Thermal tolerance does not explain the altitudinal segregation of lowland and alpine aquatic insects.

Elevation gradients provide powerful study systems for examining the influence of environmental filters in shaping species assemblages. High-mountain habitats host specific high-elevation assemblages, often comprising specialist species adapted to endure pronounced abiotic stress, while such harsh conditions prevent lowland species from colonizing or establishing. While thermal tolerance may drive the altitudinal segregation of ectotherms, its role in structuring aquatic insect communities remains poorly explored. This study investigates the role of thermal physiology in shaping the current distribution of high-mountain diving beetles from the Sierra Nevada Iberian mountain range and closely related lowland species. Cold tolerance of five species from each altitudinal zone was measured estimating the supercooling point (SCP), lower lethal temperature (LLT) and tolerance to ice enclosure, while heat tolerance was assessed from the heat coma temperature (HCT). Alpine species exhibited wider fundamental thermal niches than lowland species, likely associated with the broader range of climatic conditions in high-mountain areas. Cold tolerance did not seem to prevent lowland species from colonizing higher elevations, as most studied species were moderately freeze-tolerant. Therefore, fundamental thermal niches seem not to fully explain species segregation along elevation gradients, suggesting that other thermal tolerance traits, environmental factors, and biotic interactions may also play important roles.

Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) paradigm type affects its sensitivity as a biomarker of fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a widespread chronic pain syndrome, possibly associated with the presence of central dysfunction in descending pain inhibition pathways. Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM) has been proposed as a biomarker of FM. Nonetheless, the wide variety of methods used to measure CPM has hampered robust conclusions being reached. To clarify the validity of CPM as a biomarker of FM, we tested two CPM paradigms (parallel and sequential) in a sample of 23 female patients and 23 healthy women by applying test (mechanical) stimuli and conditioning (pressure cuff) stimuli. We evaluated whether CPM indices could correctly classify patients and controls, and we also determined the correlations between the indices and clinical variables such as symptomatology, disease impact, depression, quality of life, pain intensity, pain interference, fatigue and numbness. In addition, we compared the clinical status of CPM responders (efficient pain inhibitory mechanism) and non-responders. We observed that only parallel CPM testing correctly classified about 70% of patients with FM. In addition, more than 80% of healthy participants were found to be responders, while the rate was about 50% in the FM patients. The sequential CPM test was not as sensitive, with a decrease of up to 40% in the response rate for both groups. On the other hand, we did not observe any correlation between CPM measures and clinical symptoms. In summary, our findings demonstrate the influence of the CPM paradigm used and confirm that CPM may be a useful marker to complement FM diagnosis. However, the findings also cast doubts on the sensitivity of CPM as a marker of pain severity in FM.

"It Makes you Want to Go Out and Change the World": Shifts in Victim Advocates' Perspectives Following the Intimate Partner Homicide of a Client in the United States.

Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) victim advocates are exposed daily to the traumas of their clients, including the potential exposure to an intimate partner homicide (IPH). While research has examined the effects of daily secondary exposure to IPV on victim advocates, little is known about the specific effect of IPH. This study examined how the IPH of a client affected advocates' perception of and approach to their work. Methods: Nine advocates were recruited from the northeastern U.S. and interviewed about their experience of the IPH of a client. Advocate interviews were analyzed using The Listening Guide Analysis which systematically isolates and listens to the different, and often contradictory, voices that a participant uses. Results: Exposure to IPH changed participants' perception of their role, how they defined client, and how they interacted with future clients. At a macro-level, the IPH of a client motivated advocates to advance changes in agency protocol, multisector responses, and state policy based on what they had learned from the IPH. Opportunities to translate shifts in their worldview into tangible changes to protocol and policy were critical to advocate adjustment after the IPH. Conclusions: In order to support advocates after IPH, organizations should acknowledge the potentially transformative effect of IPH and create opportunities for meaning making to assist in advocate adjustment. It is imperative for advocacy organizations to support their employees to prevent advocate burnout and the loss of experienced staff, and to continue to provide effective services to vulnerable members of their communities after IPH.

Intimate Partner Violence Circumstances for Fatal Violence in the US.

This cross-sectional study investigates intimate partner violence circumstances associated with violent deaths in the US from 2015 to 2019.

Examining Intimate Partner Violence-Related Fatalities: Past Lessons and Future Directions Using U.S. National Data.

Purpose: Among homicides in the United States, intimate partners kill almost 50% of female and 10% of male victims. Intimate partner violence (IPV) also contributes to an estimated 6% of suicides. These trends suggest that opportunities for IPV interventions prior to the fatalities may have been missed. Thus, researchers must investigate the context and circumstances of IPV-related fatalities to inform effective prevention strategy development. There are two primary national fatality databases that can be used to examine such factors: the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS, homicide and suicides); and the Uniform Crime Reporting-Supplementary Homicide Reports (UCR-SHR, homicides). These datasets include data on many IPV-related violent deaths but are limited by variations in data quality. Method: This critical review summarizes opportunities and challenges when examining IPV-related fatalities using these national datasets. To document how the current literature is conceptualizing IPV, a rapid review on IPV-related homicide and suicide articles was performed (2019-2022). Missingness analyses were conducted to describe limitations in key dataset variables. Results: These datasets enable tracking IPV-related fatalities nationally over time. However, issues with the operationalization of variables that record IPV circumstances, particularly in the UCR-SHR, and high levels of missingness represent significant barriers to research. Novel methodologies can optimize the use of these datasets. Conclusion: National-level datasets enable researchers to examine IPV-related fatalities, evaluate policy differences between states, and monitor trends and disparities. This research can inform key recommendations for interventions to prevent IPV-related fatalities. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10896-022-00487-2.

Longitudinal study of the newborn small for gestational age. Growth recovery and conditioning factors / Estudio longitudinal del recién nacido pequeño para la edad gestacional. Crecimiento recuperador y factores condicionantes

Background: small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborns present a higher morbidity and mortality rate when compared to infants born appropriate for gestational age (AGA), as well as insufficient growth, with height far from their target and in some cases a low final height (< -2 SDs). Objective: the aim of this study was to determine when catch-up growth (CUG) in height occurs in these children, and which factors are associated with lack of CUG. Material and methods: this is a retrospective study of SGAs born between 2011 and 2015 in a secondary hospital. Anthropometric measurements were taken consecutively until CUG was reached, and fetal, placental, parental, newborn, and postnatal variables were studied. Results: a total of 358 SGAs were included from a total of 5,585 live newborns. At 6 and 48 months of life, 93.6 % and 96.4 % of SGAs achieved CUG, respectively. By subgroups, symmetric SGAs performed worse than asymmetric SGAs with CUG in 84 % and 92 % at 6 and 48 months of life, respectively. The same occurred in the subgroup of preterm SGAs with respect to term SGAs, with worse CUGs of 88.2 % and 91.2 % at 6 and 48 months of life, respectively. Prematurity, symmetrical SGA, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), preeclampsia, previous child SGA, perinatal morbidity, and comorbidity during follow-up were associated with absence of CUG. Conclusions: the majority of SGAs had CUG in the first months of life. The worst outcomes were for preterm and symmetric SGAs (AU)

Antecedentes: el recién nacido pequeño para la edad gestacional (PEG) presenta mayor morbimortalidad que el recién nacido con peso adecuado (PAEG), así como un crecimiento insuficiente con talla alejada de la talla diana y, en algunos casos, talla final baja (< -2 DE). Objetivo: el objetivo de este estudio fue determinar en qué momento se produce el crecimiento compensador (CUG) de la talla en estos niños y conocer qué factores se asocian a la falta de dicho crecimiento compensador. Material y métodos: estudio retrospectivo de los recién nacidos PEG entre los años 2011 y 2015 en un hospital secundario. Se tomaron medidas antropométricas de forma consecutiva hasta alcanzar el CUG y se estudiaron las variables fetales, placentarias, parentales, neonatales y posnatales. Resultados: se incluyeron 358 PEG de un total de 5585 recién nacidos vivos. A los 6 y 48 meses de vida alcanzaron el CUG el 93,6 % y 96,4 % de los PEG, respectivamente. Por subgrupos, los PEG simétricos obtuvieron peores resultados que los PEG asimétricos, con CUG del 84 % y 92 % a los 6 y 48 meses de vida, respectivamente. Lo mismo ocurrió en el subgrupo de PEG prematuros respecto de los PEG a término, con CUG peores del 88,2 % y 91,2 % a los 6 y 48 meses de vida, respectivamente. La prematuridad, el PEG simétrico, la restricción del crecimiento intrauterino, la preeclampsia, tener un hijo previo PEG, la morbilidad perinatal y la comorbilidad durante el seguimiento se asociaron a la ausencia de CUG. Conclusiones: la mayoría de los PEG alcanzaron el CUG en los primeros meses de vida. Los peores resultados fueron para los PEG prematuros y simétricos (AU)

Active and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improved quality of life in female patients with fibromyalgia.

PURPOSE: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with a strong impact on quality of life (QoL). Treatment of this condition remains a challenge, due to the scarce evidence for the effectiveness of the therapeutic approaches available. Current attention is focused on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which has yielded promising results for pain treatment. Rather than focusing only on pain relief, in this study, we aimed to determine how active or sham tDCS (over three cortical targets -the primary motor cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the operculo-insular cortex-) affect QoL in patients with FM. METHODS: Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, we applied fifteen tDCS sessions of 20' to initial 130 participants (randomized to any of the four treatment groups). We evaluated the QoL (assessed by SF-36) and the symptoms' impact (assessed by FIQ-R) in baseline, after treatment and at 6 months follow-up. RESULTS: All groups were comparable as regards age, medication pattern and severity of symptoms before the treatment. We found that QoL and symptoms' impact improved in all treatment groups (including the sham) and this improvement lasted for up to 6 months. However, we did not observe any group effect nor group*treatment interaction. CONCLUSIONS: After the intervention, we observed a non-specific effect that may be due to placebo, favoured by the expectations of tDCS efficacy and psychosocial variables inherent to the intervention (daily relationship with therapists and other patients in the clinic). Therefore, active tDCS is not superior to sham stimulation in improving QoL in FM.

Crime and Violence in Older Adults: Findings From the 2002 to 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Studies on criminal behaviors largely focus on youth and younger adults. While criminal engagement declines with age, the aging population and significant costs associated with older offenders warrant their increased clinical and research attention. The present study utilizes data from the 2002 to 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate the prevalence and explore the sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of criminal behavior in adults aged 50 years and older. The overall prevalence of older adults engaging in criminal behaviors during this time was approximately 1.20%. There was no significant difference in crime involvement between adults aged 50 to 64 years and 65 years and older. Older individuals who committed crimes were more likely to be male and Black and earning low income. Criminality was also associated with use of illicit substances and depression as well as receipt of mental health treatment.

Intimate Partner Violence-Related Fatalities Among U.S. Youth Aged 0-24 Years, 2014-2018.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about intimate partner violence-related fatalities among young people. This study comprehensively identifies and describes intimate partner violence-related homicides, homicide-suicides, legal intervention deaths, and suicides among young people. METHODS: Data from the 2014-2018 National Violent Death Reporting System were analyzed for all decedents aged 0-24 years in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico with known circumstances of death (n=29,702). Intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified using National Violent Death Reporting System variables across all manners of death and supplementary narrative review for suicides. This article reports the proportion of intimate partner violence versus non-intimate partner violence-related deaths by manner of death, descriptive statistics, and rate of intimate partner violence-related death per 100,000 person years. To examine disparities in intimate partner violence-related deaths, generalized estimating equations were used with robust standard errors to account for clustering of deaths within states and fixed effects for years. Statistical analyses were conducted May and August 2021. RESULTS: A total of 1,927 intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified, which represents 6.5% of violent deaths with known circumstances, at a rate of 0.35 per 100,000 person years. Supplementary narrative review identified 44.7% of all intimate partner violence-related deaths. There were significant differences by race/ethnicity and whether a firearm inflicted the fatal injury for male and female decedents by manner of death. CONCLUSIONS: If the National Violent Death Reporting System does not assess whether intimate partner violence was a precipitating factor across all death manners, the true magnitude of intimate partner violence's contribution to violent death will be underestimated. Future research that identifies factors associated with all manners of intimate partner violence-related deaths among young people will help inform intervention and prevention strategies to save young lives.

A setup to measure the temperature-dependent heating power of magnetically heated nanoparticles up to high temperature.

Magnetic heating, namely, the use of heat released by magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) excited with a high-frequency magnetic field, has so far been mainly used for biological applications. More recently, it has been shown that this heat can be used to catalyze chemical reactions, some of them occurring at temperatures up to 700 °C. The full exploitation of MNP heating properties requires the knowledge of the temperature dependence of their heating power up to high temperatures. Here, a setup to perform such measurements is described based on the use of a pyrometer for high-temperature measurements and on a protocol based on the acquisition of cooling curves, which allows us to take into account calorimeter losses. We demonstrate that the setup permits to perform measurements under a controlled atmosphere on solid state samples up to 550 °C. It should in principle be able to perform measurements up to 900 °C. The method, uncertainties, and possible artifacts are described and analyzed in detail. The influence on losses of putting under vacuum different parts of the calorimeter is measured. To illustrate the setup possibilities, the temperature dependence of heating power is measured on four samples displaying very different behaviors. Their heating power increases or decreases with temperature, displaying temperature sensibilities ranging from -2.5 to +4.4% K-1. This setup is useful to characterize the MNPs for magnetically heated catalysis applications and to produce data that will be used to test models permitting to predict the temperature dependence of MNP heating power.

Evolutionary Pathways and Trajectories in Antibiotic Resistance.

Evolution is the hallmark of life. Descriptions of the evolution of microorganisms have provided a wealth of information, but knowledge regarding "what happened" has precluded a deeper understanding of "how" evolution has proceeded, as in the case of antimicrobial resistance. The difficulty in answering the "how" question lies in the multihierarchical dimensions of evolutionary processes, nested in complex networks, encompassing all units of selection, from genes to communities and ecosystems. At the simplest ontological level (as resistance genes), evolution proceeds by random (mutation and drift) and directional (natural selection) processes; however, sequential pathways of adaptive variation can occasionally be observed, and under fixed circumstances (particular fitness landscapes), evolution is predictable. At the highest level (such as that of plasmids, clones, species, microbiotas), the systems' degrees of freedom increase dramatically, related to the variable dispersal, fragmentation, relatedness, or coalescence of bacterial populations, depending on heterogeneous and changing niches and selective gradients in complex environments. Evolutionary trajectories of antibiotic resistance find their way in these changing landscapes subjected to random variations, becoming highly entropic and therefore unpredictable. However, experimental, phylogenetic, and ecogenetic analyses reveal preferential frequented paths (highways) where antibiotic resistance flows and propagates, allowing some understanding of evolutionary dynamics, modeling and designing interventions. Studies on antibiotic resistance have an applied aspect in improving individual health, One Health, and Global Health, as well as an academic value for understanding evolution. Most importantly, they have a heuristic significance as a model to reduce the negative influence of anthropogenic effects on the environment.

"It Is Like Medicine": Using Sports to Promote Adult Women's Health in Rural Kenya.

Despite the well-documented health benefits of recreational sports, few opportunities exist in lower- and middle-income countries for adult women to participate in recreational physical activities. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used to explore associations between an innovative soccer program for adult women and self-reported health status. Cross-sectional survey data were collected in 2018-2019 from 702 women in the Nikumbuke Project, a health and literacy program in southeastern rural Kenya, followed by focus group discussions with 225 women who also participated in the Project's soccer program. Quantitative findings suggest that women who participated in soccer had 67% greater odds of reporting good or excellent health than their non-soccer playing peers. Thematic analysis of qualitative data indicated that women credited soccer with less pain, fatigue, and stress, as well as weight loss and reduced dependence on medicine for hypertension, pain, and sleep problems. Women equated health benefits with greater ease and efficiency in completing chores, reduced worries, youthful energy, male-like strength, and pleased husbands. Soccer programs for adult women may be particularly effective interventions in settings where access to health care is limited and where lack of opportunity to engage in physical aerobic activity increases women's risks for poor health outcomes.

The Arizona Intimate Partner Homicide (AzIPH) Study: a Step toward Updating and Expanding Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Homicide.

Despite the importance of intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicide research to women's health and safety, much remains unknown about risk factors for intimate partner homicide (IPH). This article presents the Arizona Intimate Partner Homicide Study, pilot research that is being conducted in one U.S. state to update and expand on risk factors for IPH. In the context of presenting this study, we summarize the literature on data collection techniques, various marginalized and under researched populations, and the importance of gathering data about the victim-offender relationship and situational IPH risk factors. Additional research is needed to update risk factors for IPH to account for changes in technology and to examine differential risk across diverse populations. Local, community based data collection strategies are likely to provide more comprehensive and nuanced insight into IPH; though, to understand risk factors among marginalized populations, it may be necessary to increase sample size through a national strategy. Although not a panacea, we present this ongoing research as a model for other states to emulate and improve upon, in the hopes of developing more comprehensive data examining risk for IPH among victims of IPV.

Trends in Therapeutic Services Participation among U.S. Adolescents Affected by Substance Use, 2002-2017.

Objective: Substance use continues to pose threats to adolescent health and development in the United States (U.S.). Despite evidence of effectiveness, little is known about adolescent participation in self-help groups (e.g., Alcoholic Anonymous, Alateen) and individual/group counseling for coping with own and another family member's substance use. This study provides new information on the prevalence and trends of adolescent participation in self-help groups and counseling for substance use using a nationally-representative sample. Methods: Data was derived from the 2002-2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which include cross-sectional samples of U.S. adolescents aged 12-17 (n=243,618). Specifically, year-by-year prevalence of program participation was estimated, and then the trends were tested using logistic regression analyses while controlling for sociodemographic factors. Results: We found that U.S. adolescents' participation in self-help groups and counseling for substance use decreased from 5.6% in 2002 to 3.4% in 2017, a 39 percent decline that was significant while controlling for sociodemographic confounds (AOR = 0.969, 95% CI = 0.963-0.974). The decreases were most notable among low-income (-39%) and Hispanic (-49%) adolescents. Conclusion: Findings suggest that barriers to therapeutic service use and potential unmet needs among U.S. adolescents, especially low-income and Hispanic adolescents affected by own and family member's substance use, need to be alleviated to promote healthy recovery.

Talking (or Not) About Sexual Violence: Newspaper Coverage of the Confirmation Hearings of Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh.

The ways in which sexual violence is portrayed in the media contribute to communities' understanding of violence and can influence survivor outcomes. The parallel cases of the confirmation hearings of Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas provide an opportunity to measure if and how the cultural zeitgeist has shifted around issues of sexual violence. This study sought to answer two questions: (a) When a supreme court nominee is accused of sexual violence, have the ways the mainstream media discussed the violence in newspaper headlines changed between 1991 and 2018? To what extent and how? (b) Have the ways the mainstream media characterizes the nominee and the accuser within and between 1991 and 2018 changed? How? Headlines were collected systematically from eight major U.S. newspapers, resulting in a data set of 373 headlines from 1991 and 249 from 2018. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to examine the characterizations of the accuser, nominee, and violence. Supplemental chi-square analyses were used to compare how violence was categorized in the two years. While less victim-blaming and minimization of sexual violence occurred in the 2018 headlines, newspapers continued to avoid naming the sexual violence. The characterizations of the nominee, accuser, and violence became depersonalized in 2018, focusing on politics rather than the people and issues at hand, likely reflecting a highly politicized American public. Despite the heightened attention to sexual violence that current movements have sparked, our analysis of comparable cases in 1991 and 2018 suggests newspaper headlines continued to avoid naming sexual violence as violence in 2018 as in 1991, and furthermore, contemporary language about sexual violence and its survivors and perpetrators has not changed to reflect an increased response to survivor healing and perpetrator change. Rather, shifts in language suggest survivors and perpetrators may be politicized as tools for parties and politicians to debate larger issues or stake political positions.

Quantifying plasmid dynamics using single-cell microfluidics and image bioinformatics.

Multicopy plasmids play an important role in bacterial ecology and evolution by accelerating the rate of adaptation and providing a platform for rapid gene amplification and evolutionary rescue. Despite the relevance of plasmids in bacterial evolutionary dynamics, evaluating the population-level consequences of randomly segregating and replicating plasmids in individual cells remains a challenging problem, both in theory and experimentally. In recent years, technological advances in fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics have allowed studying temporal changes in gene expression by quantifying the fluorescent intensity of individual cells under controlled environmental conditions. In this paper, we will describe the manufacture, experimental setup, and data analysis pipeline of different microfluidic systems that can be used to study plasmid dynamics, both in single-cells and in populations. To illustrate the benefits and limitations of microfluidics to study multicopy plasmid dynamics, we will use an experimental model system consisting on Escherichia coli K12 carrying non-conjugative, multicopy plasmids (19 copies per cell, in average) encoding different fluorescent markers and ß-lactam resistance genes. First, we will use an image-based flow cytometer to estimate changes in the allele distribution of a heterogeneous population under different selection regimes. Then we will use a mothermachine microfluidic device to obtain time-series of fluorescent intensity of individual cells to argue that plasmid segregation and replication dynamics are inherently stochastic processes. Finally, using a microchemostat, we track thousands of cells in time to reconstruct bacterial lineages and evaluate the allele frequency distributions that emerge in response to a range of selective pressures.

Increasing the damping of oscillatory systems with an arbitrary number of time varying frequencies using fractional-order collocated feedback.

This paper studies the active damping of the oscillations of lightly damped linear systems whose parameters are indeterminate or may change through time. Systems with an arbitrary number of vibration modes are considered. Systems described by partial differential equations, that yield an infinite number of vibration modes, can also be included. In the case of collocated feedback, i.e. the sensor is placed at the same location of the actuator, a simple fractional order differentiation or integration of the measured signal is proposed that provides an effective control: (1) it guarantees a minimum phase margin or damping of the closed-loop system at all vibration modes, (2) this feature is robustly achieved, i.e., it is attained for very large variations or uncertainties of the oscillation frequencies of the system and (3) it is robust to spillover effects, i.e., to the unstabilizing effects of the vibration modes neglected in the controller design (especially important in infinite dimensional systems). Moreover, the sensitivity of the gain crossover frequency to such variations is assessed. Finally, these results are applied to the position control of a single link flexible robot. Simulated results are provided.

Plant growth-promoting traits of yeasts isolated from Spanish vineyards: benefits for seedling development.

It is known that some microorganisms can enhance plant development. However, the use of yeasts as growth-promoting agents has been poorly investigated. The aim of this study was the characterisation of a collection of 69 yeast strains isolated from Spanish vineyards. Phytobeneficial attributes such as solubilisation of nutrients, synthesis of active biomolecules and cell wall-degrading enzyme production were analysed. Strains that revealed multiple growth-promoting characteristics were identified. The in vitro co-culture of Nicotiana benthamiana with yeast isolates showed enhancement of plant growth in 10 strains (up to 5-fold higher shoot dry weight in the case of Hyphopichia pseudoburtonii Hp-54), indicating a beneficial direct yeast-plant interaction. In addition, 18 out of the 69 strains increased dry weight and the number of roots per seedling when tobacco seeds were inoculated. Two of these, Pichia dianae Pd-2 and Meyerozyma guilliermondii Mg-11, also increased the chlorophyll content. The results in tobacco were mostly reproduced in lettuce with these two strains, which demonstrates that the effect of the yeast-plant interaction is not species-specific. In addition, the yeast collection was evaluated in maize seedlings grown in soil in a phytotron. Three isolates (Debaryomyces hansenii Dh-67, Lachancea thermotolerans Lt-69 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sc-6) promoted seedling development (increases of 10 % in dry weight and chlorophyll content). In conclusion, our data confirm that several yeast strains can promote plant growth and could be considered for the development of biological fertiliser treatments.

Driving under the influence of Alcohol: Findings from the NSDUH, 2002-2017.

PURPOSE: Based on a nationally representative adult sample, the present study examined the prevalence and trends of driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol in the United States from 2002 to 2017. METHODS: Using data from the 2002-2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the prevalence of DUI of alcohol in 2012-2017 were estimated to test for changes in trend and to identify populations at elevated risks of alcohol-involved driving. RESULTS: Since 2002, the prevalence of DUI of alcohol has gradually decreased from a high of 15.1% in 2002-2004 to 11.8% in 2012-2014 and 8.5% in 2016-2017, indicating percent decreases by 21.6% and 43.7%, respectively. While decreasing trends were observed across all major sociodemographic and criminal justice subgroups (except older adults), men, young adults, Whites, and those with higher household income continued to be associated with greater risks of alcohol-involved driving. Nevertheless, DUI arrests continued to increase among women, narrowing the gender gap. DISCUSSION: Despite the decreased alcohol-involved driving over the past decade, there remains worrisome levels among young adult males. This underscores the need for alcohol policies and public awareness campaigns targeting young adult males. Moreover, further research is needed to elucidate the potential differences in the populations who reported driving under any influence of alcohol and who were involved in fatal crashes.