Imagining Coat-Hangers and Pills: A Qualitative Exploration of Abortion Beliefs and Attitudes in Hostile Policy Contexts in the United States.

Objective: We explored awareness of and attitudes about the safety of various methods people use to attempt to end a pregnancy without medical assistance, which we refer to in this study collectively as self-managed abortion (SMA).

Methods: In 2020, we invited individuals living in eight United States (US) states considered "hostile" to abortion rights or with a history of criminalizing abortions performed outside the formal healthcare system to participate in semi-structured telephone interviews regarding their attitudes toward these practices. We analyzed coded transcripts for content and themes.

Commission on Cancer Center Performance with the New Breast Cancer Quality Measures: A Review of Historical Data.

Background: Since 2022, the Commission on Cancer (CoC) has developed three new breast cancer quality measures (QMs): time to surgery (BCSdx) and radiation (BCSRT) and the use of neoadjuvant therapy for triple negative and HER2/neu positive breast cancer (BneoCT). This study assesses CoC center historical performance for these measures and facility factors associated with low performance.

Methods: We examined the median number of days for time to surgery and radiation, and the proportion of facilities that achieved an estimated performance rate (EPR) of 70%, 80%, and 90% from 2004 to 2020 for all three measures.

The carbon isotope ratio of breath is elevated by short-term and long-term added sugar and animal protein intake in a controlled feeding study.

Background: The breath carbon isotope ratio (CIR) was recently identified as a noninvasive candidate biomarker of short-term added sugars (AS) intake.

Objectives: This study aimed to better understand the potential of the breath CIR as a dietary biomarker. We evaluated the effects of short-term and long-term intakes of AS, animal protein (AP), and related variables on breath CIR, in the context of typical dietary intake patterns.

Causes and predictors of recurrent unplanned hospital admissions in heart failure patients: a cohort study.

Despite progress in therapy, heart failure (HF) inflicts a heavy burden of hospital admissions. In this study, we identified among 1360 community-dwelling HF patients (mean age 70.7 ± 11.

Methodology and challenges for harmonization of nutritional data from seven historical studies.

Background: Collection of detailed dietary data is labor intensive and expensive, harmonization of existing data sets has been proposed as an effective tool for research questions in which individual studies are underpowered.

Methods: In this paper, we describe the methodology used to retrospectively harmonize nutritional data from multiple sources, based on the individual participant data of all available studies, which collected nutritional data in Israel between 1963 and 2014. This collaboration was established in order to study the association of red and processed meat with colorectal cancer.

A historical cohort study with 27,754 individuals on the association between meat consumption and gastrointestinal tract and colorectal cancer incidence.

In order to explore the association between meat consumption and gastrointestinal/colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and to estimate the Israeli population attributable fraction (PAF), we conducted a collaborative historical cohort study using the individual participant data of seven nutritional studies from the past 6 decades. We included healthy adult men and women who underwent a nutritional interview. Dietary assessment data, using food-frequency or 24-h recall questionnaires, were harmonized.

Celiac plexus radiosurgery for pain management in advanced cancer: a multicentre, single-arm, phase 2 trial.

Background: Refractory upper abdominal pain or lower back pain (retroperitoneal pain syndrome) related to celiac plexus involvement characterises pancreatic and other upper gastrointestinal malignancies and is an unmet need. We hypothesised that ablative radiation delivered to the celiac plexus would decrease pain.

Methods: This multicentre, single-arm, phase 2 study was done at eight hospitals in five countries (Israel, Poland, Canada, the USA, and Portugal).

Evolving narratives on signal functions for monitoring maternal and newborn health services: A meta-narrative inspired review.

Emergency obstetric care (EmOC) signal functions are a shortlist of key clinical interventions capable of averting deaths from the five main direct causes of maternal mortality; they have been used since 1997 as a part of an EmOC monitoring framework to track the availability of EmOC services in low- and middle-income settings. Their widespread use and proposed adaptation to include other types of care, such as care for newborns, is testimony to their legacy as part of the measurement architecture within reproductive health. Yet, much has changed in the landscape of maternal and newborn health (MNH) since the initial introduction of EmOC signal functions.

No Strings Attached: How Catholic Institutions Prospered at the Expense of the Administrative State and Patient Autonomy.

Catholic hospitals and health systems have proliferated and succeeded in American healthcare; they now operate four of the largest health systems and serve nearly one in six hospital patients. Like other religious entities that Wuest and Last write about in this issue, in their article Church Against State, they have benefited by and supported the long reach of conservative efforts to undermine the administrative state.

Effectiveness of implementing a standardized perioperative pain management protocol in children undergoing tonsillectomy: A quality improvement project.

Background And Purpose: Tonsillectomy procedures are commonly performed worldwide. At our academic tertiary care facility, we perform approximately 1000 tonsillectomy procedures annually. We have found inconsistent pain management strategies in pediatric tonsillectomy patients have contributed to variability in postoperative complications and the number and types of postoperative pain medications required in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU).

"I wish I knew then what I know now" - pain science education concepts important for female persistent pelvic pain: a reflexive thematic analysis.

Pain science education (PSE) provides people with an understanding of "how pain works" grounded in the biopsychosocial model of pain; it has been demonstrated to improve outcomes in musculoskeletal pain conditions. Preliminary evidence suggests PSE may be effective for female individuals with persistent pelvic pain, but how the content of PSE needs to be modified for this group remains to be determined. A reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed to identify PSE concepts that female individuals with persistent pelvic pain consider important and why.

Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists and Pancreatic Cancer Risk in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Importance: Concerns have been raised that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Objective: To investigate the association of GLP-1RA treatment with pancreatic cancer incidence over 9 years of follow-up.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this population-based historical cohort study, adult patients (aged 21 to 89 years) with type 2 diabetes insured by Clalit Healthcare Services, the largest state-mandated health organization in Israel, were followed up from 2009, when GLP-1RA became available in Israel, until pancreatic cancer diagnosis, death, reaching age 90 years, or end of follow-up (December 2017).

Adjuvant Radiation Therapy for Salivary Duct and Epithelial Myoepithelial Salivary Carcinoma.

Salivary gland cancers are rare in general and salivary duct carcinoma and epithelial myoepithelial carcinomas are rare subtypes. This topic discussion will review the characteristics of these uncommon cancers. Additionally, it will briefly discuss available guidelines for salivary cancers and summarize author opinions on the role of adjuvant radiation therapy for these cases.

ACR-ARS Practice Parameter for Communication: Radiation Oncology.

Background: This practice parameter was revised collaboratively by the American College of Radiology (ACR), and the American Radium Society (ARS). Timely, accurate, and effective communications are critical to quality and safety in contemporary medical practices. Radiation oncology incorporates the science and technology of complex, integrated treatment delivery and the art of providing care to individual patients.

Patient experiences of being advised by a healthcare professional to get pregnant to manage or treat endometriosis: a cross-sectional study.

Background: There is a lack of evidence that pregnancy reduces endometriotic lesions or symptoms, however studies indicate that people with endometriosis are commonly advised to get pregnant to manage or treat endometriosis. This study sought to examine the impact of this advice on patients with endometriosis when the advice was provided by healthcare professionals.

Methods: The Endometriosis Patient Experience Survey was a self-reported, community-based, cross-sectional online survey of people who had been medically diagnosed with endometriosis.

The Value of History and Physical Examination to Optimize Outcomes of Cataract Surgery: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review was conducted to examine the value of the preoperative history and physical (H&P) examination and preoperative care prior to cataract extraction and the resulting outcomes of adverse events, patient experience, and cost. Four databases were searched using appropriate keywords from 2012 to 2022. Observational studies, randomized controlled trials, and quality improvement studies with data on the precataract H&P were included.

Measuring vaccine protection when the population is mostly vaccinated.

Objectives: This study aims to address limitations in assessing vaccine protection using the classical vaccine effectiveness (VE) measure, especially in contexts where a significant portion of the population is already vaccinated or infected.

Study Design And Setting: We propose using the adjusted number of cases (ANC) as a building block for deriving vaccine effectiveness measures. This approach accounts for biases arising from small and unrepresentative unvaccinated reference groups with incomplete data.

Reverse causation biases weighted cumulative exposure model estimates, but can be investigated in sensitivity analyses.

Objectives: To examine the effects of reverse causation on estimates from the weighted cumulative exposure (WCE) model that is used in pharmacoepidemiology to explore drug-health outcome associations, and to identify sensitivity analyses for revealing such effects.

Study Design And Setting: 314,099 patients with diabetes under Clalit Health Services, Israel, were followed over 2002-2012. The association between metformin and pancreatic cancer (PC) was explored using a WCE model within the framework of discrete-time Cox regression.

Longitudinal bidirectional link between socioeconomic position and health: a national panel survey analysis.

Background: Health inequities can stem from socioeconomic position (SEP) leading to poor health (social causation) or poor health resulting in lower SEP (health selection). We aimed to examine the longitudinal bidirectional SEP-health associations and identify inequity risk factors.

Methods: Longitudinal Household Israeli Panel survey participants (waves 1-4), age ≥25 years, were included (N=11 461; median follow-up=3 years).