Research Best Practices for Eye Stroke Vision Rehabilitation: A Qualitative Study.

Purpose: Central retinal artery occlusion, also known as an eye stroke, results in visual impairment and functional challenges. Our study objectives were to identify meaningful measures and factors that indicate or enable successful recovery after eye stroke and to determine optimal processes to support research, including exploring barriers and facilitators to successful research participation.

Methods: We used qualitative methods including the 5Ts Framework (target population identification, team composition, time considerations, tips to accommodate older adults, tools for inclusive enrollment of older adults) to provide a guide to the development of the semi-structured interviews and to help facilitate the research process such as the set-up of interviews.

Female agency and probable depression in the perinatal period and beyond: Longitudinal findings from rural Pakistan.

In Pakistan, a setting with high gender inequality, the relationship between female agency and mental health has not been studied longitudinally or beyond a defined life stage like pregnancy. Using data from the Bachpan cohort of mother-infant dyads in Pakistan, we investigated female agency and depression at two life stages: perinatal (third trimester to 6-months postpartum; n = 1154) and beyond (3- to 4-years postpartum). Modified Poisson models estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) for probable depression (PHQ-9) associated with female agency (freedom of movement and participation in household decision-making) at the two life stages.

Medicaid Spending in Coordination-Only Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans.

Importance: More than 4 million Medicare beneficiaries have enrolled in dual-eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs), and coordination-only D-SNPs are common. Little is known about the impact of coordination-only D-SNPs on Medicaid-covered services and spending, including long-term services and supports, which are financed primarily by Medicaid.

Objective: To evaluate changes in Medicaid fee-for-service (FFS) spending before and after new enrollment in coordination-only D-SNPs vs new enrollment in non-D-SNP Medicare Advantage (MA) plans among community-living beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and North Carolina Medicaid.

Predicting 90-day return to the emergency department in orthopaedic trauma patients in the Southeastern USA: a machine-learning approach.

Introduction: Return-to-acute-care metrics, such as early emergency department (ED) visits, are key indicators of healthcare quality, with ED returns following surgery often considered avoidable and costly events. Proactively identifying patients at high risk of ED return can support quality improvement efforts, allowing interventions to target vulnerable patients. With its predictive capabilities, machine learning (ML) has shown potential in forecasting various clinical outcomes but remains underutilised in orthopaedic trauma.

Valuing the benefits of reducing firearm violence in the United States.

Justifying a proposed government regulation intended to reduce firearm violence requires a conceptually sound estimate of the monetized value of that impact and how that value is distributed across the population. Some previous estimates do not serve as a valid basis for policy evaluation or are out of date. A nationally representative survey was conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in August 2022 (n = 660).

Studying Chinese immigrants' spatial distribution in the Raleigh-Durham area by linking survey and commercial data using romanized names.

Many population surveys do not provide information on respondents' residential addresses, instead offering coarse geographies like zip code or higher aggregations. However, fine resolution geography can be beneficial for characterizing neighbourhoods, especially for relatively rare populations such as immigrants. One way to obtain such information is to link survey records to records in auxiliary databases that include residential addresses by matching on variables common to both files.

Effectiveness of Synchronous Postdischarge Contacts on Health Care Use and Patient Satisfaction : A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Postdischarge contacts (PDCs) after hospitalization are common practice, but their effectiveness in reducing use of acute care after discharge remains unclear.

Purpose: To assess the effects of PDC on 30-day emergency department (ED) visits, 30-day hospital readmissions, and patient satisfaction.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL searched from 2012 to 25 May 2023.

Family wealth and adolescent physical health.

Inequalities in the distribution of wealth among families with children may have deleterious health consequences, especially for adolescent children. Marked by significant psychosocial and physiological changes, adolescence is a period when socioeconomic differences in chronic disease risk factors are observed. Unfortunately, research on socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health has overlooked wealth, focusing instead on differences in health based on household income and parental educational attainment.

Longer Total Interhospital Transfer Times for Rural Sepsis Patients Not Associated with Increased Mortality.

Objectives: Sepsis is a time-sensitive condition, and many rural emergency department (ED) sepsis patients are transferred to tertiary hospitals. The objective of this study was to determine whether longer transport times during interhospital transfer are associated with higher sepsis mortality or increased hospital length-of-stay (LOS).

Methods:  A cohort of rural adult (age ≥ 18 y) sepsis patients transferred between hospitals were identified in the TELEmedicine as a Virtual Intervention for Sepsis Care in Emergency Departments (TELEVISED) parent study.

Intracranial hemorrhage and additional anomalies detected on prenatal magnetic resonance imaging: A large, retrospective study in two tertiary medical institutions.

Objectives: To clarify the prenatal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging characteristics of fetal intracranial haemorrhages (ICHs) in a large cohort and correlate them with birth outcomes.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed MR images of fetuses with ICH on screening ultrasound (US) on picture archiving communication system (PACS) servers within a nearly ten-year period from two medical tertiary centres. The indications, main abnormal findings and coexistent anomalies were recorded by two experienced radiologists with census readings.

Exploring the Sources and Experiences of Joy in Caregiving: Insights From Formal Caregivers in Long-Term Care.

Objectives: To explore and understand the sources and experiences of joy in caregiving among formal caregivers in Canadian long-term care (LTC).

Design: A qualitative study with interpretative descriptive design.

Setting And Participants: The participants consisted of 20 formal caregivers from a large public LTC home in British Columbia, Canada, focusing on those with at least 6 months of direct caregiving experience.

Beyond despair: Leveraging ecosystem restoration for psychosocial resilience.

Ecosystem restoration has historically been viewed as an ecological endeavor, but restoration possesses significant, yet largely untapped, potential as a catalyst for personal and social transformation. We highlight the opportunity for restoration to enhance community resilience by increasing agency and collective action and countering the pervasive perception that we are powerless witnesses to environmental decline. In this perspective, we take a "bright spots" approach and highlight successful examples of ecosystem restoration that have helped to nurture a sense of place, foster optimism, and cultivate stronger and more diverse social networks.

Pediatric Organ Donation, Transplantation, and Updated Brain Death Criteria: An Overview for Pediatricians.

Pediatricians follow patients longitudinally and hold a unique position to address multiple issues, medical and psychosocial, that affect organ donation and transplantation. They are wellpositioned to provide anticipatory guidance during well-child visits and during care for children with end-stage organ failure and can either assist these patients with ongoing medical management or refer these patients for organ transplantation assessment. A pediatrician's trusted relationship with families and patients allows for guidance on medical and ethical issues surrounding brain death, organ donation, and transplantation.

Optimization of a digital health intervention to enhance well-being among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors: Design and methods of the EMPOWER full factorial trial.

Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (AYAs) experience clinically significant distress and have limited access to supportive care services. Interventions to enhance psychological well-being have improved positive affect and reduced depression in clinical and healthy populations and have not been routinely tested in AYA survivors. We are optimizing a web-based positive skills intervention for AYA cancer survivors called Enhancing Management of Psychological Outcomes With Emotion Regulation (EMPOWER) by: (1) determining which intervention components have the strongest effects on well-being and (2) identifying demographic and individual difference variables that mediate and moderate EMPOWER's efficacy.

2024 Update of the RECOVER-Adult Long COVID Research Index.

Importance: Classification of persons with long COVID (LC) or post-COVID-19 condition must encompass the complexity and heterogeneity of the condition. Iterative refinement of the classification index for research is needed to incorporate newly available data as the field rapidly evolves.

Objective: To update the 2023 research index for adults with LC using additional participant data from the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER-Adult) study and an expanded symptom list based on input from patient communities.

Pharmacy-based preventive services for opioid use disorder: a survey of U.S. pharmacists.

Background: Pharmacists play a key role in combating the opioid-related overdose epidemic in the United States (US), but little is known about their experience and willingness to deliver preventive services for opioid use disorder (OUD).

Aims: This study seeks to identify correlates of pharmacists' concerns about drug use problems (prescription drug misuse/use disorder and illicit drug use/use disorder) as well as their practice experience delivering preventive services for OUD (e.g.

A comparison of assessment tools for childcare centers in high vs. low resource settings.

Studies suggest issues may arise when using childcare setting assessment tools designed for high-resource settings in low-resource settings to assess and improve the quality of care, including placing disproportionate weight on features of the childcare environment that may not be available or culturally appropriate within the low-resource context. This study compares a novel assessment tool developed in and for low-income and low-resource settings with a standardized "gold standard" tool developed for use in high-resource settings. The study included a randomized sample of 34 childcare centers in a low-resource context that provided care for approximately 918.

Designing a Measure of Body Image: Cognitive Interview Findings from an Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Sample.

A cancer diagnosis in adolescence and young adulthood significantly impacts a person's quality of life, particularly concerning identity, self-esteem, and subsequently, body image. This study aims to develop a psychometrically-sound patient-reported outcome measure of body image for adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology patients that was guided by the National Institutes of Health's Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS) Scientific Standards and our past concept elicitation interviews with AYAs. We conducted a multi-step approach involving item identification, refinement, generation; translatability and reading level review; and cognitive interviews.

Managing and Minimizing Online Survey Questionnaire Fraud: Lessons from the Triple C Project.

With the increasing sophistication of online survey tools and the necessity of distanced research during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online questionnaires for research purposes has proliferated. Still, many researchers undertake online survey research without knowledge of the prevalence and likelihood of experiencing survey questionnaire fraud nor familiarity with measures used to identify fraud once it has occurred. This research note is based on the experience of researchers across four sites who implemented an online survey of families' experiences with COVID-19 in the U.

Blood biomarkers of trans-fatty acid intake among Nigerian adults in the Federal Capital Territory: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Intake of trans-fatty acids (TFAs) is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In April 2023, Nigeria passed regulations limiting TFA content in foods, fats, and oils, but the current level of TFA exposure in the Nigerian population is unknown.

Objectives: To quantify trans-fatty acid (TFA) biomarkers in dried blood spots from Nigerian adults in the Federal Capital Territory before policy enforcement, establish baseline levels for future evaluations, assess subgroup variations by demographic and socioeconomic factors, and compare TFA levels with data from 30 countries worldwide.

Metals in honey from bees as a proxy for environmental contamination in the United States.

This is the first large bio-surveillance study examining the contents and geographic variation of metals of public health concern-arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), and cobalt (Co)-in honey samples collected across the United States. Metal concentrations were measured using ICP-MS, and the spatial distribution pattern of these contaminants was evaluated using statistical and GIS tools. The mean (highest) values (in μg/kg) were 3.

The changing association between pandemic-related stressors and child and adolescent mental health during the waning phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study examined the relation between pandemic-related stressors and mental health among young people (YP) in India during two time points in the waning phase of the pandemic. We use data from two cross-sectional waves of over 20,000 YP aged 5-19 in February 2022, during the peak of the Omicron wave, and October 2022, during a reduction in infections and easing of restrictions. COVID illness/death in the family's social network, current lockdown stringency, and significant change in household income were examined in relation to adult respondents' reports of YP internalizing symptoms.

Association of deployment characteristics and exposures with persistent ill health among 1990-1991 Gulf War veterans in the VA Million Veteran Program.

Background: Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War have experienced excess health problems, most prominently the multisymptom condition Gulf War illness (GWI). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Cooperative Studies Program #2006 "Genomics of Gulf War Illness in Veterans" project was established to address important questions concerning pathobiological and genetic aspects of GWI. The current study evaluated patterns of chronic ill health/GWI in the VA Million Veteran Program (MVP) Gulf War veteran cohort in relation to wartime exposures and key features of deployment, 27-30 years after Gulf War service.