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Objective: The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is an ideal setting to intervene with an under served population on secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe). Unfortunately, attrition may compromise outcomes. Baseline characteristics associated with intervention and follow-up attendance were investigated in mothers who participated in a novel SHSe prevention study designed for households with a smoker and a NICU-admitted infant. Methods: Intervention participants received two motivational, NICU-based counseling sessions; usual care participants received pamphlets. Home-based follow-up assessments occurred at 1, 3 and 6 months. Sociodemographic, smoking history, and psychosocial factors were analyzed. Results: Mothers from households with greater numbers of cigarettes smoked and fewer children had higher odds of both intervention and follow-up attendance. Maternal smoking abstinence (lifetime), more adults in the home and higher perceived interpersonal support were also associated with higher odds of follow-up visit completion. Conclusions: Innovative strategies are needed to engage mothers in secondhand smoke interventions, especially mothers who smoke, have lower levels of social support and have greater childcare responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Certain health-related risk factors require legal interventions. Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) are collaborations between clinics and lawyers that address these health-harming legal needs (HHLNs) and have been shown to improve health and reduce utilization., Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the impact, barriers, and facilitators of MLP implementation in primary care clinics., Methods: A qualitative design using a semistructured interview assessed the perceived impact, barriers, and facilitators of an MLP, among clinicians, clinic and MLP staff, and clinic patients. Open AI software (otter.ai) was used to transcribe interviews, and NVivo was used to code the data. Braun & Clarke's framework was used to identify themes and subthemes., Results: Sixteen (n = 16) participants were included in this study. Most respondents were women (81%) and white (56%). Four respondents were clinic staff, and 4 were MLP staff while 8 were clinic patients. Several primary themes emerged including: Patients experienced legal issues that were pernicious, pervasive, and complex; through trusting relationships, the MLP was able to improve health and resolve legal issues, for some; mistrust, communication gaps, and inconsistent staffing limited the impact of the MLP; and, the MLP identified coordination and communication strategies to enhance trust and amplify its impact., Conclusion: HHLNs can have a significant, negative impact on the physical and mental health of patients. Respondents perceived that MLPs improved health and resolved these needs, for some. Despite perceived successes, integration between the clinical and legal organizations was elusive., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: WL received a gift from Humana, Inc., (© Copyright 2024 by the American Board of Family Medicine.)

Introduction: Among women at risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEP), smoking tobacco may be associated with increased severity of alcohol use, and risk for tobacco-exposed and other substance-exposed pregnancies (TEPs/SEPs). Our secondary data analysis of the 'CHOICES Plus' intervention trial explored AEP and SEP risk by smoking status., Methods: Eligible women (N=261) were recruited from 12 primary care clinics in a public healthcare system, not pregnant, aged 18-44 years, drinking >3 drinks/day or >7 drinks/week, sexually active, and not using effective contraception. We compared women who did and did not smoke tobacco on alcohol and drug severity, and psychological distress (e.g. anxiety) at baseline., Results: Participants were primarily Hispanic (47.1%) or non-Hispanic Black (41.8%) and reported incomes <$20000/year (69.3%). Tobacco smoking prevalence was 45.2%. Compared to non-smokers, those who smoked drank more days/week (mean=3.3, SD=2.0 vs mean=2.7, SD=1.8, p<0.01), had higher alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) scores (mean=12.1, SD=7.6 vs mean=9.8, SD=7.1, p<0.05), were more likely to report current drug use (66.1% vs 48.3%, p<0.01), and had a greater number of (lifetime) drugs used (mean=3.0, SD=2.0 vs mean=2.0, SD=1.5 days, p<0.0001). Also, those who smoked reported greater levels of anxiety (mean=5.9, SD=5.6 vs mean=4.5, SD=4.9, p<0.05), lower confidence to not drink (mean=2.8, SD=0.8 vs mean=3.1, SD=1.0, p<0.01), lower confidence to reduce risky drinking (mean=6.3, SD=3.1 vs mean=7.3, SD=2.8, p<0.0001), greater drinking temptations (mean=3.0, SD=0.9 vs mean=2.6, SD=0.9, p<0.01), and, yet greater readiness to reduce alcohol use (mean=6.2, SD=3.0 vs mean=5.2, SD=3.0, p<0.05)., Conclusions: Women who drink and smoke may have the highest AEP, TEP, and other SEP risk. Primary care providers should screen for alcohol and tobacco co-use and provide brief intervention and/or treatment referral., Clinical Trial Registration: The study was registered on the official website of ClinicalTrials.gov., Identifier: ID NCT01032772., Competing Interests: The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. T.F. Northrup reports that since the initial planning of the work, support for the article processing charges was provided by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Department of Family & Community Medicine. K.L. von Sternberg and M.M. Velasquez report that since the initial planning of the work the original trial from which the data were taken was funded by the CDC (1U84DD000438)., (© 2024 Northrup T.F. et al.)

Purpose: To determine whether an immediate referral to a medical-legal partnership (MLP), compared with a 6-month waitlist control, improved mental health, health care use, and quality of life., Methods: This trial randomly assigned individuals to an immediate referral or a wait-list control. The MLP involved a collaboration between the primary care clinic and a legal services organization. The primary outcome was stress (6 months) as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Secondary measures included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7); Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS); and emergency department (ED), urgent care, and hospital visits. Assessments were at baseline and 3-, 6-, and 9-month follow-ups. Bayesian statistical inference and a 75% posterior probability threshold were used to identify noteworthy differences., Results: Immediate referral was associated with lower PSS scores and higher GAD-7 scores. PROMIS scores were higher for the immediate referral group with respect to several subdomains. At 6 months, the immediate referral group demonstrated 21% fewer ED visits and 75.6% more hospital visits., Conclusion: Immediate referral to the MLP was associated with lower stress and a lower rate of ED visits but higher anxiety and a higher rate of hospital visits., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03805126., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: None., (© Copyright by the American Board of Family Medicine.)

This study evaluated the efficacy of education versus audit and feedback in decreasing vancomycin utilization. Data were collected prospectively from October 1, 2012-April 30, 2014 over the following 3 periods: baseline, after education and introduction of a late-onset sepsis treatment guideline, and after prospective audit-feedback to physicians. Vancomycin utilization and administration duration >3 days significantly decreased with education and guideline use, but it was not affected by addition of audit and feedback., (Copyright © 2015 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)