Methods for linking community views to measureable outcomes in a youth violence prevention program.

Background: All parties in community-academic partnerships have a vested interest prevention program success. Markers of success that reflect community's experiences of programmatic prevention success are not always measurable, but critically speak to community-defined needs.

Objective: The purpose of this manuscript was to (1) describe our systematic process for linking locally relevant community views (community-defined indicators) to measurable outcomes in the context of a youth violence prevention program and (2) discuss lessons learned, next steps, and recommendations for others trying to replicate a similar process.

Effect of rotavirus vaccine on reducing acute gastroenteritis in a large outpatient pediatric network.

Objectives: To measure the effect of rotavirus vaccine (RVV) on acute gastroenteritis (AGE) managed by primary care physicians in the first 2 rotatvirus seasons following the introduction of RVV.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Practice-based network composed of 33 ambulatory pediatric practices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Response to antimalarial agents in cutaneous lupus erythematosus: a prospective analysis.

Objective: To demonstrate response to antimalarial agents in patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) using activity scores from the Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity Index, a validated outcome measure.

Design: Prospective, longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: University cutaneous autoimmune disease clinic.

Lack of association between retrospectively collected pharmacy refill data and electronic drug monitoring of antiretroviral adherence.

Antiretroviral medication refill adherence has not been compared directly to electronic drug monitoring (EDM) in any identifiable published study. We retrospectively studied adults with undetectable HIV titers on highly active antiretroviral therapy. We used Pearson correlation coefficients and receiver operating characteristic curves to relate the two adherence measures, and we used the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to assess the relation between adherence and viral load.

Mediators of telephone-based continuing care for alcohol and cocaine dependence.

A previous randomized trial with 224 alcohol and/or cocaine addicts who had completed an initial phase of treatment indicated that 12 weeks of telephone-based continuing care yielded higher abstinence rates over 24 months than did group counseling continuing care. The current study examined mediators of this treatment effect. Results suggested that self-help involvement during treatment and self-efficacy and commitment to abstinence 3 months after treatment mediated subsequent abstinence outcomes.

Research to improve the quality of care for depression: alternatives to the simple randomized clinical trial.

Recognition of gaps between evidence gained from mental health research and clinical practice in the community together with changes in treatment patterns and patient/provider preferences for care have led to interest in enhancements in the designs and analyses of clinical and community trials of mental health interventions. Gaps between clinical trials and community care include differences in populations and treatment strategies. To bridge these gaps, we propose enhancing the simple randomized trial with several different designs with the immediate aims of improving patient recruitment and adherence in psychiatric intervention studies thus bringing study designs more in line with clinical practice.