Host infection and disease-induced mortality modify species contributions to the environmental reservoir.

Environmental pathogen reservoirs exist for many globally important diseases and can fuel epidemics, influence pathogen evolution, and increase the threat of host extinction. Species composition can be an important factor that shapes reservoir dynamics and ultimately determines the outcome of a disease outbreak. However, disease-induced mortality can change species communities, indicating that species responsible for environmental reservoir maintenance may change over time.

Sex-biased infections scale to population impacts for an emerging wildlife disease.

Demographic factors are fundamental in shaping infectious disease dynamics. Aspects of populations that create structure, like age and sex, can affect patterns of transmission, infection intensity and population outcomes. However, studies rarely link these processes from individual to population-scale effects.

Shifting effects of host physiological condition following pathogen establishment.

Understanding host persistence with emerging pathogens is essential for conserving populations. Hosts may initially survive pathogen invasions through pre-adaptive mechanisms. However, whether pre-adaptive traits are directionally selected to increase in frequency depends on the heritability and environmental dependence of the trait and the costs of trait maintenance.

Mobility and infectiousness in the spatial spread of an emerging fungal pathogen.

Emerging infectious diseases can have devastating effects on host communities, causing population collapse and species extinctions. The timing of novel pathogen arrival into naïve species communities can have consequential effects that shape the trajectory of epidemics through populations. Pathogen introductions are often presumed to occur when hosts are highly mobile.

Publisher Correction: Cryptic connections illuminate pathogen transmission within community networks.

In Fig. 3d this Letter, the R value should have been '0.19' instead of '0.

Cryptic connections illuminate pathogen transmission within community networks.

Understanding host interactions that lead to pathogen transmission is fundamental to the prediction and control of epidemics. Although the majority of transmissions often occurs within social groups, the contribution of connections that bridge groups and species to pathogen dynamics is poorly understood. These cryptic connections-which are often indirect or infrequent-provide transmission routes between otherwise disconnected individuals and may have a key role in large-scale outbreaks that span multiple populations or species.

Pairing field methods to improve inference in wildlife surveys while accommodating detection covariance.

It is common to use multiple field sampling methods when implementing wildlife surveys to compare method efficacy or cost efficiency, integrate distinct pieces of information provided by separate methods, or evaluate method-specific biases and misclassification error. Existing models that combine information from multiple field methods or sampling devices permit rigorous comparison of method-specific detection parameters, enable estimation of additional parameters such as false-positive detection probability, and improve occurrence or abundance estimates, but with the assumption that the separate sampling methods produce detections independently of one another. This assumption is tenuous if methods are paired or deployed in close proximity simultaneously, a common practice that reduces the additional effort required to implement multiple methods and reduces the risk that differences between method-specific detection parameters are confounded by other environmental factors.

Long-Term Impact of a Community Health Worker Intervention on Diabetes Control in American Samoa.

Introduction: Diabetes Care in American Samoa (DCAS) was a randomized controlled trial of a 12-month intervention facilitated by community health workers (CHWs) that demonstrated improved HbA1c levels compared with usual care at trial completion. We sought to evaluate the long-term impact of this intervention on diabetes control.

Methods: We retrospectively collected HbA1c measurements from medical records of DCAS participants (n = 268).

A comparison of two methods for assessing awareness of antitobacco television advertisements.

Background: This study uses an online survey panel to compare two approaches for assessing ad awareness. The first uses a screenshot of a television ad and the second shows participants a full-length video of the ad.

Methods: We randomly assigned 1034 Minnesota respondents to view a screenshot or a streaming video from two antitobacco ads.

Encoded exposure to tobacco use in social media predicts subsequent smoking behavior.

Purpose: Assessing the potential link between smoking behavior and exposure to mass media depictions of smoking on social networking Web sites.

Design: A representative longitudinal panel of 200 young adults in Connecticut.

Setting: Telephone surveys were conducted by using computer assisted telephone interviewing technology and electronic dialing for random digit dialing and listed samples.

Impact of a diabetes control and management intervention on health care utilization in American Samoa.

Objectives: To examine the impact of a successful 12-month behavioral intervention to improve diabetes control on health care utilization in American Samoa.

Methods: A cluster-randomized design was used to assign 268 diabetes patients to a nurse-community health worker intervention or usual care. Hospitalizations, emergency department, and primary care physician visits were collected retrospectively for 1 year prior to, and during, the intervention to assess changes in health care utilization.

Medication-taking beliefs and diabetes in American Samoa: a qualitative inquiry.

In American Samoa (AS), nearly 22% of adults have type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is best managed by diet and lifestyle modifications and strict medication adherence. Cultural aspects might affect medication-taking beliefs, and thereby influence medication adherence.

Patient and health care provider views of depressive symptoms and diabetes in American Samoa.

High Type 2 diabetes prevalence, associated with recent cultural changes in diet and physical activity, characterizes the U.S. territory of American Samoa.

Cultural translation of interventions: diabetes care in American Samoa.

Translation of research advances into clinical practice for at-risk communities is important to eliminate disease disparities. Adult type 2 diabetes prevalence in the US territory of American Samoa is 21.5%, but little intervention research has been carried out there.

Physician-based physical activity counseling for middle-aged and older adults: a randomized trial.

Sedentary behavior among older adults increases risk for chronic diseases. Physicians in a primary care setting can play an important role in promoting physical activity adoption among their older patients. The Physically Active for Life (PAL) project was a randomized, controlled trial comparing the efficacy of brief physician-delivered physical activity counseling to usual care on self-reported physical activity levels.

Lifetime characteristics of participants and non-participants in a smoking cessation trial: implications for external validity and public health impact.

Background: Detailed information about the characteristics of smokers who do and do not participate in smoking cessation treatment is needed to improve efforts to reach, motivate, and treat smokers.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore a broad range of characteristics related to participation in a smoking cessation trial.

Methods: Eligible smokers were recruited from a longitudinal birth cohort.

Cancer prevention in primary care: predictors of patient counseling across four risk behaviors over 24 months.

Objective: Rates of preventive counseling remain below national guidelines. We explored physician and patient predictors of preventive counseling across multiple cancer risk behaviors in at-risk primary care patients.

Methods: We surveyed 3557 patients, with at least one of four cancer risk behaviors: smoking, diet, sun exposure, and/or mammography screening, at baseline and 24 months.

Determining the cost-effectiveness of a computer-based smoking cessation intervention in primary care.

Purpose: To evaluate the incremental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a staged-based, computerized smoking cessation intervention relative to standard care in an urban managed care network of primary care physicians.

Design: Decision-analytic model based on results of a randomized clinical trial.

Methodology: Patient outcomes and cost estimates were derived from clinical trial data.

Providence school asthma partnership: school-based asthma program for inner-city families.

Over 3 years, 972 families participated in an after-school asthma program at their child's school. Parents and children attended concurrent 2(1/2)-hour workshops. Parents were 74% Latino; 45% non-English speaking, with 77% of children on Medicaid.

Randomized controlled trial of a computer-based, tailored intervention to increase smoking cessation counseling by primary care physicians.

Objective: The primary care visit represents an important venue for intervening with a large population of smokers. However, physician adherence to the Smoking Cessation Clinical Guideline (5As) remains low. We evaluated the effectiveness of a computer-tailored intervention designed to increase smoking cessation counseling by primary care physicians.

Assessment of parents' smoking behaviors at a pediatric emergency department.

The pediatric emergency department is an important source of treatment for children with complaints related to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and may provide a teachable moment to address parent smoking. Parents who smoke were recruited from a pediatric emergency department waiting room and completed an interview assessment used to develop intervention messages. Of the 715 parents in the final sample, 77% were women, 60% White, and 60% low income ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF