Evaluating a Novel Disability Education and Awareness Event for Health Professions Trainees.

Background: People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are at high risk for unmet health care needs and face barriers to equitable care, yet few health professions students receive adequate training to meet these needs.

Objectives: An interactive panel discussion with Special Olympics Pennsylvania (SOPA) athletes and staff was planned and implemented so that health professions students/trainees would gain knowledge of IDD, health barriers, SOPA resources, and volunteer opportunities.

Methods: Panelists included two SOPA athletes and their mentors; questions solicited responses about personal health care experiences (Fall 2019).

Retrospective review of the code status of individuals with Down syndrome during the COVID-19 era.

Code status is a label in the medical record indicating a patient's wishes for end-of-life (EOL) care in the event of a cardiopulmonary arrest. People with intellectual disabilities had a higher risk of both diagnosis and mortality from coronavirus infections (COVID-19) than the general population. Clinicians and disability advocates raised concerns that bias, diagnostic overshadowing, and ableism could impact the allocation of code status and treatment options, for patients with intellectual disabilities, including Down syndrome (DS).

A Descriptive, Correlational Study of Perceptions of Adult Kidney Transplant Recipients and Those Waiting for a Kidney Transplant About Managing Their Medications During a Pandemic.

Little is known about COVID-19 impact on patient medication management. The aim was to describe medication management, healthcare team interactions, and adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic in kidney transplant patients and those on the kidney transplant wait list. Using a descriptive, correlational design 340 adults from a midwestern US transplant program were recruited.

Development and implementation of a continuing care program for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities in family medicine.

In the United States, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) consistently experience health disparities. One factor is limited access to quality healthcare services equipped to meet the needs of those with IDD, particularly as they transition to adulthood. The purpose of this work is to describe the development and implementation of Jefferson's Continuing Care Program (JCCP), which was designed to address this care gap.

Navigating Uncertainty in Clinical Practice: A Workshop to Prepare Medical Students to Problem-Solve During Complex Clinical Challenges.

Introduction: Uncertainty is an inherent part of medicine. Prior work has trained medical students to better communicate diagnostic uncertainty; however, this work touches on only one aspect of the uncertainty students will face in practice. We developed a session to provide them with a taxonomy for categorizing the various types of uncertainty, as well as a framework to apply when navigating uncertainty during clinical challenges.

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Navigating the Needs of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities.

As many people with intellectual disabilities (ID) live longer, the need for access to quality palliative care (PC) rises. People with ID realize significant barriers and inequities in accessing health care and PC. The need for integrated disability and PC services with extensive collaboration is great.

The Dearth of Disability Medical Education and a Partial Solution.

: While over one-quarter of adult Americans have a disability, there is a paucity of disability-specific curricula in American medical schools and residency programs. Potential consequences of this educational dearth include persistent inaccessibility of health care facilities and delivery of inequitable health care to individuals with disabilities. : Several working groups have proposed disability-specific competencies for health professions education and means by which to integrate them into existing curricula.

Disparities and outcomes of patients living with Down Syndrome undergoing healthcare transitions from pediatric to adult care: A scoping review.

Down Syndrome (DS) is one of the most common chromosomal disorders worldwide, and people with DS experience more co-morbidities and have poorer health outcomes compared to the general population. An area that is not well understood is how patients with DS transition from pediatric to adult care, as well as the details, barriers, and difficulties of these transitions for patients. Hence, we aimed to provide a scoping review of the literature in PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL on the topic of healthcare transitions (HCTs) for patients with DS.

Pneumonia and respiratory infections in Down syndrome: A scoping review of the literature.

Pneumonia and respiratory infections impact infants and children with Down syndrome; pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality in adults with Down syndrome. We aimed to review the literature to evaluate gaps and address key questions. A series of key questions were formulated a priori to inform the search strategy and review process; addressed prevalence, severity, etiology, risk factors, preventive methods, screening, and financial costs, potential benefits or harms of screening.

Improving Immunization Coverage in Special Populations.

This highlights the key recommendations for immunization in the setting of chronic disease, children and adults with special needs, and health care providers. Immunization is an effective strategy to reduce the burden of suffering and cost of care from chronic disease. Standard child and adolescent and adult immunization schedules identify categories of high-risk conditions and chronic diseases.

Mindfulness, Education, and Exercise for age-related cognitive decline: Study protocol, pilot study results, and description of the baseline sample.

Background/aims: Age-related cognitive decline is a pervasive problem in our aging population. To date, no pharmacological treatments to halt or reverse cognitive decline are available. Behavioral interventions, such as physical exercise and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, may reduce or reverse cognitive decline, but rigorously designed randomized controlled trials are needed to test the efficacy of such interventions.

Co-occurring medical conditions in adults with Down syndrome: A systematic review toward the development of health care guidelines. Part II.

Adults with Down syndrome (DS) represent a unique population who are in need of clinical guidelines to address their medical care. Many of these conditions are of public health importance with the potential to develop screening recommendations to improve clinical care for this population. Our workgroup previously identified and prioritized co-occurring medical conditions in adults with DS.

Daily Marital Tension and Symptom Severity in Older Adults With Diabetes or Osteoarthritis.

Background: Greater marital quality is associated with better psychological and physical health. The quality of daily marital interactions is likely to be especially important for individuals with chronic illness, but this question has received little attention.

Purpose: Using data from two diary studies, the current study examined whether individuals with chronic illness would experience more severe symptoms on days with more marital tension due in part to greater negative affect on those days.

Co-occurring medical conditions in adults with Down syndrome: A systematic review toward the development of health care guidelines.

Adults with Down syndrome (DS) represent a unique population who are in need of clinical guidelines to address their medical care. The United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) has developed criteria for prioritizing conditions of public health importance with the potential for providing screening recommendations to improve clinical care. The quality of existing evidence needed to inform clinical guidelines has not been previously reviewed.

Program Evaluation of the Inner South Community Health Oral Health Program for Priority Populations.

Background: This study evaluated an Oral Health Program for Priority Populations (OHPPP) in the Inner South of Melbourne, Victoria.

Methods: Social Ecological Theory and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework informed the study. It involved administering satisfaction questionnaires to 29 clients and conducting eight in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with either clients, health care workers or partner agencies.

Independent and Interactive Effects of OPRM1 and DAT1 Polymorphisms on Alcohol Consumption and Subjective Responses in Social Drinkers.

Background: The current study examined independent and interactive effects of polymorphisms of the mu opioid receptor gene (OPRM1, A118G) and variable number tandem repeats of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1, SLC6A3) on alcohol consumption and subjective responses to alcohol in 127 young, healthy, social drinkers.

Methods: Participants completed an in-person assessment, which included self-reported alcohol drinking patterns and blood sampling for DNA, and in a second visit, a cumulative alcohol dosing procedure with subjective ratings across multiple time points and breath alcohol contents (0.03 to 0.

Anxiety, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Perceived Stress as Predictors of Recent Drinking, Alcohol Craving, and Social Stress Response in Heavy Drinkers.

Background: Stress and anxiety are widely considered to be causally related to alcohol craving and consumption, as well as development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, numerous preclinical and human studies examining effects of stress or anxiety on alcohol use and alcohol-related problems have been equivocal. This study examined relationships between scores on self-report anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and stress measures and frequency and intensity of recent drinking, alcohol craving during early withdrawal, as well as laboratory measures of alcohol craving and stress reactivity among heavy drinkers with AUD.

Spouse confidence and physical function among adults with osteoarthritis: The mediating role of spouse responses to pain.

Objective: This study of adults with osteoarthritis and their spouses examined spouse responses to patients' pain as mediators of the associations between spouse confidence in patients' ability to manage arthritis and improvements in patients' physical function and activity levels over time.

Method: Participants were 152 older adults with knee osteoarthritis and their spouses. In-person interviews were conducted with patients and spouses (separately) at 3 time points: baseline (Time[T] 1), 6 months after baseline (T2), and 18 months after baseline (T3).