Gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation for health systems.

Gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for health and health systems interventions and programs is vital to improve health, health systems, and gender equality outcomes. It can be used to identify and address gender disparities in program participation, outcomes and benefits, as well as ensure that programs are designed and implemented in a way that is inclusive and accessible for all. While gender-responsive M&E is most effective when interventions and programs intentionally integrate a gender lens, it is relevant for all health systems programs and interventions.

Defining longitudinal trajectory of body mass index percentile and predicting childhood obesity: methodologies and findings in the Boston Birth Cohort.

Background: Overweight or obesity (OWO) in school-age childhood tends to persist into adulthood. This study aims to address a critical need for early identification of children at high risk of developing OWO by defining and analyzing longitudinal trajectories of body mass index percentile (BMIPCT) during early developmental windows.

Methods: We included 3029 children from the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC) with repeated BMI measurements from birth to age 18 years.

Association of Anti-CCAR1 Autoantibodies With Decreased Cancer Risk Relative to the General Population in Patients With Anti-Transcriptional Intermediary Factor 1γ-Positive Dermatomyositis.

Objective: To describe the disease specificity, clinical phenotype, and risk of cancer in dermatomyositis (DM) patients with autoantibodies against cell division cycle and apoptosis regulator protein 1 (anti-CCAR1).

Methods: The frequency of anti-CCAR1 autoantibodies was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum of DM patients from 2 independent cohorts (Johns Hopkins and Stanford), with patients with several other rheumatic diseases and healthy controls used as comparators. Clinical features and the risk of cancer incidence relative to that in the general population were determined in anti-CCAR1-positive DM patients.

Impact of industry 4.0 on healthcare systems of low- and middle- income countries: a systematic review.

Purpose: A growing body of empirical research has emerged, focused on leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies to develop and optimise systems within various operational contexts, including healthcare delivery. However, even though a significant number of studies have been published on application of digital technologies in enhancing delivery and health outcomes of health systems, systematic studies that review how extensively these technologies have been applied within a low- and middle-income economies' context remain scarce in the literature.

Scaling Interventions to Manage Chronic Disease: Innovative Methods at the Intersection of Health Policy Research and Implementation Science.

Policy implementation is a key component of scaling effective chronic disease prevention and management interventions. Policy can support scale-up by mandating or incentivizing intervention adoption, but enacting a policy is only the first step. Fully implementing a policy designed to facilitate implementation of health interventions often requires a range of accompanying implementation structures, like health IT systems, and implementation strategies, like training.

Subsets of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myositis Enriched for Contemporaneous Cancer Relative to the General Population.

Objective: This study investigates cancer risk in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) relative to the general population.

Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective cohort study of IIM patients and malignancy. Myositis-specific and -associated autoantibodies were determined by Euroimmun line blot, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunoprecipitation.

In-utero co-exposure to toxic metals and micronutrients on childhood risk of overweight or obesity: new insight on micronutrients counteracting toxic metals.

Background/objectives: Low-level, in-utero exposure to toxic metals such as lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) is widespread in the US and worldwide; and, individually, was found to be obesogenic in children. To address the literature gaps on the health effects of co-exposure to low-level toxic metals and the lack of intervention strategy, we aimed to investigate the association between in-utero co-exposure to Hg, Pb, cadmium (Cd) and childhood overweight or obesity (OWO) and whether adequate maternal micronutrients (selenium (Se) and folate) can be protective.

Subjects/methods: This study included 1442 mother-child pairs from the Boston Birth Cohort, a predominantly urban, low-income, Black, and Hispanic population, who were enrolled at birth and followed prospectively up to age 15 years.

DNA methylation mediates the effect of maternal smoking on offspring birthweight: a birth cohort study of multi-ethnic US mother-newborn pairs.

Background: Maternal smoking affects more than half a million pregnancies each year in the US and is known to result in fetal growth restriction as measured by lower birthweight and its associated long-term consequences. Maternal smoking also has been linked to altered fetal DNA methylation (DNAm). However, what remains largely unexplored is whether these DNAm alterations are merely markers of smoking exposure or if they also have implications for health outcomes.

COPEWELL: A Conceptual Framework and System Dynamics Model for Predicting Community Functioning and Resilience After Disasters.

Objective: Policy-makers and practitioners have a need to assess community resilience in disasters. Prior efforts conflated resilience with community functioning, combined resistance and recovery (the components of resilience), and relied on a static model for what is inherently a dynamic process. We sought to develop linked conceptual and computational models of community functioning and resilience after a disaster.