American journal of preventive medicine
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Unaddressed social risks among hospitalized patients with chronic conditions contribute to costly complications and preventable hospitalizations. This study examines whether the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services State Innovation Models initiative, through payment and delivery system reforms, accelerates the diagnosis of social risk factors among hospitalized adults with diabetes. ⋯ The State Innovation Models initiative slightly but significantly improved the diagnosis of social risks among hospitalized adults with diabetes. State-led delivery system and payment reform may help support movement of hospitals toward better recognition and management of social determinants of health.
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Community detection, the process of identifying subgroups of highly connected individuals within a network, is an aspect of social network analysis that is relevant but potentially underutilized in prevention research. Guidance on using community detection methods stresses aligning methods with specific research questions but lacks clear operationalization. The Question Alignment approach was developed to help address this gap and promote the high-quality use of community detection methods. ⋯ As prevention research incorporating social networks increases, researchers can use the Question Alignment approach to produce more theoretically meaningful results and potentially more useful results for practice. Future research should focus on assessing whether the Question Alignment approach translates into improved intervention results.
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This study measures effects on the receipt of preventive care among children enrolled in Georgia's Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program associated with the implementation of new elementary school-based health centers. The study sites differed by geographic environment and predominant race/ethnicity (rural white, non-Hispanic; black, small city; and suburban Hispanic). ⋯ Implementation of elementary school-based health centers increased the receipt of key preventive care among young, publicly insured children in urban areas of Georgia, with potential reductions in racial and ethnic disparities.
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Given the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and much of the U.S. implementing social distancing owing to the lack of alternatives, there has been a push to develop a vaccine to eliminate the need for social distancing. ⋯ This study found that the vaccine has to have an efficacy of at least 70% to prevent an epidemic and of at least 80% to largely extinguish an epidemic without any other measures (e.g., social distancing).
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So-called deaths of despair-those involving drug overdoses, alcohol-related liver disease, and suicide-have been rising in the U.S. among middle-aged white, non-Hispanic adults without a college degree. Premature deaths (ages 25-69) from alcoholic liver disease were examined specifically in this study from 1999 to 2018, by sex, race/Hispanic origin, and age group. ⋯ Prevention and intervention efforts are imperative to address the narrowing sex gap and widening racial disparities in alcoholic liver disease premature deaths.