Influenza and Aging: Clinical Manifestations, Complications, and Treatment Approaches in Older Adults.

Influenza, a highly contagious respiratory viral illness, poses significant global health risks, particularly affecting older and those with chronic health conditions. Influenza viruses, primarily types A and B, are responsible for seasonal human infections and exhibit a propensity for antigenic drift and shift, contributing to seasonal epidemics and pandemics. The severity of influenza varies, but severe cases often lead to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and multiorgan failure.

Alignment of Air Pollution Exposure Inequality Metrics with Environmental Justice and Equity Goals in the United States.

A growing literature within the field of air pollution exposure assessment addresses the issue of environmental justice. Leveraging the increasing availability of exposure datasets with broad spatial coverage and high spatial resolution, a number of works have assessed inequalities in exposure across racial/ethnic and other socioeconomic groupings. However, environmental justice research presents the additional need to evaluate exposure inequity-inequality that is systematic, unfair, and avoidable-which may be framed in several ways.

E-Cigarette switching and financial incentives to promote combustible cigarette cessation among adults accessing shelter services: A pilot study.

Background: Smoking prevalence among U.S. adults experiencing homelessness is ≥70 %.

Prospective associations of adolescent obesity phenotypes with self-reported polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis in young adulthood.

Study Question: Are empirically derived adolescent overweight/obesity phenotypes differentially associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in young adulthood?

Summary Answer: Self-reported PCOS diagnosis risk in young adulthood varied by empirically derived adolescent overweight/obesity phenotypes, with the highest risk observed among those in the 'mothers with obesity' and 'early puberty' phenotypes.

What Is Known Already: Overweight and obesity during puberty are postulated to promote the development of PCOS. Much of the prior literature in this area is cross-sectional and defines weight status based solely on BMI, yet emerging research suggests that not all people with overweight/obesity have the same risk for chronic health conditions, including PCOS.

Neural regulation of pain anticipation is associated with mindful behavior change in patients with anxiety or depression: A pilot study.

Behavior change often requires overcoming discomfort or difficult emotions. Emotional dysregulation associated with anxiety or depression may prevent behavior change initiation among people managing chronic illness. Mindfulness training may catalyze chronic disease self-management by reducing experiential avoidance of aversive experiences that act as barriers to change initiation.

Site-level factors affecting nursing home implementation of a personalized music intervention: Qualitative analyses from Music & Memory: A Pragmatic Trial for Nursing Home Residents with Alzheimer's Disease (METRIcAL).

Background: Non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) are preferred alternatives to using antipsychotic medications to manage disruptive behaviors in nursing home (NH) residents living with dementia. However, the implementation of these interventions is often complex in the NH environment. In this qualitative analysis of data from an embedded pragmatic clinical trial (ePCT) of a personalized music intervention, we describe NH-level implementation barriers and facilitators.

Effects of Nursing Home Changes in Antipsychotic Use on Outcomes Among Residents With Dementia.

Objectives: Little information exists on whether nationwide efforts to reduce antipsychotic use among nursing home (NH) residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias improved mortality and hospitalization outcomes for residents. Our objective was to examine the effect of NH decreases in antipsychotic use on outcomes for residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Design: Observational nationwide study that emulated a series of cluster randomized trials.

Do Medicare Beneficiaries Under Accountable Care or Medicare Advantage Use Lower Quality Nursing Homes?

Background: With the growing number of Medicare beneficiaries attributed to Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) or enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) and their financial incentives to lower the cost of the cared patients, it is essential to understand how these alternative payment models affect post-acute outcomes among beneficiaries, with or without dementia diagnoses. In this study, we examined the quality of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) that beneficiaries entered after hospital discharge under different payment models.

Study Participants: Medicare beneficiaries who were discharged from hospitals and admitted to SNFs between 2013 and 2018.

Attitudes, Beliefs, and Predictors of Gestational Weight Gain and Postpartum Weight Retention in South Africa: A Mixed Methods Analysis.

Suboptimal gestational weight gain (GWG) is associated with pregnancy complications and postpartum weight retention (PPWR). Little data exists about GWG and PPWR attitudes and beliefs in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) to inform interventions. We examined GWG and PPWR attitudes, beliefs, and intentions among pregnant people, with and without HIV, in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Utilization of Syndemic Theory in Transgender Literature: A Structured Literature Review.

Purpose: Trans and gender diverse (TGD) people are one of the world's most marginalized populations. Current evidence indicates that ostracism faced by these communities leads to multiple adverse conditions. The synergistic impact of these conditions -a syndemic-has been well established among other marginalized populations.

Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy Is Associated with Increased Odds of Screening for Sexually Transmitted Infections in a Clinical Cohort of Transgender and Nonbinary Adults.

Purpose: Transgender and nonbinary adults (TNB) are disproportionately burdened by sexually transmitted infections (STI) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study investigated whether gender-affirming hormone therapy was associated with TNB adults' odds of screening for STI and HIV.

Methods: Longitudinal data came from the electronic medical records of TNB primary care patients receiving care at two community health centers located in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City, New York, between January 2013 and December 2019.

Deployment to bases with open burn pits and mortality of US Military Veterans.

Introduction: Five million US Veterans had possible exposure to open burn pits used for waste disposal through service in Iraq (2003-2011) and Afghanistan (2001-2014). Burn pits generate toxic exposures that may be associated with adverse health outcomes. We examined all-cause and cause-specific mortality in relation to deployment to bases with open burn pits.

Changes in Medication Complexity and Post-Hospitalization Outcomes in Older Adults Hospitalized for Heart Failure.

Introduction: Medication regimen complexity may be an important risk factor for adverse outcomes in older adults with heart failure. However, increasing complexity is often necessary when prescribing guideline-directed medical therapy at the time of a heart failure hospitalization. We sought to determine whether increased medication regimen complexity following a heart failure hospitalization was associated with worse post-hospitalization outcomes.

#Opioids: A Mixed Methods Examination of Top Opioid-Related Content on TikTok.

Objective: Despite an abundance of public discourse about the opioid crisis in the media, there is little research characterizing opioid-related content on TikTok, a popular video-based social media platform. This study sought to examine how opioids are portrayed on TikTok.

Methods: This study used mixed-methods to analyze top opioid-related posts marked with the hashtag "#opioids" collected in May 2023.

Fannyhessea vaginae and clearance of Lactobacillus iners are associated with incident non-chlamydial non-Mycoplasma genitalium urethritis in men who have sex with women.

Background: The etiology of nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) is incompletely understood. We sought to determine if genitourinary bacterial diversity or specific taxa were associated with incident NGU.

Methods: From August 2014-July 2018, men who have sex with women attending a sexual health clinic were clinically evaluated, including Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) testing, at enrollment and six monthly visits.

The efficacy of using continuous glucose monitoring as a behaviour change tool in populations with and without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Background: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) holds potential as a precision public health intervention, offering personalised insights into how diet and physical activity affect glucose levels. Nevertheless, the efficacy of using CGM in populations with and without diabetes to support behaviour change and behaviour-driven outcomes remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis examines whether using CGM-based feedback to support behaviour change affects glycaemic, anthropometric, and behavioural outcomes in adults with and without diabetes.

Racial Differences in Device-Detected Incident Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Prior research suggests Black individuals have a lower risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) than White individuals, but this may be related to the underdetection of AF. Whether this trend persists using highly sensitive methods of AF diagnosis has not been well-studied.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to use cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) capable of AF diagnosis to compare AF incidence between Black and White individuals.

Developing an ethical framework for the recruitment of people who inject drugs experiencing incarceration in HIV prevention research: a qualitative study.

Background: HIV disproportionately impacts people who experience incarceration. Incarceration represents an opportunity to engage in HIV prevention care for individuals who often experience a number of barriers accessing health services in the community. The development of evidence-based practices promoting pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention (PrEP) is crucial for ending the HIV epidemic within this highly marginalized population.

Characterizing sociodemographic disparities and predictors of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus among Asian and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander pregnant people: an analysis of PRAMS data, 2016-2022.

Background: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) affects between 2 and 10% of pregnancies in the United States, with trends of increasing prevalence and a significant amount of variability across race and ethnicity, maternal age, and insurance status. Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) have been documented to have a higher prevalence and risk of developing GDM compared to non-Hispanic white populations and have been under-studied in health disparities research.

Methods: Using data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) 2016-2022 surveys, we conducted analyses for the overall PRAMS sample as well as within-group analyses among participants who identify as Asian and NHOPI to identify risk factors for GDM.

Association of Preoperative Oxygen Saturation and McGoon Ratio With Early Prognosis of Tetralogy of Fallot: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis.

Aim: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most common cyanotic heart disease. This study aimed to demonstrate the effects of preoperative oxygen saturation on the early prognosis of TOF and identify risk factors associated with early complications.

Method: A cohort of 1,138 patients who were diagnosed and underwent one-stage surgical repair in this hospital were retrospectively included in this study.