Developing a Youth-Led Digital Hypertension Education Intervention for Adults With Hypertension: Qualitative Study on Refinement and Acceptability.

Background: Hypertension affects one-third of adults in the United States and is the leading risk factor for death. Underserved populations are seen disproportionately in the emergency department (ED) and tend to have worse blood pressure (BP) control. For adults, a lack of hypertension knowledge is a common barrier to hypertension control, while social support is a strong facilitator, and providing information that is culturally sensitive and relevant is especially important in this context.

Stress and Infant Media Exposure During COVID-19: A Study Among Latino Families.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately harmed Latino families; however, its effects on their stress and media routines remain understudied. We examined economic and parenting stress patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimated associations between these forms of stress and nonadherence to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) infant media exposure recommendations among Latino families. We also explored how nonadherence with AAP recommendations varied with COVID-19 cases.

Maximizing the impact of reach out and read literacy promotion:anticipatory guidance and modeling.

Background: Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a multi-component pediatric literacy promotion intervention. However, few studies link ROR components to outcomes. We examine associations between receipt of (1) multiple ROR components and (2) clinician modeling, a potential best practice, with enhanced home literacy environments (EHLEs) among Latino families.

More Accessible COVID-19 Treatment Through Monoclonal Antibody Infusion in the Emergency Department.

Introduction: Monoclonal antibody (MAB) infusion is the first treatment to manage coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in an outpatient setting. Yet increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness may occur from inequities in social determinants of health including access to quality healthcare. Given the safety-net nature of emergency departments (ED), a model that puts them at the center of MAB infusion may better reach underserved patients than models that require physician referral and distribute MAB at outpatient infusion centers.

Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer: Review from the American Society of Breast Surgeons COVID-19 and Mastery Registries.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in rapid and regionally different approaches to breast cancer care.

Methods: In order to evaluate these changes, a COVID-19-specific registry was developed within the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) Mastery that tracked whether decisions were usual or modified for COVID-19. Data on patient care entered into the COVID-19-specific registry and the ASBrS Mastery registry from 1 March 2020 to 15 March 2021 were reviewed.

The Effect of Forced Cough to Minimize Pain and Discomfort at the Time of Colposcopy-Guided Cervical Biopsy.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether forced cough during colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy affected pain and anxiety levels.

Materials And Methods: The study was conducted at the University Hospital (Newark, NJ) Ambulatory Care Center from December 2016 to June 2018 and evaluated 110 patients at the time of a colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy. Study patients were randomized to either cough or no cough group during the biopsy procedure.

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) blood levels after contamination of a community water supply and comparison with 2013-2014 NHANES.

Introduction: Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), were detected in the community water supply of Paulsboro New Jersey in 2009.

Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolled 192 claimants from a class-action lawsuit, not affiliated with this study, who had been awarded a blood test for 13 PFAS. Study participants provided their blood test results and completed a survey about demographics; 105 participants also completed a health survey.

Lead Content of Sindoor, a Hindu Religious Powder and Cosmetic: New Jersey and India, 2014-2015.

Objectives: To assess the extent of lead content of sindoor, a powder used by Hindus for religious and cultural purposes, which has been linked to childhood lead poisoning when inadvertently ingested.

Methods: We purchased 95 samples of sindoor from 66 South Asian stores in New Jersey and 23 samples from India and analyzed samples with atomic absorption spectrophotometry methods for lead.

Results: Analysis determined that 79 (83.

Association of prenatal perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate exposure with neonatal size and gestational age.

Background: Perchlorate and similar anions compete with iodine for uptake into the thyroid by the sodium iodide symporter (NIS). This may restrict fetal growth via impaired thyroid hormone production.

Methods: We collected urine samples from 107 pregnant women and used linear regression to estimate differences in newborn size and gestational age associated with increases in perchlorate, thiocyanate, nitrate, and perchlorate equivalence concentrations (PEC; measure of total NIS inhibitor exposure).

Aldehydes in Relation to Air Pollution Sources: A Case Study around the Beijing Olympics.

This study was carried out to characterize three aldehydes of health concern (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein) at a central Beijing site in the summer and early fall of 2008 (from June to October). Aldehydes in polluted atmospheres come from both primary and secondary sources, which limits the control strategies for these reactive compounds. Measurements were made before, during, and after the Beijing Olympics to examine whether the dramatic air pollution control measures implemented during the Olympics had an impact on concentrations of the three aldehydes and their underlying primary and secondary sources.

Variability in bioreactivity linked to changes in size and zeta potential of diesel exhaust particles in human immune cells.

Acting as fuel combustion catalysts to increase fuel economy, cerium dioxide (ceria, CeO2) nanoparticles have been used in Europe as diesel fuel additives (Envirox™). We attempted to examine the effects of particles emitted from a diesel engine burning either diesel (diesel exhaust particles, DEP) or diesel doped with various concentrations of CeO2 (DEP-Env) on innate immune responses in THP-1 and primary human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Batches of DEP and DEP-Env were obtained on three separate occasions using identical collection and extraction protocols with the aim of determining the reproducibility of particles generated at different times.

Black Medicaid beneficiaries experience breast cancer treatment delays more frequently than whites.

Objective: Delays in treatment initiation may contribute to the poorer breast cancer survival among Black women compared with Whites. Lower socioeconomic status and lack of access to care are other reasons for the observed disparities. We, therefore, examined racial differences in treatment delays for early breast cancer in a similarly insured population of Medicaid beneficiaries.

Frailty Modeling via the Empirical Bayes Hastings Sampler.

Studies of ocular disease and analyses of time to disease onset are complicated by the correlation expected between the two eyes from a single patient. We overcome these statistical modeling challenges through a nonparametric Bayesian frailty model. While this model suggests itself as a natural one for such complex data structures, model fitting routines become overwhelmingly complicated and computationally intensive given the nonparametric form assumed for the frailty distribution and baseline hazard function.

Alteration of peripheral blood monocyte gene expression in humans following diesel exhaust inhalation.

Context: Epidemiologic associations between acutely increased cardiorespiratory morbidity and mortality and particulate air pollution are well established, but the effects of acute pollution exposure on human gene expression changes are not well understood.

Objective: In order to identify potential mechanisms underlying epidemiologic associations between air pollution and morbidity, we explored changes in gene expression in humans following inhalation of fresh diesel exhaust (DE), a model for particulate air pollution.

Materials And Methods: Fourteen ethnically homogeneous (white males), young, healthy subjects underwent 60-min inhalation exposures on 2 separate days with clean filtered air (CA) or freshly generated and diluted DE at a concentration of 300 μg/m(3) PM(2.

Suppression of the NF-κB pathway by diesel exhaust particles impairs human antimycobacterial immunity.

Epidemiological studies suggest that chronic exposure to air pollution increases susceptibility to respiratory infections, including tuberculosis in humans. A possible link between particulate air pollutant exposure and antimycobacterial immunity has not been explored in human primary immune cells. We hypothesized that exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEP), a major component of urban fine particulate matter, suppresses antimycobacterial human immune effector cell functions by modulating TLR-signaling pathways and NF-κB activation.

Biochemical and morphological consequences of human α-synuclein expression in a mouse α-synuclein null background.

A consensus about the functions of human wild-type or mutated α-synuclein (αSYN) is lacking. Both forms of αSYN are implicated in Parkinson's disease, whereas the wild-type form is implicated in substance abuse. Interactions with other cellular proteins and organelles may meditate its functions.

Diesel exhaust particle exposure causes redistribution of endothelial tube VE-cadherin.

Whether diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) potentially have a direct effect on capillary endothelia was examined by following the adherens junction component, vascular endothelial cell cadherin (VE-cadherin). This molecule is incorporated into endothelial adherens junctions at the cell surface, where it forms homodimeric associations with adjacent cells and contributes to the barrier function of the vasculature (Dejana et al., 2008; Venkiteswaran et al.

Using Learning Teams for Reflective Adaptation (ULTRA): insights from a team-based change management strategy in primary care.

Purpose: The Using Learning Teams for Reflective Adaptation (ULTRA) study used facilitated reflective adaptive process (RAP) teams to enhance communication and decision making in hopes of improving adherence to multiple clinical guidelines; however, the study failed to show significant clinical improvements. The purpose of this study was to examine qualitative data from 25 intervention practices to understand how they engaged in a team-based collaborative change management strategy and the types of issues they addressed.

Methods: We analyzed field notes and interviews from a multimethod practice assessment, as well as field notes and audio-taped recordings from RAP meetings, using an iterative group process and an immersion-crystallization approach.

Features of the Chronic Care Model (CCM) associated with behavioral counseling and diabetes care in community primary care.

Background: The Chronic Care Model (CCM) was developed to improve chronic disease care, but it may also inform delivery of other types of preventive care. Using hierarchical analyses of service delivery to patients, we explored associations of CCM implementation with diabetes care and counseling for diet or weight loss and physical activity in community-based primary care offices.

Methods: Secondary analysis focused on baseline data from 25 practices (with an average of 4 physicians per practice) participating in an intervention trial targeting improved colorectal cancer screening rates.

Intraclass correlation estimates for cancer screening outcomes: estimates and applications in the design of group-randomized cancer screening studies.

Background: Screening has become one of our best tools for early detection and prevention of cancer. The group-randomized trial is the most rigorous experimental design for evaluating multilevel interventions. However, identifying the proper sample size for a group-randomized trial requires reliable estimates of intraclass correlation (ICC) for screening outcomes, which are not available to researchers.

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: case reports and review of literature.

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is an uncommon benign disorder of the breast that can mimic two frequent breast disorders, breast carcinoma and breast abscess. In this report, we present two patients seen in a community teaching hospital over a period of one year, diagnosed with IGM after histological evaluation. One patient responded well to immunosuppressive therapy, but the second patient required bilateral mastectomy due to the severe and recurrent nature of the disease.

Toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of paraquat accumulation in mouse brain.

Paraquat (PQ) is a potential human neurotoxicant and is used in models of oxidative stress. We determined the toxicokinetics (TK) and toxicodynamics (TD) of PQ in adult mouse brain following repeated or prolonged PQ exposure. PQ accumulated in different brain regions and reached a plateau after approximately 18 i.

Improving outcomes for high-risk diabetics using information systems.

Background: Diabetes care requires management of complex clinical information. We examine the relationship between diabetic outcomes and practices' use of information.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of baseline data from 50 community primary care practices participating in a practice improvement project.