Articles related toPublic Health and Primary Care

Mask wearing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other viral infections may raise concerns on the effects of face masks on breathing and cardiopulmonary health. In this study, the authors assess the parameters related to heart and lung physiology between healthy male and female adults exposed to wearing face masks (or not) under conditions of rest and graded exercise.

The purpose of this study was to compare seasonal influenza vaccine uptake rates between Spanish-and English-preferring Hispanic US adults from 2017 to 2020.

Despite well-established management guidelines, only about half of the patients with diabetes achieve glycemic targets, only one in five patients achieve metabolic control, and both patients and physicians find themselves stuck in a rut called therapeutic inertia (TI). The authors present several practical strategies that can be tailored to different practice settings and facilitate reducing TI.

The authors sought to determine if there was a difference in patient-centered outcomes between those who were vaccinated and unvaccinated after the administration of casirivimab/imdevimab for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 during the time when the Delta strain was most prevalent.

This article summarizes what is currently published about thoracic outlet syndrome, its etiologies, common objective findings, and nonsurgical treatment options.

Rapid diagnosis of influenza infections has been shown to reduce improper or delayed treatment and to increase access to diagnostic measures in public health, primary care, and hospital-based settings. In this paper, the authors compare the sensitivity, specificity, and time to diagnosis for nine highly utilized commercial rapid influenza diagnostic tests.

This study aims to evaluate the effects of long-term opioid therapy on measures of back-specific disability and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic low back pain.

The goal of this study is to highlight the efficacy of a peer recovery program in improving health outcomes and associated national outcome measures in men with a substance use disorder and/or co-occurring mental health disorder.

The authors present the case of a 30-year-old woman with no significant medical history presented to the emergency department in October 2020 with sudden onset of severe left upper and lower abdominal pain. The purpose of this case report is to illustrate and make other clinicians aware of unusual potential complications and clinical presentations of COVID-19.

External auditory canal exostoses (EACE) are bony formations that develop insidiously in the auditory meatus from chronic exposure to cold water and, in severe cases, require surgery. This condition has been understudied in the whitewater kayakers and not yet studied in the riverboarding population. This article aims to determine the prevalence of EACE in Colorado whitewater athletes and their attitudes about wearing ear protection before and after an educational intervention directed at increasing awareness and prevention of EACE.