American journal of preventive medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Motivators, Barriers, and Preferences to Engagement With Offered Social Care Assistance Among People With Diabetes: A Mixed Methods Study.
A substantial proportion of patients screening positive for social risks either decline assistance or do not follow-up with offered resources. This study examined patient interest in and engagement with offered social care assistance among adults with poorly controlled diabetes at an academic medical center. ⋯ There are key barriers to the use of social care assistance that may directly reflect the process by which individuals are screened and offered assistance. Strategies to increase uptake should be patient centered and ideally provide multiple options for type of assistance and mode of engagement.
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Childhood adversities are risk factors for subsequent mental health problems. Research commonly focuses on adverse childhood experiences, despite evidence that other exposures, such as neighborhood violence or peer victimization, co-occur with adverse childhood experiences and are associated with similar mental health outcomes. This study explored the clustering of these exposures and examined the associations with mental health. ⋯ Findings highlight the particularly deleterious impact of neighborhood violence and highly co-occurring adversity types on mental health and substance use. It is important to extend our conceptualization of adverse childhood experiences to include peer adversity and neighborhood violence and shift from a siloed approach to examining all these exposures.
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Homelessness is associated with increased acute care utilization and poor healthcare outcomes. This study aims to compare hospital readmission rates among patients experiencing homelessness and patients who are not homeless and assess the impact of different clinical and demographic characteristics on acute care utilization among patients experiencing homelessness. ⋯ Patients experiencing homelessness had higher acute care utilization than those not experiencing homelessness. Black racial identity and several comorbidities were associated with increased acute care utilization among patients experiencing homelessness. Efforts to address upstream social determinants of health, destigmatization, and healthcare management accounting for the whole spectrum of clinical comorbidities might be important in promoting the health of people experiencing homelessness.
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Patient participation in healthcare system‒sponsored efforts to address food insecurity varies widely. This mixed-methods study sought to understand the patient sociodemographic factors associated with and barriers and facilitators to the use of a monthly produce market held at Cambridge Health Alliance in partnership with The Greater Boston Food Bank. ⋯ Healthcare-based food distributions have the potential to reach patients with unmet food needs who cannot or would not access other forms of food assistance. Time constraints, physical limitations, and transportation challenges impact attendance; program modifications are necessary to improve accessibility.