Journal of women's health
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Journal of women's health · Sep 2023
Association Between Mental Health Conditions at the Hospitalization for Birth and Postpartum Hospital Readmission.
Background: The relationship between physical comorbidities and postpartum hospital readmission is well studied, with less research regarding the impact of mental health conditions on postpartum readmission. Methods: Using hospital discharge data (2016-2019) from the Hospital Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Readmissions Database (n = 12,222,654 weighted), we evaluated the impact of mental health conditions (0, 1, 2, and ≥3), as well as five individual conditions (anxiety, depressive, bipolar, schizophrenic, and traumatic/stress-related conditions) on readmission within 42 days, 1-7 days ("early"), and 8-42 days ("late") of hospitalization for birth. Results: In adjusted analyses, the rate of 42-day readmission was 2.2 times higher for individuals with ≥3 mental health conditions compared to those with none (3.38% vs. 1.56%; p < 0.001), 50% higher among individuals with 2 mental health conditions (2.33%; p < 0.001), and 40% higher among individuals with 1 mental health condition (2.17%; p < 0.001). ⋯ Mental health conditions had larger impacts on late (8-42 day) relative to early (1-7 day) readmission. Conclusions: This study found strong relationships between mental health conditions during the hospitalization for birth and readmission within 42 days. Efforts to reduce the high rates of adverse perinatal outcomes in the United States should continue to address the impact of mental health conditions during pregnancy and throughout the postpartum period.
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Journal of women's health · Aug 2023
Inclusion of Sex as a Biological Variable in Biomedical Sciences at the Undergraduate Level and Beyond.
To improve research on women's health, and to achieve better understanding of the factors controlling disease across diverse populations of humans, it is imperative to study sex differences in physiology and disease. After the introduction of the "SABV policy" at NIH, which requires investigators using animals or humans to consider sex as a biological factor, it became clear that many investigators were unaware of concepts of sexual differentiation or methods that can be used to study sex as a biological variable (SABV). To remedy this situation, efforts have increased to teach concepts and methods of SABV at all educational levels. The UCLA Scientific Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) grant "Sex differences in the metabolic syndrome" promotes education about SABV through three primary mechanisms: (1) through didactic course content for students at the undergraduate level, (2) by providing pilot funding for early career investigators to study the role of sex in metabolism-related areas, and (3) through curation of a video library, which may be useful for investigators performing research at the graduate, postgraduate, and faculty levels.