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Objective: To explore the clinical epidemiological characteristics of oral lichen planus (OLP) and risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP. Materials and Methods: Patients diagnosed with OLP from 11 different hospitals were included in the study. Descriptive statistical methods were used to explore the clinical epidemiological characteristics and logistic regression, sensitivity analysis, and subgroup analysis were utilized to explore the risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP. Results: The average age of patients was 49.2 ± 13.3 years, and 61.4% of the patients were women. The ratios of patients with reticular, hyperemic/erythematous, and erosive/ulcerative lesions were 47.9%, 27.8%, and 24.2%, respectively. Analysis of risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP identified the following variables: age, course of disease of 12 months or more, II°–III° dental calculus, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, as well as regions of habitation. Subgroup analysis showed significant differences in risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP in patients with and without risk behaviors. Conclusion: The clinical epidemiological characteristics of patients with OLP in the Chinese population in this study are basically consistent with existing reports in developed countries. And we identified clinical characteristics associated with erosive/ulcerative OLP through clinical epidemiological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are two of the more well-known food assistance programmes in the USA. The current study describes food consumption patterns of children aged 1-5 years living in households dually enrolled in these two programmes v. households enrolled only in WIC.Design: Food consumption and SNAP participation were assessed using data from the 2014 Survey of Los Angeles County (LAC) WIC Participants and the Follow-Up Survey of the same households that were also SNAP beneficiaries. Telephone interviews were conducted with WIC parents regarding each child's (i.e. beneficiary's) food consumption patterns. Follow-up interviews were conducted with those who reported receiving SNAP. Multivariable regression analyses were performed to assess the relationships between food and beverage consumption and dual v. single food assistance programme participation.Setting: LAC, California.Subjects: Children of WIC-enrolled households in LAC during 2014 (n 3248). This included a sub-sample of dual WIC- and SNAP-enrolled households (n 1295). Survey participants were the beneficiaries' parents.Results: Children from dually enrolled households consumed 1·03 (P<0·05) and 1·04 (P<0·01) more servings of fruits and vegetables daily respectively, 1·07 more sugar-sweetened beverages daily (P<0·001) and ate sweets/sweetened foods 1·04 more times daily (P<0·001) than children from households participating only in WIC.Conclusions: Results suggest that SNAP+WIC enrolment is associated with increased consumption of both healthy foods and foods containing minimal nutritional value. Complementary nutrition education efforts across the two programmes may help beneficiaries maximize healthful food purchases with SNAP dollars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcoholic hepatitis is a major health care burden in the United States due to significant morbidity and mortality. Early identification of patients with alcoholic hepatitis at greatest risk of death is extremely important for proper treatments and interventions to be instituted. In this study, we used gradient boosting, random forest, support vector machine and logistic regression analysis of laboratory parameters, fecal bacterial microbiota, fecal mycobiota, fecal virome, serum metabolome and serum lipidome to predict mortality in patients with alcoholic hepatitis. Gradient boosting achieved the highest AUC of 0.87 for both 30-day mortality prediction using the bacteria and metabolic pathways dataset and 90-day mortality prediction using the fungi dataset, which showed better performance than the currently used model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been concerned with minimizing the unnecessary radiation exposure of people for half a century. Manufacturers of medical X-ray imaging devices are important partners in this effort. Medical X-ray imaging devices are regulated by FDA under both its electronic product regulations andits medical device regulations. FDA also publishes guidance documents that represent FDA's current thinking on a topic and provide a suggested or recommended approach to meet the requirements of a regulation or statute. FDA encourages manufacturers to develop medical devices that conform to voluntary consensus standards. Use of these standards is a central element of FDA's system to ensure that all medical devices marketed in the U.S. meet safety and effectiveness requirements. FDA staff participate actively in the development and maintenance of these standards, often advancing or introducing new safety and dose management requirements. Use of voluntary consensus standards reduces the amount of time necessary to evaluate a premarket submission and reduces the burden on manufacturers. FDA interacts with industry and other stakeholders through meetings with industry groups, public meetings, public communications, and through the development of voluntary consensus standards. In these interactions, FDA staff introduce new concepts for improving the safety of these devices and provide support for similar initiatives from professional organizations. FDA works with all stakeholders to achieve its mission of protecting and promoting the public health.

Background: Multiple datasets collect breastfeeding data in the United States (US), but a coordinated monitoring and surveillance system does not currently exist. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) reaches over 50% of all infants in the US and provides a potential wealth of administrative data about the breastfeeding practices of low-income women., Objective: The objective of this research was to assess whether WIC administrative data are a valid source of information about breastfeeding practices., Methods: A phone survey of 2015 postpartum WIC mothers in Southern California was conducted to assess the feeding practices of mothers with infants 2-12 months old. Survey data were linked with WIC administrative records from the same month in order to assess the percent agreement between feeding behavior as reported by survey methods and as documented in WIC administrative records., Results: The unweighted κ test statistic was used to test the agreement between survey responses and WIC administrative data. Substantial to almost perfect agreement was found between the two measures., Conclusions: WIC administrative data are a valid source of information about breastfeeding. With appropriate funding support, WIC administrative data should be considered for use in nationwide breastfeeding surveillance and monitoring systems.

Objective: This article describes the impact of a bilingual literacy intervention conducted with nearly 118,000 children in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) sites in Los Angeles County, California., Methods: All WIC participants at 6 WIC sites in Los Angeles County participated in the literacy intervention. Three cohorts of participants were selected to participate in the evaluation of the intervention. A control group of 200 families received no intervention, 103 families received 2 years of intervention, and 102 families received 4 years of intervention. Participants were predominantly Hispanic (92%), 3- to 4-year-old children and their parents. All families had low income levels, and more than one-half were Spanish-speaking. School readiness assessments were conducted with the children; parent literacy resources and activities at home were observed. Structural equation modeling was used to allow for simultaneous testing of relationships between variables., Results: The Spanish-speaking subset showed a strong intervention effect. Among Spanish speakers, the 4-year intervention group (P < .001) and the 2-year intervention group (P < .05) had significantly higher school readiness scores, compared with the control group. The structural equation model revealed that exposure to the intervention significantly enhanced literacy resources and activities at home, which in turn led to greater school readiness., Conclusion: WIC-based literacy intervention significantly increased low-income, Spanish-speaking children's school readiness.