Interventions that address interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents globally: a systematic review of reviews.

Globally, adolescents experience a significant burden of interpersonal violence, impacting their health, well-being and life trajectory. To address this, decision-makers need reliable evidence on effective interventions across various contexts. OBJECTIVES: Synthesise the evidence for interventions addressing interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents aged 10-25 years. METHODS: Six electronic databases were systematically searched. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses published globally between 2010 and 2022 were included if they reported interventions addressing interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents. Results were synthesised narratively. RESULTS: 35 systematic reviews were included, of which 16 were also meta-analyses. Majority of reviews included interventions set in high income countries (71%) and implemented in educational settings (91%). Effectiveness was reported in majority of interventions measuring victimisation and/or perpetration of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, bullying and/or cyberbullying (90%), majority of interventions measuring improvements in knowledge and attitudes towards violence (94%) and all interventions measuring bystander behaviour and improvements in well-being and quality of life. However, the quality of included reviews as per Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews 2 and National Health and Medical Research Council was low, and equity as per PROGRESS-PLUS was seldom considered. There was also a paucity of interventions addressing interpersonal violence in low-middle income countries (12%) and none of the included interventions specifically addressed interpersonal violence perpetrated in the home such as family violence. CONCLUSION: There is some evidence of promising interventions to address interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents, however there are gaps in scope and implementation. There is a need for equity-oriented public health approaches to comprehensively address the disproportionate burden of interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents globally, including those at the highest risk of harm. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020218969.

SARS-CoV-2 infection among Colorado adults working outside the home: Occupation, race and ethnicity and mask use.

OBJECTIVES: The workplace is an important setting for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exposure and transmission. Using data from a large case-control study in Colorado during 2021 and 2022, we aimed to evaluate working outside the home and SARS-CoV-2 infection, the racial and ethnic distribution of workers in occupations associated with infection, and workplace face mask use. METHODS: Cases were Colorado adults with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) reported to Colorado's COVID-19 surveillance system selected from surveillance data ≤12 days after their specimen collection date. Control participants were randomly selected adult Coloradans with a RT-PCR-confirmed negative SARS-CoV-2 test result reported to the same surveillance system. RESULTS: Working outside the home was associated with infection (odds ratio [OR] = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39-1.54). Among participants working outside the home, "Food Preparation and Serving Related" (aOR = 2.35, 95% CI: 1.80-3.06), "Transportation and Material Moving" (aOR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.62-2.69), "Construction and Extraction" (aOR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.36-2.59), "Protective Service" (aOR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.15-2.24), and "Sales and Related" (aOR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.22-1.69) were occupational categories most strongly associated with infection. American Indian/Alaskan Native, Black, and Hispanic/Latino participants were more likely than others to work in occupational categories with the highest odds of infection (p < 0.05). Cases were less likely than controls to report always wearing a mask (31.9% vs. 41.5%) and wearing a KN95/N95/KF94 mask (16.8% vs. 27.2%) at work. CONCLUSIONS: These findings emphasize the importance of occupation and workplace mask use in the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate racial/ethnic impact on workers.

Aberrant cognitive empathy in individuals with elevated social anxiety and regulation with emotional working memory training.

Social anxiety may disrupt the empathic process, and well-regulated empathy is critical for navigating the social world. Two studies aimed to further understand empathy in the context of social anxiety. Study 1 compared individuals with elevated or normative social anxiety on a measure assessing cognitive and affective empathy for positive and negative emotions conveyed by other people ("targets"), completed under social threat. Relative to individuals with normative social anxiety, individuals with elevated social anxiety had greater cognitive empathy and no differences in affective empathy, regardless of emotion type. As greater cognitive empathy can be maladaptive, Study 2 tested whether this could be down-regulated. Individuals with elevated social anxiety underwent emotional working memory training (eWMT) for negative emotional information, or control training (CT). Effects on an empathy measure completed under social threat were assessed. Cognitive empathy for negative emotions decreased following eWMT but not CT, and this was only evident for those with higher pre-training working memory capacity. Cognitive empathy for positive emotions and affective empathy were not affected. Overall, social anxiety is associated with aberrant elevated cognitive empathy for negative and positive emotions, and the deviation in cognitive empathy for negative emotions can be regulated with eWMT for certain individuals.Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry identifier: ACTRN12618001196235..

Collecting a Sexual History During Shigellosis Case Investigations: Nationwide Practices and an Assessment of Data Quality.

Shigellosis is spread through the fecal-oral route, including sexual activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends collecting a sexual history from people diagnosed with shigellosis to enhance the understanding of its epidemiology and outbreak detection and the design of disease prevention messaging, although individual jurisdictions decide if and how this is done. Moreover, enteric disease interviewers typically receive in-depth general interviewing training, but often not sexual history question training. The goal of this project was to inform national practices around sexual history questions asked during shigellosis interviews by collecting information from U.S. state health agencies and evaluating sexual history data from people diagnosed with shigellosis in Colorado. From November 2021 to January 2022, information on sexual history questions asked of persons with reported shigellosis and accompanying training resources were collected from U.S. state health departments. Data completeness and quality of shigellosis sexual history questions from Colorado's notifiable disease database from 2018 to 2022 were also evaluated. Of 48 states, 54% reported routinely asking all adults about their sexual history during shigellosis interviews. Of 44 states, 18% indicated having accompanying training materials for interviewers. In Colorado, the proportion of unknown/missing responses to questions about recent sexual contact with male and female partners was lower for males (3.3% unknown and 3.3% missing) than females (5.4% and 6.2%) and highest among those 66 years and older (6.7% and 10%). Among those reporting new sexual partners, 93.5% indicated how they met. The evaluation of Colorado data demonstrates that routine collection of complete, high-quality, actionable sexual history data from all adults with reported shigellosis is feasible. Nearly half of the responding states indicated not doing so, and few had training resources. We recommend training enteric disease interviewers to routinely ask all adults with reported shigellosis about their sexual history, including new partner meeting location.

Occupational class suicide risk: 12-year study of national coronial data.

BACKGROUND: Previous research showed that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was associated with a widening disparity in suicide rates between lower-class occupations and the highest-class occupations in Australia. There has been no research investigating whether this trend continued post-GFC. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate suicide rates by occupational class among employed Australians aged 15 years and over, between 2007 and 2018. METHOD: A population-level retrospective mortality study was conducted using data from the National Coronial Information System. Adjusted suicide rates were calculated over the period 2007 to 2018. Negative binomial regression models were used to assess the relationship between occupational class, gender and time, comparing post-GFC years (2010-2012, 2013-2015 and 2016-2018) with GFC years (2007-2009). RESULTS: Relative to the GFC period of 2007-2009, a significant reduction in suicide disparity between managers and other occupation groups was only observed among male labourers (rate ratios (RR) = 0.65, 95% CI 0.49-0.86) and male technicians/trades workers (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.56-0.96) for the period 2013-2015. CONCLUSION: Skilled manual and lower-skilled occupational classes remain at elevated risk of suicide in Australia. While a decreasing divergence in suicide rates was only observed between labourer and manager occupational classes post-GFC, this trend was not maintained over the later part of the study period (2016-2018). There is a need to further understand the relationship between contextual factors associated with suicide among the employed population, especially during periods of economic downturn.

The effects of a sleep-focused smartphone application on insomnia and depressive symptoms: a randomised controlled trial and mediation analysis.

BACKGROUND: Rates of depression are increasing among adolescents. A novel way to reduce depression is by improving sleep. We evaluated whether an app-based intervention for insomnia improved sleep and depression, and whether changes in insomnia mediated changes in depression. METHODS: We conducted a 2-arm single-blind randomised controlled trial at the Black Dog Institute in Australia. Adolescents 12-16 years experiencing insomnia symptoms were randomly allocated to receive Sleep Ninja, an app-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy program for insomnia, or to an active control group involving weekly text message sleep tips. Assessments took place at baseline, 6 weeks (post-intervention) and 14 weeks (post-baseline). Co-primary outcomes were symptoms of insomnia and depression at post-intervention (primary endpoint). Intent-to-treat analyses were conducted. The trial is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number ACTRN12619001462178. RESULTS: Between October 25, 2019, and September 6, 2020, 264 participants were randomised to receive Sleep Ninja (n = 131) or to the control group (n = 133). Relative to the control group, those allocated to the intervention reported a greater reduction in insomnia symptoms at 6 weeks (95% CI: -2.96 to -0.41, d = .41) and 14 weeks (95% CI: -3.34 to -0.19, d = .39), and a greater reduction in depression symptoms at 6 weeks (95% CI: -3.46 to -0.56, d = .28) but not 14 weeks (p < 1). Change in insomnia mediated change in depression. No adverse events were reported. CONCLUSIONS: An app-delivered program for insomnia could be a practical, non-stigmatising and scalable way to reduce symptoms of insomnia and depression among adolescents experiencing difficulties getting enough good quality sleep.

Understanding and detecting behaviours prior to a suicide attempt: A mixed-methods study.

OBJECTIVE: Prior research suggests there are observable behaviours preceding suicide attempts in public places. However, there are currently no ways to continually monitor such sites, limiting the potential to intervene. In this mixed-methods study, we examined the acceptability and feasibility of using an automated computer system to identify crisis behaviours. METHODS: First, we conducted a large-scale acceptability survey to assess public perceptions on research using closed-circuit television and artificial intelligence for suicide prevention. Second, we identified crisis behaviours at a frequently used cliff location by manual structured analysis of closed-circuit television footage. Third, we configured a computer vision algorithm to identify crisis behaviours and evaluated its sensitivity and specificity using test footage. RESULTS: Overall, attitudes were positive towards research using closed-circuit television and artificial intelligence for suicide prevention, including among those with lived experience. The second study revealed that there are identifiable behaviours, including repetitive pacing and an extended stay. Finally, the automated behaviour recognition algorithm was able to correctly identify 80% of acted crisis clips and correctly reject 90% of acted non-crisis clips. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that using computer vision to detect behaviours preceding suicide is feasible and well accepted by the community and may be a feasible method of initiating human contact during a crisis.

The application of spatial analysis to understanding the association between area-level socio-economic factors and suicide: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about what impact the use of different spatial methodological approaches may have on understanding the relationship between area-level socio-economic factors and suicide. METHODS: In this systematic review, we searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and PsycInfo for original empirical studies examining the relationship between socio-economic factors and suicide with a spatial lens, published up to January 22, 2022. Data on applied spatial methods, indicators of socio-economic factors, and risk of suicide related to socio-economic factors were extracted. The protocol for this systematic review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021251387). RESULTS: A systematic search yielded 6290 potentially relevant results; 58 studies met the inclusion criteria for review. Of the 58 included studies, more than half of the studies (n = 34; 58.6%) used methods that accounted for spatial effects in analyses of the association between socio-economic factors and suicide or examined spatial autocorrelation, while 24 (41.4%) studies applied univariate and multivariate models without considering spatial effects. Bayesian hierarchical models and spatial regression models were commonly used approaches to correct for spatial effects. The risk of suicide relating to socio-economic factors varied greatly by local areas and between studies using various socio-economic indicators. Areas with higher deprivation, higher unemployment, lower income, and lower education level were more likely to have higher suicide risk. There was no significant difference in results between studies using conventional versus spatial statistic methods. CONCLUSION: An increasing number of studies have applied spatial methods, including Bayesian spatial models and spatial regression models, to explore the relationship between area-level socio-economic factors and suicide. This review of spatial studies provided further evidence that area-level socio-economic factors are generally inversely associated with suicide risk, with or without accounting for spatial autocorrelation.

A Spatial Analysis of Suicide Displacement at a High-Risk Cliff-Based Location Following Installation of a Means Restriction Initiative.

Means restriction interventions are recognised as highly effective for the deterrence of suicide attempts by jumping. While such interventions can lead to significant reductions in suicide, it is unclear whether these reductions represent a displacement effect, whereby individuals are instead choosing to attempt suicide at other nearby locations which offer the same means. The potential displacement of suicides as an unintended consequence of means restriction has been relatively unexplored to date. The only studies exploring displacement effects have focused on bridges, which are relatively easily contained sites; no studies have yet explored displacement effects at cliff-based high risk suicide locations (hotspots). Using Australian coronial data for the period of 2006-2019, we undertook joinpoint and kernel density analysis of suicides by jumping at a well-known cliff-based hotspot in Sydney, Australia, to determine whether there was evidence of displacement to local and broader surrounding cliffs following the installation of a multi-component harm minimization intervention (the Gap Park Masterplan). While slight decreases were noted in the immediate area subject to the structural intervention in the post-implementation period, alongside slight increases in the surrounding cliffs, there was no evidence for statistically significant changes. While kernel density analyses did not identify the emergence of any new hotspot locations in the post-implementation period, three existing hotspot sites of concern were found in our total area of interest, with greater than expected growth in the density of one of the hotspots. While we found no persuasive evidence of displacement, ongoing monitoring of the cliff-based location where the structural interventions were implemented is needed to ensure the ongoing safety of the area.

Strategies for Enhancing the Implementation of Universal Mental Health Prevention Programs in Schools: A Systematic Review.

A number of school-based mental health prevention programs have been found to be effective in research trials, but little is known about how to support implementation in real-life settings. To address this translational problem, this systematic review aims to identify effective strategies for enhancing the implementation of mental health prevention programs for children in schools. Four electronic databases were searched for empirical, peer-reviewed articles in English from January 2000 to October 2021 reporting the effects of implementation strategies for school-based universal mental health programs. Twenty-one articles were included in the narrative synthesis and assessed for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Twenty-two strategies were found to be effective at improving program fidelity or adoption. The strategies with the strongest positive evidence base were those that involved monitoring and provision of feedback, engaging principals as program leaders, improving teachers' buy-in and organising school personnel implementation meetings. We recommend school-based practitioners trial strategies with positive findings from this review as part of their continuous quality improvement. This review highlights the pressing need for large-scale, randomised controlled trials to develop and trial more robust strategies to enhance adoption, as the five implementation studies found to measure adoption used qualitative methods limited by small samples sizes and case study designs.

Promoting engagement with self-guided digital therapeutics for mental health: Insights from a cross-sectional survey of end-users.

BACKGROUND: Poor engagement has hindered the dissemination of self-guided digital therapeutics for mental health. Evidence on the efficacy of technology-supported strategies designed for increasing engagement with these interventions is currently inconclusive. Few studies have examined user perceptions of such strategies, which could yield key insights for enhancing their effectiveness. METHODS: Two hundred and eleven participants completed a cross-sectional online survey. All participants were aged 18 years and above, living in Australia, fluent in English, and self-reported prior use of digital therapeutics for mental health needs. Survey items elicited participants' views on factor(s) contributing to their engagement/disengagement with digital therapeutics, and perceptions of engagement strategies, including: automated electronic reminders, fun facts, quizzes, and social media platforms. χ2 tests of independence were used to analyse nominal data. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse free-text data. RESULTS: Factors facilitating engagement included digestible content, assurance of confidentiality, and esthetically appealing design. Factors hindering engagement included lack of time, forgetfulness, and lack of perceived intervention efficacy. Participants had mixed views over the feasibility and acceptability of the strategies explored toward promoting engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of strategy type, succinct and easily applicable content was identified as an important feature for promoting engagement. Conversely, content that could trigger psychological distress among intervention users should be avoided. Overall, the diverse range of user perspectives highlighted that engagement strategies for any specific digital intervention should be co-designed with individuals with lived experience of mental health difficulties.

The effect of a therapeutic smartphone application on suicidal ideation in young adults: Findings from a randomized controlled trial in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Suicidal ideation is a major risk for a suicide attempt in younger people, such that reducing severity of ideation is an important target for suicide prevention. Smartphone applications present a new opportunity for managing ideation in young adults; however, confirmatory evidence for efficacy from randomized trials is lacking. The objective of this study was to assess whether a therapeutic smartphone application ("LifeBuoy") was superior to an attention-matched control application at reducing the severity of suicidal ideation. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this 2-arm parallel, double-blind, randomized controlled trial, 455 young adults from Australia experiencing recent suicidal ideation and aged 18 to 25 years were randomly assigned in a 2:2 ratio to use a smartphone application for 6 weeks in May 2020, with the final follow-up in October 2020. The primary outcome was change in suicidal ideation symptom severity scores from baseline (T0) to postintervention (T1) and 3-month postintervention follow-up (T2), measured using the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS). Secondary outcomes were symptom changes in depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9, PHQ-9), generalized anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, GAD-7), distress (Distress Questionnaire-5, DQ5), and well-being (Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, SWEMWBS). This trial was conducted online, using a targeted social media recruitment strategy. The intervention groups were provided with a self-guided smartphone application based on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; "LifeBuoy") to improve emotion regulation and distress tolerance. The control group were provided a smartphone application that looked like LifeBuoy ("LifeBuoy-C"), but delivered general (nontherapeutic) information on a range of health and lifestyle topics. Among 228 participants randomized to LifeBuoy, 110 did not complete the final survey; among 227 participants randomized to the control condition, 91 did not complete the final survey. All randomized participants were included in the intent-to-treat analysis for the primary and secondary outcomes. There was a significant time × condition effect for suicidal ideation scores in favor of LifeBuoy at T1 (p < 0.001, d = 0.45) and T2 (p = 0.007, d = 0.34). There were no superior intervention effects for LifeBuoy on any secondary mental health outcomes from baseline to T1 or T2 [p-values: 0.069 to 0.896]. No serious adverse events (suicide attempts requiring medical care) were reported. The main limitations of the study are the lack of sample size calculations supporting the study to be powered to detect changes in secondary outcomes and a high attrition rate at T2, which may lead efficacy to be overestimated. CONCLUSIONS: LifeBuoy was associated with superior improvements in suicidal ideation severity, but not secondary mental health outcomes, compared to the control application, LifeBuoy-C. Digital therapeutics may need to be purposefully designed to target a specific health outcome to have efficacy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12619001671156.

Non-disclosing youth: a cross sectional study to understand why young people do not disclose suicidal thoughts to their mental health professional.

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of suicidal ideation increases rapidly in adolescence, and many choose not to seek help and disclose their ideation. Young people who do disclose suicidal ideation, prefer to do so with peers and family compared to mental health professionals, who are best placed to provide evidence-based treatment. This study aimed to identify key factors associated with young people's decision to, or not to disclose suicidal thoughts to their mental health practitioner. METHODS: A community-based sample of young Australians (16 - 25 years), who had experienced suicidal ideation and engaged with a mental health professional, completed an online questionnaire (N=513) which assessed demographic characteristics, severity of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation, lifetime suicide attempts, exposure to suicide loss, personal suicide stigma, prioritisation of mental health issues, and therapeutic alliance. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with disclosure. RESULTS: Though the full sample had engaged in therapy, 39% had never disclosed suicidal ideation to their clinician. Those who had disclosed were more likely to report greater therapeutic alliance (OR=1.04, 95% CI=1.02-1.06), personal suicide stigma (OR=1.04, 95% CI=1.01-1.06), prioritisation of suicidal ideation (OR=.24, 95% CI=0.14-0.42), and lifetime history of suicide attempt (OR=.32, 95% CI=0.18-0.57). The most common reason for not disclosing was concern that it would not remain confidential. CONCLUSION: These findings provide new insights into why young people may not seek help by disclosing suicidal ideation, despite having access to a mental health professional, and establish evidence to inform practice decisions and the development of prevention strategies to support young people for suicide.

Spatial Errors in Automated Geocoding of Incident Locations in Australian Suicide Mortality Data.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing interest in the spatial analysis of suicide data to identify high-risk (often public) locations likely to benefit from access restriction measures. The identification of such locations, however, relies on accurately geocoded data. This study aims to examine the extent to which common completeness and positional spatial errors are present in suicide data due to the underlying geocoding process. METHODS: Using Australian suicide mortality data from the National Coronial Information System for the period of 2008-2017, we compared the custodian automated geocoding process to an alternate multiphase process. Descriptive and kernel density cluster analyses were conducted to ascertain data completeness (address matching rates) and positional accuracy (distance revised) differences between the two datasets. RESULTS: The alternate geocoding process initially improved address matching from 67.8% in the custodian dataset to 78.4%. Additional manual identification of nonaddress features (such as cliffs or bridges) improved overall match rates to 94.6%. Nearly half (49.2%) of nonresidential suicide locations were revised more than 1,000 m from data custodian coordinates. Spatial misattribution rates were greatest at the smallest levels of geography. Kernel density maps showed clear misidentification of hotspots relying solely on autogeocoded data. CONCLUSION: Suicide incidents that occur at nonresidential addresses are being erroneously geocoded to centralized fall-back locations in autogeocoding processes, which can lead to misidentification of suicide clusters. Our findings provide insights toward defining the nature of the problem and refining geocoding processes, so that suicide data can be used reliably for the detection of suicide hotspots. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B862.

Factors That Help and Hinder the Implementation of Digital Depression Prevention Programs: School-Based Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Digital prevention programs that are delivered in a school environment can inoculate young people against depression. However, little is known about the school-based factors that help and hinder the implementation of these programs. Staff members are integral for supporting mental health programs in schools and are likely to have a wealth of expertise and knowledge about the factors that affect implementation. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators to implementing a digital depression prevention program in Australian secondary schools with teachers, counselors, and principals. The secondary objective was to explore variations in these factors across different school contexts, including the school type (government or nongovernment), location (capital city, regional/or rural areas), and socioeconomic status (SES) (low, medium, high). METHODS: This quantitative cross-sectional survey study assessed the barriers and facilitators to implementing a hypothetical digital prevention program in Australian schools. The survey was taken by 97 teachers (average age 38.3 years), 93 counselors (average age 39.5 years), and 11 principals (average age 50.9 years) across Australia between November 2017 and July 2018. RESULTS: A range of barriers and facilitators relating to logistics and resources, staff support, and program factors were endorsed by the surveyed staff. Consistent with prior research, common barriers included a lack of time and resources (ie, staff and rooms). These barriers were particularly evident in government, rural/regional, and low socioeconomic schools. Other barriers were specific to digital delivery, including privacy issues and a lack of clarity around staff roles and responsibilities. Facilitators included upskilling staff through training, embedding the program into the curriculum, and other program factors including universal delivery, screening of students' mental health, and clear referral pathways. Knowledge about the program efficacy was also perceived as important by a large proportion of the respondents. CONCLUSIONS: The digital depression prevention program was perceived as suitable for use within different schools in Australia, although certain factors need to be considered to enable effective implementation. Logistics and resources, support, and program factors were identified as particularly important for school-based implementation. To maximize the effectiveness in delivering digital programs, implementation may need to be tailored to the staff roles and school types.

Help-seeking attitudes and intentions for generalised anxiety disorder in adolescents: the role of anxiety literacy and stigma.

Help seeking for anxiety tends to be low in adolescents. Identifying modifiable factors that may facilitate help seeking is important. The aim of the current study is to test the effects of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) literacy and stigma (personal and perceived) on attitudes and intentions toward seeking help from professionals and key adult sources. 1767 adolescents aged 12-18 years participated in the current study and completed measures of GAD literacy, GAD stigma, professional help-seeking attitudes, and intentions to seek help from a range of sources. The results of the study found that participants had limited GAD literacy and up to 20% personally agreed with stigmatising statements about GAD. Participants reported greater intentions to seek help from parents than from formal sources. More positive attitudes toward seeking help were associated with higher levels of GAD literacy (p < 0.001) and lower personal GAD stigma (p < 0.001). Lower perceived GAD stigma was associated with increased intentions to seek help from their mothers (p < 0.05) or fathers (p < 0.01), while lower personal GAD stigma was also associated with help-seeking intentions from their mothers (p < 0.05). Higher perceived GAD stigma was associated with intentions to seek help from nobody (p < 0.001). Overall, the current study highlights the important role that parents can play in the help-seeking process for adolescents, with parents often the most accessible source of help. Improving parent and adolescent knowledge and attitudes towards GAD may help to improve early help seeking in young people.

Development of best practice guidelines for suicide-related crisis response and aftercare in the emergency department or other acute settings: a Delphi expert consensus study.

BACKGROUND: For those who have experienced suicidal behaviour, discharge from the hospital emergency department and other acute settings represents a period of heightened vulnerability for future suicide risk. Current guidelines for suicide response in acute settings often fail to fully address the barriers faced by emergency department personnel who have contact with a person who presents for suicidal behaviour, and have been developed largely without the input of consumers or service users. The aim of the study was to use the Delphi expert consensus method to develop guidelines for staff responding to suicidal presentations in acute settings. METHODS: Systematic searches of academic and grey literature and interviews with key informants were conducted in order to develop a 525-item questionnaire, which comprised actions staff can take when responding to suicide-related presentations in acute settings. This was administered over three rounds to two panels consisting of Australian experts (39 health professionals, 50 consumers with lived experience). Items that reached consensus by at least 80% across both panels were included in the guidelines. RESULTS: A total of 420 items were rated as essential or important by at least 80% of both panels. The items included strategies that covered initial contact, assessment, referral, discharge and follow-up, staff training, and linkage with community aftercare services. Participation rate across all three rounds was 67.4% (78% consumers, 53.8% professionals). CONCLUSION: The guidelines include strategies for responding to suicidal behaviour in acute settings. These guidelines can be used to inform policy development and address barriers to best practice for those working in the area. Future research should investigate ways to optimise implementation of these guidelines in order to improve equal access to quality care for who present to acute settings for suicidal behaviour.

Data-informed targets for suicide prevention: a small-area analysis of high-risk suicide regions in Australia.

PURPOSE: To investigate small-area variation in risks associated with suicide deaths across four regional communities in New South Wales, Australia, and to determine whether these areas have unique demographic and socioeconomic risk profiles that could inform targeted means restriction suicide prevention efforts. METHODS: Archival data on suicide mortality for all deaths in New South Wales, Australia, over the period 2006-2015 were geospatially attributed to four high-risk priority regions. Deaths in the four regions were compared to each other, and to NSW, on demographic factors, indicators of economic deprivation, and suicide means. RESULTS: Priority means restriction targets were identified for all sites. In Murrumbidgee, suicide deaths were significantly more likely to involve firearms and older males (p < 0.001). The Central Coast had a greater proportion of overdose deaths (p < 0.001), which were associated with being female and unemployed. Suicide deaths in Newcastle were associated with being younger (p = 0.001) and involving 'jumping from a height' (p < 0.001), while economic deprivation was a major risk for suicide death in Illawarra Shoalhaven (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Local regions were significantly differentiated from each other, and from the State, in terms of priority populations and means of suicide, demonstrating the need for locally based, targeted interventions. There were, however, also some risk constancies across all sites (males, hanging, economic deprivation), suggesting that prevention initiatives should, optimally, be delivered within multilevel models that target risk commonalities and provide tailored initiatives that address risk specific to a region.

Neonatal surgery in low- vs. high-volume institutions: a KID inpatient database outcomes and cost study after repair of congenital diaphragmatic hernia, esophageal atresia, and gastroschisis.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The volume-outcome relationship and optimal surgical volumes for repair of congenital anomalies in neonates is unknown. METHODS: A retrospective study of infants who underwent diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), gastroschisis (GS), and esophageal atresia/tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF) repair at US hospitals using the Kids' Inpatient Database 2009-2012. Distribution of institutional volumes was calculated. Multi-level logistic/linear regressions were used to determine the association between volume and mortality, length of stay, and costs. RESULTS: Total surgical volumes were 1186 for CDH, 1280 for EA/TEF, and 3372 for GS. Median case volume per institution was three for CDH and EA/TEF, and four for GS. Hospitals with annual case volumes ≥ 75th percentile were considered high volume. Approximately, half of all surgeries were performed at low-volume hospitals. No clinically meaningful association between volume and outcomes was found for any procedure. Median cost was greater at high- vs. low-volume hospitals [CDH: $165,964 (p < 0.0001) vs. $104,107, EA/TEF: $85,791 vs. $67,487 (p < 0.006), GS: $83,156 vs. $72,710 (p < 0.0009)]. CONCLUSIONS: An association between volume and outcome was not identified in this study using robust outcome measures. The cost of care was higher in high-volume institutions compared to low-volume institutions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

Pediatric versus adult meningioma: comparison of epidemiology, treatments, and outcomes using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Pediatric meningiomas, which account for < 1% of all meningiomas, are thought to have unique features, including being more aggressive than their adult counterparts. The goal of this investigation was to compare pediatric and adult meningiomas in a large head-to-head comparison. We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) datasets to compare meningioma demographics, first treatments, and outcomes among children/adolescents (0-21 years), young adults (22-45 years), and older adults (> 45 years). During 2004-2012, SEER contained 59148 patients age 0-107 years diagnosed with meningioma, with children/adolescents accounting for 381 (0.64%) patients. Unlike older and young adults, children/adolescents with meningioma did not demonstrate female predominance, and had an equal 1:1 male-to-female ratio. Children/adolescents also had almost three-times as many spinal tumors (13.1%) than young adults (4.2%) and older adults (4.4%). Both children/adolescents and young adults had undergone more gross total resections (both 43%) versus older adults (25%), and were treated more with radiation (14.6%, and 12.0% respectively) than their older counterparts (8.5%). In addition, both children/adolescents and young adults had significantly lower all-cause mortality (4.5% in both) than older adults (24.6%), during median 35-month follow-up. Inherent limitations of the SEER datasets restrict our ability to answer important questions regarding comparisons of tumor grading, histological diagnosis, cause-specific mortality, and neurofibromatosis status. Pediatric meningiomas appear distinct from their adult counterparts as they do not display the typical female predominance and include more clinically relevant spinal tumors. More extensive surgeries, greater use of radiation therapy, and lower all-cause mortality were seen in both children/adolescents and young adults, which raises questions regarding the perceived uniquely aggressive nature of pediatric meningiomas. However, due to the significant limitations of the SEER datasets, our results must be interpreted cautiously and stand only to foster novel questions, which would be better answered in well-designed, prospective studies.