In 2009, a paper was published suggesting that watersheds provide a geospatial platform for establishing linkages between aquatic contaminants, the health of the environment, and human health. This article is a follow-up to that original article. From an environmental perspective, watersheds segregate landscapes into geospatial units that may be relevant to human health outcomes. From an epidemiologic perspective, the watershed concept places anthropogenic health data into a geospatial framework that has environmental relevance. Research discussed in this article includes information gathered from the literature, as well as recent data collected and analyzed by this research group. It is our contention that the use of watersheds to stratify geospatial information may be both environmentally and epidemiologically valuable.
The purpose of this study was to describe and quantify procedures and methods that maximized the efficiency of the Gharbiah Cancer Registry (GPCR), the only population-based cancer registry in Egypt. The procedures and measures included a locally-developed software program to translate names from Arabic to English, a new national ID number for demographic and occupational information, and linkage of cancer cases to new electronic mortality records of the Ministry of Health.
Data was compiled from the 34,058 cases from the registry for the years 1999–2007. Cases and registry variables about demographic and clinical information were reviewed by year to assess trends associated with each new method or procedure during the study period.
The introduction of the name translation software in conjunction with other demographic variables increased the identification of detected duplicates from 23.4% to 78.1%. Use of the national ID increased the proportion of cases with occupation information from 27% to 89%. Records with complete mortality information increased from 18% to 43%. Proportion of cases that came from death certificate only, decreased from 9.8% to 4.7%.
Overall, the study revealed that introducing and utilizing local and culture-specific methodological changes, software, and electronic non-cancer databases had a significant impact on data quality and completeness. This study may have translational implications for improving the quality of cancer registries in LMICs considering the emerging advances in electronic databases and utilization of health software and computerization of data.
Behavioral health diagnoses and service use may differ based on rurality. The purpose of this study was to examine the patterns of mental disorder diagnoses of urban, rural, and remote pediatric populations. This retrospective study used electronic medical records from integrated behavioral health clinics in Nebraska from 2012 to 2013. Bivariate and multivariable models were used to examine the differences in diagnoses. Adolescents with attention deficit and related disorders were more likely to be male, younger, have public insurance and rural/remote residents. Adjustment disorders were associated with being female, older, and urban residents. Adolescents with anxiety disorder had a significant interaction between age and gender, with both genders being older, having private insurance, and urban residents. Adolescents with mood disorder were more likely to be female, older, and urban residents. Demographic and clinical differences among patients in urban and rural/remote settings have implications for care in rural settings.
Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing to pediatric Medicaid patients was compared among high-volume and non-high-volume prescribers. High-volume prescribers had a higher percentage of inappropriate prescriptions than non-high-volume prescribers (17.2% versus 15.8%, p = 0.005). Targeting high-volume prescribers for stewardship efforts is a practical approach to reducing outpatient antibiotic prescribing that also captures inappropriate use.
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