Critical data at the crossroads: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey faces growing challenges.

NHANES needs urgent attention to ensure its future, which is facing emerging challenges associated with data collection, stagnant funding that has undercut innovation, and the increased call for granular data for subpopulations and groups at risk. The concerns do not rest merely on securing more funding but focus on the need for a constructive review of the survey to explore new approaches and identify appropriate change. This white paper, developed under the auspices of the ASN's Committee on Advocacy and Science Policy (CASP), is a call to the nutrition community to advocate for and support activities to prepare NHANES for future success in a changing nutrition world.

A National Framework to Improve Mortality, Morbidity, and Disparities Data for COVID-19 and Other Large-Scale Disasters.

Timely and accurate data on COVID-19 cases and COVID-19‒related deaths are essential for making decisions with significant health, economic, and policy implications. A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine proposes a uniform national framework for data collection to more accurately quantify disaster-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses. This article describes how following the report's recommendations could help improve the quality and timeliness of public health surveillance data during pandemics, with special attention to addressing gaps in the data necessary to understand pandemic-related health disparities.

Roles of exercise and pharmacokinetics in cerivastatin-induced skeletal muscle toxicity.

Three-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors are associated with adverse skeletal muscle effects, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To determine whether toxicity involves the level of drug exposure in muscle tissue and to test the effect of exercise on cerivastatin (CVA)-induced skeletal muscle damage, female rats were administered vehicle or CVA at 0.1, 0.

Reengineering vital registration and statistics systems for the United States.

For more than a hundred years, the United States has operated a decentralized vital statistics system as an essential component of public health. Statistics based on births and deaths registered in the United States are a primary source of data used to track health status, to plan, implement, and evaluate health and social services, and to set health policy. The national vital statistics system provides nearly complete, continuous, and comparable federal, state, and local data.

Chronic toxicity in monkeys with the thiazolidinedione antidiabetic agent troglitazone.

The antidiabetic agent troglitazone was given to groups of 4 cynomolgus monkeys per sex at 300, 600, or 1200 mg/kg daily by gavage for 52 weeks. A group of 4 monkeys per sex received vehicle alone and served as controls. Emesis and soft stool or diarrhea occurred sporadically in all troglitazone-treated groups, but did not compromise animal health.