American journal of preventive medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Varenicline for E-Cigarette Cessation in Adults: A Preliminary Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial.
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Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, routine sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings decreased, and test positivity rates increased due to limited screening appointments, national-level STI testing supply shortages, and social distancing mandates. It is unclear if adolescent preventive STI screening has returned to pre-pandemic levels and if pre-existing disparities worsened in late-pandemic. ⋯ Neighborhood socioeconomic and educational disadvantage amplified racial-ethnic disparities in STI screening during the pandemic. Future interventions should focus on improving primary care utilization of non-Hispanic-Black adolescents to increase routine STI screening and preventive care utilization.
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Alcohol use is involved in a large proportion of homicides and suicides each year in the U.S., but there is limited evidence on how policies targeting alcohol influence violence in the U.S. ⋯ Increases in the restrictiveness of state-level alcohol policies are associated with reductions in homicides. More restrictive alcohol policy environments may offer an opportunity to reduce homicides.
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This study estimated the benefits and costs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' We Can Do This COVID-19 public education campaign (the Campaign) and associated vaccination-related impacts. ⋯ The We Can Do This COVID-19 public education campaign saved more than 50,000 lives and prevented hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and millions of COVID-19 cases, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits in less than one year. Findings suggest that public education campaigns are a cost-effective approach to reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.
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Health-related social problems may be conceptualized as the presence of either a social risk (i.e., food insecurity as defined by a screening tool) or a social need (i.e., desire for referral to a food program). Identification of social risks may not correlate with patients' desire to receive help. This study aimed to identify and compare patients and families with social risks versus social needs in a pediatric emergency department. ⋯ Both social risks and self-identified social needs should be considered within social care interventions in the pediatric healthcare setting.