JAMA network open
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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth new challenges for health care workers, such as the daily use of personal protective equipment, including reusable facial respirators. Poor communication while wearing respirators may have fatal complications for patients, and no solution has been proposed to date. ⋯ This study found that among participants using facial respirators that impaired communication, a novel in-ear device was associated with improved communication and decreased listening effort. Such a device may be a feasible solution for protecting health care workers in the operating room while allowing them to communicate safely, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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An accurate understanding of the distributional implications of public health policies is critical for ensuring equitable responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health threats. ⋯ In this cross-sectional study, African American and Hispanic individuals, women, and households with low income had higher odds of experiencing adverse outcomes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders. Blanket public health policies ignoring existing distributions of risk to well-being may be associated with increased race/ethnicity-based, sex-based, and income-based inequities.
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Whether patients with breast cancer who carry a BRCA1/2 variant can safely undergo breast-conserving therapy (BCT) remains controversial. ⋯ This study suggests that BRCA1/2 variant carriers treated with BCT have survival rates at least comparable to those treated with mastectomy with radiotherapy or mastectomy alone and that BCT could be an option for BRCA1/2 variant carriers when the tumor is clinically appropriate for BCT.
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Comparative Study
Comparison Between In-Person and Audio-Only Virtual Prenatal Visits and Perinatal Outcomes.
Ensuring access to prenatal care services in the US is challenging, and implementation of telehealth options was limited before the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in vulnerable populations, given the regulatory requirements for video visit technology. ⋯ Implementation of audio-only virtual prenatal visits was not associated with changes in perinatal outcomes and increased prenatal visit attendance in a vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic when used in a risk-appropriate model.
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Because of the negative consequences of concussion, considerable research efforts have been directed toward understanding the risk factors for sport-related concussion (SRC) and its outcomes to better inform strategies for risk reduction. Girls are suggested to have an increased risk of concussion, warranting exploration into sex-dependent variations in concussion presentation and management, with the potential that this information might inform sex-specific rules directed toward risk reduction within sports. ⋯ In this cohort study, sex-associated differences were revealed among adolescent soccer athletes in SRC risk, mechanism of injury, immediate management, and outcomes in injuries documented in a statewide injury reporting system. Thus, consideration might be given to sex-specific approaches to participation and concussion management in the sport.