Evidence-Based Behavioral Strategies in Smartphone Apps for Children's Sleep: Content Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Empirically supported treatments for pediatric sleep problems exist, but many families turn to other sources for help with their children's sleep, such as smartphone apps. Sleep apps are easy for families to access, but little evidence exists regarding the validity of the services and information provided in the developer descriptions of the apps. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to examine the features and claims of developer descriptions of sleep apps for children. METHODS: A search of the Apple iTunes store and Google Play was conducted using the terms "kids sleep," "child sleep," and "baby sleep." Data on the type of app, price, user rating, and number of users were collected. Apps were analyzed in comparison with evidence-based behavioral strategies and were thematically coded on the basis of claims provided in developer descriptions. RESULTS: A total of 83 app descriptions were examined, of which only 2 (2.4%) offered sleep improvement strategies. The majority were sound and light apps (78%) and 19% were bedtime games or stories. Only 18 of 83 (21.6%) apps were identified as containing empirically supported behavioral sleep strategies. Despite this, many apps asserted claims that they will help children "fall asleep instantly," "cry less and sleep better," or improve child development. CONCLUSIONS: A large variety of sleep apps exist for use among children, but few include evidence-based behavioral strategies according to the developer descriptions of the apps. Addressing sleep difficulties in children is important to promote physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Collaboration between sleep researchers and technology developers may be beneficial for creating evidence-supported apps to help with children's sleep in the future.

"We are fierce, independent thinkers and intelligent": Social capital and stigma management among mothers who refuse vaccines.

Despite measurable benefits of childhood vaccines, mothers with high levels of social privilege are increasingly refusing some or all vaccines for their children. These mothers are often clustered geographically or networked socially, providing information, emotional support, and validation for each other. Mothers who reject vaccines may face disapproval from others, criticism in popular culture, negative interactions with healthcare providers, and conflicts with people they know, which serve to stigmatize them. This article uses qualitative data from in-depth interviews with parents who reject vaccines, ethnographic observations, and analyses of online discussions to examine the role of social capital in networks of vaccine-refusing mothers. Specifically, this article explores how mothers provide each other information critical of vaccines, encourage a sense of one's self as empowered to question social expectations around vaccination, provide strategies for managing stigma that results from refusing vaccines, and define a sense of obligation to extend social capital to other mothers. In examining these strategies and tensions, we see how social capital can powerfully support subcultural norms that contradict broader social norms and provide sources of social support. Even as these forces are experienced as positive, they work in ways that actively undermine community health, particularly for those who are the most socially vulnerable to negative health outcomes from infection.

Qualitative Study to Understand Pediatric Hospitalists and Emergency Medicine Physicians' Perspectives of Clinical Pathways.

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare costs are rising, and clinical pathways (CPW) are one means to promote high-value care by standardizing care and improving outcomes without compromising cost or quality. However, providers do not always follow CPW, and our understanding of their perceptions is limited. Our objective was to examine pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) and pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physician perspectives of CPW. METHODS: We conducted semistructured, in-depth, one-on-one qualitative interviews with PHM and PEM physicians between February 2017 and August 2017. Interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed, and accuracy verified. Using an inductive analytic strategy, we systematically coded the data to identify themes. RESULTS: We interviewed 15 PHM and 15 PEM physicians. These providers identified many benefits and limitations of CPW, which positively or negatively impact resource utilization, communication, education of personnel, patients, and families, as well as practice behaviors and attitudes. Perceived benefits included (1) reduction of unnecessary utilization, (2) standardization of care, (3) improved communication, (4) education of oneself and others, and (5) confidence and validation when actions align with CPW. Limitations of CPW were (1) resource utilization for revisions, updates, and dissemination; (2) "tunnel vision" and cognitive biases; (3) loss of autonomy; (4) prescriptive medicine; (5) information overload; (6) pressure to adhere; and (7) guilt if actions do not align with CPW. CONCLUSIONS: CPW are tools with advantages and disadvantages that are used and viewed differently by providers. Such insight into how physicians perceive CPW may help to optimize hospital improvement work and enhance high-value care.

A Qualitative Study of Hospitalists' Perceptions of Patient Satisfaction Metrics on Pain Management.

Hospital initiatives to promote pain management may unintentionally contribute to excessive opioid prescribing. To better understand hospitalists' perceptions of satisfaction metrics on pain management, the authors conducted 25 interviews with hospitalists. Transcribed interviews were systematically analyzed to identify emergent themes. Hospitalists felt institutional pressure to earn high satisfaction scores for pain, which they perceived influenced practices toward opioid prescribing. They felt tying compensation to satisfaction scores commoditized pain. Hospitalists believed satisfaction would improve with increased time spent at the bedside. Focusing on methods to improve patient-physician communication, while maintaining efficiency in clinical practice, may promote both patient-centered pain management and satisfaction.

Of natural bodies and antibodies: Parents' vaccine refusal and the dichotomies of natural and artificial.

Despite eliminating incidences of many diseases in the United States, parents are increasingly rejecting vaccines for their children. This article examines the reasons parents offer for doing so. It argues that parents construct a dichotomy between the natural and the artificial, in which vaccines come to be seen as unnecessary, ineffective, and potentially dangerous. Using qualitative data from interviews and observations, this article shows first, how parents view their children's bodies, particularly from experiences of birth and with infants, as naturally perfect and in need of protection. Second, parents see vaccines as an artificial intervention that enters the body unnaturally, through injection. Third, parents perceive immunity occurring from illness to be natural and superior and immunity derived from vaccines as inferior and potentially dangerous. Finally, parents highlight the ways their own natural living serves to enhance their children's immunity rendering vaccines unnecessary. Taken together, this dichotomy allows parents to justify rejection of vaccines as a form of protecting children's health. These findings expose perceptions of science, technology, health, and the meanings of the body in ways that can inform public health efforts.

The hospitalist perspective on opioid prescribing: A qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Pain is a frequent symptom among patients in the hospital. Pain management is a key quality indicator for hospitals, and hospitalists are encouraged to frequently assess and treat pain. Optimal opioid prescribing, described as safe, patient-centered, and informed opioid prescribing, may be at odds with the priorities of current hospital care, which focuses on patient-reported pain control rather than the potential long-term consequences of opioid use. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to understand physicians' attitudes, beliefs, and practices toward opioid prescribing during hospitalization and discharge. DESIGN: In-depth, semistructured interviews. SETTING: Two university hospitals, a safety-net hospital, a Veterans Affairs hospital, and a private hospital located in Denver, Colorado or Charleston, South Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalists (N = 25). MEASUREMENTS: We systematically analyzed transcribed interviews and identified emerging themes using a team-based mixed inductive and deductive approach. RESULTS: Although hospitalists felt confident in their ability to control acute pain using opioid medications, they perceived limited success and satisfaction when managing acute exacerbations of chronic pain with opioids. Hospitalists recounted negative sentinel events that altered opioid prescribing practices in both the hospital setting and at the time of hospital discharge. Hospitalists described prescribing opioids as a pragmatic tool to facilitate hospital discharges or prevent readmissions. At times, this left them feeling conflicted about how this practice could impact the patient over the long term. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to provide adequate pain relief to hospitalized patients, which allow hospitalists to safely and optimally prescribe opioids while maintaining current standards of efficiency, are urgently needed. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:536-542. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.

TGFBR1*6A and cancer risk: a meta-analysis of seven case-control studies.

PURPOSE: TGFBR1*6A is a hypomorphic polymorphic allele of the type I transforming growth factor beta receptor (TGFBR1). TGFBR1*6A is a candidate tumor susceptibility allele that has been associated with an increased incidence of various types of cancer. This study was undertaken to analyze all published case-control studies on TGFBR1*6A and cancer and determine whether TGFBR1*6A is associated with cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All published case-control studies assessing the germline frequency of TGFBR1*6A were included. Studies assessing TGFBR1*6A in tumors were excluded. The results of seven studies comprising 2,438 cases and 1,846 controls were pooled and analyzed. RESULTS: Overall, TGFBR1*6A carriers have a 26% increased risk of cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.49). Cancer risk for TGFBR1*6A homozygotes (OR, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.39 to 4.61) is twice that of TGFBR1*6A heterozygotes (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.51). Analysis of various types of tumors shows that TGFBR1*6A carriers are at increased risk of developing breast cancer (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.96), hematological malignancies (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.13 to 2.54), and ovarian cancer (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.07 to 2.17). Carriers of TGFBR1*6A who are from the United States are at increased risk of colorectal cancer (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.86). However, Southern European TGFBR1*6A carriers have no increased colorectal cancer risk. There is no association between TGFBR1*6A and bladder cancer. CONCLUSION: TGFBR1*6A is emerging as a highfrequency, low-penetrance tumor susceptibility allele that predisposes to the development of breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer, as well as hematologic malignancies.

Becoming whole: the role of story for healing.

This paper explores the role of story for healing. Specifically, this paper describes story and healing in cultural or whole medical systems, including Latino/Hispanic traditions, Native American/Indigenous traditions, and Homeopathy. In addition, the authors provide a brief overview of story and healing in the nursing and medical literature, and evaluate the value of story in our current practice as holistic nurses. It is important for the holistic nurse to be aware of the role of stories for healing in diverse systems of healthcare. This awareness can help bridge the knowledge gap between cultural or whole medical systems and Western Medicine, thus optimizing the healing environment for the patient, nurse, and other providers of care.

Cultural competence in interdisciplinary collaborations: a method for respecting diversity in research partnerships.

There is growing recognition of the need by funding agencies, universities, and research units for interdisciplinary research to tackle complex societal problems that cannot be adequately addressed by single disciplines alone. Interdisciplinary collaboration capitalizes on a diversity of perspectives and practices that each discipline offers in hopes of providing innovative solutions to multifaceted problems. However, for interdisciplinary work to be effective, members of the collaboration must recognize that cultural differences exist between and within disciplines. This paper conceptualizes disciplines as cultural groups and advocates for culturally competent practices to facilitate interdisciplinary research and practice. Specifically, each participant in interdisciplinary collaborations must value diversity, develop the capacity for self-assessment, work towards understanding one's own disciplinary culture, and be sensitive to the dynamics inherent when cultures interact. Additionally, members of any interdisciplinary endeavor must be cognizant of power dynamics at play and avoid such things as tokenism, informal hierarchies, and disciplinary policing. Through awareness of one's own disciplinary culture and sensitivity to others, interdisciplinary research and practice may provide creative solutions to important problems.