The clinical and cost effectiveness of a STAndardised DIagnostic Assessment for children and adolescents with emotional difficulties: the STADIA multi-centre randomised controlled trial.

Background: Standardised Diagnostic Assessment tools, such as the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA), may aid detection and diagnosis of emotional disorders but there is limited real-world evidence of their clinical or cost effectiveness.

Methods: We conducted a multicentre, two-arm parallel group randomised controlled trial in eight large National Health Service Trusts in England providing multidisciplinary specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Participants (5-17 year-olds with emotional difficulties referred to CAMHS) were randomly assigned (1:1), following referral receipt, to either receive the DAWBA and assessment-as-usual (intervention group) or assessment-as-usual (control group).

Snakes and Ladders: The experience of being referred to and seen by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Background: Referral processes in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) have been reported as stressful and inadequate by young people and parents/carers, who struggle during waiting periods for the referral outcome decision. The Covid19 pandemic was an unprecedented time of distress for young people, parents/carers, and healthcare staff, with increased mental health challenges and stretched staff having to adapt modes of care, thus exacerbating difficulties for CAMHS.

Aim: This qualitative study aimed to capture the unique lived experiences of young people, parents/carers, and CAMHS staff during the referral process in the peak of the Covid19 pandemic.

Creating a health informatics data resource for hearing health research.

Background: The National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) for Hearing Health has been established in the UK to curate routinely collected hearing health data to address research questions. This study defines priority research areas, outlines its aims, governance structure and demonstrates how hearing health data have been integrated into a common data model using pure tone audiometry (PTA) as a case study.

Methods: After identifying key research aims in hearing health, the governance structure for the NIHR HIC for Hearing Health is described.

Validation of the Seizure-Related Impact Assessment Scale (SERIAS): a study protocol.

Introduction: This study aims to validate the Seizure-Related Impact Assessment Scale (SERIAS). This novel patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) compares the 'trade-off' between seizures and treatment-related adverse effects, and measures epilepsy disability qualitatively and quantitively. It fills an important gap in PROMs for epilepsy clinical trials and practice.

Getting the most out of remote care: Co-developing a Toolkit to improve the delivery of remote kidney care appointments for underserved groups.

Background: Telephone and video appointments are still common post-pandemic, with an estimated 25%-50% of kidney appointments in the United Kingdom still conducted remotely. This is important as remote consultations may exacerbate pre-existing inequalities in those from underserved groups. Those from underserved groups are often not represented in health research and include those with learning disability, mental health needs, hearing/sight problems, young/older people, those from ethnic minority groups.

"You Can Change the World With a Haircut": Evaluating the Feasibility of a Barber-led Intervention for Men of Black and Ethnic Minority Heritage to Manage High Blood Pressure.

Background: People of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) heritage have a higher-than-average incidence of, and mortality from hypertension and stroke. Therefore, it is important to identify new settings for engaging people at risk of high blood pressure (BP).

Aim: This feasibility study aimed to evaluate if barbers in a London borough can support and educate men of BAME heritage to manage their BP.

Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of home-based urinalysis for albumin-creatinine ratio with smartphone technology: A quality improvement project.

Background: Despite albumin-creatinine ratio (urine) testing being recommended for detection of chronic kidney disease among adults with diabetes, testing rates are suboptimal.

Aim: We implemented and evaluated a quality improvement project in an inner-city diabetes population in London, UK to assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing novel home-based urinalysis using smartphone technology.

Methods: After eligible patients were identified and consented, testing kits were sent to the patient's home.

Mental health in clinically referred children and young people before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic and mitigation approaches, including lockdowns and school closures, are thought to have negatively impacted children and young people's (CYP) mental health. However, the impact for clinically referred CYP is less clear. We investigated differences in the mental health of CYP referred to specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) before and since the onset of the pandemic.

STAndardised DIagnostic Assessment for children and young people with emotional difficulties (STADIA): protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Emotional disorders (such as anxiety and depression) are associated with considerable distress and impairment in day-to-day function for affected children and young people and for their families. Effective evidence-based interventions are available but require appropriate identification of difficulties to enable timely access to services. Standardised diagnostic assessment (SDA) tools may aid in the detection of emotional disorders, but there is limited evidence on the utility of SDA tools in routine care and equipoise among professionals about their clinical value.

Patient perspectives and experiences of remote consultations in people receiving kidney care: A scoping review.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a rapid and sometimes chaotic change in how clinical care was delivered for people living with kidney disease, with increased reliance on digital technologies and the introduction of remote services.

Objectives: To conduct a scoping review of studies about patients' experiences and perspectives in receipt of remote consultations for kidney care.

Design: Using Arksey and O'Malley's framework, three databases were searched on EBSCO (CINAHL, MEDLINE and Psych INFO).

Demystifying NMR spectroscopy: Applications of benchtop spectrometers in the undergraduate teaching laboratory.

Undergraduate students can find some aspects of NMR Spectroscopy daunting, and difficult to understand. Due to their flexibility and ease-of-use, 'benchtop' spectrometers can help to clarify key concepts and enhance learning. Here we suggest approaches to demystifying resolution, sensitivity, magnetic field variation and its consequent impact on spectra, quantitation and mixtures.

The AMBER care bundle for hospital inpatients with uncertain recovery nearing the end of life: the ImproveCare feasibility cluster RCT.

Background: Patients admitted to hospital with a terminal illness and uncertain recovery often receive inconsistent care and do not have the opportunity to die in their preferred place of death. Previous end-of-life care packages, such as the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient, have sometimes been badly implemented. The AMBER (Assessment; Management; Best practice; Engagement; Recovery uncertain) care bundle was developed to remedy this.

Recommendations for services for people living with chronic breathlessness in advanced disease: Results of a transparent expert consultation.

Chronic breathlessness is highly distressing for people with advanced disease and their informal carers, yet health services for this group remain highly heterogeneous. We aimed to generate evidence-based stakeholder-endorsed recommendations for practice, policy and research concerning services for people with advanced disease and chronic breathlessness. We used transparent expert consultation, comprising modified nominal group technique during a stakeholder workshop, and an online consensus survey.

Associations Between Health Literacy and Health Behaviors Among Urban High School Students.

Background: Health literacy is crucial to develop health-related knowledge, adopt healthy lifestyles, and benefit from health care services. However, research on the association between health literacy and adolescent health outcomes, particularly on their prospective associations, is rare. We assessed health literacy using 3 validated measures, and examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between health literacy and adolescent health behaviors and outcomes.

Background lead and mercury exposures: Psychological and behavioral problems in children.

Background: The potential harm from exposure to nonessential metals, particularly mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb), has been the focus of research for years. Initial interest focused on relatively high exposures; however, recent evidence suggests that even background exposures might have adverse consequences for child development. Identifying the extent of these consequences is now a priority.

The Role of Agonistic Striving in the Association Between Cortisol and High Blood Pressure.

Objective: A social action theory of chronic stress proposes that agonistic striving (seeking to influence or control others) impairs cardiovascular health by magnifying the impact of high adversity-induced cortisol levels on blood pressure. We tested three predictions of social action theory: (1) the social action theory taxonomy of regulatory strivings characterizes young adults from high-adversity neighborhoods; (2) high cortisol levels predict high blood pressure more reliably in the subgroup with the agonistic striving profile than in subgroups with other profiles; (3) the association of higher cortisol and higher blood pressure with agonistic striving is not explained by negative affect (depressive symptoms/dysphoria, anger, hostility).

Methods: Participants were young adults (N = 198, mean [SD] age = 32 [3.

Gender Differences in Relations among Perceived Family Characteristics and Risky Health Behaviors in Urban Adolescents.

Background: Research regarding the role of gender in relations between family characteristics and health risk behaviors has been limited.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate gender differences in associations between family processes and risk-taking in adolescents.

Methods: Adolescents (N = 249; mean age = 14.

The interaction between the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) variable number tandem repeat polymorphism and perceived peer drinking norms in adolescent alcohol use and misuse.

Peer drinking norms are arguably one of the strongest correlates of adolescent drinking. Prospective studies indicate that adolescents tend to select peers based on drinking (peer selection) and their peers' drinking is associated with changes in adolescent drinking over time (peer socialization). The present study investigated whether the peer selection and socialization processes in adolescent drinking differed as a function of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) variable number tandem repeat genotype in two independent prospective data sets.

Interaction effects between the 5-hydroxy tryptamine transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genotype and family conflict on adolescent alcohol use and misuse.

Aims: To investigate whether the effects of family conflict on adolescent drinking differed as a function of 5-hydroxy tryptamine transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genotype cross-sectionally and prospectively in two independent samples of adolescents.

Design: Path analysis and multi-group analysis of two prospective datasets were conducted.

Settings: United States and United Kingdom.

Community differentiation and population enrichment of Sargasso Sea bacterioplankton in the euphotic zone of a mesoscale mode-water eddy.

Eddies are mesoscale oceanographic features (∼ 200 km diameter) that can cause transient blooms of phytoplankton by shifting density isoclines in relation to light and nutrient resources. To better understand how bacterioplankton respond to eddies, we examined depth-resolved distributions of bacterial populations across an anticyclonic mode-water eddy in the Sargasso Sea. Previous work on this eddy has documented elevated phytoplankton productivity and diatom abundance within the eddy centre with coincident bacterial productivity and biomass maxima.

Can agonistic striving lead to unexplained illness? Implicit goals, pain tolerance, and somatic symptoms in adolescents and adults.

Objectives: We tested the social action theory hypotheses that (a) psychological stress induced by struggling to control others (agonistic striving) is associated with higher levels of subjective somatic symptoms than stress induced by struggling to control the self (transcendence striving); (b) the association between agonistic striving and symptoms is moderated by the ability to tolerate pain; and (c) associations among agonistic goals, pain tolerance, and subjective symptoms are not explained by personality and affective traits or negative emotional responses to personal stressors.

Methods: Implicit motives and negative emotional reactivity to recurring personal stressors were assessed by Social Competence Interview in 333 adolescents and adults who participated in longitudinal research on functional abdominal pain at a university medical center. Pain tolerance was assessed by graduated thermal pain protocol; subjective somatic symptoms, and personality/affective traits assessed by questionnaires.

How neighborhood disorder increases blood pressure in youth: agonistic striving and subordination.

Growing evidence links perceptions of neighborhood disorder to adverse health outcomes but little is known about psychological processes that may mediate this association. We tested the hypothesis that two psychological mechanisms-agonistic striving and subordination-mediate the link between perceived neighborhood disorder and hypertension risk in youth. Perceived neighborhood disorder, agonistic striving, subordination experiences, negative affect, obesity, and ambulatory blood pressure during daily activities (48 h) were assessed in a multiethnic sample of 167 low- to middle-income urban adolescents.

How implicit motives and everyday self-regulatory abilities shape cardiovascular risk in youth.

Background And Purpose: Tested hypotheses from social action theory that (a) implicit and explicit measures of agonistic (social control) motives and transcendence (self-control) motives differentially predict cardiovascular risk; and (b) implicit motives interact with everyday self-regulation behaviors to magnify risk.

Methods: Implicit/explicit agonistic/transcendence motives were assessed in a multi-ethnic sample of 64 high school students with the Social Competence Interview (SCI). Everyday self-regulation was assessed with teacher ratings of internalizing, externalizing, and self-control behaviors.

Do agonistic motives matter more than anger? Three studies of cardiovascular risk in adolescents.

Objectives: Three motivational profiles have been associated with recurring psychological stress in low-income youth and young adults: Striving to control others (agonistic striving), striving to control the self (transcendence striving), and not asserting control (dissipated striving). Agonistic striving has been associated with elevated ambulatory blood pressure during daily activities. Three studies tested the hypotheses that: (1) agonistic striving is associated with poor anger regulation, and (2) agonistic striving and poor anger regulation interactively elevate blood pressure.