Bonnell on walkability

Using data from IBH-PC, Levi Bonnell, MPH led a team to analyze the effects of local geographic factors on health.  Congrats, Levi!

Bonnell LN, Troy AR, Littenberg B. Exploring non-linear relationships between neighbourhood walkability and health: a cross-sectional study among US primary care patients with chronic conditions. BMJ Open. 2022 Aug 19;12(8):e061086. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061086. PMID: 35985786. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35985786/

 

FW: Visit: New Health, United States website

Health, United States Redesigned Website Launch Announcement! What's New     We are proud to announce the launch of our redesigned website. The website is now live and can be accessed at www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/index.htm   The Health, United States program brings together many sources of federal and external data, making it easier to find and use accurate and reliable trend data on a variety of topics.   The Health, United States report is transitioning to an interactive, user-friendly product with web content. The updated product includes a redesigned topic-based website and the traditional report, now called the Annual Perspective, to be released in the near future. The new user-friendly website includes the data finder to access trend tables, a revamped structure, and a new look. These topic pages bring together key findings, featured figures, and new trend analyses.   Select findings from the 2020–2021 Health, United States topic pages: From 2009 to 2019, males were 1.4 times more likely to die from cancer than females. In 2019, there were 3.5 times as many physicians per 100,000 population in Washington, D.C. compared with Idaho. From 1999–2002 to 2015–2018, energy intake from carbohydrates decreased while energy intake from total fat and protein increased. NCHS will continue to update the website with more health topics regularly. This release covers various health topics, from births, infectious diseases, chronic conditions, substance use, nutrition, and health expenditures, to health care access. Don't forget to bookmark the new website and subscribe to stay updated.       National Center for Health Statistics 3311 Toledo Rd   Hyattsville, MD 20782     Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Rd   Atlanta, GA 30329   1-800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636)   TTY: 888-232-6348 Questions or Problems  |  Unsubscribe

New article by Adrienzen-Herrera, et al.

Geographic disparities in cardiovascular mortality among patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: A population-based analysis. 

Diego Adrianzen-Herrera, Andrew D.Sparks, Aditi Shastri, Neil A.Zakai, Benjamin Littenberg

Cancer Epidemiology 2022: 80:102238

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2022.102238

Highlights

• Rural MDS patients had 12% increased risk of cardiovascular mortality compared to urban patients.

• Demographic factors and MDS risk did not explain the rural/urban difference in cardiovascular death.

• The rural to urban disparity in cardiovascular death was larger in MDS patients younger than 65.

 

FW: VIRTUAL MEPS Data Users’ Hand-on Workshop

 

You are subscribed to the MEPS Periodic Digest from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). VIRTUAL MEPS Data Users' Hand-on Workshop AHRQ will be conducting a virtual MEPS-HC Data Users' Workshop on September 13-15, 2022. This workshop will consist of lectures designed to provide a general overview of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) https://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/ along with lectures on MEPS-HC survey design, changes made due to COVID-19, health care utilization, expenditures, medical conditions;  and statistical issues and challenges researchers face while analyzing MEPS-HC data. There will be three separate sessions in which sample SAS, STATA and R exercises will be demonstrated. A Q&A session is planned with each session to give participants an opportunity to ask questions pertaining to their specific research. Registration link and other important information will be available on August 12th on: http://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/workshops_events.jsp. For any other questions, please e-mail workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: July 21, 2022

 

Present:   Levi Bonnell, Justine Dee, Emily Houston, Ben Littenberg, Adam Sprouse-Blum, Connie van Eeghen (6)

Guest: Brendan Thoms (Rheum MD, PhD in treatment of osteoarthritis, Research interests)

 1.               Warm Up: Introductions

2.                Brendan and Levi Paper:  Predictors of Inflammatory Arthritis Among New Patient Referrals – the audience is Rheumatologists, although it involves PCPs as well

a.       Title: is it specific enough? Patient population? Type of study?

b.       Abstract

                                                   i.      Unstated problem: rheumatologists are overwhelmed by volume of patients and trying to get to the sicker ones quicker. Also, some of that volume is inappropriate and may be better managed at the PCP level.

                                                 ii.      Objective: could be clearer

                                               iii.      What is a referral letter?  At UVM MC: PCP writes an order. What is the best way to describe the data source?

                                               iv.      Not accurate: distinguish inflammatory vs non-inflammatory arthritis? This is already known.  Clarify the issue around predictive variables.

                                                 v.      Not clear that the variables used were available to the PCP.  Is the focus on the pre-specialty visit?  Then organize the message around their work process.

c.       Introduction

                                                   i.      What’s the hook and how does it logically flow?

                                                 ii.      The message is about timely dx and treatment of an inflammatory disease; this gets muddy

d.       Methods

                                                   i.      Referral letter not described

                                                 ii.      How does the list of exclusions relate to the message of the paper: things that the PCP can do?

                                               iii.      Prediction models: Ben now prefers a CART model to handle a variety of variables, including “missingness”, better than a multi-regression logistics model

e.       Results

                                                   i.      There is an unspoken issue: there are no standard expectations about when to refer to Rheum and what tests to do ahead of time

                                                 ii.      Focus on the message and the audience.  Is the goal to make a PCP tool or a Rheum tool?

f.        Next steps: testing the goodness of the variables that may predict inflammatory disease.

3.                Next week:  TBD

Recorded by: CvE