Doctors and Nurses Social Media Ads Reduced Holiday Travel and COVID-19 infections: A cluster randomized controlled trial in 13 States.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, many health professionals started using mass communication on social media to relay critical information and persuade individuals to adopt preventative health behaviors. Our group of clinicians and nurses developed and recorded short video messages to encourage viewers to stay home for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. We then conducted a two-stage clustered randomized controlled trial in 820 counties (covering 13 States) in the United States of a large-scale Facebook ad campaign disseminating these messages.

Men and women candidates are similarly persistent after losing elections.

Are women more likely to quit politics after losing their first race than men? Women's first-time candidacies skyrocketed in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Yet we have little sense of the long-term impact of this surge in women candidates on women's representation writ large: Inexperienced candidates are more likely to lose, and women might be especially discouraged by a loss. This might make the benefits of such a surge in candidacies fleeting.

School-Based Nutrition Programs for Adolescents in Dodoma, Tanzania: A Situation Analysis.

Background: Tanzania has a double burden of malnutrition, including a high prevalence of undernutrition and an increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents. Schools present a valuable opportunity to reach a large section of the country's adolescent population with nutrition-oriented interventions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the current state of adolescent school nutrition interventions in Dodoma, Tanzania, with emphasis on 3 potential school-based nutrition interventions, school vegetable gardens, school meals, and education (on nutrition, agriculture, and water, sanitation, and hygiene).

Analysis of socioeconomic and demographic factors and imaging exam characteristics associated with missed appointments in pediatric radiology.

Background: Missed appointments can have an adverse impact on health outcomes by delaying appropriate imaging, which can be critical in influencing treatment decisions.

Objective: To assess for socioeconomic and imaging exam factors associated with missed appointments among children scheduled for diagnostic imaging.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed children (<18 years) scheduled for outpatient diagnostic imaging during a 12-month period.

Factors Associated With Self-reported Symptoms of Depression Among Adults With and Without a Previous COVID-19 Diagnosis.

This survey study compares features of self-reported symptoms of major depression in adults with or without a prior COVID-19 diagnosis.

The rise of affectivism.

Research over the past decades has demonstrated the explanatory power of emotions, feelings, motivations, moods, and other affective processes when trying to understand and predict how we think and behave. In this consensus article, we ask: has the increasingly recognized impact of affective phenomena ushered in a new era, the era of affectivism?

Food Systems as Drivers of Optimal Nutrition and Health: Complexities and Opportunities for Research and Implementation.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are intricately linked to food systems. Addressing challenges in food systems is key to meeting the SDGs in Africa and South Asia, where undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies persist, alongside increased nutrition transition, overweight and obesity, and related chronic diseases. Suboptimal diets are a key risk factor for mortality and 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet; in addition, food systems are not prioritizing environmental sustainability.

Can transparency and accountability programs improve health? Experimental evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania.

We assess the impact of a transparency and accountability program designed to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes in Indonesia and Tanzania. Co-designed with local partner organizations to be community-led and non-prescriptive, the program sought to encourage community participation to address local barriers in access to high quality care for pregnant women and infants. We evaluate the impact of this program through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving 100 treatment and 100 control communities in each country.

The Behavioral Health Consultant: Roles and Responsibilities.

With the scarcity of mental health services, integration of behavioral health into pediatric primary care increases the accessibility and availability to mental health services to a broad range of patients and their families while bridging the gap of physical and mental health. Encouraging whole-person care, the role of the behavioral health consultant serves as a proactive and preventative means fostering early intervention and detection, as 50% of all lifetime mental health disorders begin by the age of 14 years.

Measuring the Scope of Prior Authorization Policies: Applying Private Insurer Rules to Medicare Part B.

Importance: Health insurers use prior authorization to evaluate the medical necessity of planned medical services. Data challenges have precluded measuring the frequency with which medical services can require prior authorization, the spending on these services, the types of services and clinician specialties affected, and differences in the scope of prior authorization policies between government-administered and privately administered insurance.

Objectives: To measure the extent of prior authorization requirements for medical services and to describe the services and clinician specialties affected by them using novel data on private insurer coverage policies.

Permafrost carbon feedbacks threaten global climate goals.

Rapid Arctic warming has intensified northern wildfires and is thawing carbon-rich permafrost. Carbon emissions from permafrost thaw and Arctic wildfires, which are not fully accounted for in global emissions budgets, will greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that humans can emit to remain below 1.5 °C or 2 °C.

Examining the effect of information channel on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

Hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccine remains high among the US population. Now that the vaccine is available to priority populations, it is critical to convince those that are hesitant to take the vaccine. Public health communication about the vaccine as well as misinformation on the vaccine occurs through a variety of different information channels.

Payment Discrepancies and Access to Primary Care Physicians for Dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid Beneficiaries.

Background: Physicians often receive lower payments for dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries versus nondual Medicare beneficiaries because of state reimbursement caps. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) primary care fee bump temporarily eliminated this differential in 2013-2014.

Objective: To examine how dual payment policy impacts primary care physicians' (PCP) acceptance of duals.

A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor's appointment.

Many Americans fail to get life-saving vaccines each year, and the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 makes the challenge of encouraging vaccination more urgent than ever. We present a large field experiment ( = 47,306) testing 19 nudges delivered to patients via text message and designed to boost adoption of the influenza vaccine. Our findings suggest that text messages sent prior to a primary care visit can boost vaccination rates by an average of 5%.

Identifying Medicare beneficiaries with dementia.

Background/objectives: No data exist regarding the validity of International Classification of Disease (ICD)-10 dementia diagnoses against a clinician-adjudicated reference standard within Medicare claims data. We examined the accuracy of claims-based diagnoses with respect to expert clinician adjudication using a novel database with individual-level linkages between electronic health record (EHR) and claims.

Design: In this retrospective observational study, two neurologists and two psychiatrists performed a standardized review of patients' medical records from January 2016 to December 2018 and adjudicated dementia status.

Evidence of air quality data misreporting in China: An impulse indicator saturation model comparison of local government-reported and U.S. embassy-reported PM2.5 concentrations (2015-2017).

This paper analyzes hourly PM2.5 measurements from government-controlled and U.S.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Managed Care Enrollment Among US Children.

This survey study uses data from the 2018 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component to compare rates of health maintenance organization (HMO) enrollment, by race and ethnicity, for children with commercial and public coverage.

Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients' prejudice toward Arabs.

Diversity in the lines of public institutions, such as hospitals, schools, and police forces, is thought to improve provision for minority group members. Nonetheless, whether and how diversity in public institutions shapes majority citizens' prejudice toward minorities are unclear. Building on insights from the intergroup contact literature, I suggest that diversity in public institutions can facilitate positive intergroup contact between majority group members and minorities in elevated social positions.

Availability and Nutrient Composition of Vegetarian Items at US Fast-Food Restaurants.

Background: Consumer demand for vegetarian options is growing. Fast-food restaurants have responded by adding high-profile vegetarian offerings, but little is known about the overall availability or nutrient profile of vegetarian options at these establishments, or how these items compare with nonvegetarian items.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify trends in the availability and nutrient profile of vegetarian items in US fast-food restaurants from 2012 to 2018.