American journal of preventive medicine
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This study aims to examine physician and dentist fluoride prescription patterns and identify the factors associated with fluoride prescriptions for Medicaid-enrolled children. The hypothesis is that dentists will be the primary prescribers of fluoride and that caries risk factors will be associated with fluoride prescriptions. ⋯ Physicians play an important role in prescribing fluoride to Medicaid-enrolled children, especially those at increased dental caries risk. Additional research is needed on strategies to ensure that all high-risk children have an opportunity to benefit from prescription fluoride.
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Awareness of heart attack symptoms and the best response is a national public health priority, especially among those at higher risk of heart disease. Adults with sensory loss are more likely to develop heart disease than those without and may be at risk of poor heart attack knowledge owing to limited patient-provider communication and access to health information. The aim of this study is to examine the association between sensory loss and heart attack knowledge. ⋯ Non-institutionalized adults with sensory loss may represent a group to target for improving the knowledge of heart attacks in the population.
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Enhanced prenatal/postnatal care home visiting programs for Medicaid-insured women have significant positive impacts on care and health outcomes. However, enhanced prenatal care participation rates are typically low, enrolling <30% of eligible women. This study investigates the impacts of a population-based systems approach on timely enhanced prenatal care participation and other healthcare utilization. ⋯ A population systems approach improved selected enhanced prenatal care participation and service utilization for Medicaid-insured women in a county population, those in practices with established clinical-community linkages, and Black women.
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Self-measured blood pressure monitoring with support is an evidence-based intervention that helps patients control their blood pressure. This systematic economic review describes how certain intervention aspects contribute to effectiveness, intervention cost, and intervention cost per unit of the effectiveness of self-measured blood pressure monitoring with support. ⋯ Some of the included studies provided only limited information on key outcomes of interest to this review. However, the strength of this review is the systematic collection and synthesis of evidence that revealed the associations between the characteristics of implemented interventions and their patients and the interventions' effectiveness and cost, a useful contribution to the fields of both research and implementation.
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The long-term impact of physical activity during early life on the risk of depression in later stages of adulthood remains unclear. This study examines the association between physical activity during childhood and adolescence and the incidence of depressive symptoms in early, middle, and late adulthood. ⋯ Adolescence is a critical early-life period to promote physical activity for reducing the incidence of elevated depressive symptoms throughout adulthood. Public health policies should promote healthy lifestyles during the lifespan to reduce both the burden of physical inactivity and depressive symptoms at the population level.