American journal of preventive medicine
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Pediatric obesity rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the associations of neighborhood greenspace with changes in pediatric obesity during the pandemic. ⋯ Children living in greener neighborhoods experienced smaller increases in obesity during the pandemic than children in less green neighborhoods, although findings differed by urbanicity.
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Coinciding with the rise in opioid use across the U.S., the rates of sexually transmitted infections have reached historically high levels, underscoring the need to understand multiple pathways of disease spread. Although prevention is often focused on injection-related behaviors, this study sought to identify the prevalence and associations of a little understood pathway, transactional sex, among individuals with opioid use disorder, including associations of transactional sex with the prevalence of sexually transmitted infection diagnoses. ⋯ Transactional sex is relatively common among patients with opioid use disorder, particularly among sexual/gender minorities, which was associated with a greater lifetime prevalence of all sexually transmitted infections assessed. Sexually transmitted infection testing remains at low levels within substance use treatment programs, occurring in just 26.3% of programs; sexual health screenings and sexually transmitted infection prevention/testing need to be prioritized and integrated into opioid use disorder patient care.
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This study explores the relationship between nonprofit hospitals' use of equity as a guiding theme in the development of their community health needs assessments and the level of alignment between the health needs identified in the community health needs assessment and those addressed in hospitals' implementation strategy. ⋯ Using equity as a guiding theme in the needs assessment process can help to align hospitals' community health initiatives with the most pressing health needs, thus contributing to public health improvement.