More Than Just a Pain in the Back: Pain Among American Nurses and Its Relationship to Modifiable Work Factors and Work Performance.

Nursing is a profession with high rates of workplace injuries, hazards, and turnover. Improving the health and safety of nurses at work is vital to retain and grow the workforce to meet future demands. The purpose of this study was to describe the breadth of pain among American nurses and explore the relationships between this pain and modifiable work factors and perceived work performance.

Improving healthcare professionals' ultrasound-guided peripheral vascular access ability utilizing self-assembled ultrasound phantoms: A prospective, observational quality improvement project.

Background: Ultrasound guidance can reduce the number of attempts to gain peripheral IV access while improving the success rate and satisfaction in patients with difficult IV access. Education and simulation are effective tools for improving the skills and knowledge related to ultrasound-guided peripheral IV access. Ultrasound phantom models allow for skill development without the risk of patient harm.

Enteral Feeding and Antibiotic Treatment Do Not Influence Increased Coefficient of Variation of Total Fecal Bile Acids in Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Introduction: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most common gastrointestinal emergency in preterm infants. In animal models, the accumulation of ileal bile acids (BAs) is a crucial component of NEC pathophysiology. Recently, we showed that the coefficient of variation of total fecal BAs (CV-TBA) was elevated in infants who develop NEC compared to matched controls.

Prediction of GutCheck NEC and Its Relation to Severity of Illness and Measures of Deterioration in Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) risk has been shown to arise from multiple sources and risk awareness may be supported using bedside tools.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine the extent to which GutCheck NEC was associated with scores for clinical deterioration, severity of illness, and clinical outcome, and further to examine how scores might improve NEC prediction.

Methods: A retrospective, correlational case-control study with infant data from 3 affiliated neonatal intensive care units was conducted.

An Adapted Cancer Screening Education Program for Native American Women With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Their Caregivers: Protocol for Feasibility and Acceptability Testing.

Background: Women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) do not undergo breast and cervical cancer screening at the same rate as women without IDD. IDDs are diagnosed in childhood, are lifelong, and involve difficulties in adaptive behaviors and intellectual functioning. Native American women also experience disparities in breast and cervical cancer screenings.

Examining the Associations between Post-Stroke Cognitive Function and Common Comorbid Conditions among Stroke Survivors.

A considerable complication for stroke survivors is the subsequent development of cognitive decline or dementia. In this study, the relationship between the inflammation-centered comorbidity burden on post-stroke cognitive function among community-dwelling stroke survivors capable of independent living was examined. Data for this secondary analysis were collected from stroke survivors (n = 97) participating in a randomized clinical trial.

Maternal Cytokine Profiles during Pregnancy Predict Asthma in Children of Mothers without Asthma.

Little is known about whether maternal immune status during pregnancy influences asthma development in the child. We measured cytokine production in supernatants from mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood immune cells collected during and after pregnancy from the mothers of children enrolled in the Tucson Infant Immune Study, a nonselected birth cohort. Physician-diagnosed active asthma in children through age 9 and a history of asthma in their mothers were assessed through questionnaires.

Epigenome-wide analysis links SMAD3 methylation at birth to asthma in children of asthmatic mothers.

Background: The timing and mechanisms of asthma inception remain imprecisely defined. Although epigenetic mechanisms likely contribute to asthma pathogenesis, little is known about their role in asthma inception.

Objective: We sought to assess whether the trajectory to asthma begins already at birth and whether epigenetic mechanisms, specifically DNA methylation, contribute to asthma inception.

Prevalence of Asthma in School Children on the Arizona-Sonora Border.

Background: Mexican-born children living in the United States have a lower prevalence of asthma than other US children. Although children of Mexican descent near the Arizona (AZ)-Sonora border are genetically similar, differences in environmental exposures might result in differences in asthma prevalence across this region.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if the prevalence of asthma and wheeze in these children varies across the AZ-Sonora border.

Perinatal tumor necrosis factor-α production, influenced by maternal pregnancy weight gain, predicts childhood asthma.

Rationale: Innate immune responses marked by increases in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α have been associated with asthma but whether such alterations are evident before symptoms is not yet clear.

Objectives: To determine if prevalence of childhood asthma or asthma-related traits is predicted by perinatal innate immune status and if maternal factors related to pregnancy influence asthma prevalence and innate immune status.

Methods: In the Tucson Infant Immune Study (a nonselected birth cohort), presence of eczema and wheezing in the child's first year and physician-diagnosed asthma through age 9 and asthma in the parents was obtained from parent-completed questionnaires.

Predictors of neonatal production of IFN-γ and relation to later wheeze.

Supernatant IFN-γ levels from mitogen-stimulated cord blood mononuclear cells were inversely associated with wheeze through age 2, but only among boys. This relation was not due to other factors associated with cord IFN-γ production.

Cord blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are associated with aeroallergen sensitization in children from Tucson, Arizona.

Background: The association between vitamin D status at birth and childhood allergic outcomes is uncertain. The desert climate of Tucson offers a unique setting for studying the health effects of higher exposure to vitamin D.

Objective: To assess the relationship between cord blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels and allergic outcomes through age 5 years.

Adaptive cytokine production in early life differentially predicts total IgE levels and asthma through age 5 years.

Background: Although it has been postulated that allergic disease is associated with a predominance of T(H)2 cells, whether IgE levels and asthma might differ in their relation to early-life cytokine production is not known.

Objective: We sought to assess the relationship between first-year adaptive immune cytokine production with asthma and total IgE levels through age 5 years in a nonselected birth cohort.

Methods: Mitogen (concanavalin A/phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate)-stimulated IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IFN-γ levels were measured in supernatants from cord blood mononuclear cells and PBMCs at birth, 3 months, and 12 months.

Effect of day care attendance on sensitization and atopic wheezing differs by Toll-like receptor 2 genotype in 2 population-based birth cohort studies.

Background: Variation in the Toll-like receptor 2 gene (TLR2/-16934) is associated with allergic diseases among farmers' children but not among children not living on farms.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the same genetic variant conferring protection in the farming environment is associated with reduced risk of developing allergic phenotypes among urban children attending day care in early life.

Methods: In 2 population-based birth cohorts (Manchester, United Kingdom, Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study [MAAS]; Tucson, Ariz, Tucson Infant Immune Study [IIS]), participants were recruited prenatally and followed prospectively (MAAS: 3, 5, 8 and 11 years; IIS: 1, 2, 3 and 5 years).

Community Health Workers and community advocacy: addressing health disparities.

The Community Health Worker model is recognized nationally as a means to address glaring inequities in the burden of adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States. This study explored Arizona CHW involvement in advocacy beyond the individual patient level into the realm of advocating for community level change as a mechanism to reduce the structural underpinnings of health disparities. A survey of CHWs in Arizona found that CHWs advocate at local, state and federal political levels as well as within health and social service agencies and business.

Nucleic-acid amplification testing of urine vs. patient complaint-driven evaluation.

The present pilot study compared the ability of a conventional patient complaint-driven approach to that of nucleic-acid amplification testing (NAAT) of urine to identify those individuals among an adult, urban, Emergency Department (ED) population infected with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV). Urine for NAAT was collected for testing after individuals had completed a questionnaire and before being seen by a physician. A total of 614 subjects were enrolled, and complete physical examinations were performed on 348 (56.

Influence of early day-care exposure on total IgE levels through age 3 years.

Background: Early day care is inversely associated with asthma and atopy in later childhood, but its association with early immunologic markers of asthma risk is not known.

Objective: We sought to assess the relation of day care by 3 months to total IgE levels through age 3 years.

Methods: Day care was assessed prospectively among 362 nonselected infants enrolled in the Infant Immune Study.