Strategic and Performance Planning in US Local Health Departments: A Comparative Analysis of Strategic, Community Health Improvement, and Quality Improvement Plans.

Context: Local health departments (LHDs) are a critical component of the US public health infrastructure. To guide their work and evaluate progress, LHDs develop and maintain a range of planning documents, including strategic plans (SPs), community health improvement plans (CHIPs), and quality improvement plans (QIPs).

Objective: The goal of this study was to provide information on current LHD practices related to strategic planning and performance improvement.

Exploring HIV risk perception mechanisms among youth in a test-and-treat trial in Kenya and Uganda.

Understanding risk perception and risk-taking among youth can inform targeted prevention efforts. Using a health beliefs model-informed framework, we analysed 8 semi-structured, gender-specific focus group discussions with 93 youth 15-24 years old (48% male, 52% female), drawn from the SEARCH trial in rural Kenya and Uganda in 2017-2018, coinciding with the widespread introduction of PrEP. Highly connected social networks and widespread uptake of antiretrovirals shaped youth HIV risk perception.

Remote and Equitable Inductive Analysis for Global Health Teams: Using Digital Tools to Foster Equity and Collaboration in Qualitative Global Health Research via the R-EIGHT Method.

encompass a variety of research and analysis techniques which have the common aim of uncovering what cannot be captured numerically through the quantification of data. For qualitative analytical methods in the interpretivist tradition (e.g.

Condom, modern contraceptive, and dual method use are associated with HIV status and relationship concurrency in a context of high mobility: A cross-sectional study of women of reproductive age in rural Kenya and Uganda, 2016.

Objectives: Mobility (international/internal migration, and localized mobility) is a key driver of the HIV epidemic. While mobility is associated with higher-risk sexual behavior in women, a possible association with condom, modern contraceptive, and dual method use among women living with HIV (WLHIV), is unknown. In addition, HIV status and sexual behaviors such as relationship concurrency may also affect condom, modern contraceptive, and dual method use.

"I was still very young": agency, stigma and HIV care strategies at school, baseline results of a qualitative study among youth in rural Kenya and Uganda.

Introduction: Adolescents and young adults living with HIV (AYAH) have the lowest rates of retention in HIV care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, partly due to the demands of school associated with this life stage, to HIV-related stigma and to fears of serostatus disclosure. We explore the implications of school-based stigma and disclosure on the development of agency during a critical life stage in rural Kenya and Uganda.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in the baseline year of the SEARCH Youth study, a combination intervention using a life-stage approach among youth (15-24 years old) living with HIV in western Kenya and southwestern Uganda to improve viral load suppression and health outcomes.

Sexual partnership concurrency and age disparities associated with sexually transmitted infection and risk behavior in rural communities in Kenya and Uganda.

Objectives: We examined sex-specific associations of partner age disparity and relationship concurrency with Neisseria gonorrhoeae and/or Chlamydia trachomatis (NG/CT) infection, higher-risk relationships, and condom use as proxies for HIV risk.

Methods: Data were collected in 2016 from 2179 adults in 12 communities in Uganda and Kenya. Logistic regression models examined associations of age disparity and relationship concurrency with NG/CT infection, condom use, and higher-risk (commercial sex and other higher-risk) relationships in the past 6 months, controlling for covariates.

Albuminuria Testing by Race and Ethnicity among Patients with Hypertension with and without Diabetes.

Background: Detection of chronic kidney disease (CKD) with urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) among patients with hypertension (HTN) provides an opportunity for early treatment, potentially mitigating risk of CKD progression and cardiovascular complications. Differences in UACR testing patterns among racial/ethnic populations at risk for CKD could contribute to known disparities in CKD complications.

Methods: We examined the prevalence of UACR testing among low-income adult primary care patients with HTN, defined by a new administrative code for HTN or 2 clinic blood pressures >140/90 mm Hg between January 1, 2014, and January 1, 2017, in one public health-care delivery system with a high prevalence of end-stage kidney disease among race/ethnic minorities.

San Francisco Health Initiative: Creating Agents of Change to Build Capacity for Free Clinic Research.

San Francisco Health Initiative (SFHI) is an undergraduate student organization founded in 2017 that works to address community issues in health by increasing awareness of high school students to relevant topics; it is expected that their increased awareness of local issues in health, coupled with improved access to higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), will expand the capacity of the free clinic workforce. SFHI has collaborated with local high schools in San Francisco to actualize this mission by conducting five workshops on the following topics: (1) environmental and racial health disparities, (2) racial disparities amongst people who suffer from chronic disease, (3) social pressure defined and assessed, (4) the basis of disease as a preventative health measure, and (5) effects of adiposity in the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). SFHI aims to create an affirming and inclusive environment that spurs high schools to pursue a college degree in a STEM field and to consider a career serving in a free clinic.