Coding Long COVID: Characterizing a new disease through an ICD-10 lens.

Background: Naming a newly discovered disease is a difficult process; in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the existence of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), which includes Long COVID, it has proven especially challenging. Disease definitions and assignment of a diagnosis code are often asynchronous and iterative. The clinical definition and our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of Long COVID are still in flux, and the deployment of an ICD-10-CM code for Long COVID in the US took nearly two years after patients had begun to describe their condition. Here we leverage the largest publicly available HIPAA-limited dataset about patients with COVID-19 in the US to examine the heterogeneity of adoption and use of U09.9, the ICD-10-CM code for "Post COVID-19 condition, unspecified." Methods: We undertook a number of analyses to characterize the N3C population with a U09.9 diagnosis code ( n = 21,072), including assessing person-level demographics and a number of area-level social determinants of health; diagnoses commonly co-occurring with U09.9, clustered using the Louvain algorithm; and quantifying medications and procedures recorded within 60 days of U09.9 diagnosis. We stratified all analyses by age group in order to discern differing patterns of care across the lifespan. Results: We established the diagnoses most commonly co-occurring with U09.9, and algorithmically clustered them into four major categories: cardiopulmonary, neurological, gastrointestinal, and comorbid conditions. Importantly, we discovered that the population of patients diagnosed with U09.9 is demographically skewed toward female, White, non-Hispanic individuals, as well as individuals living in areas with low poverty, high education, and high access to medical care. Our results also include a characterization of common procedures and medications associated with U09.9-coded patients. Conclusions: This work offers insight into potential subtypes and current practice patterns around Long COVID, and speaks to the existence of disparities in the diagnosis of patients with Long COVID. This latter finding in particular requires further research and urgent remediation.

Long Journeys Toward Freedom: The Relationship Between Coercive Control and Space for Action-Measurement and Emerging Evidence.

We report on the development of, and findings from, two scales measuring coercive control and space for action over a period of 3 years in a sample of 100 women who had accessed domestic violence services. We present statistical evidence to show a significant correlation between coercive control and space for action. However, dealing with violence is not a linear process, and support needs to extend beyond being enabled to separate. The scales advance measurement of women's experience of coercive control and, through the space for action scale, document their ability to restore agency and freedom in contexts of relative safety.

"Time Out": A Strategy for Reducing Men's Violence Against Women in Relationships?

This article critically explores accounts of how men attending domestic violence perpetrator programs (DVPP) used the "time out" strategy. Findings are drawn from 71 semi-structured interviews with 44 men attending DVPPs and 27 female partners or ex-partners of men in DVPPs. We describe three ways in which the technique was used: first, as intended, to interrupt potential physical violence; second, through the effective adaption of the time-out rules by victim-survivors; and finally, misappropriation by some men to continue and extend their controlling behaviors. Policy and practice lessons are drawn from the findings through connecting broader and deeper measurements of what success means when working with domestic violence perpetrators to the ways in which the time-out technique was used.

Roads to Nowhere? Mapping Violence Against Women Services.

This article reports on two separate research projects that use mapping techniques, specifically Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to assess the spatial characteristics of access to specialized support services for women who have experienced domestic/sexual violence, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), and sexual exploitation. In the first project, maps document the location of specialized violence against women (VAW) services across nations and regions of the United Kingdom, demonstrating many gaps in provision. In the second project, mapping techniques assess the distance and direction women traveled in their journeys to access specialized support services (specifically shelters) when escaping domestic violence. Policy outcomes and conclusions and possibilities for using GIS for feminist research on violence against women are discussed.

The (in)credible words of women: false allegations in European rape research.

The issue of false allegations in rape cases cannot be understood without reference to the ways in which rape law and its interpretation has historically problematized "the words of a woman" when what they were speaking about was sexual violation. Whilst the letter of the law has been reformed in many countries, legacies remain sedimented into institutional cultures and practices, creating a risk of over-identification of false allegations by police and prosecutors. Findings from two European studies on attrition in reported rape cases are drawn on to highlight both the mechanisms and processes which create the category of false allegations, especially the opaque "no crime/unfounded" designations and that CJS personnel believe the rates to be considerably higher than their own data. The article concludes by raising the possibility of internationally agreed standards for designating a rape report "false."