American journal of preventive medicine
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Pregnant women are at risk for severe influenza-related complications; however, only 52% reported receiving an influenza vaccination during the 2013-2014 influenza season. Text4baby, a free national text service, provides influenza vaccination education and reminders to pregnant women. This study examined reported influenza vaccination during pregnancy among Text4baby participants who reported receiving influenza messages and women who reported never participating in Text4baby. ⋯ Text4baby status was associated with higher influenza vaccination, especially among women whose provider did not recommend or offer the vaccine. Encouraging Text4baby enrollment may help ensure influenza vaccination is given to protect mothers and infants.
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Approximately 40 million people in the U.S. identify as having a serious disability, and people with disabilities experience many health disparities compared with the general population. The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) identifies evidence-based programs and policies recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) to promote health and prevent disease. The Community Guide was assessed to answer the questions: are Community Guide public health intervention recommendations applicable to people with disabilities, and are adaptations required? ⋯ As public health and healthcare systems implement Task Force recommendations, identifying and addressing barriers to full participation for people with disabilities is important so that interventions reach the entire population. With appropriate adaptations, implementation of recommendations from The Community Guide could be successfully expanded to address the needs of people with disabilities.
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Hypertension affects one third of the U.S. adult population. Although cost-effectiveness analyses of antihypertensive medicines have been published, a comprehensive systematic review across medicine classes is not available. ⋯ All antihypertensives were cost effective compared with no treatment. ARBs appeared to be more cost effective than CCBs, ACEIs, and β-blockers. However, these latter findings should be interpreted with caution because these findings are not robust due to the substantial variability across the studies, including study settings and analytic models, changes in the cost of generic medicines, and publication bias.