Spirituality and Multiple Dimensions of Religion Are Associated with Mental Health in Gay and Bisexual Men: Results From the Cohort.

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between religion, spirituality, and mental health among gay and bisexual men (GBM). A U.S.

Seeing Is Believing? Unique Capabilities of Internet-Only Studies as a Tool for Implementation Research on HIV Prevention for Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Review of Studies and Methodological Considerations.

Background: In 2014, Grov et al published a comprehensive review cataloguing both men who have sex with men's (MSM's) sexual behavior transitions in online environments from the 1990s through 2013, as well as researchers' efforts in tandem to use the internet to engage MSM into research, treatment, and prevention.

Methods: In this article, we discuss historical events and research having occurred in the half decade since the Grov et al publication.

Results: Notable transitions include MSM's expanded use of geosocial networking apps, as well as other forms of social media accessed primarily through mobile devices, as well as the addition of biomedical prevention strategies (eg, pre-exposure prophylaxis and undetectable = untransmittable) to the proverbial HIV prevention toolkit.

Is Perceived Stigma in Clinical Settings Associated With Poor Health Status Among New York City's Residents of Color?

Objectives: Our objectives were to assess rates of perceived stigma in health care (clinical) settings reported by racially diverse New York City residents and to examine if this perceived stigma is associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes.

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2016 New York City Community Health Survey. We applied bivariable and multivariable methods to assess rates of perceived stigma, and perceived stigma's statistical relationship with health care access, physical health status, and mental health status controlling for sociodemographics and health insurance status.

The public health crisis of underimmunisation: a global plan of action.

Vaccination is one of public health's greatest achievements, responsible for saving billions of lives. Yet, 20% of children worldwide are not fully protected, leading to 1·5 million child deaths annually from vaccine-preventable diseases. Millions more people have severe disabling illnesses, cancers, and disabilities stemming from underimmunisation.

Government data . ground observation for food-environment assessment: businesses missed and misreported by city and state inspection records.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of government inspection records, relative to ground observation, for identifying businesses offering foods/drinks.

Design: Agreement between city and state inspection records v. ground observations at two levels: businesses and street segments.

Linkage to Care Following an HIV Diagnosis in Three Public Sector Clinics in eThekwini (Durban), South Africa: Findings from a Prospective Cohort Study.

Linkage to care following an HIV diagnosis remains an important HIV care continuum milestone, even in the era of universal ART eligibility. In an 8-month prospective cohort study among 459 (309 women, 150 men) newly-diagnosed HIV-positive individuals in three public-sector clinics in Durban metropolitan region, South Africa, from 2010 to 2013, median time to return to clinic for CD4+ results (linkage) was 10.71 weeks (95% CI 8.

Church-based interventions to address obesity among African Americans and Latinos in the United States: a systematic review.

Context: Multilevel church-based interventions may help address racial/ethnic disparities in obesity in the United States since churches are often trusted institutions in vulnerable communities. These types of interventions affect at least two levels of socio-ecological influence which could mean an intervention that targets individual congregants as well as the congregation as a whole. However, the extent to which such interventions are developed using a collaborative partnership approach and are effective with diverse racial/ethnic populations is unclear, and these crucial features of well-designed community-based interventions.

Associations between psychological symptoms and treatment outcomes of a massage therapy intervention: Secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial.

Massage therapy (MT) may be more effective for certain subgroups of advanced cancer patients, but this is not well-studied. Psychological symptoms are one potential moderator of MT outcomes, as they occur frequently in MT patients. Therefore, we conducted a secondary analysis of data from a multi-site study which compared MT to simple touch in 380 adults with advanced cancer.

Police Interactions and the Mental Health of Black Americans: a Systematic Review.

Black Americans comprise 13% of the US population, yet data suggests that they represent 23% of those fatally shot by police officers. Data on non-lethal encounters with police in the Black community is less available but can understandably result in emotional trauma, stress responses, and depressive symptoms. The aim of this systematic literature review is to assess if interactions with the police are associated with mental health outcomes among Black Americans.

Social and population health science approaches to understand the human microbiome.

The microbiome is now considered our 'second genome' with potentially comparable importance to the genome in determining human health. There is, however, a relatively limited understanding of the broader environmental factors, particularly social conditions, that shape variation in human microbial communities. Fulfilling the promise of microbiome research - particularly the microbiome's potential for modification - will require collaboration between biologists and social and population scientists.

The effects of student, school and neighborhood poverty on the association between fitness and absenteeism in New York City middle school youth.

Recent research demonstrates that youth fitness improvements are associated with lower absenteeism. This study assessed whether the effects of poverty on the longitudinal fitness-absenteeism relationship are consistent across poverty measures at the student, school, and neighborhood levels and across sex in New York City (NYC) public school youth individually followed over 4 years. Negative binomial longitudinal mixed models with random-intercepts were developed stratified by five dichotomized student, school and neighborhood poverty measures and sex to test the change in fitness-lagged absenteeism relationship in six cohorts of NYC middle school students (2006/7-2012/13).

A longitudinal analysis of albendazole treatment effect on neurocysticercosis cyst evolution using multistate models.

Background: In neurocysticercosis, the larval form of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium appears to evolve through three phases-active, degenerative and sometimes calcification-before disappearance. The antihelmintic drug, albendazole, has been shown to hasten the resolution of active cysts in neurocysticercosis. Little is known about the time cysts take to progress through each phase, with or without treatment.

Occupational exposures to cosmetic talc and risk of mesothelioma: an updated pooled cohort and statistical power analysis with consideration of latency period.

We previously published a pooled statistical power analysis of mesothelioma incidence in the Italian, Norwegian, Austrian, and French cosmetic talc miner and miller cohorts. Soon thereafter, updates to the Italian and Norwegian cohorts were published, providing an additional 14,322 person-years of observation. In this study, we provide an updated power analysis using the newly available information.

Methods, system errors, and demographic differences in participant errors using daily text message-based short message service computer-assisted self-interview (SMS-CASI) to measure sexual risk behavior in a RCT of HIV self-test use.

Background: Assessment of sexual risk behavior is crucial to HIV prevention trials. Currently, there are no biomarkers or objective measures to detect and characterize sexual risk behavior; therefore, we must rely on self-reports. Self-report accuracy may be improved by collecting data in real-time.

Exploring the complex associations over time among albendazole treatment, cyst evolution, and seizure outcomes in neurocysticercosis.

Objective: To develop a causal model for the occurrence of neurocysticercosis (NC)-related seizures and test hypotheses generated from the model.

Methods: We used data from a randomized controlled trial comparing albendazole with placebo among patients newly diagnosed with NC. Based on our causal model, we explored the associations among albendazole treatment, NC cyst evolution, and seizure outcomes over 24 months of follow-up using generalized linear mixed effect models.

High willingness to use novel HIV and bacterial sexually transmitted infection partner notification, testing, and treatment strategies among gay and bisexual men.

Objectives: We sought to determine willingness of gay and bisexual men (GBM) to give HIV self-testing (HIVST) kits with patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT) and engage in geosocial sexual networking (GSN) app-based partner notification.

Methods: A nationwide sample of GBM who self-tested HIV negative (n786) were asked about their willingness to give recent sex partners (main and casual) PDPT with an HIVST kit (PDPT+HIVST) after hypothetical bacterial STI (BSTI) diagnosis. Men were also asked about their willingness to notify sexual partners met on GSN apps using an anonymous app function after BSTI diagnosis.

Recruiting vulnerable populations to participate in HIV prevention research: findings from the Together 5000 cohort study.

Purpose: The aim of the article was to examine factors associated with completing enrollment milestones in the Together 5000 cohort of at-risk men (n = 8661), transmen (n = 53), and transwomen (n = 63) who have sex with men.

Methods: Between 2017 and 2018, participants completed an online enrollment survey and were offered opportunities to complete an incentivized secondary online survey as well as self-administered at-home HIV testing (OraSure). We explored factors associated with completing each study component.

Research-grade data in the real world: challenges and opportunities in data quality from a pragmatic trial in community-based practices.

Randomized controlled trials face cost, logistic, and generalizability limitations, including difficulty engaging racial/ethnic minorities. Real-world data (RWD) from pragmatic trials, including electronic health record (EHR) data, may produce intervention evaluation findings generalizable to diverse populations. This case study of Project IMPACT describes unique barriers and facilitators of optimizing RWD to improve health outcomes and advance health equity in small immigrant-serving community-based practices.

The children of Superstorm Sandy: Maternal prenatal depression blunts offspring electrodermal activity.

We set out to examine the relations between prenatal exposure to the natural disaster Superstorm Sandy, maternal depression, and offspring electrodermal activity (EDA). EDA was measured via skin conductance response (SCR) magnitude in 198 children (M = 42.54 months, SD = 12.

Effect measure modification conceptualized using selection diagrams as mediation by mechanisms of varying population-level relevance.

Objectives: We are often confronted in public health by associations that vary by population or subpopulation. Much effort has focused on the statistical and biological interpretation of such effect measure modification (EMM) because of the importance to public health. However, EMM remains difficult to conceptualize because it apparently violates everyday understanding of causes as usually acting consistently, making it difficult to predict when EMM may occur and raises questions about how to determine the external validity of interventions without extensive retesting by population or subpopulation.

Prospective mixed methods study of online and offline social networks and the development of sexual agency in adolescence: the Social Networks and Agency Project (SNAP) protocol.

Introduction: Social media may play a role in adolescent sexual development. The limited research on social media use and sexual development has found both positive and negative influences. The focus of this study is on sexual agency: a positive sexual outcome.

Feasibility and Outcomes of an Electronic Health Record Intervention to Improve Hypertension Management in Immigrant-serving Primary Care Practices.

Background: South Asians experience a disproportionate burden of high blood pressure (BP) in the United States, arguably the most preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Objective: We report 12-month results of an electronic health record (EHR)-based intervention, as a component of a larger project, "Implementing Million Hearts for Provider and Community Transformation." The EHR intervention included launching hypertension patient registries and implementing culturally tailored alerts and order sets to improve hypertension control among patients treated in 14 New York City practices located in predominantly South Asian immigrant neighborhoods.

Comparing Receipt of Cervical Cancer Screening and Completion of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Using a New Construct of Sexual Orientation: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study.

We assessed differences in receipt of cervical cancer screening and completion of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series between sexual minority and non sexual minority women by using two sub-constructs of sexual orientation-gender of sexual partners and anatomy of sexual partners. We employed a serial cross-sectional design by using medical record data from August 2012 through August 2016 from an urban health center to compare receipt of cervical cancer screening and completion of the HPV vaccine series. In Wave 1 of the study, gender of sexual partners was the construct used.

Comparison of Ideal Cardiovascular Health Attainment and Acculturation among Asian Americans and Latinos.

Objective: To determine the association between language and ideal cardiovascular health among Asian Americans and Latinos.

Design/study Participants: Cross-sectional study using 2011-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of Asian Americans (n=2,009) and Latinos (n=3,906).

Interventions: Participants were classified according to language spoken at home (only/mostly English spoken, both English and native language spoken equally, or mostly/only native language spoken).