Factors in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in five racial/ethnic Colorado communities: A report from the Colorado CEAL project.

PURPOSE: To understand motivators, concerns, and factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine initiation for adults in five racial/ethnic communities across Colorado. METHODS: Community-based data collectors surveyed participants from five Colorado communities (urban and rural Latina/o/x, urban Black, rural African American immigrant, and urban American Indian) about vaccine attitudes, intentions, and uptake from September to December 2021. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine factors associated with the primary outcome of COVID-19 vaccine "initiation." RESULTS: Most participants (71.1%) reported having initiated COVID-19 vaccination; vaccine series completion was 65.1%. Both motivators and concerns about COVID-19 vaccines were prevalent. Vaccine hesitancy (OR: 0.41, 95% CI:0.32-0.53; p < .001) and low perceptions of COVID-19 vaccination social norms (OR: 0.48, 95% CI:0.27-0.84; p = .01) were associated with vaccine initiation. CONCLUSION: Despite the limitation of a moderate sample size, our findings support the need for further interventions to increase vaccination against COVID-19 by reducing vaccine hesitancy and improving perceived social norms of vaccination in underserved Colorado communities. IMPLICATIONS: To improve trust in vaccines and promote vaccine uptake, community messaging should be tailored to vaccination motivators and concerns and demonstrate COVID-19 vaccination as the community default.

Using Administrative Billing Codes to Identify Acute Musculoskeletal Infections in Children.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Acute hematogenous musculoskeletal infections (MSKI) are medical emergencies with the potential for life-altering complications in afflicted children. Leveraging administrative data to study pediatric MSKI is difficult as many infections are chronic, nonhematogenous, or occur in children with significant comorbidities. The objective of this study was to validate a case-finding algorithm to accurately identify children hospitalized with acute hematogenous MSKI using administrative billing codes. METHODS: This was a multicenter validation study using the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database. Hospital admissions for MSKI were identified from 6 PHIS hospitals using discharge diagnosis codes. A random subset of admissions underwent manual chart review at each site using predefined criteria to categorize each admission as either "acute hematogenous MSKI" (AH-MSKI) or "not acute hematogenous MSKI." Ten unique coding algorithms were developed using billing data. The sensitivity and specificity of each algorithm to identify AH-MSKI were calculated using chart review categorizations as the reference standard. RESULTS: Of the 492 admissions randomly selected for manual review, 244 (49.6%) were classified as AH-MSKI and 248 (50.4%) as not acute hematogenous MSKI. Individual algorithm performance varied widely (sensitivity 31% to 91%; specificity 52% to 98%). Four algorithms demonstrated potential for future use with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve greater than 80%. CONCLUSIONS: Identifying children with acute hematogenous MSKI based on discharge diagnosis alone is challenging as half have chronic or nonhematogenous infections. We validated several case-finding algorithms using administrative billing codes and detail them here for future use in pediatric MSKI outcomes.

Patient control preferences for medical decision making before and after evaluation for left ventricular assist device.

Understanding patients' preferred roles in medical decision making (i.e., passive, collaborative, active) is important to personalized care and patient engagement. Patient control preferences have been described for many treatment decisions, but their stability over time has not been characterized, particularly for major medical events with long-term implications. We prospectively surveyed 233 patients at the initiation of evaluation for a left ventricular assist device, and 1 and 6 months later, including collection of the Control Preferences Scale. Collaborative and active preferences were most common initially, followed by a shift towards more active. Approximately half of patients reported a different control preference in follow up. Patients with higher income and education levels were more likely to prefer an active role. These findings suggest that most patients want to be engaged in shared decision making, but to what degree is varied, can change over time, and is influenced by social determinants of health.

Effect of a Patient Decision Aid on Preferences for Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Guidelines recommend individualized decision-making for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among adults aged 76 to 84 years, a process that includes a consideration of health state and patient preference. Objective: To determine whether a targeted patient decision aid would align older adults' screening preference with their potential to benefit from CRC screening. Design, Setting, and Participants: This is a prespecified secondary analysis from a randomized clinical trial. Participants aged 70 to 84 years who were not up to date with screening and had an appointment within 6 weeks were purposively sampled by health state (poor, intermediate, or good) at 14 community-based primary care practices and block randomized to receive the intervention or control. Patients were recruited from March 1, 2012, to February 28, 2015, and these secondary analyses were performed from January 15 to March 1, 2022. Interventions: Patient decision aid targeted to age and sex. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome of this analysis was patient preference for CRC screening. The a priori hypothesis was that the decision aid (intervention) group would reduce the proportion preferring screening among those in poor and intermediate health compared with the control group. Results: Among the 424 participants, the mean (SD) age was 76.8 (4.2) years; 248 (58.5%) of participants were women; and 333 (78.5%) were White. The proportion preferring screening in the intervention group was less than in the control group for those in the intermediate health state (34 of 76 [44.7%] vs 40 of 73 [54.8%]; absolute difference, -10.1% [95% CI, -26.0% to 5.9%]) and in the poor health state (24 of 62 [38.7%] vs 33 of 61 [54.1%]; absolute difference, -15.4% [95% CI, -32.8% to 2.0%]). These differences were not statistically significant. The proportion of those in good health who preferred screening was similar between the intervention and control groups (44 of 74 [59.5%] for intervention vs 46 of 75 [61.3%] for control; absolute difference, -1.9% [95% CI, -17.6% to 13.8%]). Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this secondary analysis of a clinical trial did not demonstrate statistically significant differences in patient preferences between the health groups. Additional studies that are appropriately powered are needed to determine the effect of the decision aid on the preferences of older patients for CRC screening by health state. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01575990.