Complex systems modeling can provide useful insights when designing and anticipating the impact of public health interventions. We developed an agent-based, or individual-based, computation model (ABM) to aid in evaluating and refining implementation of behavior change interventions designed to increase physical activity and healthy eating and reduce unnecessary weight gain among school-aged ch...

Sexually transmitted infections other than HIV are important global health issues. They have, however, been neglected as a public-health priority and control efforts continue to fail. Sexually transmitted infections, by their nature, affect individuals, who are part of partnerships and larger sexual networks, and in turn populations. We propose a framework of individual, partnership, and popula...

interventions improve analgesic treatment of supracondylar fractures in a pediatric emergency department. BACKgRouND: Provision of appropriate and timely treatment for pain in the pediatric population has been challenging. Children with painful conditions commonly present to emergency departments (EDs), a setting in which it may be particularly difficult to consistently provide timely analgesic...

BACKGROUND: Poor adherence and persistence are serious issues in the management of chronic conditions. A mounting body of evidence indicates that decreased medication adherence is associated with increased hospitalizations and total costs of care. OBJECTIVE: To review the predictors of adherence to and persistence with medications and to discuss the intervention strategies that have been used t...

BACKGROUND Self-management is an important component of care for patients or consumers (henceforth termed patients) with chronic conditions. Research shows that patients view guidelines as potential sources of self-management support. However, few guidelines provide such support. The primary purpose of this study was to characterize effective types of self-management interventions that could be...

To the Editor: French et al should be congratulated for reporting their study of the effects of an educational intervention on prehospital care management of pain.1 Following the educational intervention paramedics certainly improved their management of pain– but there remain some unanswered questions on the intervention and the outcome. First of all the intervention was quite substantial and m...

BACKGROUND There is a strong link between antibiotic consumption and the rate of antibiotic resistance. In Australia, the vast majority of antibiotics are prescribed by general practitioners, and the most common indication is for acute respiratory infections. The aim of this study is to assess if implementing a package of integrated, multifaceted interventions reduces antibiotic prescribing for...

BACKGROUND Intimate partner violence (IPV) around the time of pregnancy is a widespread global health problem with many negative consequences. Nevertheless, a lot remains unclear about which interventions are effective and might be adopted in the perinatal care context. OBJECTIVE The objective is to provide a clear overview of the existing evidence on effectiveness of interventions for IPV ar...

Pharmacists' role may be ideal for improving rationality of drug prescribing practice. We aimed to study the impact of multifaceted pharmacist interventions on antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing clean or clean-contaminated operations in cardiothoracic department. A pre-test-post-test quasiexperimental study was conducted in a cardiothoracic ward at a tertiary teaching hospital in Suz...