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Background: Gonorrhea incidence in the United States has risen by nearly 50% in the last decade, while screening rates have increased. Gonorrhea sequelae rates could indicate whether increased gonorrhea incidence is due to better screening. We estimated the association of gonorrhea diagnosis with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy (EP), and tubal factor infertility (TFI) in women and detected changes in associations over time. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 5,553,506 women aged 18–49 tested for gonorrhea in the IBM MarketScan claims administrative database from 2013–2018 in the United States. We estimated incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) of gonorrhea diagnosis for each outcome, adjusting for potential confounders using Cox proportional hazards models. We tested the interaction between gonorrhea diagnosis and the initial gonorrhea test year to identify changes in associations over time. Results: We identified 32,729 women with a gonorrhea diagnosis (mean follow-up time in years: PID = 1.73, EP = 1.75, TFI = 1.76). A total of 131,500 women were diagnosed with PID, 64,225 had EP, and 41,507 had TFI. Women with gonorrhea diagnoses had greater incidence per 1000 person-years for all outcomes (PID = 33.5, EP = 9.4, TFI = 5.3) compared to women without gonorrhea diagnoses (PID = 13.9, EP = 6.7, TFI = 4.3). After adjustment, HRs were higher in women with a gonorrhea diagnosis vs. those without [PID = 2.29 (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.15–2.44), EP = 1.57, (95% CI: 1.41–1.76), TFI = 1.70 (95% CI: 1.47–1.97)]. The interaction of gonorrhea diagnosis and test year was not significant, indicating no change in relationship by initial test year. Conclusion: The relationship between gonorrhea and reproductive outcomes has persisted, suggesting a higher disease burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hennepin Health, a Medicaid accountable care organization, began serving early expansion enrollees (very low-income childless adults) in 2012. It uses an integrated care model to address social and behavioral needs. We compared health care utilization in Hennepin Health with other Medicaid managed care in the same area from 2012 to 2014, controlling for demographics, chronic conditions, and enrollment patterns. Homelessness and substance use were higher in Hennepin Health. Overall adjusted results showed Hennepin Health had 52% more emergency department visits and 11% more primary care visits than comparators. Over time, modeling a 6-month exposure to Hennepin Health, emergency department and primary care visits decreased and dental visits increased; hospitalizations decreased nonsignificantly but increased among comparators. Subgroup analysis of high utilizers showed lower hospitalizations in Hennepin Health. Integrated, accountable care under Medicaid expansion showed some desirable trends and subgroup benefits, but overall did not reduce acute health care utilization versus other managed care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National recommendations for lung cancer screening for former and current smokers aged 55-80 years with a 30-pack-year smoking history create demand to implement efficient and effective systems to offer smoking cessation on a large scale. These older, high-risk smokers differ from participants in past clinical trials of behavioral and pharmacologic interventions for tobacco dependence. There is a gap in knowledge about how best to design systems to extend reach and treatments to maximize smoking cessation in the context of lung cancer screening. Eight clinical trials, seven funded by the National Cancer Institute and one by the Veterans Health Administration, address this gap and form the SCALE (Smoking Cessation within the Context of Lung Cancer Screening) collaboration. This paper describes methodological issues related to the design of these clinical trials: clinical workflow, participant eligibility criteria, screening indication (baseline or annual repeat screen), assessment content, interest in stopping smoking, and treatment delivery method and dose, all of which will affect tobacco treatment outcomes. Tobacco interventions consider the "teachable moment" offered by lung cancer screening, how to incorporate positive and negative screening results, and coordination of smoking cessation treatment with clinical events associated with lung cancer screening. Unique data elements, such as perceived risk of lung cancer and costs of tobacco treatment, are of interest. Lung cancer screening presents a new and promising opportunity to reduce morbidity and mortality resulting from lung cancer that can be amplified by effective smoking cessation treatment. SCALE teamwork and collaboration promise to maximize knowledge gained from the clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Raw bioimpedance parameters (eg, 50-kHz phase angle [PA] and 200-kHz/5-kHz impedance ratio [IR]) have been investigated as predictors of nutrition status and/or clinical outcomes. However, their validity as prognostic measures depends on the availability of appropriate reference data. Using a large and ethnically diverse data set, we aimed to determine if ethnicity influences these measures and provide expanded bioimpedance reference data for the U.S.Population: Methods: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is an ongoing compilation of studies conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed to monitor nutrition status of the U.S.Population: The NHANES data sets analyzed were from the years 1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004.Results: Multivariate analysis showed that PA and IR differed by body mass index (BMI), age, sex, and ethnicity (n = 6237; R2 = 41.2%, P < .0001). Suggested reference cut-points for PA stratified by age decade, ethnicity, and sex are provided.Conclusion: Ethnicity is an important variable that should be accounted for when determining population reference values for PA and IR. We have provided sex-, ethnicity-, and age decade-specific reference values from PA for use by future studies in U.S.Populations: Interdevice differences are likely to be important contributors to variability across published population-specific reference data and, where possible, should be evaluated in future research. Ultimately, further validation with physiologically relevant reference measures (eg, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) is necessary to determine if PA/IR are appropriate bedside tools for the assessment of nutrition status in a clinical population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung transplantation is an effective treatment for patients with advanced lung disease. In the United States, lungs are allocated on the basis of the lung allocation score (LAS), a composite measure of transplantation urgency and utility. Clinical deteriorations result in increases to the LAS; however, whether the trajectory of the LAS has prognostic significance is uncertain. Objective: To determine whether an acute increase in the LAS before lung transplantation is associated with reduced posttransplant survival. Design: Retrospective cohort study of adult lung transplant recipients listed for at least 30 days between 4 May 2005 (LAS implementation) and 31 December 2010 in the United Network for Organ Sharing registry. An acute increase in the LAS was defined as an LAS change (LASΔ) greater than 5 units between the 30 days before and the time of transplantation. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the relationship between an LASΔ > 5 and posttransplant graft survival. Setting: All U.S. lung transplantation centers. Patients: 5749 lung transplant recipients. Measurements: Survival time after lung transplantation. Results: 702 (12.2%) patients experienced an LASΔ >5. These patients had significantly worse posttransplant survival (hazard ratio, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.11 to 1.54]; P = 0.001]) after adjustment for the LAS at transplantation (LAS-T) and other clinical covariates. The effect of an LASΔ > 5 was independent of the LAS-T, underlying diagnosis, center volume, or donor characteristics. Limitation: Analysis was based on center-reported data. Conclusion: An acute increase In LAS before transplantation is associated with posttransplant survival after adjustment for LAS-T. Further emphasis on serial assessment of the LAS could improve the ability to offer accurate prediction of survival after transplantation. Primary Funding Source: National Institutes of Health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]