Herpetic Eye Disease Study: A Controlled Trial of Topical Corticosteroids for Herpes Simplex Stromal Keratitis.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of topical corticosteroids in treating herpes simplex stromal keratitis.

Methods: The authors performed a randomized, double-masked, placebo-con- trolled, multicenter clinical trial of 106 patients with active herpes simplex stromal keratitis who had not received any corticosteroids for at least 10 days before study enrollment. Patients were assigned to the placebo group (n = 49) or the steroid group (topical prednisolone phosphate; n = 57); both regimens were tapered over 10 weeks.

Associations between housing instability and food insecurity with health care access in low-income children.

Objective: Homelessness and hunger are associated with poor health care access among children. Housing instability and food insecurity represent milder and more prevalent forms of homelessness and hunger. The aim of this study was to determine the association between housing instability and food insecurity with children's health care access and acute health care utilization.

Homelessness and health care access after emancipation: results from the Midwest Evaluation of Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth.

Objective: To estimate the association between housing status and health care access and outcomes among young adults aging out of the child welfare system.

Design: Prospective cohort study

Setting: Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Baseline interviews were conducted between May 2002 and March 2003 and follow-up interviews, between March and December 2004.

Hospitalized younger: a comparison of a national sample of homeless and housed inpatient veterans.

Background: Homelessness is associated with high rates of hospitalizations and age-adjusted mortality. Few studies have examined whether homeless people are admitted to the hospital at an earlier age than the general population or for different diagnoses.

Methods: We compared the age at admission and the primary discharge diagnoses in a national sample of 43,868 hospitalized veterans.

Sexual and injection risk among women who inject methamphetamine in San Francisco.

Methamphetamine (MA) use is on the rise in the United States, with many cities reporting increases of 100% or more in MA-related Emergency Department (ED) mentions. Women are keeping pace with this trend: in 2003, 40% of ED mentions and 45% of MA-related treatment admissions were female. Although there have been extensive examinations of MA use and HIV/STI risk among gay men in recent years, literature regarding female MA users is scarce.

Housing instability and food insecurity as barriers to health care among low-income Americans.

Background: Homelessness and hunger are associated with poor health outcomes. Housing instability and food insecurity describe less severe problems securing housing and food.

Objective: To determine the association between housing instability and food insecurity and access to ambulatory health care and rates of acute health care utilization.

Identifying homelessness at an urban public hospital: a moving target?

Hospitals do not routinely collect data about homelessness. The objectives of the present study were to (1) describe rate of patient reports of homelessness among inpatients at a public hospital, (2) assess the agreement between patient report of housing status on a study questionnaire with clinical and administrative data about homelessness, and (3) assess changes in housing status during hospitalization. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of inpatients at an urban public hospital to assess housing status; we then examined subjects' medical charts to assess agreement with the questionnaire on housing status.

Naloxone distribution and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for injection drug users to prevent heroin overdose death: a pilot intervention study.

Fatal heroin overdose has become a leading cause of death among injection drug users (IDUs). Several recent feasibility studies have concluded that naloxone distribution programs for heroin injectors should be implemented to decrease heroin over-dose deaths, but there have been no prospective trials of such programs in North America. This pilot study was undertaken to investigate the safety and feasibility of training injection drug using partners to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and administer naloxone in the event of heroin overdose.

HIV prevalence and risk behaviors among men who have sex with men and inject drugs in San Francisco.

The dual risks of male-to-male sex and drug injection have put men who have sex with men and inject drugs (MSM-IDU) at the forefront of the HIV epidemic, with the highest rates of infection among any risk group in the United.States. This study analyzes data collected from 357 MSM-IDU in San Francisco between 1998 and 2002 to examine how risk behaviors differ by HIV serostatus and self-identified sexual orientation and to assess medical and social service utilization among HIV-positive MSM-IDU.

A randomized controlled trial of monetary incentives vs. outreach to enhance adherence to the hepatitis B vaccine series among injection drug users.

Background: Injection drug users (IDUs) are at high-risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HIV. Due to concerns about non-adherence to multi-dose vaccine regimens however, IDUs are severely under-immunized against HBV and have been excluded from phase III trials of multi-dose candidate HIV vaccines in the United States.

Methods: Through a randomized controlled trial, we compared the effectiveness of monetary incentives versus outreach to improve IDUs' adherence to the 3-dose hepatitis B vaccine.

Spit (Smokeless) Tobacco Intervention for High School Athletes: results after 1 year.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of a spit tobacco (ST) intervention designed to promote ST cessation and discourage ST initiation among male high school baseball athletes.

Methods: This study was a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Forty-four randomly selected high schools in rural California were randomized within strata (prevalence of ST use and number and size of baseball teams) to either the intervention or the control group.

Trends in human immunodeficiency virus seroincidence among street-recruited injection drug users in San Francisco, 1987-1998.

This paper reports trends in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence among street-recruited injection drug users (IDUs) in San Francisco, California, from 1987 through 1998, estimated using a sensitive/less sensitive enzyme immunoassay testing strategy. IDUs were enrolled in 23 semiannual cross-sections from three community sites. For identification of recent infections, less sensitive enzyme immunoassay testing was performed on stored specimens that had previously tested positive for HIV antibodies.