Publications by authors named "Gabriela Vazquez Benitez"
Background: Electronic health record (EHR) data are an underused source for lactation-related research. The validity of ICD-10-CM-coded lactational mastitis is unknown.
Methods: We assessed lactational mastitis diagnosis code validity by medical record review.
Article Synopsis
- The HealthPartners' Vaccine Safety Datalink team is using information from a Minnesota vaccination database to track vaccine safety better.
- They checked how many vaccines were recorded from this new source compared to older ones and found that a lot were only tracked through the Minnesota system.
- This helps them monitor the safety of both new and common vaccines more effectively, making sure more people’s vaccination records are up to date.
Article Synopsis
- A study investigates the effects of receiving seasonal influenza vaccinations during two successive pregnancies on adverse birth outcomes, focusing on differences based on interpregnancy intervals and vaccine types (quadrivalent or trivalent).
- Data was collected from a large cohort of individuals with at least two singleton live births between 2004 and 2018, using information from the Vaccine Safety Datalink.
- The study analyzed risks of complications like preeclampsia, placental issues, and preterm birth among vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, finding that the majority of participants received vaccinations in both pregnancies.
Effectiveness of the Original Monovalent and Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines Against COVID-19-Associated Emergency Department and Urgent Care Encounters in Pregnant Persons Who Were Not Immunocompromised: VISION Network, June 2022-August 2023.
Open Forum Infect Dis
September 2024
Article Synopsis
- Pregnant individuals are at a higher risk for severe COVID-19, leading to current guidelines recommending updated vaccinations for everyone aged 6 months and older, regardless of pregnancy status.
- A study evaluated COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among pregnant people aged 18 to 45 from June 2022 to August 2023, finding that vaccine effectiveness during pregnancy was 52%, compared to 28% when vaccination was received less than 6 months before pregnancy and only 6% when received more than 6 months prior.
- The findings suggest that pregnant individuals should remain up-to-date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations for better protection against the virus.
Importance: COVID-19 vaccination is recommended throughout pregnancy to prevent pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes associated with COVID-19 disease. To date, data on birth defects after first-trimester vaccination are limited.
Objective: To evaluate the associated risks for selected major structural birth defects among live-born infants after first-trimester receipt of a messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigated the potential link between COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and the risk of stillbirth, addressing concerns of vaccine hesitancy among pregnant individuals.
- A matched case-control approach was used, analyzing data from 276 confirmed stillbirths and 822 live births to assess any significant associations with vaccination status.
- Results indicated no significant association between COVID-19 vaccination and stillbirth risk, regardless of vaccine type, number of doses, or timing of vaccination, suggesting that vaccination does not increase the risk of stillbirth in pregnant individuals.
Article Synopsis
- - This study aimed to assess whether getting vaccinated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy affects the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes like preterm birth and small-for-gestational age infants.
- - Researchers analyzed data from over 55,000 individuals with live singleton pregnancies and found that 42.3% received one or two doses of the vaccine, with the vaccination rate varying across maternal demographics.
- - The results indicated that vaccinated individuals had a lower risk of preterm birth compared to unvaccinated individuals, but the vaccination did not significantly impact the risks of small-for-gestational age infants, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, or preeclampsia.
Importance: Pregnant people and infants are at high risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Understanding changes in attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant and recently pregnant people is important for public health messaging.
Objective: To assess attitudinal trends regarding COVID-19 vaccines by (1) vaccination status and (2) race, ethnicity, and language among samples of pregnant and recently pregnant Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) members from 2021 to 2023.
Background: Breastfeeding information stored within electronic health records (EHR) has recently been used for pharmacoepidemiological research, however the data are primarily collected for clinical care.
Objectives: To characterise breastfeeding information recorded in structured fields in EHR during infant and postpartum health care visits, and to assess the validity of lactation status based on EHR data versus maternal report at research study visits.
Methods: We assessed breastfeeding information recorded in structured fields in EHR from one health system for a subset of 211 patients who were also enrolled in a study on breast milk composition between 2014 and 2017 that required participants to exclusively breastfeed their infants until at least 1 month of age.
Article Synopsis
- A study re-evaluated mortality risks associated with COVID-19 vaccinations using a modified self-controlled case series design to minimize confounding biases.
- Researchers analyzed death data from vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, focusing on non-COVID-19 mortality and specific cardiac-related deaths within set observation periods.
- Results for Pfizer-BioNTech showed reduced mortality risks for all outcomes, while Moderna and Janssen also indicated low risks, although some results for Moderna had confidence intervals that included 1, suggesting uncertainty in the estimates.
Vaccine Effectiveness Against SARS-CoV-2 Related Hospitalizations in People who had Experienced Homelessness or Incarceration - Findings from the Minnesota EHR Consortium.
J Community Health
June 2024
COVID-19 disproportionately affects people experiencing homelessness or incarceration. While homelessness or incarceration alone may not impact vaccine effectiveness, medical comorbidities along with social conditions associated with homelessness or incarceration may impact estimated vaccine effectiveness. COVID-19 vaccines reduce rates of hospitalization and death; vaccine effectiveness (VE) against severe outcomes in people experiencing homelessness or incarceration is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTest-negative-design COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies use symptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals as cases and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2-negative individuals as controls to evaluate COVID-19 VE. To evaluate the potential bias introduced by the correlation of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination behaviors, we assessed changes in estimates of VE of bivalent vaccines against COVID-19-associated hospitalizations and emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) encounters when considering influenza vaccination status or including or excluding influenza-positive controls using data from the multi-state VISION vaccine effectiveness network. Analyses included encounters during October 2022 - February 2023, a period of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza cocirculation.
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- A study explored racial and ethnic disparities in influenza vaccination coverage among pregnant women in the U.S., finding that non-Hispanic White women had higher vaccination rates than Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women.
- The research involved surveys conducted after the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 flu seasons, with significant oversampling of non-Hispanic Black and unvaccinated women to assess vaccine-related attitudes influencing vaccination coverage.
- The study concluded that attitudes towards the vaccine (like safety concerns) significantly contributed to the observed disparities in vaccination rates, even in a context where overall vaccination coverage was relatively high among pregnant women.
Clinical Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Critical Outcomes Among Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Adults Hospitalized With COVID-19-VISION Network, 10 States, June 2021-March 2023.
Clin Infect Dis
February 2024
Background: The epidemiology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to develop with emerging variants, expanding population-level immunity, and advances in clinical care. We describe changes in the clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 hospitalizations and risk factors for critical outcomes over time.
Methods: We included adults aged ≥18 years from 10 states hospitalized with COVID-19 June 2021-March 2023.
Article Synopsis
- Traditional vaccine safety monitoring usually checks specific health outcomes within set timeframes, but this study used more comprehensive methods to examine over 60,000 potential adverse events following bivalent COVID-19 vaccination.* -
- The analysis involved 352,509 doses of the Moderna vaccine and 979,189 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with significant clusters of adverse events detected only after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, including unspecified adverse effects and respiratory illnesses.* -
- The observed respiratory issues were likely influenced by the concurrent spread of seasonal viruses, highlighting the method's capability to detect clusters while accounting for various diagnoses and temporal factors.*
Introduction: Understanding of COVID-19-related disparities in the U.S. is largely informed by traditional race/ethnicity categories that mask important social group differences.
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- The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of prescription medication use among lactating mothers at 2, 4, and 6 months postpartum using electronic health record data.
- Researchers analyzed data from a US health system, linking mothers who received prenatal care to their infants' well-child visits to determine lactation status based on breast milk feeding.
- Results showed that 69.2% of mothers were lactating at the 2-month visit, with the most commonly prescribed medications being progestin contraceptives, antidepressants, and antibiotics, which were also prevalent at later visits.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the potential link between COVID-19 booster vaccinations during pregnancy and the risk of spontaneous abortion, addressing concerns about vaccine safety among pregnant individuals.
- Conducted across eight health systems, the research analyzed data from 112,718 unique pregnancies to evaluate outcomes based on vaccination timing and other factors such as maternal age and race.
- Findings aim to clarify the safety of receiving mRNA COVID-19 booster shots during early pregnancy, which is crucial for increasing vaccination adherence within this population.
Article Synopsis
- A study involving over 80,000 pregnant individuals found that receiving a COVID-19 mRNA booster shot did not increase the risk of serious health issues like thrombocytopenia, myocarditis, or stroke shortly after vaccination.
- However, the booster was linked to a higher incidence of mild symptoms such as malaise or fatigue within the first week, and lymph node swelling or inflammation in the following weeks.
- Overall, the results align with previous studies and suggest that it's safe for pregnant people to receive the COVID-19 booster.
Introduction: An increased risk of chorioamnionitis in people receiving tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine during pregnancy has been reported. The importance of this association is unclear as additional study has not demonstrated increased adverse infant outcomes associated with Tdap vaccination in pregnancy.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study of pregnant people ages 15-49 years with singleton pregnancies ending in live birth who were members of 8 Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) sites during October 2016-September 2018.
Importance: Beyond traditional race and ethnicity demographic characteristics, additional discrete data variables are needed for informed health interventions in the US.
Objective: To examine whether COVID-19 vaccine uptake patterns and associated disease outcomes differ among language preference groups.
Design, Setting, And Participants: A cohort study of 851 410 individuals aged 18 years or older in a large multispecialty health system in Minnesota and western Wisconsin was conducted between December 15, 2020, and March 31, 2022.
Article Synopsis
- * Initial results suggested a protective effect of vaccination against SAB within certain time periods, but this effect diminished when extending the observation to later dates.
- * The findings indicate that the timing and method of surveillance significantly influence the perceived relationship between vaccination and SAB, with no clear association observed when using a time-dependent model.