth.

Background: Significant racial/ethnic disparities exist in the prevalence of functional disability among older Americans.

Objective: The study analyzed the odds of older people in the United States experiencing single and multiple disabilities, by race and region of birth.

Method: Data came from the American Community Survey (2011-2015).

Determinants of support for government involvement in obesity control among American adults.

Obesity takes a substantial toll on society as a whole. Obesity and its health-related complications contribute significantly to healthcare costs and negatively affects almost every aspect of human life. It is therefore reasonable for the government to be involved in finding solutions to control the epidemic.

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks in 188 countries, 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: The Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor study 2013 (GBD 2013) is the first of a series of annual updates of the GBD. Risk factor quantification, particularly of modifiable risk factors, can help to identify emerging threats to population health and opportunities for prevention. The GBD 2013 provides a timely opportunity to update the comparative risk assessment with new data for exposure, relative risks, and evidence on the appropriate counterfactual risk distribution.

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990-2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition.

Background: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) aims to bring together all available epidemiological data using a coherent measurement framework, standardised estimation methods, and transparent data sources to enable comparisons of health loss over time and across causes, age-sex groups, and countries. The GBD can be used to generate summary measures such as disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) and healthy life expectancy (HALE) that make possible comparative assessments of broad epidemiological patterns across countries and time. These summary measures can also be used to quantify the component of variation in epidemiology that is related to sociodemographic development.

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between 1990 and 2013, and an opportunity to assess whether accelerated progress has occured since the Millennium Declaration.

Methods: To estimate incidence and mortality for HIV, we used the UNAIDS Spectrum model appropriately modified based on a systematic review of available studies of mortality with and without antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Self-reported health and personal social networks of older people living with HIV/AIDS in Lomé, Togo.

Personal social networks and their association with the health of older people have been explored, but there are few studies that examined the relationship between the general health of older people living with HIV/AIDS (OPLWHA) and their personal social networks. This exploratory study investigates the characteristics of personal networks among OPLWHA and the relationship between the self-rated health and personal social networks of OPLWHA in Lomé, Togo. Forty-nine OPLWHA were interviewed via an egocentric survey.

Global, regional, and national levels and causes of maternal mortality during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: The fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) established the goal of a 75% reduction in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR; number of maternal deaths per 100,000 livebirths) between 1990 and 2015. We aimed to measure levels and track trends in maternal mortality, the key causes contributing to maternal death, and timing of maternal death with respect to delivery.

Methods: We used robust statistical methods including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) to analyse a database of data for 7065 site-years and estimate the number of maternal deaths from all causes in 188 countries between 1990 and 2013.

Global, regional, and national levels of neonatal, infant, and under-5 mortality during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: Remarkable financial and political efforts have been focused on the reduction of child mortality during the past few decades. Timely measurements of levels and trends in under-5 mortality are important to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target of reduction of child mortality by two thirds from 1990 to 2015, and to identify models of success.

Methods: We generated updated estimates of child mortality in early neonatal (age 0-6 days), late neonatal (7-28 days), postneonatal (29-364 days), childhood (1-4 years), and under-5 (0-4 years) age groups for 188 countries from 1970 to 2013, with more than 29,000 survey, census, vital registration, and sample registration datapoints.

Disclosure of Children's Positive Serostatus to Family and Nonfamily Members: Informal Caregivers in Togo, West Africa.

This study examined the structural constraints to disclosure of children's positive serostatus among informal caregivers to family and nonfamily members in Togo. It drew on two data sources, one qualitative and the other quantitative. Qualitative data showed that caregivers cautiously disclosed child's positive serostatus for fear of being stigmatized and discriminated against as well as to protect the children from being stigmatized.

Sexual responses to living with HIV/AIDS in Lomé, Togo.

A qualitative study of sexual behaviour among 88 people living with HIV was conducted in Lomé, Togo. Data were collected by means of open-ended interviews. Three separate sexual-behaviour patterns were identified: people who reported not having sex at all; people who reported using condoms consistently; and people who reported not using condoms at all or using them inconsistently.

Older poor parents who lost an adult child to AIDS in Togo, West Africa: a qualitative study.

This study analyzes the difficulties that poor parents faced when they lost an adult child to AIDS in Togo. The death of a child is believed to be more distressful to parents compared to the death of a spouse. Evidence also suggests that parental grief is more lasting and may be the most complicated form of grief.

Sexual risk behavior among people living with HIV/AIDS in Togo.

Since HIV in Africa is spread primarily through unprotected sex, safe sex practices such as condom use can reduce HIV spread significantly. Nevertheless, because sexual behavior involves complex dynamics, condom use is not an easy option for many people in Africa despite years of condom distribution intervention. In fact, the complex nature of sexuality complicates efforts to combat HIV spread and limits the effectiveness of many prevention efforts.