Community, Public, and Population Health Content in Nursing Curricula: National Survey Results.

BACKGROUND: Policy, societal, and system changes are prompting nursing programs to expand population health content in curricula. This study examined the current state of community, public, and population health (CPPH) education in nursing curricula throughout the United States. METHOD: This descriptive study examined CPPH education in nursing programs nationally. A survey was developed and distributed to nursing programs from January to May 2021. RESULTS: CPPH content integration occurred across all program levels, and the majority of the participants were involved in the development of CPPH-specific curriculum. Programs experienced reductions in CPPH curriculum due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), lack of experienced faculty, budget constraints, and an emphasis on acute care. CONCLUSION: The continuation of CPPH education in current nursing curricula is critical. National and academic nursing organizations must continue to monitor CPPH content in nursing curricula to assure a competent CPPH nursing workforce. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(5):282-291.].

Process Evaluation of a Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of a Quadruple Ultra-Low-Dose Treatment for Hypertension Within a Federally Qualified Health Center Network (QUARTET USA).

BACKGROUND: This convergent parallel-design mixed-methods process evaluation of the QUARTET USA (Quadruple Ultra-Low-Dose Treatment for Hypertension USA) clinical trial (NCT03640312) explores patient and health care professional perceptions about the use of low-dose quadruple therapy (LDQT) as a novel strategy for hypertension management. METHODS AND RESULTS: A survey of all 62 patients enrolled in the QUARTET USA trial was conducted. A subsample of 13 patients and 11 health care professionals, recruited via purposive sampling, took part in semistructured interviews. At enrollment, 68% of participants (mean [SD] age, 51.7 [11.5] years; 56% self-identified as Hispanic: Mexican ethnicity, 16% as Hispanic: other ethnicity, 16% as Black race, 8% as White race, and 1.6% as South Asian race) reported that their current health depended on blood pressure medications, and 48% were concerned about blood pressure medications. At trial completion, 80% were satisfied with LDQT, 96% were certain the benefits of taking LDQT outweighed the disadvantages, and 96% reported that LDQT was convenient to take. Both patients and health care professionals found LDQT acceptable because it reduced patients' perceived pill burden and facilitated medication adherence. Health care professionals stated that a perceived limitation of LDQT was the inability to titrate doses. Steps to facilitate LDQT implementation include introducing stepped-care combinations and treatment protocols, inclusion in clinical practice guidelines, and eliminating patient cost barriers. CONCLUSIONS: LDQT was an acceptable strategy for hypertension treatment among patients and health care professionals involved in the QUARTET USA clinical trial. Although LDQT was generally perceived as beneficial for maintaining patients' blood pressure control and facilitating adherence, some clinicians perceived limitations in titration inflexibility, adverse effects, and costs. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03640312.

Unraveling the association between vaccine attitude, vaccine conspiracies and self-reported side effects following COVID-19 vaccination among nurses and physicians in Jordan.

Background: The negative impact of vaccine conspiracies is linked with negative health behavior. The aim of the current study was to examine the association between attitudes toward booster COVID-19, influenza, and monkeypox (mpox) vaccinations with post-COVID-19 vaccine side effects, vaccine conspiracies, and attitude towards mandatory vaccination among nurses and physicians in Jordan. Methods: A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect data on demographics, COVID-19 history, COVID-19 vaccine type and doses received, self-reported side effects post-COVID-19 vaccination, acceptance of booster COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and mpox vaccinations, attitudes towards mandatory vaccination, and beliefs in vaccine conspiracies. Results: The study sample comprised a total of 341 participants. Acceptance of yearly booster COVID-19 vaccination was expressed by 46.6% of the sample, while 73.3% accepted seasonal influenza vaccination, and only 37.0% accepted mpox vaccination. A higher frequency of self-reported side effects following the first COVID-19 vaccine dose was associated with embrace of vaccine conspiracies and vaccine type. For the second vaccine dose, a higher frequency of self-reported side effects was associated with the embrace of vaccine conspiracies, older age, and affiliation to private sector. In multinomial logistic regression analyses, the lower embrace of vaccine conspiracies was associated with lower odds of reporting side effects post-COVID-19 vaccination. The lower embrace of vaccine conspiracies and favorable attitude towards mandatory vaccination were associated with the willingness to get COVID-19, influenza, and mpox vaccinations. Conclusion: The study findings highlighted the negative impact of embracing vaccine conspiracies on health-seeking behavior among nurses and physicians. The findings indicated that the willingness to get vaccinated was associated with lower endorsement of vaccine conspiracies. Additionally, the lower embrace of vaccine conspiracies was associated with a lower frequency of self-reported side effects following COVID-19 vaccination. These results emphasize the importance of addressing vaccine misinformation and promoting accurate information to ensure optimal vaccine uptake and public health outcomes.

The Impact of Funding Insulin Research on Open Access Publishing: A 20-Years Bibliometric Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The recent report of The World Health Organization on diabetes has stressed on the burden of diabetes on low/middle income countries. Recent studies advocated the importance of funding more research on diabetes and insulin in these countries. Recently, the European Research Council advocated the importance of gold Open Access (OA) publishing, where the funded research should be immediately accessible. In this study, we aim to assess funding for insulin research, where we will compare the OA status between funded and unfunded research. METHODS: We used Scopus database to assess insulin research published from January 1st, 1999 to December 31st, 2018. Our bibliometric analysis consisted of three main sections: analysis of all publications on insulin, analysis of funded insulin publications, and analysis of unfunded insulin publications. RESULTS: We found a total of 388,202 publications, of which only 83,180 (21.4%) were funded. USA produced around 30.1% of the total publications, and the National Institute of Health (NIH) was the major funder with 18.6% of all publications. Of the funded publications, 29,143 (35%) were OA publications, compared to 97,347 (31.9%) of the unfunded publications. We didn't find a significant difference in OA status between funded and unfunded research. CONCLUSION: In concordance with the European Research Council's decision to support gold OA publishing model, we found that only 35% of the funded and 31.9% of the unfunded insulin research were OA. Although the funded research is increasing in China, most of it is produced in high income countries. This highlights the importance of allocating more funds to low/middle income countries.

Autoimmune Thyroid Disease and Keratoconus: Is There an Association?

PURPOSE: The association between autoimmune diseases and keratoconus (KC) has been proposed based on previous retrospective studies and case reports. The aim of our study is to investigate whether KC is associated with autoimmune thyroid disease. Methods. A comparative study was conducted on 131 adult subjects from September 2015 to May 2017 at Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan. Subjects were classified into 2 groups: subjects with autoimmune thyroid disease, including Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (n = 68), and a healthy group for comparison (n = 63). Subjects with any other conditions known to be associated with KC were excluded. The diagnosis of KC was based on clinical and corneal topographic findings utilizing the Oculus-Pentacam machine. In addition, TSH and total T4 levels as well as thyroid peroxidase antibodies were measured in all study participants. Antithyroglobulin antibodies, thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin, thyroid ultrasound, and thyroid uptake and scan were also selectively performed in some participants. RESULTS: This study included a total of 131 participants (101 females and 30 males), including patients and controls. In the multivariate analysis, autoimmune disease was not significantly associated with keratoconus (OR = 1.1; 95% confidence interval: 0.3, 3.8; p value = 0.353) after adjusting for age and gender. CONCLUSION: This study did not show a statistically significant association between autoimmune thyroid disease and KC.

Intramuscular blood flow quantification with power doppler ultrasonography.

INTRODUCTION: Quantification of blood flow to muscle using ultrasound is limited to large vessels. Small vessel intramuscular blood flow cannot be quantified using ultrasound without specialized methods or intravenous contrast. METHODS: We describe a technique using power Doppler to quantify postcontraction hyperemia in intramuscular vessels that can be used at the bedside. RESULTS: In 11 healthy subjects, postcontraction intramuscular blood flow in the forearm flexors and tibialis anterior muscles increased with stronger and repeated contractions. Intravascular blood flow measured by pulsed Doppler in the brachial artery similarly increased. Three patients with muscular dystrophies showed a negligible increase of postcontraction intramuscular blood flow. CONCLUSIONS: Intramuscular blood flow can be quantified using power Doppler ultrasonography; it increases following contraction and may be reduced in patients with muscular dystrophies. This quantitative, noninvasive technique can be applied at the bedside and may facilitate studies of disease impact on intramuscular blood flow. Muscle Nerve 54: 872-878, 2016.