Building Public Health Surveillance 3.0: Emerging Timely Measures of Physical, Economic, and Social Environmental Conditions Affecting Health.

In response to rapidly changing societal conditions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, we summarize data sources with potential to produce timely and spatially granular measures of physical, economic, and social conditions relevant to public health surveillance, and we briefly describe emerging analytic methods to improve small-area estimation. To inform this article, we reviewed published systematic review articles set in the United States from 2015 to 2020 and conducted unstructured interviews with senior content experts in public heath practice, academia, and industry. We identified a modest number of data sources with high potential for generating timely and spatially granular measures of physical, economic, and social determinants of health. We also summarized modeling and machine-learning techniques useful to support development of time-sensitive surveillance measures that may be critical for responding to future major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(10):1436-1445. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306917).

Comics as a Medium for Providing Information on Adult Immunizations.

This study compared the following effects of two vaccine information flyers-one developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) versus one adapted from this information to a comic medium (comic)-on adults: (a) attitude toward the flyer; (b) perceived informativeness of the flyer; (c) intention to seek more information about adult immunizations after viewing the flyer; and (d) intention to get immunized after viewing the flyer. A between-group, randomized trial was used to randomly assign adults (age 18 years or older) at an ambulatory care center to review the CDC or comic flyer. Participants were asked to complete a survey to measure several outcome variables. Items were measured using a 7-point semantic differential scale. Independent-samples t-test was used for comparisons. A total of 265 surveys (CDC n = 132 vs comic n = 133) were analyzed. The comic flyer had a statistically significant effect on participants' attitudes and their perception of the flyer's informativeness compared to the CDC flyer. Flyer type did not have a statistically significant effect on intention-related variables. The study findings showed that the comic flyer was positively evaluated compared to the CDC flyer. These findings could provide a new direction for developing adult educational materials.

Pregnancy accounts for most of the gender difference in prevalence of familial RLS.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate the associated risk of RLS with pregnancy in relation to the family history and the age of symptom onset of RLS. METHODS AND SUBJECTS: Data from a prior RLS family history study in which 1019 subjects (527 males, 492 females) were interviewed, provided a diagnosis and characterization of RLS and determination of pregnancy status on which the current study analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: In the family members of RLS probands, the prevalence of RLS was significantly higher for parous women than for nulliparous women (49.5% vs. 33.7%, OR=1.92, 95% CI=1.16-3.19) or for men (49.5% vs. 30.0%, OR 2.29, 1.69-3.10), but no different for nulliparous women compared to men (33.7% vs. 30.0%, OR 1.19, 0.72-1.96). When only those whose RLS started at or after age 30 were considered, similar differences occurred. These differences were not observed among family members of control probands. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate pregnancy has a major impact on the risk of developing RLS for those with a family history of RLS. This pregnancy effect appears to account for most of the gender differences often reported in overall RLS prevalence data.

Evaluation of outpatient adverse drug reactions leading to hospitalization.

Outpatient adverse drug reaction (ADR)related hospitalization through the emergency department of a nonprofit hospital and the contributing factors are reviewed. Patients who were hospitalized because of suspected ADRs were selected from daily admissions reports and patient medication profiles from 1997 and 1998 by the pharmacy department of a nonprofit community teaching hospital. Hospital charges for individual patients were obtained from the institution's accounting system. Suspected drugs, their therapeutic class, and the organ systems involved in the ADRs were identified. A total of 191 patients who had a complete medical history and cost information were included in the study. Of those patients, 56% were female, and 45% of the patients were 75 years of older. The average hospital charge per ADR patient was $9491. Room and board accounted for more than 50% of total charges. The average length of stay for study patients was 8.0 +/- 10.3 days. Major therapeutic classes implicated in ADRs included antidiabetic agents (27.8%), anticoagulants (15.2%), anticonvulsants (10.0%), beta-blockers (7.9%), and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (7.9%). Organ systems most commonly involved in ADR admissions were the endocrine (30.9%) and cardiovascular (24.1%) systems. The implicationed therapeutic groups and organ systems exhibited a different pattern from those of earlier ADR studies. The elderly and the poor are most affected by ADRs. The availability of new drugs and the shift in disease treatment necessitate the continuous monitoring of new ADRs. Patients and family members should be integral components of a multidisciplinary strategy for minimizing the personal and social impact of ADRs.