Implementation Science for HIV Prevention and Treatment in Indigenous Communities: a Systematic Review and Commentary.

Purpose Of Review: We systematically reviewed implementation research conducted in Indigenous communities in the Americas and the Pacific that focused on improving delivery of HIV preventive or treatment services. We highlight strengths and opportunities in the literature and outline principles for Indigenous-led, HIV-related implementation science.

Recent Findings: We identified 31 studies, revealing a consistent emphasis on cultural tailoring of services to Indigenous communities.

Racism and Health Among Aotearoa New Zealand Young People Aged 15-24 years: Analysis of Multiple National Surveys.

Purpose: This Aotearoa New Zealand-based study addresses a gap in literature focusing on individual experiences of racism among adolescents and young adults and its links to health.

Methods: This cross-sectional study uses data from multiple instances of the New Zealand Health Survey (2002/03, 2006/07, 2011/12, 2016/17) and General Social Survey (2008-2016) restricted to participants aged 15-24 years. Prevalence of reported experiences of racism are estimated.

Measuring Māori Health, Wellbeing, and Disability in Aotearoa Using a Web-Based Survey Methodology.

High-quality evidence on the prevalence and impact of health, wellbeing, and disability among Māori, and other Indigenous peoples, is crucial for mitigating health inequities. Current surveys are predominantly centred within a biomedical paradigm, with the constructs mismatched with Indigenous worldviews. We aimed to develop and deploy an accessible and culturally grounded survey exploring Māori health, wellbeing, and disability using a Kaupapa Māori Research methodology.

Design and Implementation of the All of Us Research Program COVID-19 Participant Experience (COPE) Survey.

In response to the rapidly evolving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the All of Us Research Program longitudinal cohort study developed the COVID-19 Participant Experience (COPE) survey to better understand the pandemic experiences and health impacts of COVID-19 on diverse populations within the United States. Six survey versions were deployed between May 2020 and March 2021, covering mental health, loneliness, activity, substance use, and discrimination, as well as COVID-19 symptoms, testing, treatment, and vaccination. A total of 104,910 All of Us Research Program participants, of whom over 73% were from communities traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research, completed 275,201 surveys; 9,693 completed all 6 surveys.

We still don't count: the under-counting and under-representation of Māori in health and disability sector data.

Aim: To examine ethnicity data quality; in particular, the representation and potential under-counting of Māori in health and disability sector data, as well as implications for inequities.

Methods: Māori and non-Māori ethnicity data are analysed at: 1) a population aggregate level across multiple 2018 datasets (Estimated Resident Population, Census Usually Resident Population, Health Service User (HSU) population and Primary Health Organisation (PHO) enrolments); and 2) an individual level for those linked in PHO and 2018 Census datasets. Ethnicity is drawn from the National Health Index (NHI) in health datasets and variations by age and gender are explored.

Mortality after release from incarceration in New Zealand by gender: A national record linkage study.

Background: People who enter and leave places of incarceration experience considerable health inequities and are at increased risk of premature death compared to the general population. Causes of premature death in this population vary markedly between countries and so country-specific information is needed. Additionally, there is a lack of large population-based studies which can disaggregate mortality risk based on person and incarceration factors.

The Multidimensional Impacts of Inequities for Tāngata Whaikaha Māori (Indigenous Māori with Lived Experience of Disability) in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

People with lived experience of disability have poorer health and socioeconomic outcomes than people without it. However, within this population, certain social groups are more likely to experience poorer outcomes due to the impacts of multiple intersecting forms of oppression including colonisation, coloniality and racism. This paper describes the multidimensional impacts of inequities for Indigenous tāngata whaikaha Māori (Māori with lived experience of disability).

'It feels special when you're Māori'-voices of mokopuna Māori aged 6 to 13 years.

Mokopuna Māori and their whānau have the right to be involved meaningfully in the health and disability system, through genuine commitments to participation and self-determination. This Kaupapa Māori qualitative study explored mokopuna Māori concepts of wellbeing in relation to health and disability services, contextualised within broader tāngata whenua rights to health and wellbeing, and continued Crown failure to recognise these rights. Informed by a Kaupapa Māori research paradigm privileging worldviews and experiential knowledge of mokopuna Māori, we carried out focus group interviews with 26 mokopuna aged 6 to 13 years.

Co-design for indigenous and other children and young people from priority social groups: A systematic review.

Background: Co-design has increasingly been posited as a useful approach for Indigenous peoples and other social groups that experience inequities. However, the relatively rapid rise in co-design rhetoric has not necessarily been accompanied by increased understanding of whether co-design works for these social groups, and how equity is addressed.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review to identify the current state of co-design as theory and praxis within the context of health and/or disability related interventions or services, with a specific focus on equity considerations for Indigenous and other children and young people from priority social groups.

Racism and health in Aotearoa New Zealand: a systematic review of quantitative studies.

Background: Racism is an underlying cause of ethnic health inequities both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. It is timely to synthesise racism and health research within New Zealand particularly given the current policy environment and shift towards addressing the health effects of racism.

Aim: To review quantitative research examining self-reported experiences of racial discrimination and associations with measures of health (health conditions, health risk, health status and healthcare) in New Zealand.

Pro-equity climate change and environmental sustainability action by district health boards in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Aim: With current health ministerial directives to prioritise actions on reducing health inequities and district health board (DHB) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we argue that all climate change and environmental sustainability actions by DHBs must be pro-equity, and explore how the two priorities can be addressed concurrently.

Method: Building on prior knowledge of climate change and environmental sustainability action in the health and disability sector, we undertook a visioning exercise to generate ideas for pro-equity GHG emissions reduction initiatives in the DHB context. Visioning was further informed by presentation and feedback discussion at an Annual Scientific Meeting of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine.

Lessons for achieving health equity comparing Aotearoa/New Zealand and the United States.

Aotearoa/New Zealand (Aotearoa/NZ) and the United States (U.S.) suffer inequities in health outcomes by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Slavery in New Zealand: What is the role of the health sector?

Contemporary forms of slavery and associated adverse health effects are a serious, complex and often neglected issue within the New Zealand health sector. Slavery in New Zealand has most recently been associated with the fishing and horticulture industries. However, victims may be found in a number of other industry sectors, including the health and aged-care sectors, or outside of the labour market such as in forced, early (underage) and servile forms of marriage.

Ethnic disparities in the use of seclusion for adult psychiatric inpatients in New Zealand.

Aim: This study aims to investigate disparities in seclusion between Māori and non-Māori non-Pacific (nMnP) adults in mental health inpatient units in New Zealand.

Method: This study uses data on 7,239 inpatient psychiatric admissions and 782 seclusion events for nine district health boards (servicing 39% of the New Zealand population) for the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2010, from a New Zealand Ministry of Health dataset (PRIMHD). We calculate the age-standardised rates of seclusion per monthly inpatient admissions.

Correction: Longitudinal Metagenomic Analysis of Hospital Air Identifies Clinically Relevant Microbes.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Longitudinal Metagenomic Analysis of Hospital Air Identifies Clinically Relevant Microbes.

We describe the sampling of sixty-three uncultured hospital air samples collected over a six-month period and analysis using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Our primary goals were to determine the longitudinal metagenomic variability of this environment, identify and characterize genomes of potential pathogens and determine whether they are atypical to the hospital airborne metagenome. Air samples were collected from eight locations which included patient wards, the main lobby and outside.

Epigenetic Segregation of Microbial Genomes from Complex Samples Using Restriction Endonucleases HpaII and McrB.

We describe continuing work to develop restriction endonucleases as tools to enrich targeted genomes of interest from diverse populations. Two approaches were developed in parallel to segregate genomic DNA based on cytosine methylation. First, the methyl-sensitive endonuclease HpaII was used to bind non-CG methylated DNA.

Discovery of a Cyclic Boronic Acid β-Lactamase Inhibitor (RPX7009) with Utility vs Class A Serine Carbapenemases.

The increasing dissemination of carbapenemases in Gram-negative bacteria has threatened the clinical usefulness of the β-lactam class of antimicrobials. A program was initiated to discover a new series of serine β-lactamase inhibitors containing a boronic acid pharmacophore, with the goal of finding a potent inhibitor of serine carbapenemase enzymes that are currently compromising the utility of the carbapenem class of antibacterials. Potential lead structures were screened in silico by modeling into the active sites of key serine β-lactamases.