HPV vaccine behaviors and intentions among a diverse sample of women aged 27-45 years: implications for shared clinical decision-making.

Background: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices issued a shared clinical decision-making (SCDM) recommendation for HPV vaccination in persons aged 27-45. Since expanded eligibility for the vaccine was issued, little information has been available about HPV vaccine behaviors and intentions among women in this age group.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey among women aged 27-45 years recruited through a Qualtrics™ respondent panel (N = 324) to answer the following questions (1) What is the prevalence of HPV vaccination among a diverse sample of adult women aged 27-45 years? (2) What are the characteristics of those who have or have not previously been vaccinated? and (3) What factors are associated with the intention to obtain the HPV vaccine among those who had never been vaccinated? Multivariable logistic regression analyses estimated adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

Chemical and sensory analyses of cultivated pork fat tissue as a flavor enhancer for meat alternatives.

The emerging field of cellular agriculture has accelerated the development of cell-cultivated adipose tissue as an additive to enhance the flavor of alternative meat products. However, there has been limited research to evaluate the sensory profile of in vitro-grown tissues compared to conventionally obtained animal fat. This study aimed to investigate the aromatic characteristics of cell-cultivated fat tissue as a flavor enhancer for meat alternatives.

Centering Patient and Clinician Voices in Developing Tools to Address Pain Related School Impairment: A Phase I Study of a Virtual Reality School Simulation for Children and Adolescents with Chronic Pain.

Building on growing evidence supporting virtual reality (VR) interventions for pain management, this study describes the process of developing vReal-School (vRS), a VR-based school simulation for children and adolescents with chronic pain and associated school impairment. Following guidelines for developing user-centered VR interventions, initial phases of intervention development focus on understanding and incorporating patient and clinician perspectives when designing this digital health tool. Phase I entailed focus groups with patients undergoing intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT).

Private pharmacies as healthcare providers in Odisha, India: analysis and implications for universal health coverage.

Introduction: In India, as in many low-income and middle-income countries, the private sector provides a large share of health care. Pharmacies represent a major share of private care, yet there are few studies on their role as healthcare providers. Our study examines: (1) What are the characteristics of and services provided by private pharmacies and how do these compare with other outpatient care providers? (2) What are the characteristics of patients who opted to use private pharmacies? (3) What are the reasons why people seek healthcare from private pharmacies? (4) What are the quality of services and cost of care for these patients? Based on our findings, we discuss some policy implications for universal health coverage in the Indian context.

Environmental equity and COVID-19 experiences in the United States: Results from three survey waves of a nationally representative study conducted between 2020-2022.

Certain environmental exposures, such as air pollution, are associated with COVID-19 incidence and mortality. To determine whether environmental context is associated with other COVID-19 experiences, we used data from the nationally representative Tufts Equity in Health, Wealth, and Civic Engagement Study data (n=1785; three survey waves 2020-2022). Environmental context was assessed using self-reported climate stress and county-level air pollution, greenness, toxic release inventory site, and heatwave data.

Mental Health of Brazilian Immigrant Women: The Role of Discrimination, Social Support, and Community Strengths.

Little is known about the mental health status of Brazilians living in the U.S. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of depression to guide the development of culturally relevant community-based mental health interventions.

Parental Decision Making Regarding COVID-19 Vaccines for Children under Age 5: Does Decision Self-Efficacy Play a Role?

Background: COVID-19 vaccines are now available under Emergency Use Authorization for children ages 6 months to 5 years. We examined parents' intentions to vaccinate their children under the age of 5 years and assessed whether their confidence in making an informed decision about vaccination (decision self-efficacy) was associated with these intentions.

Method: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of U.

Web-Based Health Information-Seeking Methods and Time Since Provider Engagement: Cross-sectional Study.

Background: The use of web-based methods to seek health information is increasing in popularity. As web-based health information (WHI)-seeking affects health-related decision support and chronic symptom self-management, WHI-seeking from online sources may impact health care decisions and outcomes, including care-seeking decisions. Patients who are routinely connected to physicians are more likely to receive better and more consistent care.

Comprehensive Assessment of Health System Performance in Odisha, India.

India has recently implemented several major health care reforms at national and state levels, yet the nation continues to face significant challenges in achieving better health system performance. These challenges are particularly daunting in India's poorer states, like Odisha. The first step toward overcoming these challenges is to understand their root causes.

Laboratory evaluation of the efficacy of bucket chlorination guidelines at inactivating Vibrio cholerae for waters of varying quality.

Bucket chlorination, where chlorine is dosed directly into water collection containers, is a point-of-source water treatment intervention commonly implemented in cholera outbreaks. There is little previous data on chlorine efficacy against Vibrio cholerae in different waters and appropriate dosage regimes. We evaluated V.

Dynamic mapping of cholera outbreak during the Yemeni Civil War, 2016-2019.

Widespread destruction from the Yemeni Civil War (2014-present) triggered the world's largest cholera outbreak. We compiled a comprehensive health dataset and created dynamic maps to demonstrate spatiotemporal changes in cholera infections and war conflicts. We aligned and merged daily, weekly, and monthly epidemiological bulletins of confirmed cholera infections and daily conflict events and fatality records to create a dataset of weekly time series for Yemen at the governorate level (subnational regions administered by governors) from 4 January 2016 through 29 December 2019.

Interaction of extraembryonic microglia and neonatal brain development.

Microglia are resident immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS), which, in a healthy state, promote CNS homeostasis and respond to CNS injury. In contrast, microglia are also implicated in pathological conditions where they may contribute to neural damage. Primitive microglia arise from extraembryonic progenitors in the yolk sac (YS).

A Stakeholder-Engaged Approach to Development of an Animal-Assisted Intervention for Obesity Prevention Among Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Pet Dogs.

Stakeholder involvement in research has been demonstrated to increase the effectiveness, validity, and quality of a study. This paper describes the engagement of a stakeholder panel in the development and implementation of an animal-assisted intervention (AAI) assessment and program for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Canines for Autism Activity and Nutrition (CAAN) aims to promote physical activity and wellness among children diagnosed with ASD by integrating activities with their pet dog during the child's ongoing Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) in-home therapy sessions.

Informal preparation and years of experience: Key correlates of dyslexia knowledge among Massachusetts early elementary teachers.

Background: Dyslexia is a neurobiological condition affecting phonological processing and characterized by reading and phonological awareness difficulties. We assessed correlations between dyslexia knowledge and five independent variables among early elementary teachers in Massachusetts.

Methods: We designed a survey based on two published assessment tools and surveyed 92 early elementary teachers.

Addressing Youth-Focused Research Questions in a Community Context: Collecting and Integrating Mixed Methods Data at Multiple Ecological Levels with the Project.

Research seeking to understand and improve social conditions for marginalized youth would benefit from merging complex mixed methods research designs emphasizing multilevel data and participatory-social justice principles. We contribute to mixed methods research by introducing a multilevel, participatory-social justice mixed methods design that accomplishes this task and by illustrating its real-world application via , a multistage study aimed at understanding youths' community-based experiences and emotional well-being. During the project's three phases (preparation, training, and dissemination) we obtained and integrated quantitative and qualitative data at multiple ecological levels.

Is There a Correlation Between Dog Obesity and Human Obesity? Preliminary Findings of Overweight Status Among Dog Owners and Their Dogs.

Obesity is a serious health issue in people and their pets, with a need for innovative and engaging prevention strategies. One possible strategy is a One Health approach incorporating dogs into prevention programs; however, little data exist in the U.S.

Self-Reported Changes and Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Global Breast Cancer Survivors: Results from an Exploratory Online Novel Survey.

Background: Despite being motivated to improve nutrition and physical activity behaviors, cancer survivors are still burdened by suboptimal dietary intake and low levels of physical activity.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess changes in nutrition and physical activity behaviors after cancer diagnosis or treatment, barriers to eating a healthy diet and staying physically active, and sources for seeking nutrition advice reported by breast cancer survivors.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study.

The International Diet-Health Index: a novel tool to evaluate diet quality for cardiometabolic health across countries.

Introduction: Diet is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiometabolic disease; however, interpretable measures capturing impacts of overall diet on health that can be easily used by policymakers at the global/national levels are not readily available.

Methods: We developed the International Diet-Health Index (IDHI) to measure health impacts of dietary intake across 186 countries in 2010, using age-specific and sex-specific data on country-level dietary intake, effects of dietary factors on cardiometabolic diseases and country-specific cardiometabolic disease profiles. The index encompasses the impact of 11 foods/nutrients on 12 cardiometabolic diseases, the mediation of health effects of specific dietary intakes through blood pressure and body mass index and background disease prevalence in each country-age-sex group.

Intimate Partner Violence in Transgender Populations: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prevalence and Correlates.

Transgender individuals experience unique vulnerabilities to intimate partner violence (IPV) and may experience a disproportionate IPV burden compared with cisgender (nontransgender) individuals. To systematically review the quantitative literature on prevalence and correlates of IPV in transgender populations. Authors searched research databases (PubMed, CINAHL), gray literature (Google), journal tables of contents, and conference abstracts, and consulted experts in the field.

Rural Ghanaian households are more likely to use alternative unimproved water sources when water from boreholes has undesirable organoleptic characteristics.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 aims to achieve universal access to safe drinking water sources. However, the health benefits of meeting this goal will only be fully realized if improved sources are used to the exclusion of unimproved sources. Very little is known about how rural African households balance the use of improved and unimproved water sources when multiple options are present.

A field study to estimate inhalation rates for use in a particle inhalation rate exposure metric.

Particle inhalation rate (PIR) is an air pollution exposure metric that relies on age-, sex-, and physical activity-specific estimates of minute respiratory volume (MRV; L/min-kg) to account for personal inhalation patterns. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)-generated MRV estimates derive primarily from relatively homogenous populations without substantial cardiorespiratory challenges. To determine if these MRV estimates are relevant to populations in generally poor cardiorespiratory health (e.

HCV treatment access among Latinxs who inject drugs: qualitative findings from Boston, Massachusetts, 2016.

Background: Compared with Caucasians, Latinxs with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) tend to initiate treatment less often, discontinue treatment, become infected younger, and have higher reinfection rates post-treatment. Little is known about HCV treatment experiences among Latinxs who inject drugs in the Northeastern USA. We assessed knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions tied to HCV, as well as HCV treatment readiness, and explored the overall HCV treatment experience of Latinx people who inject drugs (PWID) in Boston.

Assessment of urogenital schistosomiasis knowledge among primary and junior high school students in the Eastern Region of Ghana: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Knowledge of urogenital schistosomiasis can empower individuals to limit surface water contact and participate in mass drug administration campaigns, but nothing is currently known about the schistosomiasis knowledge that schoolchildren have in Ghana. We developed and implemented a survey tool aiming to assess the knowledge of urogenital schistosomiasis (treatment, transmission, prevention, symptoms) among science teaches and primary and junior high school students in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Methods: We developed a 22-question knowledge survey tool and administered it to 875 primary and 938 junior high school students from 74 schools in 37 communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Potential of Using Twitter to Recruit Cancer Survivors and Their Willingness to Participate in Nutrition Research and Web-Based Interventions: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Social media is rapidly changing how cancer survivors search for and share health information and can potentially serve as a cost-effective channel to reach cancer survivors and invite them to participate in nutrition intervention programs.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the feasibility of using Twitter to recruit cancer survivors for a web-based survey and assess their willingness to complete web-based nutrition surveys, donate biospecimens, and to be contacted about web-based nutrition programs.

Methods: We contacted 301 Twitter accounts of cancer organizations, advocates, and survivors to request assistance promoting a web-based survey among cancer survivors.

Contextualizing Schistosoma haematobium transmission in Ghana: Assessment of diagnostic techniques and individual and community water-related risk factors.

Objectives: The study assessed associations between Schistosoma haematobium infection (presence of parasite eggs in urine or hematuria) and self-reported metrics (macrohematuria, fetching surface water, or swimming) to evaluate their performance as proxies of infection in presence of regular preventive chemotherapy. It also examined community water characteristics (safe water access, surface water access, and groundwater quality) to provide context for schistosomiasis transmission in different types of communities and propose interventions.

Methods: Logistic regression was used to assess the associations between the various measured and self-reported metrics in a sample of 897 primary school children in 30 rural Ghanaian communities.