Financial and Other Life Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Food and Beverage Consumption among Students Attending a Large California State University during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic abruptly disrupted the daily lives and health of college students across the United States. This study investigated several stressors (e.g.

The association between provider encouragement and sodium consumption behaviors.

Objective: To explore and describe the associations between provider encouragement and four sodium consumption behaviors.

Methods: We analyzed a 2016 Internet panel survey dataset of 954 socio-demographically diverse adults (age ≥18 years) living in Los Angeles County. Behaviors analyzed were current status of watching one's salt/sodium intake, frequency of adding salt to food, frequency of using a food/Nutrition Facts label to decide what food to purchase, and frequency of changing one's mind about buying a food product due to its sodium content.

An Organizational Assessment of 34 Home Delivered Meals Programs that Engaged and Assisted Homebound Individuals With Obtaining the COVID-19 Vaccine During the Pandemic.

Vaccinating homebound individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic presented several challenges, including time and cost of engaging this group. In Los Angeles County, the departments of Public Health and Aging and Disabilities turned to home delivered meals programs (HDMs) for help with this public health priority. A mixed-method organizational assessment of 34 HDMs was conducted during March-April 2022 to describe these efforts.

An organizational assessment of 101 Community-Based Adult Services centers to identify and address gaps in influenza vaccination among Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries.

Introduction: Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries are at high risk of experiencing severe disease from influenza. Yet, immunization assessment followed by influenza vaccination (when needed) are not regularly performed at Community-Based Adult Services (CBAS) centers in/near medically underserved areas. To better understand this challenge, an organizational assessment was conducted in early 2020 to identify and examine modifiable factors that may impede or facilitate immunization assessment and influenza vaccination at CBAS centers in Los Angeles County (LAC), California.

MyPlate and urban low-income Asian Americans in the United States: a study to improve nutrition education.

This study describes barriers to using the MyPlate visual as a resource for communicating dietary recommendations to Asian American participants of a federally funded nutrition education program. To identify potential barriers to using MyPlate, an interdisciplinary team collected quantitative (n = 349) and qualitative (n = 40) data via a cross-sectional survey and a series of focus group interviews with convenience samples of Cambodian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean adult participants of a nutrition education class in downtown Los Angeles. Findings showed that 13.

Factors Influencing COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in the Workplace: Results From a Rapid Survey at 2 Corporations in Los Angeles County, California, 2021.

Objectives: Achieving widespread vaccine acceptance across various employment sectors is key to a successful public health response to COVID-19, but little is known about factors influencing vaccine acceptance among essential non-health care workers. We examined factors influencing vaccine acceptance among a sample of essential non-health care workers in California.

Methods: We conducted a survey in early spring 2021 at 2 corporations in Los Angeles County, California, to identify and describe factors influencing vaccine acceptance and the ability of incentives to increase this acceptance.

Evaluating the impact of community interventions on childhood obesity in populations living in low-income households in Los Angeles: A simulation study.

Background: The complex multifactorial nature of childhood obesity makes community interventions difficult to evaluate using traditional approaches; innovative methods are needed.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of various interventions targeting childhood obesity-related behaviours, and classified as using a micro-level (e.g.

Co-created Mobile Apps for Palliative Care Using Community-Partnered Participatory Research: Development and Usability Study.

Background: Open design formats for mobile apps help clinicians and stakeholders bring their needs to direct, co-creative solutions. Palliative care for patients with advanced cancers requires intensive monitoring and support and remains an area in high need for innovation.

Objective: This study aims to use community-partnered participatory research to co-design and pretest a mobile app that focuses on palliative care priorities of clinicians and patients with advanced cancer.

Predictors of Dual E-Cigarette and Cigarette Use.

Objective: To compare prevalence of e-cigarette and cigarette use and to determine predictors of dual use.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Using a countywide random digit dial telephone health survey conducted during January 2018 to March 2019, we analyzed data from a random sample of 6966 adults. Bivariate analyses described vaping, cigarette use, and sociodemographics.

Use of Population Health Data and Qualitative Analysis to Guide Local Planning and Implementation of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education.

Purpose: The purpose is to describe how local quantitative and qualitative data were used to assess the progress of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) interventions in Los Angeles County, California.

Approach: Data from the California Health Interview Survey informed the geographical concentration of program resources during the planning phase. At the end of the program, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were conducted to assess factors that facilitated SNAP-Ed implementation.

Prescribing cholinesterase inhibitors in mild cognitive impairment-Observations from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

Introduction: Analyses of off-label use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has produced mixed results. Post hoc analyses of observational cohorts, such as the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), have reported deleterious effects in AChEI-treated subjects (AChEI+). Here, we used neuroimaging biomarkers to determine whether AChEI+ subjects had a greater rate of neurodegeneration than untreated (AChEI-) subjects while accounting for baseline differences.

TSI-GNN: Extending Graph Neural Networks to Handle Missing Data in Temporal Settings.

We present a novel approach for imputing missing data that incorporates temporal information into bipartite graphs through an extension of graph representation learning. Missing data is abundant in several domains, particularly when observations are made over time. Most imputation methods make strong assumptions about the distribution of the data.

Knowledge and perceptions of human trafficking among community-based and faith-based organization members in South Los Angeles.

The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the knowledge and perceptions of human trafficking (HT) among leaders and staff from 11 community-based organizations (CBOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) in South Los Angeles, and (2) to identify gaps in knowledge of HT and inform community organizations regarding possible best practices in health promotion for addressing this emerging public health problem. A self-administered survey was conducted during the period from 4 December 2015 to 28 January 2016. Descriptive statistics were generated and a logistic regression model was constructed using SAS 9.

Using Health Navigators to Connect At-Risk Clients to Community Resources.

Context: The coupling of health care services with complementary resources that address unmet social needs is a progressively popular approach for improving health outcomes among low-income populations. Community health workers are increasingly recognized as a helpful intermediary for clients navigating community and clinical services.

Program: The Wellness Center at the Historic General Hospital in East Los Angeles employs a team of community health workers, referred to as Health Navigators, who are trained to link low-income clients to resources such as chronic disease management programs, food pantries, free or low-cost legal aid, health insurance enrollment, group fitness classes, and counseling and peer support services.

Privacy-protecting, reliable response data discovery using COVID-19 patient observations.

Objective: To utilize, in an individual and institutional privacy-preserving manner, electronic health record (EHR) data from 202 hospitals by analyzing answers to COVID-19-related questions and posting these answers online.

Materials And Methods: We developed a distributed, federated network of 12 health systems that harmonized their EHRs and submitted aggregate answers to consortia questions posted at https://www.covid19questions.

Optimal uses of pooled testing for COVID-19 incorporating imperfect test performance and pool dilution effect: An application to congregate settings in Los Angeles County.

Introduction: Pooled testing is a potentially efficient alternative strategy for COVID-19 testing in congregate settings. We evaluated the utility and cost-savings of pooled testing based on imperfect test performance and potential dilution effect due to pooling and created a practical calculator for online use.

Methods: We developed a 2-stage pooled testing model accounting for dilution.

Do knowledge about sodium, health status by self-report, and having hypertension predict sodium consumption behaviors among Southern California hospital employees?

Little is known about factors that shape sodium consumption behaviors among hospital employees targeted by recent federally funded, sodium-related policy, systems, and environmental change interventions. To address this gap in health promotion practice, we assessed the influence of sodium-related knowledge and attitudes, and health status by self-report on the sodium consumption behaviors of hospital employees targeted by the Los Angeles County Sodium Reduction Initiative. Cross-sectional surveys were administered to 1,213 hospital employees at four Southern California hospitals between 2016 and 2018.

Discharge Clinical Characteristics and Post-Discharge Events in Patients with Severe COVID-19: A Descriptive Case Series.

Background: As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues, little guidance is available on clinical indicators for safely discharging patients with severe COVID-19.

Objective: To describe the clinical courses of adult patients admitted for COVID-19 and identify associations between inpatient clinical features and post-discharge need for acute care.

Design: Retrospective chart reviews were performed to record laboratory values, temperature, and oxygen requirements of 99 adult inpatients with COVID-19.

Simulating the impact of health behavior interventions in the SNAP-Ed population.

In 2020, the US invested $441 million dollars in the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed), a program that encourages a healthy diet and promotes physical activity. Understanding the long-term health outcomes associated with promoting physical activity versus weight loss among the low-income population it serves could help guide the direction of future program efforts. We used the Future Americans Model (FAM), a microsimulation, to model over 10 years the impacts of changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) and exercise interventions on future health outcomes among adults aged 25 and older that could potentially accrue from SNAP-Ed interventions.

Food insecurity, participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the degree to which patients anticipate help from clinics to find food in Los Angeles County.

Healthcare clinics are uniquely positioned to screen for food insecurity and refer patients to food resources. This study examines this approach to address this social condition. A 2018 intercept survey of 1,103 adult patients recruited from across 11 clinic waiting rooms in Los Angeles County was conducted to describe the prevalence of food insecurity and whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation and the degree to which patients anticipated their clinics to help them locate food varied by socio-demographic factors.

Privacy-Protecting, Reliable Response Data Discovery Using COVID-19 Patient Observations.

There is an urgent need to answer questions related to COVID-19's clinical course and associations with underlying conditions and health outcomes. Multi-center data are necessary to generate reliable answers, but centralizing data in a single repository is not always possible. Using a privacy-protecting strategy, we launched a public Questions & Answers web portal (https://covid19questions.

A machine learning algorithm to increase COVID-19 inpatient diagnostic capacity.

Worldwide, testing capacity for SARS-CoV-2 is limited and bottlenecks in the scale up of polymerase chain reaction (PCR-based testing exist. Our aim was to develop and evaluate a machine learning algorithm to diagnose COVID-19 in the inpatient setting. The algorithm was based on basic demographic and laboratory features to serve as a screening tool at hospitals where testing is scarce or unavailable.