Homelessness Among Acute Care Patients Within a Large Health Care System in Northern California.

The impacts of homelessness on health and health care access are detrimental. Intervention and efforts to improve outcomes and increase availability of affordable housing have mainly originated from the public health sector and government. The role that large community-based health systems may play has yet to be established. This study characterizes patients self-identified as homeless in acute care facilities in a large integrated health care system in Northern California to inform the development of collaborative interventions addressing unmet needs of this vulnerable population. The authors compared sociodemographic characteristics, clinical conditions, and health care utilization of individuals who did and did not self-identify as homeless and characterized their geographical distribution in relation to Sutter hospitals and homeless resources. Between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, 5% (N = 20,259) of the acute care settings patients had evidence of homelessness, among which 51.1% age <45 years, 66.4% males, and 24% non-Hispanic Black. Patients experiencing homelessness had higher emergency department utilization and lower utilization of outpatient and urgent care services. Mental health conditions were more common among patients experiencing homelessness. More than half of the hospitals had >5% of patients who identified as homeless. Some hospitals with higher proportions of patients experiencing homelessness are not located near many shelter resources. By understanding patients who self-identify as homeless, it is possible to assess the role of the health system in addressing their unmet needs. Accurate identification is the first step for the health systems to develop and deliver better solutions through collaborations with nonprofit organizations, community partners, and government agencies.

Multidrug Resistance of Escherichia coli From Outpatient Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections in a Large United States Integrated Healthcare Organization.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) cause significant disease and economic burden. Uncomplicated UTIs (uUTIs) occur in otherwise healthy individuals without underlying structural abnormalities, with uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) accounting for 80% of cases. With recent transitions in healthcare toward virtual visits, data on multidrug resistance (MDR) (resistant to ≥3 antibiotic classes) by care setting are needed to inform empiric treatment decision making. Methods: We evaluated UPEC resistance over time by care setting (in-person vs virtual), in adults who received outpatient care for uUTI at Kaiser Permanente Southern California between January 2016 and December 2021. Results: We included 174 185 individuals who had ≥1 UPEC uUTI (233 974 isolates) (92% female, 46% Hispanic, mean age 52 years [standard deviation 20]). Overall, prevalence of UPEC MDR decreased during the study period (13% to 12%) both in virtual and in-person settings (P for trend <.001). Resistance to penicillins overall (29%), coresistance to penicillins and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) (12%), and MDR involving the 2 plus ≥1 antibiotic class were common (10%). Resistance to 1, 2, 3, and 4 antibiotic classes was found in 19%, 18%, 8%, and 4% of isolates, respectively; 1% were resistant to ≥5 antibiotic classes, and 50% were resistant to none. Similar resistance patterns were observed over time and by care setting. Conclusions: We observed a slight decrease in both class-specific antimicrobial resistance and MDR of UPEC overall, most commonly involving penicillins and TMP-SMX. Resistance patterns were consistent over time and similar in both in-person and virtual settings. Virtual healthcare may expand access to UTI care.

It's electric! An environmental equity perspective on the lifecycle of our energy sources.

Energy policy decisions are driven primarily by economic and reliability considerations, with limited consideration given to public health, environmental justice, and climate change. Moreover, epidemiologic studies relevant for public policy typically focus on immediate public health implications of activities related to energy procurement and generation, considering less so health equity or the longer-term health consequences of climate change attributable to an energy source. A more integrated, collective consideration of these three domains can provide more robust guidance to policymakers, communities, and individuals. Here, we illustrate how these domains can be evaluated with respect to natural gas as an energy source. Our process began with a detailed overview of all relevant steps in the process of extracting, producing, and consuming natural gas. We synthesized existing epidemiologic and complementary evidence of how these processes impact public health, environmental justice, and climate change. We conclude that, in certain domains, natural gas looks beneficial (e.g., economically for some), but when considered more expansively, through the life cycle of natural gas and joint lenses of public health, environmental justice, and climate change, natural gas is rendered an undesirable energy source in the United States. A holistic climate health equity framework can inform how we value and deploy different energy sources in the service of public health.

Neighborhood disadvantage and dementia incidence in a cohort of Asian American and non-Latino White older adults in Northern California.

INTRODUCTION: Some evidence suggests that neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with dementia-related outcomes. However, prior research is predominantly among non-Latino Whites. METHODS: We evaluated the association between neighborhood disadvantage (Area Deprivation Index [ADI]) and dementia incidence in Asian American (n = 18,103) and non-Latino White (n = 149,385) members of a Northern California integrated health care delivery system aged 60 to 89 at baseline. Race/ethnicity-specific Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for individual-level age, sex, socioeconomic measures, and block group population density estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for dementia. RESULTS: Among non-Latino Whites, ADI was associated with dementia incidence (most vs. least disadvantaged ADI quintile HR = 1.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02-1.15). Among Asian Americans, associations were close to null (e.g., most vs. least disadvantaged ADI quintile HR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.85-1.21). DISCUSSION: ADI was associated with dementia incidence among non-Latino Whites but not Asian Americans. Understanding the potentially different mechanisms driving dementia incidence in these groups could inform dementia prevention efforts.

Increase in fertility following coal and oil power plant retirements in California.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have explored the relationship between air pollution and fertility. We used a natural experiment in California when coal and oil power plants retired to estimate associations with nearby fertility rates. METHODS: We used a difference-in-differences negative binomial model on the incident rate ratio scale to analyze the change in annual fertility rates among California mothers living within 0-5 km and 5-10 km of 8 retired power plants between 2001 and 2011. The difference-in-differences method isolates the portion of the pre- versus post-retirement contrast in the 0-5 km and 5-10 km bins, respectively, that is due to retirement rather than secular trends. We controlled for secular trends with mothers living 10-20 km away. Adjusted models included fixed effects for power plant, proportion Hispanic, Black, high school educated, and aged > 30 years mothers, and neighborhood poverty and educational attainment. RESULTS: Analyses included 58,909 live births. In adjusted models, we estimated that after power plant retirement annual fertility rates per 1000 women aged 15-44 years increased by 8 births within 5 km and 2 births within 5-10 km of power plants, corresponding to incident rate ratios of 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1-1.4) and 1.1 (95% CI: 1.0-1.2), respectively. We implemented a negative exposure control by randomly selecting power plants that did not retire and repeating our analysis with those locations using the retirement dates from original 8 power plants. There was no association, suggesting that statewide temporal trends may not account for results. CONCLUSIONS: Fertility rates among nearby populations appeared to increase after coal and oil power plant retirements. Our study design limited the possibility that our findings resulted from temporal trends or changes in population composition. These results require confirmation in other populations, given known methodological limitations of ecologic study designs.

Retirements of Coal and Oil Power Plants in California: Association With Reduced Preterm Birth Among Populations Nearby.

Coal and oil power plant retirements reduce air pollution nearby, but few studies have leveraged these natural experiments for public health research. We used California Department of Public Health birth records and US Energy Information Administration data from 2001-2011 to evaluate the relationship between the retirements of 8 coal and oil power plants and nearby preterm (gestational age of <37 weeks) birth. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis using adjusted linear mixed models that included 57,005 births-6.3% of which were preterm-to compare the probability of preterm birth before and after power plant retirement among mothers residing within 0-5 km and 5-10 km of the 8 power plants. We found that power plant retirements were associated with a decrease in the proportion of preterm birth within 5 km (-0.019, 95% CI: -0.031, -0.008) and 5-10 km (-0.015, 95% CI: -0.024, -0.007), controlling for secular trends with mothers living 10-20 km away. For the 0-5-km area, this corresponds to a reduction in preterm birth from 7.0% to 5.1%. Subgroup analyses indicated a potentially larger association among non-Hispanic black and Asian mothers than among non-Hispanic white and Hispanic mothers and no differences in educational attainment. Future coal and oil power plant retirements may reduce preterm birth among nearby populations.

Greenness and Birth Outcomes in a Range of Pennsylvania Communities.

Living in communities with more vegetation during pregnancy has been associated with higher birth weights, but fewer studies have evaluated other birth outcomes, and only one has been conducted in the Eastern United States, in regions with a broad range, including high levels, of greenness. We evaluated associations between prenatal residential greenness and birth outcomes (term birth weight, small for gestational age, preterm birth, and low 5 min Apgar score) across a range of community types using electronic health record data from 2006-2013 from the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania. We assigned greenness based on mother's geocoded address using the normalized difference vegetation index from satellite imagery. We used propensity scores to restrict the study population to comparable groups among those living in green vs. less-green areas. Analyses were adjusted for demographic, clinical, and environmental covariates, and stratified by community type (city, borough, and township). In cities, higher greenness (tertiles 2-3 vs. 1) was protective for both preterm (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.61-0.99) and small for gestational age birth (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.58-0.97), but not birth weight or Apgar score. We did not observe associations between greenness and birth outcomes in adjusted models in boroughs or townships. These results add to the evidence that greener cities might be healthier cities.