Effect of Mexico's vaccination program on Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths among older adults in Mexico City.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the impact of Mexico's Co-vid-19 vaccination campaign of older adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We estimated the absolute change in sympto-matic cases, hospitalizations and deaths for vaccine-eligible adults (aged >60 years) and the relative change compared to vaccine-ineligible groups since the campaign started. Re-sults. By May 3, 2021, the odds of Covid-19 cases among adults over 60 compared to 50-59 year olds decreased by 60.3% (95%CI: 53.1, 66.9), and 2 003 cases (95%CI: 1 156, 3 130) were avoided. Hospitalizations and deaths showed similar trends. CONCLUSIONS: Covid-19 events decreased after vaccine rollout among those eligible for vaccination.

Adjudication of Transient Ischemic Attack and Stroke in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: To describe adjudication of transient ischemic attack (TIA) and stroke in an observational study. METHODS: We detail the process used to adjudicate TIA and stroke in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a large longitudinal cohort study. Two of three vascular neurologists adjudicated each event using specific protocols. We examined the initial agreement, effect of imaging on diagnosis of TIA versus ischemic stroke, and effect of strict and less strict criteria on the number of ischemic stroke subtypes classified as undetermined. RESULTS: Of 573 adjudicated events over 13.5 years of follow-up, 95 (16.5%) had TIA and 269 (47.0%) had stroke: 211 (78.4%) ischemic, 43 (16.0%) hemorrhagic, and 15 (5.6%) other. Disagreements occurred on 16% of initial adjudication of events. Using results from imaging, the number with TIA decreased by 8.6% and with ischemic stroke increased by 4.1%. Using less strict criteria to classify ischemic stroke subtypes reduced the number classified as undetermined, from 137 to 59, and numbers classified as cardioembolic and small vessel doubled. CONCLUSIONS: We hope that this work will motivate and facilitate investigators to use MESA data to investigate issues concerning TIA and stroke and will inform investigators seeking to adjudicate TIA and stroke in other studies.

USING COUPLES' DISCORDANT REPORTS TO ESTIMATE FEMALE COVERT USE OF MODERN CONTRACEPTION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.

Substantial numbers of married women use contraceptives without their partner's knowledge in sub-Saharan Africa, but studies of female covert use across time are rare. This study investigates the levels, trends and correlates of covert use in nine countries and determines which contraceptive methods are more frequently used covertly by women. Data from monogamous couples in Demographic and Health Surveys were used from nine sub-Saharan African countries that had experienced an increase of 10 percentage points in current modern contraceptive use between an earlier (1991-2004) and later (2007-2011) survey. Covert use was indirectly estimated as the percentage of women who reported a female modern method whose husband did not report a modern method. The percentage of women using covertly increased in eight of the countries studied (significantly in three of them), yet when comparing across countries cross-sectionally, covert use was lower where contraceptive prevalence was higher. In general, women with more years of schooling and those with larger spousal schooling gaps had lower odds of covert use. There was no significant difference between covert and open injectable use, though more than half of both groups used this method in the later surveys. Encouraging couple communication about contraception, where the woman feels it is safe to do so, could be an important strategy to minimize covert use. Further research is needed to better identify the contraceptive prevalence and social context in which covert use declines within a country.

Effect of Physical Activity on the Relation Between Psychosocial Factors and Cardiovascular Events (from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).

Depression, chronic stress, and low levels of social support have known associations with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Physical activity has been shown to promote psychological health, reduce the frequency of depressive symptoms, and is associated with fewer cardiovascular events in depressed subjects with known CVD. The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that physical activity attenuates the association between psychosocial factors and incident CVD. The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis cohort includes 6,814 participants free of clinical CVD at baseline. Complete data on physical activity were available for 6,795 subjects (mean age 62 years; 47% men). Psychosocial factors were assessed using standardized questionnaires. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between psychosocial factors and CVD events and its modulation by physical activity. In models adjusted for age, gender, and race/ethnicity, both depression and chronic burden were associated with CVD events (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.38 [1.04 to 1.84], p = 0.028 for depression; HR = 1.15 [1.05 to 1.24], p = 0.001 for chronic burden). Adjusting for physical activity, the relation between depression, chronic burden, and CVD events was not significantly reduced (HR = 1.35 [1.02 to 1.80], p = 0.039 for depression; HR = 1.14 [1.05 to 1.23], p = 0.001 for chronic burden). Although physical activity is an important component of physical and psychological health and well-being, it did not significantly attenuate the strong relation between depression or chronic burden and incident CVD.