Reproductive history before and after HIV diagnosis: A cross-sectional study in HIV-positive women in Spain.

The aim of this study is to examine the reproductive history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women, before and after HIV diagnosis, to describe the characteristics of women with pregnancies after HIV diagnosis, and to assess the prevalence of mother-to-child transmission.A cross-sectional study was performed among women within reproductive ages (18-49) selected from the cohort in the Spanish AIDS Research Network (CoRIS). A descriptive analysis of the pregnancy outcomes was made according to women's serostatus at the moment of pregnancy and association of women's characteristics with having pregnancy after HIV diagnosis was evaluated using logistic regression models.

The Current and Projected Taxpayer Shares of US Health Costs.

Objectives: We estimated taxpayers' current and projected share of US health expenditures, including government payments for public employees' health benefits as well as tax subsidies to private health spending.

Methods: We tabulated official Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services figures on direct government spending for health programs and public employees' health benefits for 2013, and projected figures through 2024. We calculated the value of tax subsidies for private spending from official federal budget documents and figures for state and local tax collections.

Access to Care and Chronic Disease Outcomes Among Medicaid-Insured Persons Versus the Uninsured.

Objectives: We sought to determine the association between Medicaid coverage and the receipt of appropriate clinical care.

Methods: Using the 1999 to 2012 National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys, we identified adults aged 18 to 64 years with incomes below the federal poverty level, and compared outpatient visit frequency, awareness, and control of chronic diseases between the uninsured (n = 2975) and those who had Medicaid (n = 1485).

Results: Respondents with Medicaid were more likely than the uninsured to have at least 1 outpatient physician visit annually, after we controlled for patient characteristics (odds ratio [OR] = 5.

Public Health's Falling Share of US Health Spending.

We examined trends in US public health expenditures by analyzing historical and projected National Health Expenditure Accounts data. Per-capita public health spending (inflation-adjusted) rose from $39 in 1960 to $281 in 2008, and has fallen by 9.3% since then.

Medical Causes and Consequences of Home Foreclosures.

The objective of this study was to elucidate the medical causes and consequences of foreclosure. We surveyed 90 households undergoing foreclosure in 2013-2014 in Maricopa County, Arizona on two occasions approximately five months apart. At baseline, median monthly household income was $3,000, and median mortgage payment $1,350.

The current deconstruction of paradoxes: one sign of the ongoing methodological "revolution".

The current deconstruction of paradoxes is one among several signs that a profound renewal of methods for clinical and epidemiological research is taking place; perhaps for some basic life sciences as well. The new methodological approaches have already deconstructed and explained long puzzling apparent paradoxes, including the (non-existent) benefits of obesity in diabetics, or of smoking in low birth weight. Achievements of the new methods also comprise the elucidation of the causal structure of long-disputed and highly complex questions, as Berkson's bias and Simpson's paradox, and clarifying reasons for deep controversies, as those on estrogens and endometrial cancer, or on adverse effects of hormone replacement therapy.

Mobile food vendors in urban neighborhoods-implications for diet and diet-related health by weather and season.

This study describes mobile food vendors (street vendors) in Bronx, NY, considering neighborhood-level correlations with demographic, diet, and diet-related health measures from City data. Vendors offering exclusively "less-healthy" foods (e.g.

Muscle invasive bladder cancer: examining survivor burden and unmet needs.

Purpose: Although improvements in perioperative care have decreased surgical morbidity after radical cystectomy for muscle invasive bladder cancer, treatment side effects still have a negative impact on patient quality of life. We examined unmet patient needs along the illness trajectory.

Materials And Methods: A total of 30 patients (26.

Rapid assessment of environmental health risks posed by mining operations in low- and middle-income countries: selected case studies.

Previous studies have evaluated associated health risks and human exposure pathways at mining sites. Others have provided estimates of the scale of the issue based in part on surveys. However, a global census of mining-related hazardous waste sites has been lacking.

The manufacture of lifestyle: the role of corporations in unhealthy living.

Recently, researchers have debated two views on the connection between lifestyle and health. In the first, health-related lifestyles including tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and physical activity are seen as primary influences on health. In the second, social stratification is the dominant influence with lifestyles simply markers of social status.

Strengthening community capacity to participate in making decisions to reduce disproportionate environmental exposures.

Environmental exposures impose a disproportionate health burden on low-income populations and communities of color. One contributing factor may be the obstacles such communities face to full participation in making policy decisions about environmental health. This study described and analyzed the characteristics that contributed to communities' capacity to participate in making environmental decisions and suggested steps public agencies could take to achieve more meaningful participation.

Discovering how environmental exposures alter genes could lead to new treatments for chronic illnesses.

Emerging research demonstrates that diet, pollution, and other environmental triggers can alter both the function and expression of human genes and lead to a heightened disease risk. These environment-gene interactions can cause so-called epigenetic changes in gene expression-patterns of which genes are switched "on" or "off"-that may account for the rising mortality from chronic diseases in industrialized nations. In this paper, we call for a new transdisciplinary approach to public health that would examine how environmental exposures, both physical and social, influence gene expression and a person's susceptibility to chronic disease.

Finding synergy: reducing disparities in health by modifying multiple determinants.

Although researchers acknowledge that health disparities have multiple determinants, most recommendations for reducing inequities focus on a single approach. We suggest integrating 2 approaches for reducing disparities: improving access to primary care and updating and more vigorously enforcing consumer and environmental protection laws. This strategy could reduce the main causes of disparities, such as chronic diseases and injuries; win public and policymaker support; and provide a cost-effective start for achieving equity.