This research aimed to comprehensively explore the impact of diverse challenges encountered by older adults on the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It delved into how these effects vary depending on individuals’ levels of trust in authority and medical professionals, providing a nuanced understanding of the interplay between external challenges, personal trust, and mental health outcomes in the older population.

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant hardships, particularly on the ageing population, with potential psychological repercussions such as PTSD. Notably, there is a dearth of research exploring this association within the context of Chinese older adults, a group that may experience unique impacts due to cultural differences in the face of global crises.

Data were collected from a representative sample of 1,211 participants aged 60 years and above in Shenzhen. Logistic and hierarchical linear regression methods were utilized to investigate the relationship between the challenges posed by COVID-19, public trust, and the manifestation of PTSD symptoms.

Higher levels of challenges related to ‘supplies, services access and safety’, ‘abuse and conflicts’, and ‘anger and fear’ were associated with PTSD. Furthermore, a lower level of challenges related to ‘disease management and information’ was associated with PTSD. Trust in authority or medical professionals was the moderator between the challenges brought about by COVID-19 and PTSD, which helped to lower the impact of challenges. Despite the challenges brought by COVID-19 to people, nurturing a stronger sense of trust in authority and medical professionals would ease older adults’ psychological stress and concerns.

There has been little focus on autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in occupational groups, particularly in high-demand roles such as the police.

To describe the characteristics and experiences of UK-based police force employees who are autistic and/or have ADHD, including the benefits and challenges their conditions bring to their occupation, their need for reasonable adjustments, and their co-occurring mental illnesses.

An online survey was developed, containing both quantitative and qualitative elements. Survey invitations were disseminated through the National Police Autism Association. The survey was open from 23 April to 23 July 2022.

A total of 117 participants participated in the survey, including 66 who were autistic and 51 with ADHD. Participants who were autistic and/or had ADHD widely reported both benefits and challenges related to their condition(s) in policing work. Both the autistic and ADHD groups widely reported having requested workplace adjustments related to their condition(s), although these were frequently not made. Anxiety (n = 57; 49%) and depression (n = 40; 36%) were both highly prevalent among the participants.

The qualitative findings identified four themes: (a) motivations for taking on this career, (b) rewards of the role, (c) challenges of the job and (d) challenges regarding career progression.

Police force employees who are autistic and/or have ADHD reported that their conditions provided both benefits and challenges with respect to policing work, and that they had requested related workplace adjustments, although such adjustments frequently do not take place. Healthcare professionals need to recognise the importance of workplace considerations and advocacy for people who are autistic and/or have ADHD.

Recruiting underrepresented people and communities in research is essential for generalizable findings. Ensuring representative participants can be particularly challenging for practice-level dissemination and implementation trials. Novel use of real-world data about practices and the communities they serve could promote more equitable and inclusive recruitment.

We used a comprehensive primary care clinician and practice database, the Virginia All-Payers Claims Database, and the HealthLandscape Virginia mapping tool with community-level socio-ecological information to prospectively inform practice recruitment for a study to help primary care better screen and counsel for unhealthy alcohol use. Throughout recruitment, we measured how similar study practices were to primary care on average, mapped where practices’ patients lived, and iteratively adapted our recruitment strategies.

In response to practice and community data, we adapted our recruitment strategy three times; first leveraging relationships with residency graduates, then a health system and professional organization approach, followed by a community-targeted approach, and a concluding approach using all three approaches. We enrolled 76 practices whose patients live in 97.3% (1844 of 1907) of Virginia’s census tracts. Our overall patient sample had similar demographics to the state for race (21.7% vs 20.0% Black), ethnicity (9.5% vs 10.2% Hispanic), insurance status (6.4% vs 8.0% uninsured), and education (26.0% vs 32.5% high school graduate or less). Each practice recruitment approach uniquely included different communities and patients.

Data about primary care practices and the communities they serve can prospectively inform research recruitment of practices to yield more representative and inclusive patient cohorts for participation.

To describe patterns of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing at US children’s hospitals and how these patterns vary by clinical service.

Serial, cross-sectional study using quarterly surveys.

Surveys were completed in quarter 1 2019–quarter 3 2020 across 28 children’s hospitals in the United States.

Patients at children’s hospitals with ≥1 antibiotic order at 8:00 a.m. on institution-selected quarterly survey days.

Antimicrobial stewardship physicians and pharmacists collected data on antibiotic orders and evaluated appropriateness of prescribing. The primary outcome was percentage of inappropriate antibiotics, stratified by clinical service and antibiotic class. Secondary outcomes included reasons for inappropriate use and association of infectious diseases (ID) consultation with appropriateness.

Of 13,344 orders, 1,847 (13.8%) were inappropriate; 17.5% of patients receiving antibiotics had ≥1 inappropriate order. Pediatric intensive care units (PICU) and hospitalists contributed the most inappropriate orders (n = 384 and n = 314, respectively). Surgical subspecialists had the highest percentage of inappropriate orders (22.5%), and 56.8% of these were for prolonged or unnecessary surgical prophylaxis. ID consultation in the previous 7 days was associated with fewer inappropriate orders (15% vs 10%; P < .001); this association was most pronounced for hospitalist, PICU, and surgical and medical subspecialty services.

Inappropriate antibiotic use for hospitalized children persists and varies by clinical service. Across 28 children’s hospitals, PICUs and hospitalists contributed the most inappropriate antibiotic orders, and surgical subspecialists’ orders were most often judged inappropriate. Understanding service-specific prescribing patterns will enable antimicrobial stewardship programs to better design interventions to optimize antibiotic use.

To assess the prevalence, severity and socio-demographic predictors of household food insecurity among vulnerable women accessing the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) and to examine associations between household food insecurity and breastfeeding practices to 6 months.

Cohort investigation pooling data from two studies which administered the 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module at 6 months postpartum and collected prospective infant feeding data at 2 weeks and 2, 4 and 6 months. Household food insecurity was classified as none, marginal, moderate or severe. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess predictors of household food insecurity and associations between household food security (any and severity) and continued and exclusive breastfeeding.

Three Toronto sites of the CPNP, a federal initiative targeting socially and/or economically vulnerable women.

316 birth mothers registered prenatally in the CPNP from 2017 to 2020.

Household food insecurity at 6 months postpartum was highly prevalent (44 %), including 11 % in the severe category. Risk of household food insecurity varied by CPNP site (P < 0·001) and was higher among multiparous participants (OR 2·08; 95 % CI 1·28, 3·39). There was no association between the prevalence or severity of food insecurity and continued or exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months postpartum in the adjusted analyses.

Household food insecurity affected nearly half of this cohort of women accessing the CPNP. Further research is needed on household food insecurity across the national CPNP and other similar programmes, with consideration of the implications for programme design, service delivery and policy responses.

Young people with social disability and severe and complex mental health problems have poor outcomes, frequently struggling with treatment access and engagement. Outcomes may be improved by enhancing care and providing targeted psychological or psychosocial intervention.

We aimed to test the hypothesis that adding social recovery therapy (SRT) to enhanced standard care (ESC) would improve social recovery compared with ESC alone.

A pragmatic, assessor-masked, randomised controlled trial (PRODIGY: ISRCTN47998710) was conducted in three UK centres. Participants (n = 270) were aged 16–25 years, with persistent social disability, defined as under 30 hours of structured activity per week, social impairment for at least 6 months and severe and complex mental health problems. Participants were randomised to ESC alone or SRT plus ESC. SRT was an individual psychosocial therapy delivered over 9 months. The primary outcome was time spent in structured activity 15 months post-randomisation.

We randomised 132 participants to SRT plus ESC and 138 to ESC alone. Mean weekly hours in structured activity at 15 months increased by 11.1 h for SRT plus ESC (mean 22.4, s.d. = 21.4) and 16.6 h for ESC alone (mean 27.7, s.d. = 26.5). There was no significant difference between arms; treatment effect was −4.44 (95% CI −10.19 to 1.31, P = 0.13). Missingness was consistently greater in the ESC alone arm.

We found no evidence for the superiority of SRT as an adjunct to ESC. Participants in both arms made large, clinically significant improvements on all outcomes. When providing comprehensive evidence-based standard care, there are no additional gains by providing specialised SRT. Optimising standard care to ensure targeted delivery of existing interventions may further improve outcomes.

Recovery of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae from a cluster of patients in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) prompted an epidemiologic investigation for a common exposure.

Clinical and microbiologic data from MICU patients were retrospectively reviewed, MICU bronchoscopes underwent culturing and borescopy, and bronchoscope reprocessing procedures were reviewed. Bronchoscope and clinical MDR isolates epidemiologically linked to the cluster underwent molecular typing using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) followed by whole-genome sequencing.

Of the 33 case patients, 23 (70%) were exposed to a common bronchoscope (B1). Both MDR P. aeruginosa and K. pneumonia were recovered from the bronchoscope’s lumen, and borescopy revealed a luminal defect. Molecular testing demonstrated genetic relatedness among case patient and B1 isolates, providing strong evidence for horizontal bacterial transmission. MDR organism (MDRO) recovery in 19 patients was ultimately linked to B1 exposure, and 10 of 19 patients were classified as belonging to an MDRO pseudo-outbreak.

Surveillance of bronchoscope-derived clinical culture data was important for early detection of this outbreak, and whole-genome sequencing was important for the confirmation of findings. Visualization of bronchoscope lumens to confirm integrity should be a critical component of device reprocessing.

In 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stopped reimbursing for hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) not present on admission (POA). We sought to understand why this policy did not impact central line–associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) trends.

Retrospective cohort study.

Acute-care hospitals in the United States.

Fee-for-service Medicare patients discharged January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2011.

Using inpatient Medicare claims data, we analyzed billing practices before and after the HAC policy was implemented, including the use and POA designation of codes for CLABSI or CAUTI. For the 3-year period following policy implementation, we determined the impact on diagnosis-related groups (DRG) determining reimbursement as well as hospital characteristics associated with the reimbursement impact.

During the study period, 65,205,607 Medicare fee-for-service hospitalizations occurred at 3,291 acute-care, nonfederal US hospitals. Based on coding, CLABSI and CAUTI affected 0.23% and 0.06% of these hospitalizations, respectively. In addition, following the HAC policy, 82% of the CLABSI codes and 91% of the CAUTI codes were marked POA, which represented a large increase in the use of this designation. Finally, for the small numbers of CLABSI and CAUTI coded as not POA, financial impacts were detected on only 0.4% of the hospitalizations with a CLABSI code and 5.7% with a CAUTI code.

Part of the reason the HAC policy did not have its intended impact is that billing codes for CLABSI and CAUTI were rarely used, were commonly listed as POA in the postpolicy period, and infrequently impacted hospital reimbursement.

In 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expanded a 2008 program that eliminated additional Medicare payment for mediastinitis following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) to include Medicaid. We aimed to evaluate the impact of this Medicaid program on mediastinitis rates reported by the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) compared with the rates of a condition not targeted by the program, deep-space surgical site infection (SSI) after knee replacement.

Interrupted time series with comparison group.

We included surveillance data from nonfederal acute-care hospitals participating in the NHSN and reporting CABG or knee replacement outcomes from January 2009 through June 2017. We examined the Medicaid program’s impact on NHSN-reported infection rates, adjusting for secular trends. The data analysis used generalized estimating equations with robust sandwich variance estimators.

During the study period, 196 study hospitals reported 273,984 CABGs to the NHSN, resulting in 970 mediastinitis cases (0.35%), and 294 hospitals reported 555,395 knee replacements, with 1,751 resultant deep-space SSIs (0.32%). There was no significant change in incidence of either condition during the study. Mediastinitis models showed no effect of the 2012 Medicaid program on either secular trend during the postprogram versus preprogram periods (P=.70) or an immediate program effect (P=.83). Results were similar in sensitivity analyses when adjusting for hospital characteristics, restricting to hospitals with consistent NHSN reporting or incorporating a program implementation roll-in period. Knee replacement models also showed no program effect.

The 2012 Medicaid program to eliminate additional payments for mediastinitis following CABG had no impact on reported mediastinitis rates.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:694–700