Integrative oral medicine: Dentistry's role in improving health outcomes.

Objective: This article describes the importance of identifying inflammation-inducing conditions in the dental office that are prevalent in the population and have significant systemic health risks for the patient. The role of the dental biofilm will be presented, as will the clinical protocols for treating an unhealthy biofilm. Methods for testing and maintaining a healthy biofilm are also presented.

Cross-sectional analysis of avoidable emergency department visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: COVID-19 had a significant impact on Emergency Departments (ED) with early data suggesting an initial decline in avoidable ED visits. However, the sustained impact over time is unclear. In this study, we analyzed ED discharges over a two-year time period after the COVID-19 pandemic began and compared it with a control time period pre-pandemic to evaluate the difference in ED visit categories, including total, avoidable, and unavoidable visits.

Child safety decisions and parental mental health problems: A new analysis of mediating factors.

Background: Our previous study showed that parents with mental health problems or substance abuse are at increased risk of having children removed from the home, primarily due to caregiving deficits, neglect, and prenatal exposure to substances, not physical abuse.

Objective: Using a larger sample and more rigorous analysis, the present study improves and expand upon the previous study, yielding more robust explanations for why these children are at increased risk of removal.

Participants And Setting: The study uses a sample of 4070 Structured Decision Making® assessments conducted by San Francisco's Child Welfare provider involving parents reported for the first time from 2007 to 2015.

Safely Increasing Connection to Community-Based Services: A Study of Multidisciplinary Team Decision Making for Child Welfare Referrals.

Initial child welfare screening decisions, traditionally made by an individual worker, determine if a family will receive further intervention by child protective services. A multi-disciplinary team (MDT) decision-making approach for child welfare referrals aims to provide a more thorough assessment of needs and strengths and to connect families to appropriate community-based providers. This study examined 159 child welfare referrals handled by MDTs compared to 331 referrals handled via the traditional screening approach.

The Association of Knowledge, Attitudes and Access with Park Use before and after a Park-Prescription Intervention for Low-Income Families in the U.S.

We conducted secondary data analyses of pooled data from a clinical trial that prescribed park visits to children and their caregivers in a low-income, urban setting. Data were collected at the prescribing visit (baseline) and at one and three months of follow up from 78 families. Family characteristics were identified at baseline; regression models were used to explore changes during follow up in associations of park use with knowledge, attitudes and perceived access to parks.

Clinic and park partnerships for childhood resilience: A prospective study of park prescriptions.

Introduction: Pediatricians need community resources for childhood stress. We examined the association of weekly park visits and resilience amongst children receiving a park prescription at a clinic for low-income families.

Materials And Methods: A prospective longitudinal clinical trial was conducted amongst children ages 7-17 at a safety-net primary care clinic with measures at zero, one and three months out.

Effect of park prescriptions with and without group visits to parks on stress reduction in low-income parents: SHINE randomized trial.

Introduction: Exposure to nature may reduce stress in low-income parents. This prospective randomized trial compares the effect of a physician's counseling about nature with or without facilitated group outings on stress and other outcomes among low-income parents.

Materials And Methods: Parents of patients aged 4-18 years at a clinic serving low-income families were randomized to a supported park prescription versus independent park prescription in a 2:1 ratio.

Design and evaluation of a park prescription program for stress reduction and health promotion in low-income families: The Stay Healthy in Nature Everyday (SHINE) study protocol.

Background: Contact with nature improves human health; stress reduction is a mediating pathway. Stay Healthy in Nature Everyday (SHINE) is a stress reduction and health promotion intervention for low-income families at an urban Federally Qualified Health Center. We plan to evaluate two service-delivery models for SHINE and present here the intervention design and evaluation protocol.

Predictors of maternal child-feeding practices in an ethnically diverse sample and the relationship to child obesity.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between maternal child-feeding practices and child adiposity in an ethnically diverse sample by examining three categories of relationships: 1) mothers' weight status; 2) mothers' investment in eating-related issues; and 3) mothers' concerns about child's weight. It was predicted that these variables would be related to mothers' use of restriction, monitoring, and pressure in child feeding, influencing child adiposity.

Design And Methods: A total of 563 mothers (306 Hispanic, 76 Asian, 36 Black, and 145 White) with children aged 2-11 years completed the Child Feeding Questionnaire and Eating Attitudes Test.

How many therapists? Practical guidance on investigating therapist effects in randomized controlled trials for eating disorders.

Objective: An important question in implementation/dissemination research is whether the efficacy of a given treatment varies in part based on the therapist delivering the treatment. This study sought to provide practical guidance to researchers in the field of eating disorders for building measurement of therapist effects into the design of a typical, relatively small randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Method: Using assumptions based on past trials of eating disorder treatments, Monte Carlo simulations were used to examine 12 different scenarios based on crossing the number of therapists (between two and five) and the estimated therapist effect size (small, medium, and large).

Reducing clinical costs with an EHR.

Steps that hospitals should take to ensure they are gaining optimal value from their electronic health record (EHR) systems include: Creating a value framework for EHR implementation a value framework or EHR implementation. Creating and build executive understanding of the framework. Quantifying each of the expected benefits of EHR implementation.

Salivary testing for periodontal disease diagnosis and treatment.

For more than 50 years, clinicians have relied primarily on the same visual and mechanical assessment methods to diagnose and classify periodontal disease. Clinical signs are simply a measurement of the past damage of a disease process. While clinical presentation and probing depths are indicators that the disease exists, these alone cannot determine the types and quantities of the responsible pathogens.