Opioid Use Disorder and Employee Work Presenteeism, Absences, and Health Care Costs.

Objective: To measure the prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) and employee health care and productivity costs with and without OUD and to assess whether utilization of pharmacotherapy for OUD reduces those costs.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 2016 to 2017 commercial enrollment, health care, and pharmacy claims and health risk assessment data using the IBM MarketScan Databases (Ann Arbor, MI). We estimated regression models to assess the association between OUD and annual employee health care and productivity costs.

Patient factors contributing to variation in same-hospital readmission rate.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Readmission Reduction Program and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovations Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative hold hospitals accountable for readmissions that occur at other hospitals. A few studies have described the extent to which hospital readmissions occur at the original place of treatment (i.e.

National estimates of behavioral health conditions and their treatment among adults newly insured under the ACA.

Objective: Approximately 25 million individuals are projected to gain insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This study estimated the prevalence of behavioral health conditions and their treatment among individuals likely to gain coverage.

Methods: Pooled 2008-2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data for adults (ages 18-64) were used.

Geographic variation in cesarean delivery in the United States by payer.

Background: The rate of cesarean delivery in the United States is variable across geographic areas. The aims of this study are two-fold: (1) to determine whether the geographic variation in cesarean delivery rate is consistent for private insurance and Medicaid (2) to identify the patient, population, and market factors associated with cesarean rate and determine if these factors vary by payer.

Methods: We used the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases (SID) to measure the cesarean rate at the Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) level.

High-resolution behavioral economic analysis of cigarette demand to inform tax policy.

Aims: Novel methods in behavioral economics permit the systematic assessment of the relationship between cigarette consumption and price. Towards informing tax policy, the goals of this study were to conduct a high-resolution analysis of cigarette demand in a large sample of adult smokers and to use the data to estimate the effects of tax increases in 10 US States.

Design: In-person descriptive survey assessment.

The neuroeconomics of nicotine dependence: a preliminary functional magnetic resonance imaging study of delay discounting of monetary and cigarette rewards in smokers.

Neuroeconomics integrates behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience to understand the neurobiological basis for normative and maladaptive decision making. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity that reflects capacity to delay gratification and has been consistently associated with nicotine dependence. This preliminary study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine delay discounting for money and cigarette rewards in 13 nicotine dependent adults.

Modernization and cardiometabolic risk in Samoan adolescents.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factor clustering in Samoan adolescents and to relate risk factor clustering to weight status and general modernization.

Methods: Anthropometric and biochemical data collected from adolescents aged 12-17.9 years who participated in the Samoan Family Study of Overweight and Diabetes were used to describe the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors (high waist circumference, high blood pressure, high triglyceride level, low-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high fasting serum glucose).

Effect of robot-assisted versus conventional body-weight-supported treadmill training on quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis.

This study describes the effect of body-weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) on quality of life (QoL) for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Thirteen individuals with MS and gait impairment randomly received two blocks of six biweekly training sessions: (1) robot-assisted BWSTT then BWSTT alone (R-T) or (2) BWSTT alone then robot-assisted BWSTT (T-R). No statistically significant differences were found between robot-assisted BWSTT and unassisted BWSTT for improving QoL outcome measures.