Background: We examined changes in diabetes care and management practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Population-based data regarding four diabetes-related healthcare engagement and four self-management indicators were obtained from adults with diabetes surveyed in 19 US States and Washington DC through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using logistic regression, we estimated changes in the prevalence of each indicator, overall and by sociodemographic subgroups in 2019 (before the pandemic) and 2021 (during the pandemic).
Lifestyle habits seem interconnected and extant studies suggest that a lifestyle-related modification can impact other related behaviors. For instance, interventions targeting physical activity (PA) could potentially impact dietary patterns and quality. Therefore, we hypothesized that a web-based intervention to increase PA would lead to changes in diet quality without explicit dietary guidance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProg Community Health Partnersh
September 2024
Underserved communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Project Promoting Engagement and COVID-19 Testing for Health (PEACH) study was designed to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and infrastructure associated with COVID-19 risk, testing, and prevention behaviors in people living with, caring for, or at risk for type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this joint community-academic partnered manuscript is to share lessons learned for maintaining community partnerships through the challenging times of a pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenomic epidemiology offers important insight into the transmission and evolution of respiratory viruses. We used metagenomic sequencing from negative SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests to identify a wide range of respiratory viruses and generate full genome sequences, offering a streamlined mechanism for broad respiratory virus genomic surveillance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLimited data highlight the need to understand differences in SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Evidence suggests diabetes management was negatively impacted early in the pandemic. However, the impact of the pandemic on key healthcare services for diabetes control and diabetes self-management practices is less known. We examined changes in diabetes care and management practices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, peak viral loads coincided with symptom onset. We hypothesized that in a highly immune population, symptom onset might occur earlier in infection, coinciding with lower viral loads.
Methods: We assessed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza A viral loads relative to symptom duration in symptomatic adults (≥16 years) presenting for testing in Georgia (4/2022-4/2023; Omicron variant predominant).
Background: Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are one of the most useful tools for studying and understanding diet-disease relationships. However, because FFQs are self-reported data, they are susceptible to response bias, social desirability bias, and misclassification. Currently, several methods have been created to combat these issues by modelling the measurement error in diet-disease relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/importance: Dietary interventions, vitamins, and nutritional supplementation are playing an increasingly important role in the management of neuropathic pain. Current pharmacological treatments are poorly tolerated and ineffective in many cases.
Objective: This systematic review aims to study the efficacy of dietary interventions, vitamins, and nutritional supplementation in the management of chronic neuropathic pain in adults.
Prior literature has established a positive association between sickle cell disease and risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. Data from a cross-sectional study evaluating COVID-19 testing devices (n = 10,567) was used to examine the association between underlying health conditions and SARS-CoV-2 infection in an urban metropolis in the southern United States. Firth's logistic regression was used to fit the model predicting SARS-CoV-2 positivity using vaccine status and different medical conditions commonly associated with COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, peak viral loads coincided with symptom onset. We hypothesized that in a highly immune population, symptom onset might occur earlier in infection, coinciding with lower viral loads.
Methods: We assessed SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viral loads relative to symptom duration in recently-tested adults.
Objectives: Understanding the incidence and characteristics that influence severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine breakthrough infections (VBIs) is imperative for developing public health policies to mitigate the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined these factors and post-vaccination mitigation practices in individuals partially and fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.
Materials And Methods: Adults >18 years old were voluntarily enrolled from a single metro-based SARS-CoV-2 testing network from January to July 2021.
Pediatric liver transplantation rejection affects 20% of children. Currently, liver biopsy, expensive and invasive, is the best method of diagnosis. Discovery and validation of clinical biomarkers from blood or other biospecimens would improve clinical care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViability of saliva samples stored for longer than 28 days has not been reported in the literature. The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned new research evaluating various sample types, thus large biobanks have been started. Residual saliva samples from university student surveillance testing were retested on SalivaDirect and compared with original RT-PCR (cycle threshold values) and quantitative antigen values for each month in storage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: An ideal test for COVID-19 would combine the sensitivity of laboratory-based PCR with the speed and ease of use of point-of-care (POC) or home-based rapid antigen testing. We evaluated clinical performance of the Diagnostic Analyzer for Selective Hybridization (DASH) SARS-CoV-2 POC rapid PCR test.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of adults with and without symptoms of COVID-19 at four clinical sites where we collected two bilateral anterior nasal swabs and information on COVID-19 symptoms, vaccination, and exposure.
Point-of-care screening tools are essential to expedite patient care and decrease reliance on slow diagnostic tools (e.g., microbial cultures) to identify pathogens and their associated antibiotic resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing policies for symptomatic children attending US schools or daycare vary, and whether isolated symptoms should prompt testing is unclear. We evaluated children presenting for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing to determine if the likelihood of having a positive SARS-CoV-2 test differed between participants with 1 symptom vs ≥2 symptoms, and to examine the predictive capability of isolated symptoms.
Methods: Participants aged <18 years presenting for clinical SARS-CoV-2 molecular testing in 6 sites in urban/suburban/rural Georgia (July-October, 2021; Delta variant predominant) were queried about individual symptoms.
Background: Upper respiratory samples for SARS-CoV-2 detection include the gold standard nasopharyngeal (NP) swab, and mid-turbinate (MT) nasal swabs, oropharyngeal (OP) swabs, and saliva. Following the emergence of the omicron (B.1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rapid and accurate testing for SARS-CoV-2 is an essential tool in the medical and public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An ideal test for COVID-19 would combine the sensitivity of laboratory-based PCR combined with the speed and ease of use of point-of-care (POC) or home-based rapid antigen testing.
Methods: To evaluate the performance of the Diagnostic Analyzer for Selective Hybridization (DASH) SARS-CoV-2 POC PCR (sample insertion to result time of 16 minutes), we conducted a cross-sectional study of adults with and without symptoms of COVID-19 at four clinical sites.
One third of the U.S. adult population is estimated to have obesity-associated prediabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong symptomatic outpatients, subgenomic RNA of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in nasal midturbinate swab specimens was concordant with antigen detection but remained detectable in 13 (82.1%) of 16 nasopharyngeal swab specimens from antigen-negative persons. Subgenomic RNA in midturbinate swab specimens might be useful for routine diagnostics to identify active virus replication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of repeated sample collection on COVID-19 test performance is unknown. The FDA and CDC currently recommend the primary collection of diagnostic samples to minimize the perceived risk of false-negative findings. We therefore evaluated the association between repeated sample collection and test performance among 325 symptomatic patients undergoing COVID-19 testing in Atlanta, GA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile there has been significant progress in the development of rapid COVID-19 diagnostics, as the pandemic unfolds, new challenges have emerged, including whether these technologies can reliably detect the more infectious variants of concern and be viably deployed in non-clinical settings as "self-tests". Multidisciplinary evaluation of the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card (BinaxNOW, a widely used rapid antigen test, included limit of detection, variant detection, test performance across different age-groups, and usability with self/caregiver-administration. While BinaxNOW detected the highly infectious variants, B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Exercise and dietary behavioral counseling are effective clinical practices recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to reduce cardiovascular disease risk among high-risk individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF