In-person schooling has proved contentious and difficult to study throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Data from a massive online survey in the United States indicates an increased risk of COVID-19-related outcomes among respondents living with a child attending school in-person. School-based mitigation measures are associated with significant reductions in risk, particularly daily symptoms screens, teacher masking, and closure of extra-curricular activities. A positive association between in-person schooling and COVID-19 outcomes persists at low levels of mitigation, but when seven or more mitigation measures are reported, a significant relationship is no longer observed. Among teachers, working outside the home was associated with an increase in COVID-19-related outcomes, but this association is similar to other occupations (e.g., healthcare, office work). While in-person schooling is associated with household COVID-19 risk, this risk can likely be controlled with properly implemented school-based mitigation measures.

In-person schooling has proved contentious and difficult to study throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Data from a massive online survey in the United States indicates an increased risk of COVID-19-related outcomes among respondents living with a child attending school in-person. School-based mitigation measures are associated with significant reductions in risk, particularly daily symptoms screens, teacher masking, and closure of extra-curricular activities. With seven or more mitigation measures, the association between in-person schooling and COVID-19-related outcomes all but disappears. Teachers working outside the home were more likely to report COVID-19-related outcomes, but this association is similar to other occupations (e.g., healthcare, office work). In-person schooling is associated with household COVID-19 risk, but this risk can likely be controlled with properly implemented school-based mitigation measures.One sentence summaryLiving with children attending in-person school is linked to a higher risk of COVID-19 outcomes, which school-based interventions can mitigate.

Objective. To design, implement, and evaluate the utility of a situational judgment test (SJT) to assess empathy in first-year student pharmacists as part of an end-of-year capstone experience. Methods. First-year students completed a five-minute SJT in lieu of a multiple mini interview (MMI) during the end-of-year capstone. For each SJT item, students selected the two most appropriate response options from a list of five. Various strategies to score the SJT were compared to evaluate the psychometric properties of the test. Student performance on the SJT was examined in relationship to performance on other measures, (eg, MMI stations, personality assessments, and admissions data). Results. A total of 135 first-year pharmacy students completed an average of 9.5 items. Scoring keys based on subject matter experts' and student responses demonstrated high reliability. There was a positive, weak relationship between student performance on the SJT and performance on the adaptability station used in the capstone, and an inverse, weak relationship with students' agreeableness scores. Conclusion. This study suggests that the SJT may be a feasible and efficient assessment strategy in pharmacy education. Additional research is needed to inform SJT design, implementation, and interpretation.

Objectives: To examine the association of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) with anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults and determine if these associations varied by gender and age.Methods: We combined survey data from 16,177,184 adults from 43 countries who participated in the daily COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey via Facebook with time-varying NPI data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker between 24 April 2020 and 20 December 2020. Using logistic regression models, we examined the association of [1] overall NPI stringency and [2] seven individual NPIs (school closures, workplace closures, cancellation of public events, restrictions on the size of gatherings, stay-at-home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, and international travel controls) with anxiety and depressive symptoms.Results: More stringent implementation of NPIs was associated with a higher odds of anxiety and depressive symptoms, albeit with very small effect sizes. Individual NPIs had heterogeneous associations with anxiety and depressive symptoms by gender and age.Conclusion: Governments worldwide should be prepared to address the possible mental health consequences of stringent NPI implementation with both universal and targeted interventions for vulnerable groups.

The objective of this study is to determine county‐level factors associated with anxiety, depression, and isolation during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. This study used daily data from 23,592,355 respondents of a nationwide Facebook‐based survey from April 2020 to July 2021, aggregated to the week‐county level to yield 212,581 observations. Mental distress prevalences were modeled using weighted linear mixed‐effects models with a county random effect. These models revealed that weekly percentages of mental distress were higher in counties with higher unemployment rates, populations, and education levels; higher percentages of females, young adults, individuals with a medical condition, and individuals very worried about their finances and COVID‐19; and lower percentages of individuals who were working outside the home, living with children, without health insurance, and Black. Anxiety peaked in April 2020, depression in October 2020, and isolation in December 2020. Therefore, United States counties experienced the mental health effects of the pandemic differently dependent upon their characteristics, and mental distress prevalence varied across time.

ObjectiveThis study investigates predictors of weight loss among individuals with serious mental illness participating in an 18-month behavioral weight loss intervention, using Lasso regression to select the most powerful predictors.MethodsData were analyzed from the intervention group of the ACHIEVE trial, an 18-month behavioral weight loss intervention in adults with serious mental illness. Lasso regression was employed to identify predictors of at least five-pound weight loss across the intervention time span. Once predictors were identified, classification trees were created to show examples of how to classify participants into having likely outcomes based on characteristics at baseline and during the intervention.ResultsThe analyzed sample contained 137 participants. Seventy-one (51.8%) individuals had a net weight loss of at least five pounds from baseline to 18 months. The Lasso regression selected weight loss from baseline to 6 months as a primary predictor of at least five pound 18-month weight loss, with a standardized coefficient of 0.51 (95% CI: −0.37, 1.40). Three other variables were also selected in the regression but added minimal predictive ability.ConclusionsThe analyses in this paper demonstrate the importance of tracking weight loss incrementally during an intervention as an indicator for overall weight loss, as well as the challenges in predicting long-term weight loss with other variables commonly available in clinical trials. The methods used in this paper also exemplify how to effectively analyze a clinical trial dataset containing many variables and identify factors related to desired outcomes.

To determine how pharmacy interprofessional education (IPE) has been studied, namely which disciplines have engaged in pharmacy IPE research initiatives, the research methodologies that have been used to study pharmacy IPE, and journals that have published pharmacy IPE studies. Findings. In the 145 IPE studies included in the review, the authors represented 13 different disciplines (3.2 ±1.5 disciplines/study). Pharmacy authors most commonly published with co-authors from nursing, medicine, and health management and support and most frequently served as first author and as last author. IPE activities involved 4.0 ± 1.9 student disciplines with 211.8 ± 280.1 students, most commonly involving nursing (n = 104, 71.7%), medicine (n = 102, 70.3%), and health management and support students (n = 50, 34.5%). Most studies did not include an author from each student discipline involved in the IPE (n = 88, 60.7%). Further a majority of studies used non-randomized groupings (n=103, 71.0%) with quantitative data (n = 74, 51.0%) and most were published in an interprofessional journal (n = 65, 44.8%) or pharmacy-specific journal (n = 45, 31.0%). Summary. This review summarizes how pharmacy IPE has been studied and highlights opportunities for advancing IPE research and practice.

Original Research intRoDuction Curriculum redesign is permeating health professions' education amid rapidly changing healthcare practice. [1,2] Embedded in the challenge of curriculum redesign is understanding the job to be done by practitioners in today's healthcare system. [3] As educators work to align curricula with healthcare practice, they must first determine what knowledge and skills students need to be successful in the workplace. In pharmacy, educators have applied various research methodologies to identify core competencies for students. These methods have relied largely on published literature, personal experiences, and academic perspectives to determine pharmacy curriculum outcomes. [4-9] The Academic Affairs Committee of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) derived entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for pharmacy graduates by brainstorming common activities of pharmacists, consolidating them into a comprehensive list of EPAs, and asking stakeholders to vet them. [4,5] Similarly, McLaughlin et al. used qualitative research methods to facilitate and analyze discussions between pharmacy preceptors, residents, and faculty to "identify the job to be done by pharmacists as integral members of the healthcare team." [7] Job descriptions are another source of data that could be used to determine aspects of pharmacy practice most commonly emphasized by employers. Other disciplines, such as library science and engineering, have used job descriptions to inform curriculum design and student support services. [10-12] Clyde, for example, performed a content analysis of job descriptions to identify librarian competencies and then ensured those skills were being developed through the library curriculum. [10] In addition, Hartmann and Jahren used job posting data to characterize the use of the word "leadership" in an effort Introduction: Job descriptions outline competencies employers consider requisite for success and can be used to inform curriculum design. This paper demonstrates the use of text mining to determine the extent to which key educational outcomes align with job descriptions. Methods: Eighty pharmacist job descriptions containing a total of 12,064 words were text mined using the "bag of words" method. Results: A majority of the 20 most frequent job description words were also present in the pharmacy accreditation standards and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy entrustable professional activity statements. However, several top 20 words were not, including customer, dispense, department and company. Chi-squared tests revealed text differences between community and health-system pharmacy, including patient, manage, information, and customer, which may have implications for pharmacy schools preparing students for various practice settings. Conclusion: The methodology described here provides a feasible and efficient approach to analyzing current workforce expectations and mapping them to educational outcomes.