American journal of preventive medicine
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Observational Study
Neighbors Do Matter: Between-State Firearm Laws and State Firearm-Related Deaths in the U.S., 2000-2017.
Firearm injury is a major U.S. public health concern. This study aims to evaluate whether the relationship between state firearm laws and state firearm deaths are affected by comparatively lenient firearm laws in neighboring states. ⋯ Weaker firearm laws in neighboring states may undermine the effectiveness of a state's own firearm laws in curbing firearm deaths. Coordinated legislative action across neighboring states may be more effective than an individual state taking legislative action.
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Major knowledge gaps regarding medical and nonmedical prescription stimulant use and illegal stimulant use (i.e., cocaine/crack/methamphetamine) by sexual identity and gender have implications for individuals' health and well-being. This study improves stimulant use measurement by differentiating the type of stimulant use and focusing on lesbian, gay, and bisexual subpopulations. ⋯ Lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals had a higher prevalence of stimulant use than their heterosexual counterparts. This has important implications for health disparities, especially given the high levels of polysubstance use. Taking a multilevel approach is crucial to reduce stimulant-related harms for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.
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Despite improvements in electronic medical record capability to collect data on sexual orientation, not all healthcare systems have adopted this practice. This can limit the usability of systemwide electronic medical record data for sexual minority research. One viable resource might be the documentation of sexual orientation within clinical notes. The authors developed an approach to identify sexual orientation documentation and subsequently derived a cohort of sexual minority patients using clinical notes from the Veterans Health Administration electronic medical record. ⋯ When systemwide structured data are unavailable or inconsistent, deriving a cohort of sexual minority patients in electronic medical records for research is possible and permits longitudinal analysis across multiple clinical domains. Although limitations and challenges to the approach were identified, this study makes an important step forward for the Veterans Health Administration sexual minority research, and the methodology can be applied in other healthcare organizations.
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Exposure to disaster-related media may be a risk factor for mental distress, but this has not been examined in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assesses whether exposure to social and traditional media during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with mental distress among U.S. adults. ⋯ Exposure to a greater number of traditional media sources and more hours on social media was modestly associated with mental distress during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
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Annual influenza vaccination is associated with reduced mortality among older adults and lower overall public health burden of influenza. This study seeks to identify the characteristics associated with repeat influenza vaccination and determine whether age-group (51-59, 60-69, ≥70 years) differences exist. ⋯ Although adults aged 60-69 years and ≥70 years are more likely to receive influenza vaccine repeatedly than adults aged 51-59 years, age-specific interventions for repeat influenza vaccination may not be as effective as interventions targeted to certain subgroups among adults aged ≥51 years.