Addressing Cervical Cancer in Central Appalachia

Rural women, particularly those residing in Appalachia, have some of the nation’s highest cervical cancer mortality rates. With support from federal and private grants, the University of Kentucky Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard is attempting to address this issue. Eastern Kentucky-based researchers are surveying 18- to 26-year-old female community health center patients and college students about their risk factors for the disease, and then offering them free Gardasil, a vaccine against the virus that causes most cervical cancer cases

A Case Study of Health Risk Behaviors in a Sample of Residents in Rural Appalachia

The purpose of this paper was to examine health risk behaviors from a sample of adults living in one of the nation’s poorest counties in Central Appalachia. A descriptive secondary analysis of data collected for a public health surveillance project was conducted to determine the most pressing health problems and risk behaviors affecting this unique population. Residents reported high rates of hypertension, back pain, and sleep problems. They also reported very low levels of physical activity. A discussion of results is provided, including a comparison of the study population to information from national surveys. The limitations of the study and implications for social work practice, policy and research are also discussed

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Faith-Placed, Lay Health Advisor Delivered Smoking Cessation Intervention for Rural Residents

Introduction. Rural US residents smoke at higher rates than urban or suburban residents. We report results from a community-based smoking cessation intervention in Appalachian Kentucky. Study design. Single-blind, group-randomized trial with outcome measurements at baseline, 17 weeks and 43 weeks. Setting/participants. This faith-placed CBPR project was located in six counties of rural Appalachian Kentucky. A total of 590 individual participants clustered in 28 churches were enrolled in the study. Intervention. Local lay health advisors delivered the 12-week Cooper/Clayton Method to Stop Smoking program, leveraging sociocultural factors to improve the cultural salience of the program for Appalachian smokers. Participants met with an interventionist for one 90 min group session once per week incorporating didactic information, group discussion, and nicotine replacement therapy. Main outcome measures. The primary outcome was self-reported smoking status. Secondary outcomes included Fagerström nicotine dependence, self-efficacy, and decisional balance. Results. With post-intervention data from 92% of participants, those in intervention group churches (N = 383) had 13.6 times higher odds of reporting quitting smoking one month post-intervention than participants in attention control group churches (N = 154, p \u3c 0.0001). In addition, although only 3.2% of attention control group participants reported quitting during the control period, 15.4% of attention control participants reported quitting smoking after receiving the intervention. A significant dose effect of the 12-session Cooper/Clayton Method was detected: for each additional session completed, the odds of quitting smoking increased by 26%. Conclusions. The Cooper/Clayton Method, delivered in rural Appalachian churches by lay health advisors, has strong potential to reduce smoking rates and improve individuals\u27 health

SARS-CoV-2 infection in aplastic anaemia

Not available

Hepatic Complications

Peer reviewe

The NICE COVID‐19 rapid guideline on haematopoietic stem cell transplantation: development, implementation and impact

A new coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2 emerged at the start of 2020 with rapid worldwide spread. It is the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19). The resulting pandemic has been challenging for centres undertaking autologous and allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT). One of the main risks in HSCT is infection susceptibility, including viral infections, which are often more severe and life‐threatening.1 In response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the first version of the COVID‐19 rapid guideline for HSCT (NG164) on 1 April 20202; this was updated on 29 July 2020 in response to the changing context of the pandemic. The British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BSBMTCT) and the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) also developed detailed guidance to support transplant centres.3-5 This paper describes the development and update processes for NICE NG164, detailing the rationale behind the recommendations, implementation and the impact of COVID‐19 on HSCT activity in the UK compared with 2019, based on registrations in the BSBMTCT registry. The full NICE guidance can be obtained from: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng164

Liquidity risk premia : an empirical analysis of european corporate bond yields

In this study we highlight the importance of liquidity risk, especially in periods of market stress, and advocate in favour of an explicit consideration of a liquidity premium when using mark-to-model methodologies to value financial assets. For European corporate bonds, we show that the liquidity premium, calculated as the difference between the yield spread of corporate bonds and the spread of credit default swaps, grew significantly during the recent market turmoil not only in absolute terms but also in relative terms. Although liquidity premiums were far from stable during the time frame of analysis-from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2009 - on average roughly 40% of corporate yield spreads can be interpreted in terms of liquidity premia. We propose direct matching between the CDS and the underlying reference assets when computing liquidity premia. This differs from what seems to be the industry standard, which is simply to use indices when trying to infer market implied liquidity premia. Although computationally more demanding, the method we use is sounder from a theoretical point of view and produces richer results and analysis. With this method we are able present an analysis of liquidity risk premia per sector of activity