A qualitative study of tobacco dependence treatment in 19 US dental hygiene programs.

Introduction: The US Public Health Service calls for health professionals to provide tobacco dependence counseling for patients. The purpose of this study was to understand how dental hygiene programs make decisions about and provide training for tobacco dependence counseling to help them graduate more fully competent hygienists.

Methods: We conducted interviews (N = 32) with mainly program and clinic directors from 19 US dental hygiene education programs for this qualitative case study.

Perspectives on Latino lay health promoter programs: Maryland, 2009.

Objectives: We examined common barriers and best practices in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Latino lay health promoter programs.

Methods: Ten lay health promoter program coordinators serving Maryland Latinos were recruited in 2009 through snowball sampling for in-depth semistructured interviews with a bilingual and bicultural researcher. Program coordinators were asked about recruitment, selection, training, and supervision; key program elements; and evaluation.

Integration and standardization within the Mayo Foundation Laboratories: the centralized laboratory purchasing group.

Integration and standardization of laboratories throughout a medical system can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of laboratory operations. This task is challenging in most health-care systems, as no central governance exists to compel laboratories to standardize and integrate. We describe the initial collaborative efforts to integrate and standardize the laboratories of the Mayo Foundation, which includes more than 60 laboratories of different sizes in diverse locations.

Effect of less frequent bathing on premature infant skin.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of less frequent bathing on skin flora of premature infants.

Design: Randomized clinical trial comparing the impact of every other day bathing to every 4th day bathing on skin flora type and colony count.

Setting: University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center Level IV neonatal intensive-care unit.

Nucleated red blood cell counts: not associated with brain injury or outcome.

The objective was to determine whether an elevated nucleated red blood cell count at birth after perinatal depression is associated with brain injury as measured by (1) proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and (2) abnormal neurodevelopmental outcome at 30 months of age. The nucleated red blood cell counts from the first 24 hours of life were statistically analyzed in 33 term infants enrolled in a prospective study of the value of magnetic resonance imaging for the determination of neurodevelopmental outcome after perinatal depression. Nucleated red blood cell counts were elevated in 13/33 (39%).

Serial quantitative diffusion tensor MRI of the premature brain: development in newborns with and without injury.

Purpose: To determine the change over time of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and relative anisotropy of cerebral water in a cohort of premature newborns serially studied near birth and again near term.

Materials And Methods: Newborns were classified as normal (N = 11), minimal white matter injury (N = 7), or moderate white matter injury (N = 5).

Results: ADC decreased significantly with age in all brain regions in newborns classified as normal and those with minimal white matter injury.

Predictors of 30-month outcome after perinatal depression: role of proton MRS and socioeconomic factors.

The objective was to determine in infants with perinatal depression whether the relative concentrations of N-acetylaspartate and lactate in the neonatal period are associated with (1) neurodevelopmental outcome at 30 mo of age or (2) deterioration in outcome from age 12 to 30 mo; and to determine whether socioeconomic factors are associated with deterioration in outcome. Thirty-seven term neonates were prospectively studied with single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the basal nuclei and intervascular boundary zones. Thirty-month outcomes were classified as normal [if Mental Development Index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (MDI) >85 and neuromotor scores (NMS) <3; n = 15], abnormal [if MDI or=3 at 12 and 30 mo; n = 11], or deteriorated [if normal at 12 mo and abnormal at 30 mo (MDI or=3); n = 11].