Point-of-Care Ultrasound and Procedural Instruction in the Family Medicine Clerkship: A CERA Study.

Background And Objectives: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) education has become a mainstay in resident education in multiple specialties, including family medicine (FM), but literature regarding the use of POCUS during clinical medical student education is lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how POCUS education is conducted in FM clerkships in the United States and Canada and how it compares to more traditional FM clinical procedural instruction.

Methods: As part of the 2020 Council of Academic Family Medicine's Educational Research Alliance survey of FM clerkship directors, we surveyed clerkship directors in the United States and Canada about whether and how POCUS education, as well as other procedural instruction in their institutions and FM clerkships, was conducted.

Fertility Health Knowledge in U.S. Adults: Men Narrowing the Knowledge Gap.

Much of young people's fertility health knowledge has been limited to avoiding sexually transmitted infections and preventing pregnancy thus lacking what is necessary to support future overall health as well as reproductive goals. This study assesses university students' knowledge related to fertility health factors to verify consistencies and discrepancies in fertility health knowledge, with a sub-assessment focusing on men's knowledge. The Fertility Health Knowledge survey was delivered to 17,189 students at three American universities.

Simulation-Based Medical Education in Family Medicine Residencies: A CERA Study.

Background And Objectives: To better understand the current use of simulation and barriers to its use in family medicine resident education, we surveyed US family medicine residency (FMR) program directors (PDs) about opinions and use of simulation-based medical education (SBME) in their programs. A number of specialties have incorporated or required simulation-based educational techniques in residency education over the past 10 years, but little is known about the current use of SBME in family medicine graduate medical education. We also evaluated associations between program characteristics and the use of SBME in FMR education.

Measuring Fertility Health Knowledge in University Students: Development and Testing of a Survey Tool.

Background And Purpose: Few surveys address fertility health in both men and women. This report details development of a fertility knowledge assessment tool for clinical and research settings that would sensitize young adults to habits that would promote healthy fertility.

Methods: A pilot study ( = 31) followed by a larger study of students at three schools ( = 465, 335, & 375) at a midwestern university using a new 30-item survey.

Rurality and Health in the United States: Do Our Measures and Methods Capture Our Intent?

Rural status in the United States can be objectively measured using multiple designations within different geographic extents, often considering both population density and proximity to urban areas. However, these measurements are often incomplete for assessing the relationship between rural status and health and are often inadequately considered in analysis. To address these limitations, we posit four recommendations: two recommendations to improve current measures by including additional factors and making measures continuous and two recommendations to improve regression analysis by considering rural status as a contextual factor in multilevel modeling and as a variable in conjunction with socioeconomic factors derived through principal component analysis.

Sexually transmitted infections in the Delta Regional Authority: significant disparities in the 252 counties of the eight-state Delta Region Authority.

Objective: Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis (primary and secondary) are at high levels in the USA. Disparities by race, gender and sexual orientation have been characterised, but while there are indications that rural poor populations may also be at distinct risk this has been subjected to little study by comparison. The federally designated Delta Regional Authority, similar in structure to the Appalachian Regional Commission, oversees 252 counties within eight Mississippi Delta states experiencing chronic economic and health disparities.

Rural areas are disproportionately impacted by smoking and lung cancer.

Rural populations have higher rates of late stage lung cancer incidence and mortality compared to urban populations, making them important target populations for low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening. LDCT screening has been shown to reduce lung cancer mortality and is recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force for individuals who meet certain risk criteria. However, rural populations may experience greater system, provider, and individual-level barriers to screening and related health-seeking behavior (e.

Novel Algorithm to Help Identify Stroke Mimics.

Background: Stroke is a major cause of disability in the United States. A portion of patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms in the emergency room who receive tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) do not end up having a true stroke, leading to unnecessary health-care costs. The aim of our study is to identify those patients who have a high likelihood of experiencing a stroke mimic using a novel stroke mimic score and to identify a cutoff point with a high specificity of ruling in stroke mimics.

Perceived Harms and Social Norms in the Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco.

Perceptions of harms and social norms influence the use of conventional tobacco cigarettes, but little research is available about their combined relationship with e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco use. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 309 individuals from central Illinois. We explored (1) demographic predictors of perceived harms and social norms related to e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco use, and (2) whether perceived harms, social norms, or both were important predictors of e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco use.

Predictors and Spatial Variation of Radon Testing in Illinois, 2005-2012.

Context: Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, but exposure can be reduced through testing one's home and mitigating if levels are high.

Objective: To determine what factors predict radon testing and to identify, through spatial analysis, areas in Illinois with lower or higher than expected testing rates.

Design, Setting, Participants, And Main Outcomes: An ecological study design was used to evaluate data on radon tests performed in Illinois by a licensed professional or a home radon test kit analyzed by a state-approved laboratory between 2005 and 2012.

Cancer Mortality in the Mississippi Delta Region: Descriptive Epidemiology and Needed Future Research and Interventions.

The Delta Region is a federally designated, socioeconomically disadvantaged region of the United States covering 252 counties in eight states along the Mississippi River. The objective of this study is to describe the Region's cancer mortality burden. National Center for Health Statistics data were used to calculate age-adjusted mortality rates and rate ratios for the Delta Region for all cancers, lung, colorectal, breast (female), cervical, and prostate cancers.

E-cigarettes: Who's using them and why?

Background: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are often marketed as safe and effective aids for quitting cigarette smoking, but concerns remain that use of e-cigarettes might actually reduce the number of quit attempts. To address these issues, we characterized the utilization and demographic correlates of dual use of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes (referred to here as simply “cigarettes”) among smokers in a rural population of Illinois.

Methods: The majority of survey participants were recruited from the 2014 Illinois State Fair and from another event—the Springfield Mile (a motorcycle racing event)—in Springfield, Ill.

The Mini Report: a Practical Tool to Address Lung Cancer Disparities in Rural Communities.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective way to address cancer disparities in medically underserved populations. Our research demonstrates how CBPR principles were used to develop lung cancer and risk factor mini reports for a network of community coalitions in the Illinois Delta Region, a predominately rural region with high lung cancer disparities in southern Illinois. An academic-community partnership, including a community-based medical school, state public health department, and a healthcare system, used CBPR principles to translate epidemiological, behavioral, and demographic data into understandable, comprehensive, yet concise mini reports for each coalition.