Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Work Environments and Hospitalizations and ED Use Among Chronically Ill Medicare Beneficiaries.

Background: Nurse practitioners (NPs) play a critical role in delivering primary care, particularly to chronically ill elderly. Yet, many NPs practice in poor work environments which may affect patient outcomes.

Objective: We investigated the relationship between NP work environments in primary care practices and hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) use among chronically ill elderly.

Integrating Venezuelan Migrants into the Colombian Health System during COVID-19.

Colombia provides a unique setting to understand the complicated interaction between health systems, health insurance, migrant populations, and COVID-19 due to its system of Universal Health Coverage and its hosting of the second-largest population of displaced persons globally, including approximately 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants. We surveyed 8,130 Venezuelan migrants and Colombian nationals across 60 municipalities using a telephone survey during the first wave of the pandemic (September through November 2020).

Variation in prescribing of opioids for emergency department encounters: A cohort study in the Military Health System.

Unlabelled: RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Emergency department (ED) clinicians account for approximately 13% of all opioid prescriptions to opioid-naïve patients and variability in the rates of prescribing have been noted among individual clinicians and different EDs. This study elucidates the amount of variability within a unified health system (the U.S.

Commentary on Burns, Nembhard and Shortell, "Integrating network theory into the study of integrated healthcare": Revisiting and extending research on structural and processual factors affecting coordination.

Burns et al.'s innovative recommendation to use social network theory to study integration will contribute to our understanding of how healthcare systems can optimally deliver high quality, coordinated, person-centered care. We discuss three enhancements to this approach.

Evaluation of Economic and Health Outcomes Associated With Food Taxes and Subsidies: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Fiscal policy is a promising approach to incentivizing better food choices and reducing the burden of chronic disease. To inform guidelines on using fiscal policies, including taxes and subsidies, to promote health, the World Health Organization commissioned a systematic review and meta-analysis of the worldwide literature on the outcomes of such policies for food products.

Objective: To assess the outcomes of implemented food taxes and subsidies for prices, sales, consumption, and population-level diet and health.

Outcomes Following Taxation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: More than 45 countries and several local jurisdictions have implemented sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes to improve nutrition and population health, and evidence on their outcomes to date is essential to inform policy discussions. Responding to this need, the World Health Organization commissioned a systematic literature review on the outcomes of fiscal policies, including SSB taxes.

Objective: To assess the associations of implemented SSB taxes with prices, sales, consumption, diet, body weight, product changes, unintended consequences, health, and pregnancy outcomes.

Strengthening networks for healthcare integration: A commentary.

In their paper "Integrating Network Theory into the Study of Integrated Healthcare," Burns, Nembhard and Shortell set out to change how we think about healthcare, and ultimately how we design and deliver healthcare. They aim to do this by focusing attention on the networks through which care is delivered, with particular attention to the relational dimensions of those networks. Inspired by social network, care integration, and relational coordination theories, Burns et al.

Prescribe to Save Lives: Improving Buprenorphine Prescribing Among HIV Clinicians.

Background: HIV clinicians are uniquely positioned to treat their patients with opioid use disorder using buprenorphine to prevent overdose death. The Prescribe to Save Lives (PtSL) study aimed to increase HIV clinicians' buprenorphine prescribing via an overdose prevention intervention.

Methods: The quasi-experimental stepped-wedge study enrolled 22 Ryan White-funded HIV clinics and delivered a peer-to-peer training to clinicians with follow-up academic detailing that included overdose prevention education and introduced buprenorphine prescribing.

Connecting past to present: Examining different approaches to linking historical redlining to present day health inequities.

In the 1930's, the Home Owner Loan Corporation (HOLC) drafted maps to quantify variation in real estate credit risk across US city neighborhoods. The letter grades and associated risk ratings assigned to neighborhoods discriminated against those with black, lower class, or immigrant residents and benefitted affluent white neighborhoods. An emerging literature has begun linking current individual and community health effects to government redlining, but each study faces the same measurement problem: HOLC graded area boundaries and neighborhood boundaries in present-day health datasets do not match.

Strengthening Community Participation by People With Disabilities in Community-Based Group Homes Through Innovative Action Research.

In the US and beyond, a paradigm shift is underway toward community-based care, motivated by changes in policies, payment models and social norms. A significant aspect of this shift for disability activists and policy makers is ensuring participation in community life for individuals with disabilities living in residential homes. Despite a U.

Perspective: Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Family-Focused Practice With Parents With Mental Illness and Their Families.

The goal of this perspective piece is to suggest challenges to family-focused practice with parents with mental illness and their children that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss implications for practice, policy, and research that will benefit from rigorous study in the future, as we sift through lessons learned. The impact of the pandemic on the mental health and well-being of people around the world has been documented.

The ParentingWell Practice Approach: Adaptation of Let's Talk About Children for Parents With Mental Illness in Adult Mental Health Services in the United States.

Background: Despite the importance of family and parent-focused practice, there has been a dearth of research on interventions for parents with mental illness. This paper describes the process and outcome of adapting an evidence-based intervention, Let's Talk about Children (LTC), in the context of adult mental health services in Massachusetts, United States.

Methods: Specific objectives included: (1) to specify the core components, functions, and principles of LTC essential to adapting the intervention (i.

The association of U.S. state-level abortion restrictions with medication abortion service delivery innovations during the early COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: To assess whether state-level abortion restrictions resulted in differential uptake of innovative medication abortion practices such as changing ultrasound requirements, offering telehealth, or dispensing medications without a physical exam during the early COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We used data from a prospective national survey of abortion providers to assess the association between a novel index of state-level abortion hostility and adoption of medication abortion services innovations during the pandemic.

Results: Clinics in states with low or medium hostility were more likely to adopt innovative practices than those in high or extreme hostility states.

National and sub-national trends of salt intake in Iranians from 2000 to 2016: a systematic analysis.

Background: One fifth of the global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in 2017 was attributable to excessive salt intake. As a member of the World Health Organization (WHO), Iran has committed itself to a 30% reduction in salt intake by 2025. Evidence on the amount and trend of salt intake among the Iranian population at national and sub-national levels is scarce.

Changes in alcohol use and mood during the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with traumatic brain injury: A difference-in-difference study.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic exposure on changes in alcohol use and mood from years 1 to 2 after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: We used a difference-in-difference (DiD) study design to analyze data from 1,059 individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI enrolled in the TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) National Database. We defined COVID-19 pandemic exposure as participants who received their year 1 post-injury interviews prior to January 1, 2020, and their year 2 interview between April 1, 2020 and January 15, 2021.

The complexities of substance use disorder and people with disabilities: Current perspectives.

This Supplement of the Disability and Health Journal presents research at the intersection of disability and substance use disorders (SUD). A better understanding of their complex relationship is needed to (1) inform the development of culturally relevant, accessible, and inclusive prevention and intervention efforts aimed at eliminating disparities in SUD prevalence among people with disabilities; and (2) improve access, quality and outcomes of SUD treatment and other recovery support services for people with disabilities. These eleven articles include themes around prevalence and identification of disability-related disparities, perspectives of people with lived experience of disability, and adaptations to substance use measures and interventions.

Opioid use disorder-related emergency department visits among deaf or hard of hearing adults in the United States.

Background: Despite the devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic, little is known about its impact on the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) community.

Objective: To determine risk of OUD-related ED visits, ED visits involving a prescription or non-prescription opioid overdose, and mortality during OUD-related ED visits among DHH adults, compared to non-DHH adults.

Methods: We analyzed the combined 2016-2017 National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS).

Substance use and misuse patterns and disability status in the 2020 US National Alcohol Survey: A contributing role for chronic pain.

Background: Evidence about substance use and misuse among adults with disabilities is still emerging, despite increased risk of chronic pain and mental health problems, which are in turn risk factors for substance use and misuse.

Objective: We examined substance use and misuse among adults with selected self-reported disability (versus without), controlling for sociodemographics, depression/anxiety, physical health, and chronic pain, and assessed whether associations could be attributed to chronic pain.

Methods: Data are from the nationally representative 2020 US National Alcohol Survey.

Perspectives of adults with disabilities and opioid misuse: Qualitative findings illuminating experiences with stigma and substance use treatment.

Background: Opioid misuse is a significant public health problem in the United States; however, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the experiences of individuals who have experienced both opioid misuse/opioid use disorder (OUD) and another disability. This gap in knowledge is particularly problematic because people with disabilities are more likely to have co-occurring serious mental illness, experience chronic pain, and be socially isolated, which are all independent risk factors for any substance use disorder (SUD).

Objective: The purpose of this study was to illuminate the perspectives of individuals who have both opioid misuse/OUD and another disability, focusing on their experiences accessing and engaging in SUD treatment.

The economics of vision impairment and its leading causes: A systematic review.

Vision impairment (VI) can have wide ranging economic impact on individuals, households, and health systems. The aim of this systematic review was to describe and summarise the costs associated with VI and its major causes. We searched MEDLINE (16 November 2019), National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects and the Health Technology Assessment database (12 December 2019) for partial or full economic evaluation studies, published between 1 January 2000 and the search dates, reporting cost data for participants with VI due to an unspecified cause or one of the seven leading causes globally: cataract, uncorrected refractive error, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, corneal opacity, trachoma.

Dose of Exercise Therapy Among Active Duty Soldiers With Chronic Pain Is Associated With Lower Risk of Long-Term Adverse Outcomes After Linking to the Veterans Health Administration.

Introduction: Research in soldiers who had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan suggests that nonpharmacological treatments may be protective against adverse outcomes. However, the degree to which exercise therapy received in the U.S.

The relationship between capacity and utilization of nonpharmacologic therapies in the US Military Health System.

Background: Nonpharmacologic therapies (NPTs) are recommended as first-line treatments for pain, however the impact of expanding professional capacity to deliver these therapies on use has not been extensively studied. We sought to examine whether an effort by the US Military Health System (MHS) to improve access to NPTs by expanding professional capacity increased NPT utilization in a cohort at higher risk for pain - Army soldiers returning from deployment.

Methods: Our study involved secondary analysis of MHS workforce data derived from the Defense Medical Human Resources System Internet (DMHRSi), and healthcare utilization data obtained from two ambulatory record systems of the Military Health System (MHS) for a sample of 863,855 Army soldiers previously deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan over a 10-year period (2008-2017).

Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Efficacy of Adding Financial Incentives to Best practices for Smoking Cessation Among pregnant and Newly postpartum Women.

We report results from a single-blinded randomized controlled trial examining financial incentives for smoking cessation among 249 pregnant and newly postpartum women. Participants included 169 women assigned to best practices (BP) or BP plus financial incentives (BP + FI) for smoking cessation available through 12-weeks postpartum. A third condition included 80 never-smokers (NS) sociodemographically-matched to women who smoked.