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1.
J Law Med Ethics ; 52(S1): 70-74, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38995251

ABSTRACT

Here, we analyze the public health implications of recent legal developments - including privacy legislation, intergovernmental data exchange, and artificial intelligence governance - with a view toward the future of public health informatics and the potential of diverse data to inform public health actions and drive population health outcomes.


Subject(s)
Artificial Intelligence , Humans , Artificial Intelligence/legislation & jurisprudence , United States , Confidentiality/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health Informatics/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Privacy/legislation & jurisprudence
2.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38845630

ABSTRACT

The number of clinical trials is rapidly growing, and automation of literature processing is becoming desirable but unresolved. Our purpose was to assess and increase the readiness of clinical trial reports for supporting automated retrieval and implementation in public health practice. We searched the Medline database for a random sample of clinical trials of HIV/AIDS management with likely relevance to public health in Africa. Five authors assessed trial reports for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed quality based on the FAIR principles of scientific data management (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). Subsequently, we categorized reported results in terms of outcomes and essentials of implementation. A sample of 96 trial reports was selected. Information about the tested intervention that is essential for practical implementation was largely missing, including personnel resources needed 32·3% (.95 CI: 22·9-41·6); material/supplies needed 33·3% (.95 CI: 23·9-42·8); major equipment/building investment 42·8% (CI: 33·8-53·7); methods of educating providers 53·1% (CI: 43·1-63·4); and methods of educating the community 27·1% (CI: 18·2-36·0). Overall, 65% of studies measured health/biologic outcomes, among them, only a fraction showed any positive effects. Several specific design elements were identified that frequently make clinical trials unreal and their results unusable. To sort and interpret clinical trial results easier and faster, a new reporting structure, a practice- and retrieval-oriented trial outline with numeric outcomes (PROTON) table was developed and illustrated. Many clinical trials are either inconsequential by design or report incomprehensible results. According to the latest expectations of FAIR scientific data management, all clinical trial reports should include a consistent and practical impact-oriented table of clinical trial results.

3.
Inj Epidemiol ; 11(1): 27, 2024 Jun 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38915110

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Unintentional injuries disproportionately impact American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. Developing effective and culturally tailored data collection and intervention programs requires an understanding of past prevention efforts in AI/AN communities, but limited peer-reviewed literature on the topic is available. This scoping review aims to summarize efforts that have been published in the Primary Care Provider newsletter, a source of gray literature available through the Indian Health Service. METHODS: The research team obtained all injury related articles in the Provider newsletter and excluded those that did not describe an unintentional injury prevention effort. Included articles were organized chronologically and by topic, and outcomes were described in a data abstraction form. RESULTS: A total of 247 articles from the Provider newsletter were screened, and 68 were included in this review. The most number of articles were published in 2007 (n = 15). Many focused not specifically on one tribal community but on the AI/AN community as a whole (n = 27), while others reported that certain tribes were the focus of study but did not identify tribes by name (n = 24). The following is a list of 14 tribal communities explicitly mentioned: Omaha, Cherokee, Ute, Yakama, Chippewa, Apache, Ho-Chunk, The Crow Tribe, Tohono O'odham Nation, Fort Mojave Tribe, Chemehuevi Tribe, The Rosebud Tribe, Navajo, and The Pueblo of Jemez. Published unintentional injury prevention efforts have covered the following 7 topics in AI/AN communities: falls, motor vehicle crashes, poisonings, improving data, burns, children, and other. CONCLUSION: This scoping review makes available and searchable information on injury prevention work conducted in and for AI/AN communities that is not currently found in the peer-reviewed literature.

4.
JMIR Public Health Surveill ; 10: e50653, 2024 Jun 11.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38861711

ABSTRACT

Staff at public health departments have few training materials to learn how to design and fine-tune systems to quickly detect acute, localized, community-acquired outbreaks of infectious diseases. Since 2014, the Bureau of Communicable Disease at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has analyzed reportable communicable diseases daily using SaTScan. SaTScan is a free software that analyzes data using scan statistics, which can detect increasing disease activity without a priori specification of temporal period, geographic location, or size. The Bureau of Communicable Disease's systems have quickly detected outbreaks of salmonellosis, legionellosis, shigellosis, and COVID-19. This tutorial details system design considerations, including geographic and temporal data aggregation, study period length, inclusion criteria, whether to account for population size, network location file setup to account for natural boundaries, probability model (eg, space-time permutation), day-of-week effects, minimum and maximum spatial and temporal cluster sizes, secondary cluster reporting criteria, signaling criteria, and distinguishing new clusters versus ongoing clusters with additional events. We illustrate how to support health equity by minimizing analytic exclusions of patients with reportable diseases (eg, persons experiencing homelessness who are unsheltered) and accounting for purely spatial patterns, such as adjusting nonparametrically for areas with lower access to care and testing for reportable diseases. We describe how to fine-tune the system when the detected clusters are too large to be of interest or when signals of clusters are delayed, missed, too numerous, or false. We demonstrate low-code techniques for automating analyses and interpreting results through built-in features on the user interface (eg, patient line lists, temporal graphs, and dynamic maps), which became newly available with the July 2022 release of SaTScan version 10.1. This tutorial is the first comprehensive resource for health department staff to design and maintain a reportable communicable disease outbreak detection system using SaTScan to catalyze field investigations as well as develop intuition for interpreting results and fine-tuning the system. While our practical experience is limited to monitoring certain reportable diseases in a dense, urban area, we believe that most recommendations are generalizable to other jurisdictions in the United States and internationally. Additional analytic technical support for detecting outbreaks would benefit state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments and the populations they serve.


Subject(s)
Disease Outbreaks , Spatio-Temporal Analysis , Humans , Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control , New York City/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases/diagnosis , Software , Prospective Studies , COVID-19/epidemiology , Cluster Analysis
5.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38846748

ABSTRACT

Learning personalized self-management routines is pivotal for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), particularly early in diagnosis. Context-aware technologies, such as hybrid closed-loop (HCL) insulin pumps, are important tools for diabetes self-management. However, clinicians have observed that practices using these technologies involve significant individual differences. We conducted interviews with 20 adolescents and young adults who use HCL insulin pump systems for managing T1D, and we found that these individuals leverage both technological and non-technological means to maintain situational awareness about their condition. We discuss how these practices serve to infrastructure their self-management routines, including medical treatment, diet, and glucose measurement-monitoring routines. Our study provides insights into adolescents' and young adults' lived experiences of using HCL systems and related technology to manage diabetes, and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how the HCI community can support the contextualized management of diabetes through technology design.

6.
J Phys Act Health ; : 1-10, 2024 Jun 27.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38936808

ABSTRACT

Over the last 4 decades, physical activity researchers have invested heavily in determining "what works" to promote healthy behaviors in schools. Single and multicomponent school-based interventions that target physical education, active transportation, and/or classroom activity breaks effectively increased physical activity among children and youth. Yet, few of these interventions are ever scaled-up and implemented under real-world conditions and in diverse populations. To achieve population-level health benefits, there is a need to design school-based health-promoting interventions for scalability and to consider key aspects of the scale-up process. In this opinion piece, we aim to identify challenges and advance knowledge and action toward scaling-up school-based physical activity interventions. We highlight the key roles of planning for scale-up at the outset, scale-up pathways, trust among partners and program support, program adaptation, evaluation of scale-up, and barriers and facilitators to scaling-up. We draw upon our experience scaling-up effective school-based interventions and provide a solid foundation from which others can work toward bridging the implementation-to-scale-up gap.

7.
Rev Fac Cien Med Univ Nac Cordoba ; 81(2): 215-232, 2024 06 28.
Article in Spanish | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38941223

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Fever is common in childhood and there is a high level of concern on behalf of caregivers to manage it, this is called "feverphobia". Objective: The objective was to evaluate the presence of feverphobia and associated factors in the study population. Methods: observational, cross-sectional, prospective, and analytical study during 2021 to 2022 through an ad hoc survey self-administered to parents and/or caregivers of patients under 6 years of age who consulted the emergency room of the Dr. Roberto del Río Children's Hospital in Santiago, Chile. The association between sociodemographic variables, knowledge, attitudes, and fears regarding febrile children was analyzed by Chi square and Fisher's test in addition to univariate logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 381 surveys were carried out. 98% presented some degree of feverphobia. A fever below 38°C was defined by 40.6%. Physical measures were used by 56% of caregivers. The main sequelae feared were convulsions in 82% and 42.7% reported that it could be lethal. A total of 92.1% used unreliable sources of information and 66% had never received education from health personnel on this subject. Logistic regression showed that being a parent, basic or high school level and a thermal threshold below 38°C were the most associated variables. Conclusions: Feverphobia is a current phenomenon in our population and health education to the parents and caregivers could prevent it.


Introducción: La fiebre es común en la niñez y existe un alto nivel de preocupación por parte de los cuidadores para manejarla, a esto se le denomina "fiebrefobia". Objetivo: El objetivo fue evaluar la presencia de fiebrefobia y factores asociados en la población de estudio. Materiales y método: estudio observacional, transversal, con recolección prospectiva y analítico durante el 2021 a 2022, a través de una encuesta ad hoc auto administrada a los padres y/o cuidadores de pacientes menores de 6 años que consultaron a la emergencia del Hospital de Niños Dr. Roberto del Río en Santiago de Chile. Se analizó la asociación entre las variables sociodemográficas, conocimientos, actitudes y temores frente al niño febril mediante Chi cuadrado, Fisher además de análisis de regresión logística univariante. Resultados: Se realizaron 381 encuestas. El 98% presentó algún grado de fiebrefobia. El 40,6% definió fiebre bajo los 38°C. El 56 % de los cuidadores utilizaba medidas físicas. La principal secuela temida por los tutores fueron las convulsiones (82 %) y un 42,7% refirió que podía ser letal. La mayoría (92%) utilizó fuentes de información no confiables y dos tercios (66%) nunca recibieron información sobre el tema por parte del personal de salud.  La regresión logística evidenció que el hecho de ser progenitor, el nivel de escolaridad básica o media y un umbral térmico menor a 38°C fueron las variables mayormente asociadas a la fiebrefobia. Conclusiones: La fiebrefobia es un fenómeno vigente en nuestra población y la entrega de información adecuada y oportuna pudiese prevenirlo.


Subject(s)
Fever , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Cross-Sectional Studies , Male , Female , Prospective Studies , Child, Preschool , Caregivers/psychology , Socioeconomic Factors , Infant , Parents/psychology , Adult , Phobic Disorders/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Chile , Child
8.
BMC Infect Dis ; 24(1): 589, 2024 Jun 17.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38880893

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic underscored the need for pandemic preparedness, with respiratory-transmitted viruses considered as a substantial risk. In pandemics, long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are a high-risk setting with severe outbreaks and burden of disease. Non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) constitute the primary defence mechanism when pharmacological interventions are not available. However, evidence on the effectiveness of NPIs implemented in LTCFs remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review assessing the effectiveness of NPIs implemented in LTCFs to protect residents and staff from viral respiratory pathogens with pandemic potential. We searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and two COVID-19 registries in 09/2022. Screening and data extraction was conducted independently by two experienced researchers. We included randomized controlled trials and non-randomized observational studies of intervention effects. Quality appraisal was conducted using ROBINS-I and RoB2. Primary outcomes encompassed number of outbreaks, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. We synthesized findings narratively, focusing on the direction of effect. Certainty of evidence (CoE) was assessed using GRADE. RESULTS: We analysed 13 observational studies and three (cluster) randomized controlled trials. All studies were conducted in high-income countries, all but three focused on SARS-CoV-2 with the rest focusing on influenza or upper-respiratory tract infections. The evidence indicates that a combination of different measures and hand hygiene interventions can be effective in protecting residents and staff from infection-related outcomes (moderate CoE). Self-confinement of staff with residents, compartmentalization of staff in the LTCF, and the routine testing of residents and/or staff in LTCFs, among others, may be effective (low CoE). Other measures, such as restricting shared spaces, serving meals in room, cohorting infected and non-infected residents may be effective (very low CoE). An evidence gap map highlights the lack of evidence on important interventions, encompassing visiting restrictions, pre-entry testing, and air filtration systems. CONCLUSIONS: Although CoE of interventions was low or very low for most outcomes, the implementation of NPIs identified as potentially effective in this review often constitutes the sole viable option, particularly prior to the availability of vaccinations. Our evidence-gap map underscores the imperative for further research on several interventions. These gaps need to be addressed to prepare LTCFs for future pandemics. TRIAL REGISTRATION: CRD42022344149.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Long-Term Care , Respiratory Tract Infections , SARS-CoV-2 , Humans , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/epidemiology , Respiratory Tract Infections/prevention & control , Respiratory Tract Infections/epidemiology , Respiratory Tract Infections/virology , Pandemics/prevention & control , Infection Control/methods , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
9.
Public Health Rev ; 45: 1607564, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38911826

ABSTRACT

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40985-020-00146-1.].

11.
Front Public Health ; 12: 1286509, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38711770

ABSTRACT

Background: Public health interventions aim to reduce the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. Implementing evidence-based interventions that are proven to be successful and effective is widely recognized as the best approach to addressing public health challenges. To avoid the development and implementation of less effective or successful or even harmful practices, clear criteria for the assessment of practices, that consider different dimensions of the interventions in public health, are needed. The main aim of the research was to test our Criteria and assessment procedure for recognizing good practices in the field of public health by estimating the consistency between the evaluators and thereby gaining insight into the adequacy and reliability of the criteria as well as to check how the evaluators understand the criteria and methodology and if it is properly used in assessing the interventions. Methods: The assessment of the interventions took place from 2021 to 2022. The individual evaluator's scores on the scale from 1 to 5 for each specific sub-criterion were collected, which was followed by a panel discussion to reach a final score for each sub-criterion. The inter-rater agreement was measured using percent overall agreement and Fleiss' kappa coefficient. Results: We found moderate inter-rater agreement on the level of the assessment criteria group. The lowest agreement was observed for the effectiveness and efficiency sub-criteria group, which also received the lowest scores from the evaluators. Challenges identified with the scoring process were due to the descriptive 1 to 5 scale and the varying specificity of the criteria. Conclusion: The results showed that studying consistency between evaluators can highlight areas for improvement or adjustment in the assessment criteria and enhance the quality of the assessment instrument. Therefore, such analysis would be useful part of both newly and well-established health promotion and prevention program registries.


Subject(s)
Public Health , Humans , Reproducibility of Results , Evidence-Based Practice , Program Evaluation
12.
J Pak Med Assoc ; 74(5): 891-896, 2024 May.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38783436

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To explore the non-alignment between what is taught in academic programmes for public health and what is actually needed or expected in the field. METHODS: The qualitative phenomenological study was conducted from October 2020 to April 2021 in Karachi after approval from the institutional ethics review board of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi. The sample comprised major stakeholders including representatives of public health institutions and organisations involved in the implementation of public health programmes. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions using a guide after content validation by an expert. Data was analysed using both inductive and deductive approaches. RESULTS: A total of 13 in-depth interviews and 5 focus group discussions were conducted. Regarding gaps in the process of curriculum development, 2 major concerns emerged; lack of comprehensive involvement of experts in different fields of public health in designing the curriculum, and the lack of incorporation of the feedback provided by students in revising the curriculum. Regarding the content of curriculum, three main themes emerged; theoretical nature of courses, lack of uniformity in all programmes, and poor local contextualisation. The casual approach of students and barriers faced by them in joining public health programmes also affected the quality of such programmes. CONCLUSIONS: Three broad areas of improvement were identified, which included improvement in curriculum, methods of learning, and improving students' approach.


Subject(s)
Curriculum , Focus Groups , Public Health , Qualitative Research , Humans , Pakistan , Public Health/education , Education, Public Health Professional , Interviews as Topic , Professional Competence
13.
Nurs Rep ; 14(2): 1136-1147, 2024 May 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38804419

ABSTRACT

There is a growing demand for comprehensive evaluations of the clinical learning quality of nursing education and the necessity to establish robust predictors and mediators for enhancing its outcomes within the context of mental health practice. This study is threefold: 1. Evaluating nursing students' clinical learning quality before and after mental health nursing practice; 2. Establish if the grade of a theoretical course in mental health nursing and the student's perception of their theoretical knowledge level predicts the grade of mental health nursing practice; 3. Explore how model learning opportunities, self-directed learning, safety, and nursing care quality mediate learning environment quality and tutorial strategies quality following mental health nursing practice. Using a before and after the study, 107 undergraduate nursing students at an Israeli university completed a questionnaire and the Clinical Learning Quality Evaluation Index tool to assess their perceptions of clinical learning quality before and after mental health nursing practice. The results showed a decline in students' perceptions of tutorial strategy quality following mental health practical learning in clinical settings, with the theoretical course grade predicting the practical experience grade and underscoring the mediating role of learning opportunities between the learning environment and tutorial strategies. The study's findings emphasize the importance of an adaptive learning environment and a solid theoretical foundation in fostering effective tutorial strategies and enhancing the overall learning outcomes for nursing students in mental health education.

14.
Health Promot Int ; 39(3)2024 Jun 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38809234

ABSTRACT

Globally, oral conditions remain the most prevalent of all non-communicable diseases. Among the broad range of target goals and recommendations for action by the World Health Organization's Global Oral Health Strategy, we call out three specific actions that provide an enabling environment to improve population oral health including: (i) enabling population oral health reform through leadership, (ii) enabling innovative oral health workforce models, (iii) enabling universal health coverage that includes oral health. The aim of the article is to outline how leadership, regulatory approaches and policy in Australia can strengthen health promotion practice and can inform global efforts to tackle the complex wicked problems associated with population oral health. Examples in Australia show that effective leadership, regulatory approaches and well-designed policies can address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, and are made possible through public health advocacy, collaboration and research.


Subject(s)
Health Policy , Health Promotion , Leadership , Humans , Australia , Oral Health , Universal Health Insurance
15.
Emerg Infect Dis ; 30(13): S17-S20, 2024 04.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38561633

ABSTRACT

The large COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons in the Washington (USA) State Department of Corrections (WADOC) system during 2020 highlighted the need for a new public health approach to prevent and control COVID-19 transmission in the system's 12 facilities. WADOC and the Washington State Department of Health (WADOH) responded by strengthening partnerships through dedicated corrections-focused public health staff, improving cross-agency outbreak response coordination, implementing and developing corrections-specific public health guidance, and establishing collaborative data systems. The preexisting partnerships and trust between WADOC and WADOH, strengthened during the COVID-19 response, laid the foundation for a collaborative response during late 2021 to the largest tuberculosis outbreak in Washington State in the past 20 years. We describe challenges of a multiagency collaboration during 2 outbreak responses, as well as approaches to address those challenges, and share lessons learned for future communicable disease outbreak responses in correctional settings.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Tuberculosis , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Public Health , Prisons , Washington/epidemiology , Pandemics/prevention & control , Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control , Tuberculosis/epidemiology , Tuberculosis/prevention & control
16.
Public Health Rep ; : 333549241236644, 2024 Apr 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38561999

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Military training centers and seagoing vessels are often environments at high risk for the spread of COVID-19 and other contagious diseases, because military trainees and personnel arrive after traveling from many parts of the country and live in congregate settings. We examined whether levels of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in wastewater correlated with SARS-CoV-2 infections among military personnel living in communal barracks and vessels at US Coast Guard training centers in the United States. METHODS: The Coast Guard developed and established 3 laboratories with wastewater testing capability at Coast Guard training centers from March 2021 through August 2022. We analyzed wastewater from barracks housing trainees and from 4 Coast Guard vessels for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genes N and E and quantified the results relative to levels of a fecal indicator virus, pepper mild mottle virus. We compared quantified data with the timing of medically diagnosed COVID-19 infection among (1) military personnel who had presented with symptoms or had been discovered through contact tracing and had medical tests and (2) military personnel who had been discovered through routine surveillance by positive SARS-CoV-2 antigen or polymerase chain reaction test results. RESULTS: Levels of viral genes in wastewater at Coast Guard locations were best correlated with diagnosed COVID-19 cases when wastewater testing was performed twice weekly with passive samplers deployed for the entire week; such testing detected ≥1 COVID-19 case 69.8% of the time and ≥3 cases 88.3% of the time. Wastewater assessment in vessels did not continue because of logistical constraints. CONCLUSION: Wastewater testing is an effective tool for measuring the presence and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 infections among military populations. Success with wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 infections suggests that other diseases may be assessed with similar approaches.

17.
J Community Health ; 2024 Mar 16.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38491319

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated a public health workforce shortage and national strategies have called for the development of clear occupational pathways for students to enter the public health workforce and meaningful public health careers. In response to the immediate need for public health workers during the pandemic, several universities and academic hospitals rapidly mobilized students and employees and partnered with local or state health departments. However, many of those partnerships were based on short-term volunteer effort to support critical COVID-19 public health efforts. In this article, we document the development of Oregon's Public Health Practice Team, a student, staff, and faculty workforce developed at the Oregon Health & Science University-Portland State University (OHSU-PSU) School of Public Health in close collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). This project contributed significant effort to several phases of Oregon's statewide public health response to COVID-19, and over time developed into a lasting, multi-purpose, inter-agency collaborative public health practice program. Health equity has been centered at every stage of this work. We describe the phases of the partnership development, the current team structure and operations, and highlight key challenges and lessons learned. This provides a case-study of how an innovative and flexible university-government partnership can contribute to immediate pandemic response needs, and also support ongoing public health responses to emerging needs, while contributing to the development of a skilled and diverse public health workforce.

18.
Public Health Rep ; : 333549241230479, 2024 Mar 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38491784

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Screening tools in which participants self-report sexual behaviors can identify people at risk of HIV acquisition for enrollment in preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We compared enrollment outcomes (ie, receiving PrEP vs being excluded by a counselor or declining PrEP) in Mexico's PrEP demonstration project and evaluated the validity of a 4-criteria PrEP eligibility tool in which participants self-reported risk behavior-having condomless anal sex, transactional sex, a partner living with HIV, or a sexually transmitted infection-as compared with PrEP eligibility assessed by a counselor. METHODS: We recruited men who have sex with men and transwomen who were offered PrEP services in Mexico. We characterized participants according to enrollment outcome and identified underlying factors through logistic regression analyses. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the self-reported risk criteria, using the counselor's risk assessment as the point of reference. RESULTS: Of 2460 participants, 2323 (94%) had risk criteria of HIV acquisition according to the 4-criteria tool; 1701 (73%) received PrEP, 247 (11%) were excluded by a counselor, and 351 (15%) declined PrEP despite being considered eligible by the counselor. Participants who were excluded or who declined PrEP were less likely to report HIV risk behaviors than those who received PrEP, and participants who declined PrEP were more likely to be transwomen (vs men who have sex with men) and aged ≤25 years (vs >25 y). The 4-criteria risk tool had high sensitivity (98.6%) and low specificity (29.8%). CONCLUSION: The screening tool identified most participants at risk of HIV acquisition, but counselors' assessment helped refine the decision for enrollment in PrEP by excluding those with low risk. Public health strategies are needed to enhance enrollment in PrEP among some groups.

19.
Public Health Nurs ; 41(3): 543-554, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38497562

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: As students returned to school, school nurses were responsible for infection control, communication, and the preparation of supplies and facilities. School nurses in the Pacific Northwest US demonstrated a higher prevalence of mental health symptoms in the years since the pandemic began, suggesting that their experience may have been unique. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the stressors of school nurses in the Pacific Northwest at two time points. DESIGN: This study is a qualitative, descriptive analysis of anonymous survey responses collected in June of 2021 (n = 333) and between October and December 2021 (n = 284). SAMPLE: Self-identifying school nurses working in K-12 schools in Washington State were invited to participate. MEASUREMENTS: Participants completed open-ended survey questions designed to elicit their experiences during the pandemic. RESULTS: Four themes emerged from the data: (1) isolation from administration and the school community, (2) COVID-19-related workload, (3) disorganized and inconsistent communication, and (4) concern for students, themselves, and others. CONCLUSIONS: School nurses played a vital public health role during the pandemic. However, their effectiveness may not have been fully utilized and sometimes undermined. Lastly, our findings highlight the difficulties encountered in implementing the changing scientific and public health guidance during the pandemic.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Nurses , School Nursing , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Mental Health , Infection Control
20.
Public Health Rep ; 139(1_suppl): 30S-36S, 2024.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38344985

ABSTRACT

After a tumultuous 3 years of pandemic-, political-, and race-related unrest in the United States, the public is demanding accountability to communities of color (defined here as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic people) to rectify historic and contemporary injustices that perpetuate health inequities and threaten public health. Structural racism pervades all major societal systems and exposes people to detrimental social determinants of health. Disrupting structural racism within public health systems is essential to advancing health equity and requires organized partnerships between health departments and community leaders. As those who are most affected by structural racism, communities of color are the experts in knowing its impacts. This case study describes the King County Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group (PARCAG) and its use of an innovative accountability tool. The tool facilitated institutional transparency and accountability in the adoption of community recommendations. PARCAG was influential in shaping Public Health-Seattle & King County's COVID-19 and antiracism work, with 66 of 75 (88%) recommendations adopted partially or fully. For example, a fully adopted recommendation in May 2020 was to report King County COVID-19 case data by race and ethnicity, and a partially adopted recommendation was to translate COVID-19 information into additional languages. PARCAG members were recruited from a 2019 advisory board on Census 2020 and were adept at shifting to advising on COVID-19 and equitable practices and policies. Organizations that have made declarations that racism is a public health crisis should center the experiences, expertise, and leadership of communities of color in accountable ways when developing and implementing strategies to disrupt and repair the effects of structural racism and efforts to promote and protect public health.


Subject(s)
Advisory Committees , COVID-19 , Public Health , Social Responsibility , Humans , COVID-19/ethnology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Racism , Pandemics , Washington , Social Determinants of Health/ethnology , SARS-CoV-2 , Health Equity
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