Efficacy of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids as a Treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Introduction: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent health condition among members of the military. Although the efficacy of pharmacological and psychiatric interventions for PTSD has been well studied, there are limited data on the effects of omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) interventions on PTSD. The use of PUFAs shows promise because of their neuroprotective effects.

Prevalence of PTSD in Active Duty Members with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly mild TBI (mTBI), is a significant health concern for U.S. active duty service members (ADSMs), with potential implications for psychiatric outcomes including PTSD.

Ensuring accountability for consideration of sex as a biological variable in research.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) policy, Consideration of Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) in NIH-funded Research (2015), focuses on the expectation that researchers account for the influence of SABV in vertebrate animal and human studies and provide a strong justification for single-sex investigations. When SABV is considered in the research design, data analyses, and reporting, the rigor and reproducibility of the research are elevated and inform best practices and precision health for all people. Additional recommendations include the appropriate use of terminology, integration into curricula, intersection with social determinants of health, and application of sex and gender equity guidelines when disseminating research.

Improving the Health and Readiness of Military Women.

Why The Defense Health Horizons Did This Study: Women comprise approximately one-fifth of the total force in the U.S. Military.

Assuring TRICARE Coverage of Preventive Health Services for Women Beneficiaries of the Military Health System.

Why Defense Health Horizons Performed This Study: The primary role of the Military Health System is to assure readiness by protecting the health of the force by providing expert care to wounded, ill, and injured service members. In addition to this mission, the Military Health System (both directly through its own personnel and indirectly, through TRICARE) provides health services to millions of military family members, retirees, and their dependents. Women's preventive health services are an important part of comprehensive health care to reduce rates of disease and premature death and were included in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (ACA) expanded coverage of women's preventive health services, based on the best available evidence and guidelines.

Patterns in Urogenital Health in Active Duty Servicewomen: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Survey Evaluating Impacts of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Resources Across Three Military Environments.

Introduction: Female warfighters are at risk for sex-specific and frequently unrecognized urogenital health challenges that may impede their ability to serve. The constraints on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) resources by austere environments, whether at home or abroad, require women to practice unhealthy hygiene behaviors that jeopardize their urogenital health. In this manuscript, we examine the use of WASH resources by U.

Impacts of Austerity on Urogenital Infection Rates in Active Duty Servicewomen.

Introduction: Female warfighters are at increased risk of urogenital infections (UGIs) when serving in austere environments with varying levels of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene resources. Urogenital infections among servicewomen were among the top five reported medical encounters and one of the top seven reasons for medical evacuation from deployed locations between 2008 and 2013. In this study, we examine the use of water and sanitation resources across three environments (home duty station, field training, and deployment) and analyze associations between water, sanitation, and hygiene resource access and UGIs during training or deployment.

U.S. active-duty service women's urogenital health and operational readiness through the lens of the IBM-WASH model: A systematic integrative review.

Aim: Identify literature regarding urogenital health and hygiene practices/behaviors of U.S. active-duty service women (ADSW) with attention to environmental conditions; access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) resources in austere environments.

COVID-19 effects on women's home and work life, family violence and mental health from the Women's Health Expert Panel of the American Academy of Nursing.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exaggerated women's roles in families as primary caretakers and overseers of family health. This is compounded by possible loss of work and resultant loss of health insurance.

Purpose: We examine how pandemic-related factors have altered women's roles and created stressors challenging stress adaptation and typical coping strategies, including how registered nurses have faced unique challenges.

Recommendations for managing sexually transmitted infections: Incorporating the 2021 guidelines.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are common and costly, with about 26 million STIs occurring each year in the US. Guidelines for the prevention and management of STIs are updated periodically. In 2021, the CDC updated its guidelines for the treatment of STIs.

Women's sexual/reproductive health and access challenges amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges to women's health in the context of COVID-19 is based on their unique experience shaped by sex/gender. This paper provides clinical practice-, research-, and policy-related commentary on key COVID-19 pandemic factors impinging on women's sexual/reproductive health (SRH) and care access, particularly in the context of pregnancy, childbirth, sexual/gender variations, and concurrent chronic conditions. Women tend to have less severe outcomes from COVID-19 than men but certain sub-groups are more vulnerable than others.

A Scoping Review of Cervical Cancer Risk Factors, Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment in U.S. Active Duty Military Women.

Introduction: Maintaining military readiness requires integration and delivery of appropriate sex-specific health care services for active duty servicewomen (ADSW). Cervical cancer screening (CCS) provides early detection, intervention, and treatment, allowing for reductions in human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and cervical cancer cases. This scoping review examines existing cervical cancer evidence related to ADSW and identifies research gaps, leverage points, and policy recommendations within the context of the social ecological model for military women's health.

Female warfighters' perceptions of urogenital health in operational settings.

Background: An increased incidence in hygiene-related urogenital infections (bacterial vaginitis, vulvovaginal candidiasis, and urinary tract) has been reported in female warfighters serving in austere environments with decreased availability of water and sanitation resources, and when personal safety outweighs concerns for hygiene. Knowledge and access to an innovative kit designed for the female warfighter to self-test, self-identify, and self-treat common urogenital symptoms is critical to force health.

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, cross-sectional, exploratory qualitative study was to explore female warfighters': 1) confidence in seeking sex-specific health care in field and deployment environments and 2) acceptance and willingness to self-test, self-identify, and self-treat urogenital symptoms and infections.

An integrative review of nurse practitioner education models: Part three of a four-part series on critical topics identified by the 2015 Nurse Practitioner Research Agenda.

Background And Purpose: Critical research topics were identified after nurse practitioner (NP) organization stakeholders participated in the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioner, 2015 Nurse Practitioner Research Agenda Roundtable. Strategies and recommendations were identified to support further work examining NP outcomes-based research priorities in four areas: 1) policy and regulation; 2) workforce; 3) education; and 4) practice. For the purpose of this article, we focus on NP education.

Unintended pregnancy: a framework for prevention and options for midlife women in the US.

Recently unintended pregnancies have been described as "a new kind of mid-life crisis." Given the high prevalence of unwanted or mistimed pregnancy in the US, we examined the sexual and reproductive health patterns of sexually active midlife women. An examination of the prevalence of unintended pregnancy among midlife women revealed a gap in data indicating unmet sexual and reproductive health needs of midlife women.

Allostatic Perspectives in Women Veterans With a History of Childhood Sexual Assault.

Background: Women veterans have increased reports of sexual victimization compared to women in general, including childhood sexual assault (CSA) before military service, increasing the risk of military sexual trauma. Findings from recent studies reveal negative health effects following a history of CSA. There is a strong relationship between CSA and revictimization in civilian and military life, which may contribute to allostatic load.

Advanced practice nursing: shaping health through policy.

Purpose: To highlight the importance of advanced practice nurses (APNs) becoming politically engaged as key to promoting the healthcare interests of patients, communities and the profession and to offer specific strategies on how to become politically competent.

Data Sources: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CINAHL, PubMed.

Conclusions: APNs must come to see political engagement as a professional obligation and health policy as something that they can shape rather than something that happens to them.

The nurse's role in preventing cervical cancer: A cultural framework.

This article proposes an innovative, theoretically-driven intervention to reduce risk from human papillomavirus (HPV). This lessening of HPV risk would lead to a reduction in the rate of cervical cancer. Aims of this article are to introduce a culturally appropriate model (PEN-3) that may facilitate vaccine uptake among vulnerable populations and to ascertain whether culturally appropriate health education delivered by nurses could be included in vaccine education programs.

HPV & age-appropriate cervical cancer prevention for adolescents.

Over the last decade, new information about human papillomavirus infection has increased the healthcare community's understanding of the natural history of the disease and cervical cancer. Advances in screening, management, and diagnosis continue to refine clinicians' efforts to prevent cervical cancer in adolescent females.

Practicing women's health with a simultaneity worldview in a medical model world.

Practicing from a humanbecoming perspective is challenging and rewarding for the nurse clinician. In this column, the author discusses the challenges faced when working as a women's health nurse practitioner, with a simultaneity worldview, in a medical model world.

Living ethics: contributing to knowledge building through qualitative inquiry.

In this column, the authors discuss ethical and scientific standards in research and publication in light of their worldviews; human science; human becoming; and Parse's conceptual, ethical, methodological, and interpretive dimensions of the research process.