Association between lifetime hallucinogen use and psychological distress varies by sexual identity in a nationally representative sample.

Background: Clinical trials demonstrate that psychedelic-assisted therapy can improve mental health outcomes; however, few studies have recruited sexually diverse samples or reported information on sexual identity.

Aims: The purpose of this analysis was to examine the relationship between hallucinogen use and mental health outcomes with respect to sexual identity.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine the relationship between hallucinogen use and psychological distress.

Dietary Sugar and Saturated Fat Consumption Associated with the Gastrointestinal Microbiome during Pregnancy.

Background: Growing evidence supports changes in the gastrointestinal microbiome over the course of pregnancy may have an impact on the short- and long-term health of both the mother and the child.

Objective: Our objective was to explore the association of diet quality, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), with the composition and gene ontology (GO) representation of microbial function in the maternal gastrointestinal microbiome during pregnancy.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational analysis of n = 185 pregnant participants in the Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study.

Advancing Science to Prevent Firearm Violence in Communities: A Process for Harmonizing Studies to Develop Research Infrastructure.

The Community Firearm Violence Prevention Network (CFVP Network), funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports a network of research projects that develop and test interventions through collaborations with community partners to prevent firearm violence, injury, and mortality. The CFVP Network presents a unique opportunity to accelerate the science of preventing firearm injuries. The data harmonization workgroup of the CFVP Network led the process of aligning studies across the three unique inaugural network projects, with particular attention to how the CFVP Network could address current gaps in the science.

Ethnic identity and social support as mediators between childhood sexual abuse and depression among black men who have sex with men.

Background: Survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) often experience long-term adverse mental health effects, a trend that has been observed in research focusing on men who have sex with men (MSM), especially Black MSM.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of childhood sexual abuse on depression symptoms among Black MSM through early sexual debut, histories of incarceration, ethnic identity, and social support. In addition, we examine the role of social support and ethnic identity as mediators of depression symptoms.

HIV-Associated Genital Immune Biomarkers in the Female Sex Worker Population: A Pilot Study.

Problem: Female sex workers (FSW) experience a disproportionately high burden of HIV infection, yet characterization of the vaginal immune microenvironment that may impact biological risk is not well studied among FSW in the United States. Additionally, feasible methodology for collecting biological materials has not been evaluated in this population.

Methods: We enrolled 10 FSW (5 premenopausal, 5 postmenopausal) who participated in a survey and provided vaginal swabs.

Accelerating Well-being for Adolescents Through Transformative Public Policy: A Framework for Action.

Purpose: As governments around the world are shaping policy responses to advance adolescent well-being and protect their rights, the tools and resources to strengthen policy foundations, and ultimately improve their effectiveness, remain limited. This paper proposes a framework to support policy action with an explicit adolescent focus and applies it to two illustrative case studies to unpack the underlying policy conditions for success.

Methods: We develop an analytic framework with an adolescent lens that focuses on the full policy life-course, from development, to implementation, to evaluation.

Cardiovascular health, measured using Life's Essential 8, is associated with reduced dementia risk among older men and women.

Background: Dementia poses considerable challenges to healthy aging. Prevention and management of dementia are essential given the lack of effective treatments for this condition.

Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted using data from 928 InCHIANTI study participants (55% female) aged 65 years and older without dementia at baseline.

Clients' and providers' perspectives in informing a digital health intervention to improve linkage to care after Index HIV self-testing in Hai and Moshi Districts, Tanzania.

Background: Digital health interventions have the potential to improve linkage to care after HIV self-testing (HIVST). This study aimed to understand clients' and providers' perceptions of benefits, and barriers of a digital health intervention designed to improve linkage to care after HIV self-testing in Tanzania.

Methods: This exploratory qualitative research study was conducted in Hai and Moshi, districts in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania.

The economic cost of direct smoking in South Korea.

Background: Smoking not only causes negative health outcomes for individuals but also causes an economic burden to society. This study estimated the socioeconomic costs of direct smoking in South Korea in 2020.

Methods: We used the prevalence-based cost-of-illness approach to estimate the sum of the direct (medical, transportation, and caregiving) and indirect (productivity loss due to health service utilization and premature death) costs of 41 smoking-related diseases.

Corrigendum to 'Nutritious Supplemental Foods for Pregnant Women from Food Insecure Settings: Types, Nutritional Composition, and Relationships to Health Outcomes' [Curr. Dev. Nutr. 7 (2023) 100094].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.cdnut.

Mini-Symposium: Training the Trainers of the Next Generation of Neuroscience Advocates.

Undergraduate neuroscience researchers and educators have a vital voice in working with policymakers to raise public awareness and increase support and funding for neuroscience. While there are many avenues and opportunities to become involved in neuroscience advocacy, finding the most effective training strategies, resources, and opportunities for involvement can sometimes be difficult and overwhelming. To address this challenge and inform faculty of science advocacy opportunities for undergraduates, we organized a mini-symposium at the 2023 Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) Workshop.

Cancer Care and Nutrition Counseling: The Role of the Oncologist in Patient Learning and Behavior Change.

Background: Cancer remains a leading chronic disease in the United States with a high burden of disease and challenging treatment protocol. Nutrition is critically linked to long-term health outcomes and recovery rates among cancer patients, but there remains a persistent gap in clinician training regarding functional nutrition. This study interviews patients to understand their experiences of nutrition support they received while in cancer treatment.

Ten Recommendations for Accelerating Hypertension and Diabetes Control to Reduce Stroke, Heart, and Renal Disease with the Aim to Save Lives in Cameroon Through Partnerships and Collaborations.

Hypertension and diabetes are currently the most common, treatable, and controllable cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors for stroke, heart, and renal diseases in Cameroon. Hypertension affects 30% of adults aged ≥ 20 years with 90% as uncontrolled cases, while type 2 diabetes affects 6% of the same population, with 70% remaining underdiagnosed. Despite publication of the first Roadmap on raised blood pressure by the World Heart Federation in 2015, the Pan African Society of Cardiology Roadmap in 2017, and the technical package for cardiovascular disease management in primary health care (WHO-HEARTS) in 2020, very little progress has been made in improving the diagnosis, treatment, and control of cardiovascular risk factors and diseases in Cameroon.

Improving access to tuberculosis preventive treatment for children in Ethiopia: designing a home-based contact management intervention for the CHIP-TB trial through formative research.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) preventive treatment (TPT) is a long-standing recommendation for children exposed to TB but remains poorly implemented. Home-based contact management may increase access and coverage of TPT among children exposed to TB in their households.

Methods: Sixty in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants including program managers, TB providers (known as TB focal persons), health extension workers and caregivers whose children had recently engaged with TB prevention services in Oromia, Ethiopia in 2021 to understand the barriers and facilitators to providing home-based TB prevention services for children aged < 15 years.

Perceptions of HIV self-testing promotion in black barbershop businesses: implications for equitable engagement of black-owned small businesses for public health programs.

Background: HIV self-testing (HIVST) offers an innovative and promising approach to increasing HIV testing among Black men in the United States, a population disproportionately affected by HIV. However, engaging Black men in traditional HIV prevention programs has been challenging due to stigma, medical mistrust, and limited access to preventive health services. This formative qualitative study aimed to explore the potential of utilizing barbershops as an example of a nontraditional healthcare venue to promote and distribute HIVST.

Consumption of Low-Calorie Sweeteners among Children Aged 6 Months to 5 Years in the United States, NHANES 2017-2020.

Background: Although the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) consumption by children <5 y due to potential health and development concerns, the extent of this consumption among these children is unknown.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the intake, sources, and dietary patterns associated with LCS consumption among United States infants and preschoolers.

Methods: We used cross-sectional 24-h dietary recall data (day 1) among 1497 children aged 6 mo to 5 y from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-2020 prepandemic.

Assessment of sociodemographic factors associated with time to self-reported COVID-19 infection among a large multi-center prospective cohort population in the southeastern United States.

Objective: We aimed to investigate sociodemographic factors associated with self-reported COVID-19 infection.

Methods: The study population was a prospective multicenter cohort of adult volunteers recruited from healthcare systems located in the mid-Atlantic and southern United States. Between April 2020 and October 2021, participants completed daily online questionnaires about symptoms, exposures, and risk behaviors related to COVID-19, including self-reports of positive SARS CoV-2 detection tests and COVID-19 vaccination.

Epidemiology and perceptions of non-fatal burns among select youth (15-24 years old) from Peshawar Pakistan; a sequential explanatory mixed methods study.

Purpose: Burns are among the top five cause of unintentional injuries among youth. We aimed to determine the incidence and risk factors of burns in select youth from Pakistan and also explored their perceptions about burns.

Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was conducted which comprised of two phases.

ST117: exploring the zoonotic hypothesis.

Unlabelled: Extraintestinal pathogenic (ExPEC) can lead to severe infections, with additional risks of increasing antimicrobial resistance rates. Genotypic similarities between ExPEC and avian pathogenic (APEC) support a possible role for a poultry meat reservoir in human disease. Some genomic studies have been done on the ST117 lineage which contaminates poultry meat, carries multidrug resistance, can be found in the human intestinal microbiota, and causes human extraintestinal disease.

Costly Barriers: A Student's Struggle With Medicaid Access.

A public health student enrolls in Medicaid, only to be unable to access the insurance for months.

A comprehensive assessment of care competence and maternal experience of first antenatal care visits in Mexico: Insights from the baseline survey of an observational cohort study.

Background: Comprehensive antenatal care (ANC) must prioritize competent, evidence-based medical attention to ensure a positive experience and value for its users. Unfortunately, there is scarce evidence of implementing this holistic approach to ANC in low- and middle-income countries, leading to gaps in quality and accountability. This study assessed care competence, women's experiences during the first ANC visit, and the factors associated with these care attributes.