Trends in Differences Across Subgroups of Adults in Preventive Services Utilization.

BACKGROUND: There were large differences across subgroups of adults in preventive services utilization before 2010. The Affordable Care Act had numerous provisions aimed at increasing utilization as well as at reducing disparities. OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether preventive services utilization changed over time, across subgroups of adults defined by race/ethnicity, insurance coverage, poverty status, Census region, and urbanicity. METHODS: Data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component are used to examine service utilization before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (2008/2009), after the implementation of the preventive services mandate and the dependent coverage provision (2012/2013), and after Medicaid expansions (2015/2016). Four preventive services are examined for adults aged 19-64-general checkups, blood cholesterol screening, mammograms, and colorectal cancer screening. Multivariate logistic regression models are used to predict preventive services utilization of adult subgroups in each time period, and to examine how differences across subgroups changed between 2008/2009 and 2015/2016. RESULTS: There were modest increases in utilization between 2008/2009 and 2015/2016 for blood cholesterol and colorectal cancer screenings. For 3 of 4 preventive services, differences between the Northeast and the Midwest regions narrowed. However, large gaps in utilization across income groups and between those with and without coverage persisted. Disparities across racial/ethnic groups in general checkups persisted over time as well. CONCLUSION: While some differences have narrowed, large gaps in preventive service utilization across population subgroups remain.

Toward targeted prevention: risk factors for prediabetes defined by impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance and increased HbA1c in the population-based KORA study from Germany.

AIMS: To identify socioeconomic, behavioral and clinical factors that are associated with prediabetes according to different prediabetes definition criteria. METHODS: Analyses use pooled data of the population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) studies (n = 5312 observations aged ≥ 38 years without diabetes). Prediabetes was defined through either impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or elevated HbA1c according to thresholds of the American Diabetes Association. Explanatory variables were regressed on prediabetes using generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Mean age was 58.4 years; 50% had prediabetes (33% had IFG, 16% IGT, and 26% elevated HbA1c, 10% fulfilled all three criteria). Age, obesity, hypertension, low education, unemployment, statutory health insurance, urban residence and physical inactivity were associated with prediabetes. Male sex was a stronger risk factor for IFG (OR = 2.5; 95%-CI: 2.2-2.9) than for IGT or elevated HbA1c, and being unemployed was a stronger risk factor for IGT (OR = 3.2 95%-CI: 2.6-4.0) than for IFG or elevated HbA1c. CONCLUSIONS: The overlap of people with IFG, IGT and elevated HbA1c is small, and some factors are associated with only one criterion. Knowledge on sociodemographic and socioeconomic risk factors can be used to effectively target interventions to people at high risk for type 2 diabetes.

Assessment of Physician Priorities in Delivery of Preventive Care.

Importance: Primary care physicians have limited time to discuss preventive care, but it is unknown how they prioritize recommended services. Objective: To understand primary care physicians' prioritization of preventive services. Design, Setting, and Participants: This online survey was administered to primary care physicians in a large health care system from March 17 to May 12, 2017. Physicians were asked whether they prioritize preventive services and which factors contribute to their choice (5-point Likert scale). Results were analyzed from July 8, 2017, to September 19, 2019. Exposures: A 2 × 2 factorial design of 2 hypothetical patients: (1) a 50-year-old white woman with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity, a 30-pack-year history of smoking, and a family history of breast cancer; and (2) a 45-year-old black man with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, a 30-pack-year history of smoking, and a family history of colorectal cancer. Two visit lengths (40 minutes vs 20 minutes) were given. Each patient was eligible for at least 11 preventive services. Main Outcomes and Measures: Physicians rated their likelihood of discussing each service during the visit and reported their top 3 priorities for patients 1 and 2. Physician choices were compared with the preventive services most likely to improve life expectancy, using a previously published mathematical model. Results: Of 241 physicians, 137 responded (57%), of whom 74 (54%) were female and 85 (62%) were younger than 50 years. Physicians agreed they prioritized preventive services (mean score, 4.27 [95% CI, 4.12-4.42] of 5.00), mostly by ability to improve quality (4.56 [95% CI, 4.44-4.68] of 5.00) or length (4.53 [95% CI, 4.40-4.66] of 5.00) of life. Physicians reported more prioritization in the 20- vs 40-minute visit, indicating that they were likely to discuss fewer services during the shorter visit (median, 5 [interquartile range {IQR}, 3-8] vs 11 [IQR, 9-13] preventive services for patient 1, and 4 [IQR, 3-6] vs 9 [IQR, 8-11] for patient 2). Physicians reported similar top 3 priorities for both patients: smoking cessation, hypertension control, and glycemic control for patient 1 and smoking cessation, hypertension control, and colorectal cancer screening for patient 2. Physicians' top 3 priorities did not usually include diet and exercise or weight loss (ranked in their top 3 recommendations for either patient by only 48 physicians [35%]), although these were among the 3 preventive services most likely to improve life expectancy based on the mathematical model. Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study, physicians prioritized preventive services under time constraints, but priorities did not vary across patients. Physicians did not prioritize lifestyle interventions despite large potential benefits. Future research should consider whether physicians and patients would benefit from guidance on preventive care priorities.

Doble jornada laboral y percepción de la salud en mujeres: investigación cualitativa / Double working day and perception of health in women: qualitative investigation

Introducción. El trabajo ocupa un lugar clave en la vida de la mujer, y a su vez comprende varias dimensiones. Dos de ellas son el trabajo doméstico no remunerado (TDNR) e invisibilizado, y el trabajo productivo remunerado (TPR) fuera dela casa. El objetivo de esta investigación fue comprender cómo es la percepción de salud en la mujer actual de clase media urbana con doble jornada laboral y cómo ella jerarquiza su TPR. Métodos. Investigación con enfoque cualitativo realizada en un hospital privado universitario de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, mediante entrevistas individuales a mujeres adultas y alfabetas de 30 a 60 años de edad, seleccionadas a través del método de bola de nieve a partir de sus médicos de cabecera. Se utilizaron fichas demográficas estructuradas y entrevistas en profundidad. Se registraron datos personales y prácticas médicas realizadas en los últimos años. Se realizó un análisis de contenido. Resultados. Entrevistamos a 47 mujeres, la mayoría con hijos y la mitad, a cargo de las tareas domésticas en su hogar. Ninguna de ellas reconoció la tarea doméstica (TDNR) como trabajo, 76 % refirió no realizar controles habituales de salud,aunque más del 90 % hizo las prácticas preventivas recomendadas para su edad. Las mujeres entrevistadas expresaron diferentes significados atribuidos por ellas al TPR como independencia, desarrollo personal, mejoría en autoestima, calidad de vida, y sociabilidad. Sin embargo, ante su ausencia en el hogar se mostraron ambivalentes y con sentimientos de culpabilidad. Conclusiones. Este estudio permite reconocer que las mujeres con trabajo TDNR y TPR valoran positivamente a este último, pero se cuestionan que éste les quite tiempo a su participación en el ámbito familiar. Esto resulta en una mayor autoexigencia y perpetúa la invisibilidad del TDNR. En relación al autocuidado, sienten que no realizan sus cuidados médicos, pero tienen buenos indicadores de prácticas preventivas. Quizás sea necesario propiciar la reflexión acerca del rol que tiene el TPR en su bienestar. (AU)

Introduction. Work occupies a key place in the life of women, and in turn, comprises several dimensions. Two of them are unpaid domestic work (UDW) and paid productive work (PPW) outside the home. The objective of this research was to understand how the perception of health is in the current urban middle-class woman with a double working day and how she prioritizes her PPW. Methods. Research with a qualitative approach carried out in a private university hospital in the City of Buenos Aires, through individual interviews with adult and literates women aged 30 to 60, selected through the snowball method from their general practitioners. Structured demographics and in-depth interviews were used. Personal data and medical practices carried out in recent years were recorded. A content analysis was performed. Results. We interviewed 47 women, the majority with children and half of them, in charge of housework in their home. None of them recognized housework (UDW) as work, 76 % reported not doing regular health checks, although more than 90 % did the recommended preventive practices for their age. The women interviewed expressed different meanings attributed bythem to the PPW such as independence, personal development, improvement in self-esteem, quality of life, and sociability. However, in their absence at home, they were ambivalent and guilty. Conclusions. This study allows us to recognize that women with UDW and PPW value the latter positively, but question whether it takes time away from their participation in the family environment. This results in increased self-demand and perpetuates the invisibility of the UDW. In relation to self-care, they feel that they do not perform their medical care, buthave good indicators of preventive practices. It may be necessary to encourage reflection on the role of the PPW in theirwell-being. (AU)

The politics of institutionalizing preventive health.

Prevention is an attractive idea to policymakers in theory, particularly in health where the burden of spending and care is increasingly taken up by complex and chronic conditions associated with lifestyle choices. However, prevention in general, and preventive health in particular, has proven hard to implement in practice. In this paper, we look to one tangible legacy of the recent rise of the prevention agenda: agencies with responsibility for preventive health policy. We ask how this form of institutionalizing preventive health happens in practice, and what consequences it has for the advancement of the prevention agenda. We draw on qualitative data to compare the trajectories of newly formed agencies in Australia, New Zealand and England. We find that building and maintaining legitimacy for such agencies may come at the expense of quick progress or radical action in service of the prevention agenda.

Delivery of Preventive Oral Health Services by Rurality: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

PURPOSE: Integrating oral health care into primary care has been promoted as a strategy to increase delivery of preventive oral health services (POHS) to young children, particularly in rural areas where few dentists practice. Using a multistate sample of Medicaid claims, we examined a child's odds of receiving POHS in a medical office by county rurality. METHODS: We used 2012-2014 Medicaid Analytic extract claims data for 6,275,456 children younger than 6 years in 39 states that allowed Medicaid payment for POHS in medical offices. We used county-level characteristics from the Area Health Resources Files, including a 3-level measure of county rurality. We used logistic regression to estimate a child's odds of receiving POHS in a medical office by county rurality, while controlling for other patient and county characteristics. FINDINGS: POHS in medical offices were received by 7.8% of children. Rates of POHS in medical offices were higher in metropolitan (metro) counties (8.4%) than nonmetro adjacent to metro (5.8%) and nonmetro not adjacent to metro (4.3%). In adjusted analysis, children living in nonmetro not adjacent to metro (OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64-0.99) and adjacent to metro counties (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.59-0.82) were significantly less likely to receive POHS in medical offices than children living in metro counties. CONCLUSIONS: In this study of POHS in medical offices among young Medicaid-enrolled children, we found POHS rates were lowest in nonmetro counties. Given barriers to dental care in rural areas, states should take additional steps beyond allowing Medicaid reimbursement to increase delivery of POHS in medical offices.

A mobile revolution for healthcare? Setting the agenda for bioethics.

Mobile health (mHealth) is rapidly being implemented and changing our ways of doing, understanding and organising healthcare. mHealth includes wearable devices as well as apps that track fitness, offer wellness programmes or provide tools to manage chronic conditions. According to industry and policy makers, these systems offer efficient and cost-effective solutions for disease prevention and self-management. While this development raises many ethically relevant questions, so far mHealth has received only little attention in medical ethics. This paper provides an overview of bioethical issues raised by mHealth and aims to draw scholarly attention to the ethical significance of its promises and challenges. We show that the overly positive promises of mHealth need to be nuanced and their desirability critically assessed. Finally, we offer suggestions to bioethicists to engage with this emerging trend in healthcare to develop mHealth to its best potential in a morally sound way.

[Governance - Government Action: Strengthening the Public's Health by more Public Accountability for Health - Results of the Working Group 11 of the Forum Future Public Health, Berlin 2016]. / Governance ­ Staatliches Handeln: Stärkung von Public Health durch mehr öffentliche Verantwortung für Gesundheit.

There is a considerable need for action to systematically strengthen public health in Germany by increasing public responsibility for health. A Good Governance approach for health has not yet been developed. The main areas of action would be the establishment of a health impact assessment for proposed legislation, the expansion of public health services and a new role for structural interventions for disease prevention and health promotion. It is also necessary to focus government action on the provision of public health services and - related to that - on strengthening the municipal level as a relevant decision-making structure for health.

Preventive Care Use Among Justice-Involved and Non-Justice-Involved Youth.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Youth involved in the juvenile justice system (ie, arrested youth) are at risk for health problems. Although increasing preventive care use by justice-involved youth (JIY) is 1 approach to improving their well-being, little is known about their access to and use of care. The objective of this study was to determine how rates of well-child (WC) and emergency department visits, as well as public insurance enrollment continuity, differed between youth involved in the justice system and youth who have never been in the system. We hypothesized that JIY would exhibit less frequent WC and more frequent emergency service use than non-justice-involved youth (NJIY). METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of administrative medical and criminal records of all youth (ages 12-18) enrolled in Medicaid in Marion County, Indiana, between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2011. RESULTS: The sample included 88 647 youth; 20 668 (23%) were involved in the justice system. JIY had lower use rates of WC visits and higher use rates of emergency services in comparison with NJIY. JIY had more and longer gaps in Medicaid coverage compared with NJIY. For all youth sampled, both preventive and emergency services use varied significantly by Medicaid enrollment continuity. CONCLUSIONS: JIY experience more and longer gaps in Medicaid coverage, and rely more on emergency services than NJIY. Medicaid enrollment continuity was associated with differences in WC and emergency service use among JIY, with policy implications for improving preventive care for these vulnerable youth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention System in China: Trends From 2002-2012.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the improvements of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) system between 2002 and 2012, and problems the system has encountered. METHODS: We obtained data from 2 national cross-sectional surveys in 2006 and 2013, including 32 provincial, 139 municipal, and 489 county-level CDCs throughout China. We performed a pre-post comparative analysis to determine trends in resource allocation and service delivery. RESULTS: The overall completeness of public health services significantly increased from 47.4% to 76.6%. Furthermore, the proportion of CDC staff with bachelor's or higher degrees increased from 14.6% to 32.6%, and governmental funding per CDC increased 5.3-fold (1.283-8.098 million yuan). The working area per CDC staff increased from 37.9 square meters to 63.3 square meters, and configuration rate of type A devices increased from 28.1% to 65.0%. Remaining problems included an 11.9% reduction in staff and the fact that financial investments covered only 71.1% of actual expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: China's CDC system has progressed remarkably, enabling quicker responses to emergent epidemics. Future challenges include establishing a sustainable financing mechanism and retaining a well-educated, adequately sized public health workforce.

White Paper on P4 Concepts for Pediatric Imaging.

Over the past decade, innovations in the field of pediatric imaging have been based largely on single-center and retrospective studies, which provided limited advances for the benefit of pediatric patients. To identify opportunities for potential "quantum-leap" progress in the field of pediatric imaging, the ACR-Pediatric Imaging Research (PIR) Committee has identified high-impact research directions related to the P4 concept of predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory diagnosis and intervention. Input from 237 members of the Society for Pediatric Radiology was clustered around 10 priority areas, which are discussed in this article. Needs within each priority area have been analyzed in detail by ACR-PIR experts on these topics. By facilitating work in these priority areas, we hope to revolutionize the care of children by shifting our efforts from unilateral reaction to clinical symptoms, to interactive maintenance of child health.

What the chancellor's cuts today mean for public health tomorrow.

England's health service is grappling with an ageing population coupled with a desire for people to live well for longer. In its attempts to address such pressures on NHS resources, the government wants people to take control of their own health and to focus more on preventive measures.

Illness prevention in the NHS five year forward view.

Illness prevention is a priority for the NHS Mandate and the Five Year Forward View, and offers a means to maintain sustainable health and social care services in the context of an ageing population and the growth of behaviour-related illness. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends a structured approach to embedding behaviour change interventions into clinical care, and effective implementation requires organisational support. This article describes how nurse leaders, managers and commissioners can ensure this implementation through setting objectives for staff, training and development, as well as supporting staff to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Ensuring public health's future in a national-scale learning health system.

Data and information are fundamental to every function of public health and crucial to public health agencies, from outbreak investigations to environmental surveillance. Information allows for timely, relevant, and high-quality decision making by public health agencies. Evidence-based practice is an important, grounding principle within public health practice, but resources to handle and analyze public health data in a meaningful way are limited. The Learning Health System is a platform that seeks to leverage health data to allow evidence-based real-time analysis of data for a broad range of uses, including primary care decision making, public health activities, consumer education, and academic research. The Learning Health System is an emerging endeavor that is gaining support throughout the health sector and presents an important opportunity for collaboration between primary care and public health. Public health should be a key stakeholder in the development of a national-scale Learning Health System because participation presents many potential benefits, including increased workforce capacity, enhanced resources, and greater opportunities to use health information for the improvement of the public's health. This article describes the framework and progression of a national-scale Learning Health System, considers the advantages of and challenges to public health involvement in the Learning Health System, including the public health workforce, gives examples of small-scale Learning Health System projects involving public health, and discusses how public health practitioners can better engage in the Learning Health Community.

CHANGING FACE OF MEDICARE'S NATIONAL COVERAGE DETERMINATIONS FOR TECHNOLOGY.

OBJECTIVES: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issues National Coverage Determinations (NCDs) for medical interventions expected to have a significant impact on Medicare, the health insurance program for US citizens aged 65 years and older and certain people with disabilities under the age of 65 years. The objective of this study was to evaluate NCDs issued from 1999 to 2013 to identify key trends, and to discuss implications for future CMS policy. METHODS: We used the Tufts Medical Center Medicare National Coverage Determination Database to examine characteristics of NCDs from 1999 through 2013. We examined various characteristics of NCDs, including: whether the intervention under review is used for prevention or treatment of disease, the type of intervention considered, evidence limitations cited by CMS, and coverage determination outcome. We evaluated longitudinal trends in categorical and continuous variables in the database, using Cochran-Armitage trend tests and linear regression, respectively. RESULTS: We found that NCDs increasingly focus on preventive care (p = 0.072), pertain to diagnostic imaging (p = 0.033), and evaluate health education/behavioral therapy interventions (p = 0.051). CMS increasingly cites the lack of relevant outcomes (p = 0.019) and the lack of applicability of study results to the Medicare population (p < 0.001) as evidence limitations. CMS less often restricts coverage to certain population subgroups in NCDs (p < 0.001), but increasingly applies coverage with evidence development policies (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Identified trends reflect broader changes in Medicare as CMS shifts its focus from treatment to prevention of disease, addresses potentially overutilized technologies, and attempts to issue flexible coverage policies.

[Reducing inequality by improving preventing measures]. / Ridurre le disuglianze migliorando l'offerta preventiva.

Terms of inequalities issue in health service are defined and the consolidated scientific acquisitions are recalled. Three prioritary areas of action are defined and described, that Prevention Departments are suggested to activate through focused programs in order to reduce specific inequalities. First area of action: includes three types of vital interventions: vaccinations, contrasting of tuberculosis infection and oncological screening that have to be granted to specific disadvantaged groups of population as Rom communities, immigrant women, prisoners e psychiatric patients. Second area of action: actions on focused urban planning aiming to improve conditions of social housing (with a special focus on thermal insulation, minimal distances to be kept towards streets of havy traffic), increase of increase of urban green spaces enjoyed by the population and contrasting degradation of housing (with particular attention to poisoning by carbon monoxide). Third area of action: actions contrasting cardiovascular diseases, that is the leading cause of death and inequalities in health for the working class population. A coordinated intervention directly in the workplace is proposed, where a particularly high percentage of individuals exposed to specific risk factors is present.