Plos One
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Comparative Study
The Great American Recession and forgone healthcare: Do widened disparities between African-Americans and Whites remain?
During the Great Recession in America, African-Americans opted to forgo healthcare more than other racial/ethnic groups. It is not understood whether disparities in forgone care returned to pre-recession levels. Understanding healthcare utilization patterns is important for informing subsequent efforts to decrease healthcare disparities. Therefore, we examined changes in racial disparities in forgone care before, during, and after the Great Recession. ⋯ A persistent increase in forgone medical care disparities existed among African-Americans compared to Whites post-Great Recession and may be a result of outstanding issues related to healthcare access, cost, and quality. While health insurance is an important component of access to care, it alone should not be expected to remove these disparities due to other financial constraints. Additional strategies are necessary to close remaining gaps in care widened by the Great Recession.
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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069809.].
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With efforts to combat opioid use disorder, there is an increased interest in clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for opioid use disorder treatments. No literature exists examining the quality of systematic reviews used in opioid use disorder CPGs. This study aims to describe the methodological quality and reporting clarity of systematic reviews (SRs) used to create CPGs for opioid use disorder. ⋯ Although the SRs in the CPGs were of good quality, there are still areas for improvement. Systematic reviewers should consult PRISMA and AMSTAR when conducting and reporting reviews. It is important for CPG developers to consider methodological quality as a factor when developing CPG recommendations, recognizing that the quality of systematic reviews underpinning guidelines does not necessarily correspond to the quality of the guideline itself.
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Investigating the diagnostic accuracy of histogram analyses of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for determining non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor grades, lymphovascular invasion, and pleural invasion. ⋯ ADC histogram analyses on the basis of the entire tumor volume are able to stratify NSCLCs' tumor grade, lymphovascular invasion and pleural invasion.
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The association between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents has been mostly investigated in those young people with chronic disease conditions. No systematic review to date has synthesized the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in the general healthy population of children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to review systematically the existing literature that evaluated the relations between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents. ⋯ The findings in this study suggest that school health programs promoting active lifestyles among children and adolescents may contribute to the improvement of health-related quality of life. Future research is needed to extend studies on longitudinal relationships between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life, and on effects of physical activity interventions on health-related quality of life among children and youth.