Association of Healthcare Access With Intensive Care Unit Utilization and Mortality in Patients of Hispanic Ethnicity Hospitalized With COVID-19.

Background: Racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States experience a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 deaths.

Objective: To evaluate whether outcome differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic COVID-19 hospitalized patients exist and, if so, to identify the main malleable contributing factors.

Design, Setting, Participants: Retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study of 6097 adult COVID-19 patients hospitalized within a single large healthcare system from March to November 2020.

Lessons learned while implementing a legislated school policy: body mass index assessments among Arkansas's public school students.

Background: To comprehensively address the childhood and adolescent obesity epidemic, Arkansas enacted Act 1220 of 2003. Among a series of community- and school-based interventions, the Act requires each public school student to have his/her body mass index (BMI) assessed and reported annually to parents. The process of implementing this policy on a statewide level and lessons learned are described in this article.