Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) Study: Study Design.

The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults comprising 14 established US prospective cohort studies. Starting as early as 1971, investigators in the C4R cohort studies have collected data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and social determinants of health. C4R links this pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phenotyping to information on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and acute and postacute COVID-related illness. C4R is largely population-based, has an age range of 18-108 years, and reflects the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity of the United States. C4R ascertains SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness using standardized questionnaires, ascertainment of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, and a SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey conducted via dried blood spots. Master protocols leverage existing robust retention rates for telephone and in-person examinations and high-quality event surveillance. Extensive prepandemic data minimize referral, survival, and recall bias. Data are harmonized with research-quality phenotyping unmatched by clinical and survey-based studies; these data will be pooled and shared widely to expedite collaboration and scientific findings. This resource will allow evaluation of risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 severity and outcomes, including postacute sequelae, and assessment of the social and behavioral impact of the pandemic on long-term health trajectories.

Stakeholder Engagement in Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Emphasizing Relationships to Improve Pain Management Delivery and Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The NIH-DOD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory (PMC) supports 11 pragmatic clinical trials (PCTs) on nonpharmacological approaches to management of pain and co-occurring conditions in U.S. military and veteran health organizations. The Stakeholder Engagement Work Group is supported by a separately funded Coordinating Center and was formed with the goal of developing respectful and productive partnerships that will maximize the ability to generate trustworthy, internally valid findings directly relevant to veterans and military service members with pain, front-line primary care clinicians and health care teams, and health system leaders. The Stakeholder Engagement Work Group provides a forum to promote success of the PCTs in which principal investigators and/or their designees discuss various stakeholder engagement strategies, address challenges, and share experiences. Herein, we communicate features of meaningful stakeholder engagement in the design and implementation of pain management pragmatic trials, across the PMC. DESIGN: Our collective experiences suggest that an optimal stakeholder-engaged research project involves understanding the following: i) Who are research stakeholders in PMC trials? ii) How do investigators ensure that stakeholders represent the interests of a study's target treatment population, including individuals from underrepresented groups?, and iii) How can sustained stakeholder relationships help overcome implementation challenges over the course of a PCT? SUMMARY: Our experiences outline the role of stakeholders in pain research and may inform future pragmatic trial researchers regarding methods to engage stakeholders effectively.

Whole Health Options and Pain Education (wHOPE): A Pragmatic Trial Comparing Whole Health Team vs Primary Care Group Education to Promote Nonpharmacological Strategies to Improve Pain, Functioning, and Quality of Life in Veterans-Rationale, Methods, and Implementation.

BACKGROUND: The Whole Health model of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) emphasizes holistic self-care and multimodal approaches to improve pain, functioning, and quality of life. wHOPE (Whole Health Options and Pain Education) seeks to be the first multisite pragmatic trial to establish evidence for the VA Whole Health model for chronic pain care. DESIGN: wHOPE is a pragmatic randomized controlled trial comparing a Whole Health Team (WHT) approach to Primary Care Group Education (PC-GE); both will be compared to Usual VA Primary Care (UPC). The WHT consists of a medical provider, a complementary and integrative health (CIH) provider, and a Whole Health coach, who collaborate with VA patients to create a Personalized Health Plan emphasizing CIH approaches to chronic pain management. The active comparator, PC-GE, is adapted group cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic pain. The first aim is to test whether the WHT approach is superior to PC-GE and whether both are superior to UPC in decreasing pain interference in functioning in 750 veterans with moderate to severe chronic pain (primary outcome). Secondary outcomes include changes in pain severity, quality of life, mental health symptoms, and use of nonpharmacological and pharmacological therapies for pain. Outcomes will be collected from the VA electronic health record and patient-reported data over 12 months of follow-up. Aim 2 consists of an implementation-focused process evaluation and budget impact analysis. SUMMARY: This trial is part of the Pain Management Collaboratory, which seeks to create national-level infrastructure to support evidence-based nonpharmacological pain management approaches for veterans and military service personnel.

Health workers' perceptions and challenges in implementing meningococcal serogroup a conjugate vaccine in the routine childhood immunization schedule in Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND: Meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MACV) was introduced in 2017 into the routine childhood immunization schedule (at 15-18 months of age) in Burkina Faso to help reduce meningococcal meningitis burden. MACV was scheduled to be co-administered with the second dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV2), a vaccine already in the national schedule. One year following the introduction of MACV, an assessment was conducted to qualitatively examine health workers' perceptions of MACV introduction, identify barriers to uptake, and explore opportunities to improve coverage. METHODS: Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with different cadres of health workers in four purposively selected districts in Burkina Faso. Districts were selected to include urban and rural areas as well as high and low MCV2 coverage areas. Respondents included health workers at the following levels: regional health managers (n = 4), district health managers (n = 4), and frontline healthcare providers (n = 4). All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Four themes emerged around supply and health systems barriers, demand-related barriers, specific challenges related to MACV and MCV2 co-administration, and motivations and efforts to improve vaccination coverage. Supply and health systems barriers included aging cold chain equipment, staff shortages, overworked and poorly trained staff, insufficient supplies and financial resources, and challenges with implementing community outreach activities. Health workers largely viewed MACV introduction as a source of motivation for caregivers to bring their children for the 15- to 18-month visit. However, they also pointed to demand barriers, including cultural practices that sometimes discourage vaccination, misconceptions about vaccines, and religious beliefs. Challenges in co-administering MACV and MCV2 were mainly related to reluctance among health workers to open multi-dose vials unless enough children were present to avoid wastage. CONCLUSIONS: To improve effective administration of vaccines in the second-year of life, adequate operational and programmatic planning, training, communication, and monitoring are necessary. Moreover, clear policy communication is needed to help ensure that health workers do not refrain from opening multi-dose vials for small numbers of children.

Evaluation of the Impact of Meningococcal Serogroup A Conjugate Vaccine Introduction on Second-Year-of-Life Vaccination Coverage in Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND: After successful meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MACV) campaigns since 2010, Burkina Faso introduced MACV in March 2017 into the routine Expanded Programme for Immunization schedule at age 15-18 months, concomitantly with second-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV2). We examined MCV2 coverage in pre- and post-MACV introduction cohorts to describe observed changes regionally and nationally. METHODS: A nationwide household cluster survey of children 18-41 months of age was conducted 1 year after MACV introduction. Coverage was assessed by verification of vaccination cards or recall. Two age groups were included to compare MCV2 coverage pre-MACV introduction (30-41 months) versus post-MACV introduction (18-26 months). RESULTS: In total, 15 925 households were surveyed; 7796 children were enrolled, including 3684 30-41 months of age and 3091 18-26 months of age. Vaccination documentation was observed for 86% of children. The MACV routine coverage was 58% (95% confidence interval [CI], 56%-61%) with variation by region (41%-76%). The MCV2 coverage was 62% (95% CI, 59%-65%) pre-MACV introduction and 67% (95% CI, 64%-69%) post-MACV introduction, an increase of 4.5% (95% CI, 1.3%-7.7%). Among children who received routine MACV and MCV2, 93% (95% CI, 91%-94%) received both at the same visit. Lack of caregiver awareness about the 15- to 18-month visit and vaccine unavailability were common reported barriers to vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: A small yet significant increase in national MCV2 coverage was observed 1 year post-MACV introduction. The MACV/MCV2 coadministration was common. Findings will help inform strategies to strengthen second-year-of-life immunization coverage, including to address the communication and vaccine availability barriers identified.

Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) Study: Study Design.

The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults at risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) comprising 14 established United States (US) prospective cohort studies. For decades, C4R cohorts have collected extensive data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and social determinants of health. C4R will link this pre-COVID phenotyping to information on SARS-CoV-2 infection and acute and post-acute COVID-related illness. C4R is largely population-based, has an age range of 18-108 years, and broadly reflects the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity of the US. C4R is ascertaining severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and COVID-19 illness using standardized questionnaires, ascertainment of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, and a SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey via dried blood spots. Master protocols leverage existing robust retention rates for telephone and in-person examinations, and high-quality events surveillance. Extensive pre-pandemic data minimize referral, survival, and recall bias. Data are being harmonized with research-quality phenotyping unmatched by clinical and survey-based studies; these will be pooled and shared widely to expedite collaboration and scientific findings. This unique resource will allow evaluation of risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 severity and outcomes, including post-acute sequelae, and assessment of the social and behavioral impact of the pandemic on long-term trajectories of health and aging.

Differences between coverage of yellow fever vaccine and the first dose of measles-containing vaccine: A desk review of global data sources.

INTRODUCTION: The strategy to Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) is a global initiative that includes all countries with risk of yellow fever (YF) virus transmission. Of these, 40 countries (27 in Africa and 13 in the Americas) are considered high-risk and targeted for interventions to increase coverage of YF vaccine. Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that YF vaccine be given concurrently with the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) in YF-endemic settings, estimated coverage for MCV1 and YF vaccine have varied widely. The objective of this study was to review global data sources to assess discrepancies in YF vaccine and MCV1 coverage and identify plausible reasons for these discrepancies. METHODS: We conducted a desk review of data from 34 countries (22 in Africa, 12 in Latin America), from 2006 to 2016, with national introduction of YF vaccine and listed as high-risk by the EYE strategy. Data reviewed included procured and administered doses, immunization schedules, routine coverage estimates and reported vaccine stock-outs. In the 30 countries included in the comparitive analysis, differences greater than 3 percentage points between YF vaccine and MCV1 coverage were considered meaningful. RESULTS: In America, there were meaningful differences (7-45%) in coverage of the two vaccines in 6 (67%) of the 9 countries. In Africa, there were meaningful differences (4-27%) in coverage of the two vaccines in 9 (43%) of the 21 countries. Nine countries (26%) reported MVC1 stock-outs while sixteen countries (47%) reported YF vaccine stock-outs for three or more years during 2006-2016. CONCLUSION: In countries reporting significant differences in coverage of the two vaccines, differences may be driven by different target populations and vaccine availability. However,these were not sufficient to completely explain observed differences. Further follow-up is needed to identify possible reasons for differences in coverage rates in several countries where these could not fully be explained.