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The school environment can be challenging for young people experiencing mental health concerns to express their individuality and feel accepted. There has been an increased focus on wellbeing in school-aged children, with programs targeted to building resilience and promoting inclusion. However, peer stigmatization lowers personal wellbeing by limiting social belongingness in young people with mental health concerns and this is often exacerbated by poor mental health literacy. This paper is based on a doctoral study that used a grounded theory methodology to explore adolescent responses to a novel featuring mental health concerns as a class text. This research showed that students prefer contemporary young adult novels in the English classroom to support mental health literacy due to its contemporaneity and relatability. This paper links these benefits with the role of teacher librarians in recommending young adult literature featuring mental health concerns for use in the English curriculum., Introduction According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2021), 14% of adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years-old experience a mental health condition and are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion [...]

PURPOSE We sought to ascertain factors associated with the quality of diabetes care, comparing rural vs urban diabetic patients in a large health care system. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study assessing patients' attainment of the D5 metric, a diabetes care metric having 5 components (no tobacco use, glycated hemoglobin [[A.sub.1c]] level less than 8%, blood pressure less than 140/90 mm Hg, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level at goal or statin prescribed, and aspirin use consistent with clinical recommendations). Covariates included age, sex, race, adjusted clinical group (ACG) score as a marker of complexity, insurance type, primary care clinician type, and health care use data. RESULTS The study cohort consisted of 45,279 patients with diabetes, 54.4% of whom resided in rural locations. The D5 composite metric was met in 39.9% of rural patients and 43.2% of urban patients (P CONCLUSIONS Rural patients had worse diabetes quality outcomes than their urban counterparts, even after adjustment for other contributing factors and despite being part of the same integrated health system. Lower visit frequency and less specialty involvement in the rural setting are possible contributing factors. Key words: primary care; diabetes control; rural health; rural health disparities; population health; health care delivery; health services; health care disparities; quality of care; health metrics; health services accessibility; vulnerable populations https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2962, INTRODUCTION Diabetes continues to grow as a national health priority. Recent estimates suggest it now affects more than 11% of the US population, with approximately 90% to 95% of cases [...]

: Introduction: Young women in sub‐Saharan Africa are a priority population for HIV prevention, yet challenges with adherence and persistence to HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are common. This study involved the development and pilot testing of My Way—a novel delivery system for PrEP and co‐packaged sexual health services. Methods: My Way was developed in Kisumu, Kenya through a user‐centred design process (2020). The intervention involves peer‐delivery and support for HIV testing and PrEP use, self‐collected vaginal swabs for sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, pregnancy testing, oral contraceptive pills, self‐injectable medroxyprogesterone and/or condoms. My Way was assessed among 16‐ to 24‐year‐old sexually active women in a randomized controlled trial versus standard of care (SoC; 2021–2022). Use of PrEP and other sexual health services were tracked at 1, 3 and 6 months for feasibility. Acceptability was determined by questionnaire. The effect of the intervention on tenofovir diphosphate (TFV‐DP) levels was assessed by chi‐square test (primary outcome); other predictors were explored with regression analysis. Results: Among 150 women, the median age was 22 years and the median number of sexual partners was 2. Moderate/severe depression was common (60%). In the intervention arm, peers made 88% (198/225) of possible kit deliveries (177 with PrEP) and 49 STIs were diagnosed. In the SoC arm, 24% (55/225) of expected clinic visits occurred (53 with PrEP); no STI testing was performed. TVF‐DP was detected in 16 participants at 6 months: 16% (12/75) in the intervention arm versus 5% (4/75) in the SoC arm (p = 0.03). Persistence among those with ongoing HIV prevention needs (i.e. prevention‐effective persistence) was 18% (12/67) versus 7% (4/56; p = 0.08). No women acquired HIV. The intervention was significantly associated with detectable TFV‐DP (OR 3.5, 1.1‐11.4; p = 0.04); moderate/severe depression trended towards an association with TFV‐DP (OR 0.2, 0.03–1.6; p = 0.13). Conclusions: My Way is a promising delivery system for PrEP and other sexual health services among young women in Western Kenya. We found high feasibility and acceptability. PrEP use was modest, but higher with My Way compared to SoC. Long‐acting PrEP formulations may overcome important barriers to PrEP use and should be explored in combination with the My Way delivery model., INTRODUCTION Young women in sub‐Saharan Africa (sSA) are a priority population for HIV prevention, accounting for 63% of all new cases in 2021 [1]. Approximately six of seven new HIV [...]

Objectives Maternal depression occurs in 13-20% of women from low-income countries, which is associated with negative child health outcomes, including diarrheal disease. However, few studies have investigated its impact on child risk of infectious disease. We studied the impacts of maternal depressive symptoms and parent-child interactions, independently, on the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria and soil-transmitted helminth infection in Beninese children. Methods Our population included mothers and children enrolled in a clinical trial during pregnancy (MiPPAD) in Benin. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) assessed maternal depressive symptoms and the home observation measurement of the environment (HOME) assessed parent-child interactions. Blood and stool sample analyses diagnosed child malaria and helminth infection at 12, 18, and 24 months. Negative binomial and Poisson regression models with robust variance tested associations. Results Of the 302 mother-child pairs, 39 (12.9%) mothers had depressive symptoms. Median number of malaria episodes per child was 3 (0-14) and 29.1% children had at least one helminth infection. Higher EPDS scores were associated with lower HOME scores; relative risk (RR) 0.97 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95, 0.99), particularly with lower acceptance, involvement, and variety subscales; RR 0.92 (95% CI 0.85, 0.99), RR 0.82 (95% CI 0.77, 0.88), RR 0.93 (95% CI 0.88, 0.99), respectively. However, neither exposure was associated with risk of parasitic infection in children. Conclusions for Practice Maternal depressive symptoms are associated with poor parent-child interactions, particularly acceptance of behavior, involvement with children, and variety of interactions, but these exposures do not independently impact risk of parasitic infection in children., Author(s): Amanda Garrison [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Joanna Maselko [sup.4] , Marie-Josèphe Saurel-Cubizolles [sup.2] , David Courtin [sup.5] , Roméo Zoumenou [sup.6] , Michael J. Boivin [sup.7] , Achille Massougbodji [...]