Objectives To determine whether the Child Opportunity Index (COI), a nationally-available measure of relative educational, health/environmental, and social/economic opportunity across census tracts within metropolitan areas, was associated with population- and patient-level asthma morbidity. Study design This population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted between 2011–2013 in 1 Southwest Ohio county. Participants included all children, 1–16 years, with hospitalizations or emergency department visits for asthma or wheezing at a major pediatric hospital. Patients were identified using discharge diagnosis codes and geocoded to their home census tract. The primary population-level outcome was census tract asthma hospitalization rate. The primary patient-level outcome was re-hospitalization within 12 months of index hospitalization. Census tract opportunity was characterized using the COI and its educational, health/environmental, and social/economic domains. Results Across 222 in-county census tracts, there were 2,539 geocoded hospitalizations. The median asthma-related hospitalization rate was 5.0 per 1,000 children per year (interquartile range: 1.9–8.9). Median hospitalization rates in very low, low, moderate, high, and very high opportunity tracts were 9.1, 7.6, 4.6, 2.1, and 1.8 per 1,000, respectively (P < .0001). The social/economic domain had the most variables significantly associated with the outcome at the population level. The adjusted patient-level analyses showed that the COI was not significantly associated with a patient’s risk of re-hospitalization within 12 months. Conclusions The Child Opportunity Index was associated with population-level asthma morbidity. The detail provided by the COI may inform interventions aimed at increasing opportunity and reducing morbidity across regions.

SUMMARY A six month, double blind, crossover controlled trial of bezafibrate was conducted in 14 children with familial hypercholesterolaemia all of whom had a strong family history of early coronary heart disease. The bezafibrate was given twice daily in a dose of 10 to 20 mg/kg/day. The mean plasma total cholesterol concentration on bezafibrate was 22% lower than during the period on placebo and there was a moderate rise in high density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Forty-eight infants of birthweight less than 1000 g who survived for more than 28 days, had wrist X-rays to prospectively determine the incidence of radiological rickets. Twelve infants (25%) had normal X-rays throughout, 10 infants (21%) showed osteopenia and 26 infants (54%) had classical changes of rickets of which 8 (17% of the total) had spontaneous fractures. There was poor correlation between peak values of serum alkaline phosphatase and the radiological changes.

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Pharmacy law instruction is often taught as a didactic course; however practical application of pharmacy law is a main component of pharmacy practice. Technology-based simulations are becoming more frequently used to enhance didactic pharmacy education. The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of and student perceptions on the usefulness of MyDispense community pharmacy simulation for additional law instruction that if successful might prompt curricular revamping. This Institutional Review Board–approved, two-year, qualitative, prospective, survey study was conducted in a case study class where students completed MyDispense exercises focused on common legal issues that arise in practice, both individually before and within groups during class. Participating students completed a qualitative survey directed at use of MyDispense for pharmacy law review, which included a series of close-ended questions graded on a Likert scale and open-ended questions thematically grouped. Thirty-eight (41%) and twenty-eight (31%) students completed surveys in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The majority of respondents felt exercises improved their understanding of pharmacy laws, focused on challenging areas, and were more interesting than additional lectures. However, certain topics were reported as irrelevant based on practice experiences or not ideal for simulation, and students desired exercises on state laws versus pharmacy policies. Students reported the MyDispense simulation exercises helped them to recall pharmacy laws and focus on topics that were challenging. These study results prompted curricular revamping to incorporate MyDispense throughout the curriculum for practice in recognizing and solving legal scenarios, along with didactic course changes.