Southeastern Appalachian Ohio has more than double the national average of diabetes and a critical shortage of healthcare providers. Paradoxically, there is limited research focused on primary care providers’ experiences treating people with diabetes in this region. This study explored providers’ perceived barriers to and facilitators for treating patients with diabetes in southeastern Appalachian Ohio.

We conducted in-depth interviews with healthcare providers who treat people with diabetes in rural southeastern Ohio. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed via content and thematic analyses using NVivo 12 software (QSR International, Chadstone, VIC, Australia).

Qualitative analysis revealed four themes: (1) patients’ diabetes fatalism and helplessness: providers recounted story after story of patients believing that their diabetes was inevitable and that they were helpless to prevent or delay diabetes complications. (2) Comorbid psychosocial issues: providers described high rates of depression, anxiety, incest, abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder among people with diabetes in this region. (3) Inter-connected social determinants interfering with diabetes care: providers identified major barriers including lack of access to providers, lack of access to transportation, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and financial insecurity. (4) Providers’ cultural understanding and recommendations: providers emphasized the importance of understanding of the values central to Appalachian culture and gave culturally attuned clinical suggestions for how to use these values when working with this population.

Evidence-based interventions tailored to Appalachian culture and training designed to increase the cultural competency and cultural humility of primary care providers may be effective approaches to reduce barriers to diabetes care in Appalachian Ohio.

To examine the relationship between protein intake and the risk of incident premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Nested case–control study. FFQ were completed every 4 years during follow-up. Our main analysis assessed protein intake 2–4 years before PMS diagnosis (for cases) or reference year (for controls). Baseline (1991) protein intake was also assessed.

Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS2), a large prospective cohort study of registered female nurses in the USA.

Participants were premenopausal women between the ages of 27 and 44 years (mean: 34 years), without diagnosis of PMS at baseline, without a history of cancer, endometriosis, infertility, irregular menstrual cycles or hysterectomy. Incident cases of PMS (n 1234) were identified by self-reported diagnosis during 14 years of follow-up and validated by questionnaire. Controls (n 2426) were women who did not report a diagnosis of PMS during follow-up and confirmed experiencing minimal premenstrual symptoms.

In logistic regression models adjusting for smoking, BMI, B-vitamins and other factors, total protein intake was not associated with PMS development. For example, the OR for women with the highest intake of total protein 2–4 years before their reference year (median: 103·6 g/d) v. those with the lowest (median: 66·6 g/d) was 0·94 (95 % CI 0·70, 1·27). Additionally, intakes of specific protein sources and amino acids were not associated with PMS. Furthermore, results substituting carbohydrates and fats for protein were also null.

Overall, protein consumption was not associated with risk of developing PMS.

The prevalence and incidence of obesity are high in people with severe mental illness (SMI). In England, around 6000 people with SMI access care from secure mental health units. There is currently no specific guidance on how to reduce the risk of obesity-related morbidity and mortality in this population.

To identify international evidence that addresses the issue of obesity in mental health secure units.

A mixed method review of evidence (published 2000–2015) was carried out to assess obesity prevalence, intervention and policy change, as well as barriers to change.

Evidence from 22 mainly small, non-comparator studies (reported in 21 papers) using a range of methods was reviewed. Dietary, physical activity and cultural interventions being implemented within secure units to address the problem of obesity showed some promising outcomes for physical health and health education. These were facilitated by adequate organisational resources, staff training and motivated staff. Holistic interventions that included a social and/or competitive element were more likely to be taken up. Involving patients in decision-making mediated the tension between facilitating behaviour change and imposing control. Barriers to successful outcomes included patient movement in and out of units, severity of mental health condition and resistance to change by patients and staff.

Despite the promising outcomes reported, further assessment is needed of the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of interventions and policies targeting the obesogenic environment, using robust research methods.

None.

To determine the feasibility and value of developing a regional antibiogram for community hospitals.

Multicenter retrospective analysis of antibiograms.

A total of 20 community hospitals in central and eastern North Carolina and south central Virginia participated in this study.

We combined antibiogram data from participating hospitals for 13 clinically relevant gram-negative pathogen–antibiotic combinations. From this combined antibiogram, we developed a regional antibiogram based on the mean susceptibilities of the combined data.

We combined a total of 69,778 bacterial isolates across 13 clinically relevant gram-negative pathogen–antibiotic combinations (median for each combination, 1100; range, 174–27,428). Across all pathogen–antibiotic combinations, 69% of local susceptibility rates fell within 1 SD of the regional mean susceptibility rate, and 97% of local susceptibilities fell within 2 SD of the regional mean susceptibility rate. No individual hospital had >1 pathogen–antibiotic combination with a local susceptibility rate >2 SD of the regional mean susceptibility rate. All hospitals’ local susceptibility rates were within 2 SD of the regional mean susceptibility rate for low-prevalence pathogens (<500 isolates cumulative for the region).

Small community hospitals frequently cannot develop an accurate antibiogram due to a paucity of local data. A regional antibiogram is likely to provide clinically useful information to community hospitals for low-prevalence pathogens.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:718–722