Partnering With Community Health Workers to Address COVID-19 Health Inequities: Experiences of the California Alliance Against COVID-19.

With funding from the National Institutes of Health's Community Engagement Alliance, starting in fall 2020, 11 academic medical centers and 75 community partners came together as the California Alliance Against COVID-19 to address COVID-19 inequities in California. Using data from focus groups, statewide meetings, and a statewide partner survey, we describe how and community health workers (P/CHWs; n = 540) helped to promote access to COVID-19 information, testing, and vaccination. We highlight opportunities to promote health equity among other public health collaborators with a P/CHW model.

The role of mobile health technologies in promoting COVID-19 prevention: A narrative review of intervention effectiveness and adoption.

Background: Researchers have found innovative ways of using mobile health (mHealth) technologies to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, fewer studies have been done to determine their adoption and effectiveness.

Objective: This review summarises the published evidence on the effect of mHealth technologies on the adoption of COVID-19 preventive measures, prevention knowledge acquisition and risk perception as well as technology adoption features for COVID-19 prevention.

A mobile health app may improve maternal and child health knowledge and practices among rural women with limited education in Uganda: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Objective: This article describes the impact of a mobile health app () on maternal and child health knowledge and practices among women with limited education.

Materials And Methods: Pregnant women initiating antenatal care (ANC) were randomized (1:1) to the versus routine care. Participants were followed until 6 weeks after delivery.

Challenges in accessing maternal and child health services during COVID-19 and the potential role of social networking technologies.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic causes new challenges to women and their babies who still need to access postnatal care amidst the crisis. The novel application of social network technologies (SNTs) could potentially enhance access to healthcare during this difficult time.

Objectives: This study describes the challenges experienced in accessing maternal and child health services by women with limited or no education during this COVID-19 pandemic and discusses the potential of SNTs to support maternal and child health amidst this crisis.

Adolescent Latinas' with Diabetes and Their Mothers' Understanding of Diabetes and Reproductive Health: Converging Themes to Inform a Culturally Sensitive Preconception Counseling Program.

Introduction: Latinas are at an increased risk for diabetes and reproductive health (RH) complications with sexuality and pregnancy. This study explored the understanding of diabetes related to RH, pregnancy, unplanned pregnancies, preconceptioncounseling, tight-control, and family planning among Latina adolescents with diabetes and their mothers and explored converging themes.

Method: The qualitative descriptive study used written open-ended questions (English or Spanish) with Latina mothers (n = 13) and daughters (n = 21).

Exploring the potential role of community engagement in evaluating clinical and translational science grant proposals.

Introduction: This study explored the effects of integrating community members into the evaluation of clinical and translational science grants.

Methods: The University of California, Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) engaged 21 community reviewers alongside scientific reviewers in a 2-stage process of evaluating research proposals. In Stage 1 reviewers scored proposals, and during Stage 2 two study sections convened: one a mix of community reviewers and scientific reviewers, and one only engaging scientific reviewers.

Cultural understanding, experiences, barriers, and facilitators of healthcare providers when providing preconception counseling to adolescent Latinas with diabetes.

Background: Latinas are at a higher risk than Caucasians for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes (DM), as well as DM-associated reproductive health (RH) complications. Healthcare providers (HCPs) should deliver culturally-sensitive care to enhance the care relationship between Latinos and HCPs and to improve patient outcomes. This study explored an expert panel's cultural understanding, experiences, barriers, and facilitators regarding RH and preconception counseling (PC) for adolescent Latinas with DM and their families.

Hispanic parents' experiences of the process of caring for a child undergoing routine surgery: a focus on pain and pain management.

Purpose: The purpose was to understand the processes Hispanic parents undergo in managing postoperative care of children after routine surgical procedures.

Design And Methods: Sixty parents of children undergoing outpatient surgery were interviewed. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methodology.

The biology of caring: researching the healing effects of stress response regulation through relational engagement.

Caring, a core tenet of nursing practice, grew out of a holistic approach. Nurse theorists often note the establishment of a therapeutic relationship as the beginning point of caring, with subsequent nursing interventions reliant upon this relationship for effectiveness. Relational exchange serves as a source of either stress or healing between participants, and rarely is its impact neutral.

Women's mental health: depression and anxiety.

Sex ratios for selected mental disorders such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder are much higher in women than men. Anxiety disorders constitute the most prevalent mental disorder in adults, and affect twice as many women as men. Depression and anxiety exist comorbidly and along with other mental disorders.

Promoting wellness in women across the life span.

For the purposes of this article, wellness is defined as an individual's subjective experience of overall life satisfaction in relation to physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, economic, occupational, and environmental dimensions. Women's wellness focuses on those aspects of well-being that pertain disproportionately, or solely, to women. Wellness includes but is not limited to physical, emotional and social aspects and disruptions that alter a woman's quality of life, such as reproductive and hormonal issues, bone health, gastrointestinal stress, and urinary incontinence.

Exposure to tap water during pregnancy.

Studies of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water and risk of adverse reproductive outcome have usually relied on approximate measures of exposure. Individual differences in consumption of bottled or filtered water, variability in tap water consumption at home and at work, dermal and inhalation exposure to volatile contaminants, and changes in residency during pregnancy may lead to exposure misclassification. We characterized exposures to tap water and other risk factors among 71 pregnant and 43 non-pregnant women attending public health clinics.

Citrate in synovial fluid and its relation to inflammation and crystal presence.

Objective: To investigate the role of citrate in the pathophysiology of arthritides with calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystals and/or apatite-like material.

Methods: We measured citrate concentrations in the plasma and synovial fluid (SF) of 23 joints whose SF contained these crystals and 33 joints without crystals. The SF originated from 25 joints each of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and primary osteoarthritis (OA) and 10 patients with various other inflammatory joint diseases.

Between-country comparability of clinical chemistry results: an international quality assessment survey of 17 analytes in six European countries through existing national schemes.

Two lyophilized control sera were distributed through seven national external quality assessment schemes in six European countries--Belgium, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom--participated in the study. The results for 17 routine analytes were obtained from almost 5000 laboratories for the two sera. The organizers of the schemes were asked to process the results according to a common outlier removal procedure, and submit method-related data if available.

Salivary electrolytes and digitalis.

The hypothesis that an increase in salivary concentration of certain electrolytes (Ca X K) is a sign of digitalis intoxication was tested in 16 untreated health volunteers, 29 digitalized heart failure patients and four further healthy volunteers given digoxin. Salivary electrolyte levels were raised in only about half the digitalized patients and blood levels of digoxin were not always higher in these patients than in those with normal electrolyte concentrations. The salivary electrolyte levels of the healthy volunteers given digoxin remained normal.

[Salivary electrolytes, digitalis glycosides and cardiac insufficiency].

In a group of 29 patients treated with digoxin for cardiac failure, only 16 showed increased calcium and potassium concentrations in saliva. There was no correlation in the 29 patients between serum digoxin levels and concentrations of salivary electrolytes. On the other hand, in 4 normal subjects treated with digoxin no change in salivary electrolytes was noted.