Repeated depression screening during the first postpartum year.

Purpose: Postpartum depression (PPD) screening at 4 to 12 weeks' postpartum can improve outcomes for women when linked to in-practice management programs. The benefit of repeated PPD screening during the first year postpartum remains unclear.

Methods: We report a substudy of a large pragmatic trial of early PPD screening and practice management, the Translating Research into Practice for Postpartum Depression (TRIPPD) study.

Herpes zoster vaccine effectiveness and manifestations of herpes zoster and associated pain by vaccination status.

Options for managing herpes zoster (HZ)-related pain and complications have limited effectiveness, making HZ prevention through vaccination an important strategy. Limited data are available on HZ vaccine effectiveness against confirmed HZ and manifestations of HZ among vaccinated persons. We conducted a matched case-control study to assess HZ vaccine effectiveness for prevention of HZ and other HZ-related outcomes and a cohort study of persons with HZ to compare HZ-related outcomes by vaccination status.

Preventing the voltage drop: keeping practice-based research network (PBRN) practices engaged in studies.

Introduction: Practice-based research continues to evolve and has become a major methodology for many pragmatic studies. While early practice-based network projects were usually short term, current studies often introduce or compare practice innovations that require long-term evaluation. That change requires that practice sites remain engaged in research work for up to 5 years, a time that can allow for a significant "voltage drop," or decline in active participation.

Communication is the key to success in pragmatic clinical trials in Practice-based Research Networks (PBRNs).

Effective communication is the foundation of feasibility and fidelity in practice-based pragmatic research studies. Doing a study with practices spread over several states requires long-distance communication strategies, including E-mails, faxes, telephone calls, conference calls, and texting. Compared with face-to-face communication, distance communication strategies are less familiar to most study coordinators and research teams.

Shared decision making for patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial in primary care.

Background: Patient-centered diabetes care requires shared decision making (SDM). Decision aids promote SDM, but their efficacy in nonacademic and rural primary care clinics is unclear.

Methods: We cluster-randomized 10 practices in a concealed fashion to implement either a decision aid (DA) about starting statins or one about choosing antihyperglycemic agents.

Herpes zoster recurrences more frequent than previously reported.

Objective: To present population-based estimates of herpes zoster (HZ) recurrence rates among adults.

Patients And Methods: To identify recurrent cases of HZ, we reviewed the medical records (through December 31, 2007) of all Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents aged 22 years or older who had an incident case of HZ between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2001. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models were used to describe recurrences by age, immune status, and presence of prolonged pain at the time of the incident HZ episode.

Practice-based research network studies and institutional review boards: two new issues.

Background: Practice-based research network (PBRN) study investigators must interface with multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), many of which are unfamiliar with PBRN research.

Objective: To present 2 IRB-related issues that have not appeared in the literature but occurred during the course of a large 5-year PBRN study involving 32 sites dispersed around the United States.

Results: Our study required IRB approval from a total of 19 local, hospital, academic center, and professional organization-based IRBs that reviewed a protocol of postpartum depression screening and follow-up completed in English or Spanish.

A population-based study of the incidence and complication rates of herpes zoster before zoster vaccine introduction.

Objective: To establish accurate, up-to-date, baseline epidemiological data for herpes zoster (HZ) before the introduction of the recently licensed HZ vaccine.

Methods: Using data from January 1, 1996, to October 15, 2005, we conducted a population-based study of adult residents (Greater than or equal to 22 years) of Olmsted County, MN, to determine (by medical record review) the incidence of HZ and the rate of HZ-related complications. Incidence rates were determined by age and sex and adjusted to the US population.

Comparison of parent and student responses to asthma surveys: students grades 3-12 and their parents from a suburban private school setting.

Schools are being called upon to help address asthma, a common problem in school-aged children. School-based asthma programs need information about asthma diagnoses, asthma symptoms, and asthma's impact on school attendance. Parent or student surveys are the most common method of collecting these data.

Feasibility of school-based spirometry screening for asthma.

To determine the feasibility and value of spirometry in school-based asthma screening, spirometry testing was coupled with parent questionnaires in a school-based asthma screening project. Children in grades five to eight of the Catholic school system in Rochester, Minn., performed spirometry with coaching and data acquisition by nurses trained for this activity.

A longitudinal study of the prevalence of asthma in a community population of school-age children.

Objective: Using a unique county-wide resource that links all health care providers' medical records to assess current and "ever" prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma. To describe the age and sex rates and temporal trends in new asthma diagnoses and associations with race and socio-economic status.

Study Design: A longitudinal retrospective evaluation of a population-based cohort of school children using linked medical and school records.