Community Health Worker Activities in Public Health Programs to Prevent Violence: Coding Roles and Scope.

In multiple and related forms, violence is a serious public health issue with lasting impacts on health and wellness in the United States. Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers and trusted members of communities. We aimed to analyze recent examples of CHW activities in violence prevention public health programs with a goal of informing future programs and research.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Emergency Department Intervention for Patients with Chronic Noncancer Pain.

Background: Emergency Departments (EDs) are beginning to notify their physicians of patients reporting chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) who frequent EDs, and are suggesting that the physicians not prescribe opioids to these patients.

Objectives: We hypothesized that this intervention would reduce both the number of opioids prescribed to these patients by their ED physicians and the number of these patients' return visits to the ED.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of this intervention in 13 electronically linked EDs.

The effects of North Carolina's prescription drug monitoring program on the prescribing behaviors of the state's providers.

State-level prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) show promise as a key strategy to respond to the epidemic of the misuse and abuse of controlled substances (CS), particularly opioid analgesics, in the United States. Undocumented concerns have been expressed that these PDMPs may have a "chilling effect" on providers' willingness to prescribe these substances to their patients. Using data from North Carolina's PDMP for the 3-year period from 2009 through 2011, we examined whether rapid increases in (1) the number of providers who queried the system, and (2) the number of days on which they queried it, would be related to their prescribing practices in regards to CS.

North Carolina Medicaid recipient management lock-in program: the pharmacist's perspective.

Background: The misuse and abuse of prescription opioids have become an urgent health issue in North Carolina (NC), particularly among Medicaid patients who suffer high rates of morbidity and mortality due to abuse and overdose. The NC Division of Medical Assistance (DMA) implemented a recipient management lock-in program, which limits identified patients for a 12-month period to 1 prescriber and 1 pharmacy for benzodiazepine, opiate, and certain anxiolytic prescriptions in order to prevent misuse and reduce overutilization of Medicaid benefits. 

Objectives: To (a) evaluate pharmacists' perceptions of the implementation of the NC recipient management lock-in program (MLIP) and (b) determine how the beliefs and attitudes of pharmacists could promote or inhibit its success.

Differential prescribing of opioid analgesics according to physician specialty for Medicaid patients with chronic noncancer pain diagnoses.

Background: Despite >20 years of studies investigating the characteristics of patients seeking or receiving opioid analgesics, research characterizing factors associated with physicians' opioid prescribing practices has been inconclusive, and the role of practitioner specialty in opioid prescribing practices remains largely unknown.

Objective: To examine the relationships between physicians' and other providers' primary specialties and their opioid prescribing practices among patients with chronic noncancer pain (CNCP).

Methods: Prescriptions for opioids filled by 81,459 Medicaid patients with CNCP in North Carolina (USA), 18 to 64 years of age, enrolled at any point during a one-year study period were examined.

Development of a Set of Indicators to Evaluate Injury Control Research Centers.

Background: Few methods have been defined for evaluating the individual and collective impacts of academic research centers. In this project, with input from injury center directors, we systematically defined indicators to assess the progress and contributions of individual Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) and, ultimately, to monitor progress of the overall injury center program.

Method: We used several methods of deriving a list of recommended priority and supplemental indicators.

Statistical methods for designing and assessing the effectiveness of community-based interventions with small numbers.

Community-based interventions are, by their nature, tailored to the particular needs of the members and stakeholders of the community. In the area of safety promotion, the multifaceted aspects of violence and unintentional injuries necessitate complex intertwining of strategies and approaches. The evaluation of the effectiveness of any 'intervention' programme, either as a whole or of its discrete components, is thus challenging.

Physical and sexual violence among North Carolina women: associations with physical health, mental health, and functional impairment.

Objective: This study examines links between women's experiences of violence during adulthood (including physical and sexual violence) and women's physical health, mental health, and functional status.

Methods: Data were analyzed from a representative sample of 9,830 North Carolina women surveyed by the North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Results: One-quarter of the women experienced violence as adults, with current or ex-partners being the most common perpetrators.