Extent and patterns of community collaboration in local health departments: An exploratory survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Local public health departments (LHDs) in the United States have been encouraged to collaborate with various other community organizations and individuals. Current research suggests that many forms of active partnering are ongoing, and there are numerous examples of LHD collaboration with a specific organization for a specific purpose or program. However, no existing research has attempted to characterize collaboration, for the defined purpose of setting community health status priorities, between a defined population of local officials and a defined group of alternative partnering organizations. The specific aims of this study were to 1) determine the range of collaborative involvement exhibited by a study population of local public health officials, and, 2) characterize the patterns of the selection of organizations/individuals involved with LHDs in the process of setting community health status priorities.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Local health department officials in North Carolina (n = 53) responded to an exploratory survey about their levels of involvement with eight types of possible collaborator organizations and individuals. Descriptive statistics and the stochastic clustering technique of Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) were used to characterize their collaboration.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Local health officials vary extensively in their level of collaboration with external collaborators. While the range of total involvement varies, the patterns of involvement for this specific function are relatively uniform. That is, regardless of the total level of involvement (low, medium or high), officials maintain similar hierarchical preference rankings with Community Advisory Boards and Local Boards of Health most involved and Experts and Elected Officials least involved.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The extent and patterns of collaboration among LHDs with other community stakeholders for a specific function can be described and ultimately related to outcome measures of LHD performance.</p

Essential Workers’ COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Misinformation, and Informational Needs in the Republic of North Macedonia

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 5.2 million deaths. Vaccine hesitancy remains a public health challenge, especially in Eastern Europe. Our study used a sample of essential workers living in the Republic of North Macedonia to: (1) Describe rates of vaccine hesitancy and risk perception of COVID-19; (2) Explore predictors of vaccine hesitancy; and (3) Describe the informational needs of hesitant and non-hesitant workers. A phone survey was administered in North Macedonia from 4–16 May 2021. Logistic regression explored associations of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy with sociodemographic characteristics, non-COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, previous diagnosis of COVID-19, and individual risk perception of contracting COVID-19. Chi-squared analyses compared differences in informational needs by hesitancy status. Of 1003 individuals, 44% were very likely to get the vaccine, and 56% reported some level of hesitancy. Older age, Albanian ethnicity, increased education, previous COVID-19 diagnosis, acceptance of other vaccines, and increased risk perception of COVID-19 infection were negatively associated with vaccine hesitancy. Results indicated significant differences in top informational needs by hesitancy status. The top informational needs of the hesitant were the freedom to choose to be vaccinated without consequences (57% vs. 42%, p p < 0.01)

Predictors of knowledge of H1N1 infection and transmission in the U.S. population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The strength of a society’s response to a public health emergency depends partly on meeting the needs of all segments of the population, especially those who are most vulnerable and subject to greatest adversity. Since the early stages of the H1N1 pandemic, public communication of H1N1 information has been recognized as a challenging issue. Public communication is considered a critical public health task to mitigating adverse population health outcomes before, during, and after public health emergencies. To investigate knowledge and knowledge gaps in the general population regarding the H1N1 pandemic, and to identify the social determinants associated with those gaps, we conducted a survey in March 2010 using a representative random sample of U.S. households.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were gathered from 1,569 respondents (66.3% response rate) and analyzed using ordered logistic regression to study the impact of socioeconomic factors and demographic characteristics on the individual’s knowledge concerning H1N1 infection and transmission.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results suggest that level of education and home ownership, reliable indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP), were associated with knowledge of H1N1. Level of education was found to be directly associated with level of knowledge about virus transmission [OR = 1.35, 95% C.I. 1.12-1.63]. Home ownership versus renting was also positively associated with knowledge on the signs and symptoms of H1N1 infection in particular [OR = 2.89, 95% C.I. 1.26-6.66].</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Policymakers and public health practitioners should take specific SEP factors into consideration when implementing educational and preventive interventions promoting the health and preparedness of the population, and when designing communication campaigns during a public health emergency.</p

Molecular analysis of Fanconi anemia: the experience of the Bone Marrow Failure Study Group of the Italian Association of Pediatric Onco-Hematology

Fanconi anemia is an inherited disease characterized by congenital malformations, pancytopenia, cancer predisposition, and sensitivity to cross-linking agents. The molecular diagnosis of Fanconi anemia is relatively complex for several aspects including genetic heterogeneity with mutations in at least 16 different genes. In this paper, we report the mutations identified in 100 unrelated probands enrolled into the National Network of the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematoly and Oncology. In approximately half of these cases, mutational screening was carried out after retroviral complementation analyses or protein analysis. In the other half, the analysis was performed on the most frequently mutated genes or using a next generation sequencing approach. We identified 108 distinct variants of the FANCA, FANCG, FANCC, FANCD2, and FANCB genes in 85, 9, 3, 2, and 1 families, respectively. Despite the relatively high number of private mutations, 45 of which are novel Fanconi anemia alleles, 26% of the FANCA alleles are due to 5 distinct mutations. Most of the mutations are large genomic deletions and nonsense or frameshift mutations, although we identified a series of missense mutations, whose pathogenetic role was not always certain. The molecular diagnosis of Fanconi anemia is still a tiered procedure that requires identifying candidate genes to avoid useless sequencing. Introduction of next generation sequencing strategies will greatly improve the diagnostic process, allowing a rapid analysis of all the genes