Changes in mental health stigma among healthcare professionals and community representatives in Northern Sri Lanka during an mhGAP intervention study.

PURPOSE: Research indicates that exposure to conflict, natural disasters, and internal displacement can increase mental health conditions. Since the end of the civil conflict within Sri Lanka, the country has worked to increase access to mental health services to meet the needs of conflict-affected populations, however, gaps remain. To address this, integration of mental health services into primary care can reduce the strain on growing specialized care. As part of a larger study primary care practitioners (doctors), public health professionals (nurses, midwives), and community representatives (teachers, social workers) were trained to deliver mental health services in primary care across the heavily impacted Northern Province. The aim was to reduce mental health stigma among enrolled healthcare workers and community representatives by 50%. METHODS: Stigma was measured across all participant groups at six time points: pre- and post- initial training at baseline, pre- and post- refresher training 3-months after initial training, and pre- and post- refresher training 6-months after initial training. RESULTS: Results indicate a small improvement in average stigma scores at the 6-month refresher point for primary care practitioners, and no meaningful difference in average scores across time points for public health professionals or community representatives. CONCLUSION: World Health Organization mhGAP training appears to reduce stigma among primary care practitioners and could be an effective strategy to counteract mental health stigma in low resource settings. Future research should investigate underlying mechanisms of stigma reduction to improve delivery of mental health services in primary care and community settings.

Infant and young child feeding practices in refugee settings across 203 population-based surveys from 2013-2019.

Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) plays a crucial role in early childhood growth and development. This study summarizes recent IYCF practices in multiple refugee settings and compares them to those in the host countries. We analyzed 203 surveys conducted among refugees residing in 15 countries and 120 unique sites and assessed eight IYCF indicators available from those surveys. A total of 146 surveys were conducted in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and 50 in Western and Central Africa (WCA) regions. The median prevalence across surveys of all four indicators describing intake of breast milk was relatively high: 96.6% for ever breastfed, 81.2% for initiation of breastfeeding within 1 h of birth, 76.9% for exclusive breastfeeding 0-5 months, and 75.0% for continued breastfeeding 12-23 months. The median prevalence of early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding was markedly higher in ESA than in WCA (85.0% vs. 37.5% and 83.5% vs. 56.1%, respectively). Conversely, the overall median prevalence of timely introduction of solid and semisolid foods and flesh food consumption was low: 51.8% and 16.1%, respectively. Flesh food consumption was higher in WCA than in ESA (27.4% vs. 11.6%). The median prevalence of mixed milk feeding at 0-5 months and bottle feeding was very low: 2.4% and 3.8%, respectively. Indicators describing breast milk intake were generally either similar or higher in refugees than in the host country populations, whereas the other indicators were generally higher in the host populations than in refugees. The low prevalence of timely introduction of solids and of flesh food consumption in refugees is concerning and requires substantial improvement.

Characteristics of hemoglobin distributions in preschool children and non-pregnant women of reproductive age and their implications for establishing quality control criteria for hemoglobin data in field surveys: evidence from 483 surveys conducted in refugee settings worldwide.

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is a lack of clear guidance on hemoglobin (Hb) data quality parameters and plausible flagging ranges for population-representative surveys. There is a need to determine which properties of Hb data indicate lower data quality and increased measurement error and which represent intrinsic statistical properties of Hb distributions rather than quality problems. METHODS: We explored statistical characteristics of Hb distributions and plausible exclusion ranges in population-representative surveys of non-pregnant women of reproductive age (WRA) (15-49 years, n = 401 surveys) and children (6-59 months, n = 461 surveys) conducted in refugee settings by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Hb distribution characteristics [standard deviation (SD), skewness and kurtosis] were compared to those from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). RESULTS: Overall, 0.08% of child and 0.14% of WRA Hb values were outside of the previously proposed 4.0-18.0 g/dL plausible range. Surveys conducted in Uganda tended to have unusually high SD compared with surveys from other settings, possibly an indication of problematic measurement quality. We therefore used summary results on SD, skewness and kurtosis excluding surveys from Uganda when comparing with DHS results or proposing plausible ranges. Both WRA and child Hb distributions tended to be left-skewed and had excess positive kurtosis. Mean survey-level SD was greater, mean skewness more negative, and mean kurtosis more positive in WRA surveys compared to child surveys. All these findings were broadly similar to those from DHS surveys. Mean SD in DHS surveys was higher than that in our data for both children (1.48 vs. 1.34) and WRA (1.58 vs. 1.43). CONCLUSIONS: We observed several statistical characteristics of Hb distributions that may not necessarily be indicative of data quality problems and bear strong similarities with the characteristics found in DHS surveys. Hb distributions tended to be negatively skewed and positively kurtotic, and SD in many surveys exceeded 1.5 (previously proposed upper plausible range). Based on our empirical evidence, surveys with skewness above + 0.2 and kurtosis below -0.5 or Hb SD outside the range of 1.1-1.55 g/dL for children (6-59 mo) or 1.1-1.65 g/dL for non-pregnant WRA (15-49 y) may require further quality investigation.

Considerations for assessment of measurement quality of mid-upper arm circumference data in anthropometric surveys and mass nutritional screenings conducted in humanitarian and refugee settings.

Despite frequent use of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) to assess populations in humanitarian settings, no guidance exists about the ranges for excluding implausible extreme outliers (flags) from MUAC data and about the quality assessment of collected MUAC data. We analysed 701 population-representative anthropometric surveys in children aged 6-59 months from 40 countries conducted between 2011 and 2019. We explored characteristics of flags as well as changes in survey-level MUAC-for-age z-score (MUACZ) and MUAC means, SD and percentage of flags based on three flagging approaches: ±3 and ±4 MUACZ z-scores from observed MUACZ survey mean and a fixed interval 100-200 mm of MUAC. Both ±4 and 100-200 flagging approaches identified as flags approximately 0.15% of records; about 60% of all surveys had no flags and less than 1% of surveys had >2% of flags. The ±3 approach flagged 0.6% records in the data set and 3% of surveys had >2% of flags. Plausible ranges (defined as 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles) for SD of MUACZ and MUAC were 0.8-1.2 and 10.5-14.4 mm, respectively. Survey-level SDs of MUAC and MUACZ were highly correlated (r = 0.68). The average SD of MUACZ was 0.96 using the ±4 flagging approach and 0.94 with ±3 approach. Defining outliers in MUAC data based on the MUACZ approach is feasible and adjusts for different probability of extreme values based on age and nutrition status of surveyed population. In assessments where age is not recorded and therefore MUACZ cannot be generated, using 100-200 mm range for flag exclusion could be a feasible solution.

Place-Based Correlates of Exchange Sex Among People Who Inject Drugs in 19 U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 2012.

This study examined overall and gender-specific associations between place-based characteristics and opposite-sex exchange sex among people who inject drugs (PWID) in the U.S. PWID were recruited from 19 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2012 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance. Administrative data were used to describe the economic, social, and political features of the ZIP codes, MSAs, counties, and states where PWID lived. Multilevel modeling estimated associations of place characteristics and exchange sex. We found that 52% of women and 23% of men reported past-year opposite-sex exchange sex (N = 7599). Female PWID living in states with stronger policies supporting working caregivers had lower odds of exchange sex (aOR = 0.80; 95% CI 0.69, 0.94). PWID living in ZIP codes with greater economic deprivation had higher odds of exchange sex (aOR = 1.10; 95% CI 1.03, 1.17). We found that a high percentage of male PWID exchanged sex with women; determinants and risks of this group merit exploration. If future research establishes that the relationships identified here are causal, interventions to reduce exchange sex among PWID should include policies supporting working caregivers and reducing poverty rates.

Causal Proportional Hazards Estimation with a Binary Instrumental Variable.

Instrumental variables (IV) are a useful tool for estimating causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding. IV methods are well developed for uncensored outcomes, particularly for structural linear equation models, where simple two-stage estimation schemes are available. The extension of these methods to survival settings is challenging, partly because of the nonlinearity of the popular survival regression models and partly because of the complications associated with right censoring or other survival features. Motivated by the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer screening trial, we develop a simple causal hazard ratio estimator in a proportional hazards model with right censored data. The method exploits a special characterization of IV which enables the use of an intuitive inverse weighting scheme that is generally applicable to more complex survival settings with left truncation, competing risks, or recurrent events. We rigorously establish the asymptotic properties of the estimators, and provide plug-in variance estimators. The proposed method can be implemented in standard software, and is evaluated through extensive simulation studies. We apply the proposed IV method to a data set from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian cancer screening trial to delineate the causal effect of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening on colorectal cancer survival which may be confounded by informative noncompliance with the assigned screening regimen.

Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic spatial polarization and incarceration among people who inject drugs in 19 US metropolitan areas, 2015.

The purpose of this study is to test, for the first time, the association between spatial social polarization and incarceration among people who inject drugs (PWID) in 19 large U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in 2015. PWID were recruited from MSAs for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2015 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance. Administrative data were used to describe the ZIP-code areas, counties, and MSAs where PWID lived. We operationalized spatial polarization using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE), a measure that reflects polarization in race and household income at the ZIP-code level. We tested the association between spatial polarization and odds of past-year arrest and detainment using multilevel multivariable models. We found 37% of the sample reported being incarcerated in the past year. Report of past-year incarceration varied by race/ethnicity: 45% of non-Hispanic white PWID reported past-year incarceration, as did 25% of non-Hispanic Black PWID, and 43% of Hispanic/Latino PWID (N = 9047). Adjusted odds ratios suggest that Black PWID living in ZIP-code areas with a higher ICE score, meaning more white and affluent, had higher odds of past-year incarceration, compared to white PWID. In previous research, incarceration has been found to be associated with HIV acquisition and can deter PWID from engaging in harm reduction activities.

Is the severity of the Great Recession's aftershocks correlated with changes in access to the combined prevention environment among people who inject drugs?

BACKGROUND: The 2008 Recession was a global event that led to funding cuts for programs and services in the United States; though this recession officially ended in 2009, its aftershocks continued through 2012. We evaluated the relationship between the severity of the Great Recession's aftermath and spatial access to combined prevention services (i.e. HIV testing, syringe service programs, substance use disorder treatment program) for people who inject drugs (PWID) living in 19 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States. METHODS: The unit of analysis was the ZIP code; we sampled ZIP codes in these 19 MSAs where ≥1 PWID lived in 2009 and 2012, according to the CDC's National HIV Behavioral Surveillance. We used administrative data to describe the combined prevention environment (i.e., spatial access to HIV testing) for each ZIP code, and measured the severity of the recession's aftermath in each ZIP code, and in the counties and MSAs where these ZIP codes were located. Multilevel modeling estimated associations between changes in the aftermath of the Great Recession and ZIP code-level changes in spatial access to combined prevention services from 2009 to 2012. RESULTS: 675 ZIP codes located in 36 counties and 19 MSAs were included in this analysis. From 2009 to 2012, 21% of ZIP code areas lost access to combined prevention services and 14% gained access. ZIP codes with higher poverty rates relative to their respective MSAs were less likely to lose access (aOR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.88, 0.95) and more likely to gain access (aOR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.09); there is some evidence to suggest the former association was attenuated for ZIP codes with higher percentages of non-Hispanic white residents. CONCLUSION: Combined prevention services for PWID living in these 675 ZIP codes demonstrated resilience in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Future research should explore whether community-based and federal HIV prevention initiatives contributed to this resilience, particularly in areas with higher concentrations of people of color.

An application of agent-based modeling to explore the impact of decreasing incarceration rates and increasing drug treatment access on sero-discordant partnerships among people who inject drugs.

BACKGROUND: People who inject drugs (PWID) lag behind other key populations in HIV care continuum outcomes. The impacts of criminal justice reform and increasing drug treatment access on HIV have been underexplored. METHODS: We developed agent-based models (ABM) of sexual partnerships among PWID and non-PWID, and injection equipment-sharing partnerships among PWID in five US cities (Baltimore, Boston, Miami, New York City, San Francisco) over 3 years. The first set of ABM projected changes in partnership discordance among PWID as a function of decreasing ZIP code-level incarceration rates. The second set projected discordance as a function of increasing ZIP code-level drug treatment access. ABM were parameterized and validated overall, and by city and PWID race/ethnicity (Black, Latino, White) using National HIV Behavioral Surveillance data, administrative ZIP code-level data, surveillance reports and prior literature. Informed by research on prisoner release and community-level HIV prevalence, reductions in incarceration rates were fixed at 5% and 30% and respectively projected to increase ZIP code-level HIV prevalence by 2% and 12%. Increases in drug treatment access were fixed at 30% and 58%. RESULTS: In each city, a 30% reduction in ZIP code-level incarceration rates and 12% increase in ZIP code-level HIV prevalence significantly increased sero-discordance among at least one racial/ethnic group of PWID by 1-3 percentage points. A 5% reduction in incarceration rates, and 30% and 58% increases in drug treatment access, led to isolated significant changes in sero-discordance among Black and White PWID that were less than 1 percentage point. CONCLUSION: Reductions in incarceration rates may lead to short-term increases in sero-discordant partnerships among some PWID by increasing community-level HIV prevalence. Efforts to increase HIV testing, engagement in care and community reintegration post release, should be strengthened in the wake of incarceration reform. Additional research should confirm these findings and explore the lack of widespread impacts of drug treatment in this study.