Following participants’ assessments, their subsequent depression measures were all in the normal range, without any suicide ideation, across the year of the study. Patient evaluation ratings were high in the areas of being able to connect with other young patients in similar situations, using the audiovisual equipment, and learning new useful information from the interventions. The methods developed for the study ensured that the safety and well-being of participants were supported through telehealth.

To assess whether health literacy is associated with 1) degree of hearing loss at initial presentation for audiogram and 2) hearing aid adoption for hearing aid candidates.

We identified 1376 patients who underwent audiometric testing and completed a brief health literacy questionnaire at our institution. The association between health literacy and degree of hearing loss at initial presentation was examined using linear regression, adjusted for age, gender, marital status, education level, race, language, employment status, and insurance coverage. selleck chemicals The association between health literacy and hearing aid adoption was examined in the subset of patients identified as hearing aid candidates using logistic regression, adjusted for demographic factors and insurance coverage.

Patients with inadequate health literacy were more likely to present with more severe hearing loss (adjusted mean pure-tone average [PTA] difference, 5.38 dB, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.75 to 8.01). For hearing aid candidates (n = 472 [41.6%]), health literacy was not associated with hearing aid adoption rate (odds ratio [OR] 0.85, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.76). Hearing aid coverage through Medicaid (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.13 to 4.37), and moderate (OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.58 to 4.69) or moderate-severe (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.19 to 4.16) hearing loss were associated with hearing aid adoption.

In our population, patients with low health literacy are more likely to present with higher degrees of hearing loss, but no less likely to obtain hearing aids compared with patients with adequate health literacy. Hearing loss severity and hearing aid coverage by insurance appear to be the main drivers of hearing aid adoption.

3 Laryngoscope, 131E1688-E1694, 2021.

3 Laryngoscope, 131E1688-E1694, 2021.

To better assess rates of postoperative complications and mortality following esophageal dilation, and to identify factors associated with adverse outcomes.

Observational, retrospective cohort study.

We queried a national database of insurance claims for Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes representing esophageal dilation performed between 2011 and 2017. Patients aged 18 to 100 who were continuously enrolled with their insurance provider were included. Demographic information, additional CPT codes, concomitant diagnoses, and anticoagulant medication data were collected for all patients included. Postoperative mortality was assessed and International Classification of Diseases (ICD)9/10 codes for complications, including esophageal perforation, hemorrhage, mediastinitis, and sepsis were flagged.

We identified 202,965 encounters for esophageal dilation. Of these procedures, 193 were performed on a patient who underwent percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) during the study period and was analyzed separately. Another 244 dilations were excluded due to repeat entries. Of the remaining 202,528 procedures remaining, 42,310 were repeat dilations in the same patient. Data analysis was confined to each patient’s initial dilation. 160,218 initial dilations remained. Of these, 62,107 were performed on male patients and 98,111 were performed on female patients. The average age was 57.7 years. There were 12 mortalities within 30 days postoperatively, representing 0.0075% of all dilations. Esophageal perforation and esophageal hemorrhage were the most common reported complications, with 139 and 110 occurrences, respectively. The overall per-dilation complication rate was 0.215%.

Evidence from a national insurance claim database suggests that esophageal dilation is a safe procedure with a low rate of serious complications and a 30-day all-cause mortality rate of less than 1 per 10,000 dilations.

IV Laryngoscope, 2020.

IV Laryngoscope, 2020.Mineralized polymer scaffolds have proven to be effective biomaterials for inducing osteoinductivity in bone tissue engineering. Sequential mineralization is a promising technique for depositing minerals in three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds. Paper, which is made of cellulose fibers, can be used as a tissue scaffold due to its highly porous structure and flexibility, as well as its excellent ability to wick fluids and support the growth of bone cells. In this study, paper-based, mineralized scaffolds were fabricated using sequential mineralization. We conducted experiments with two groups of scaffolds based on different incubation times in the mineralization solutions (30 min and 24 h). Ten cycles of mineralization were performed for each group. We found that the mineral content increased as the cycle number increased and that the 24-h group scaffolds consistently had more mineralization than did the 30-min group scaffolds when measured at the same cycle number. A quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed for two osteogenic differentiation markers of the preosteoblasts that were grown on the mineralized paper scaffolds. The gene expression results for bone-specific markers revealed that the mineralized scaffolds were osteoinductive. Subcutaneous implantation of the scaffolds in rats demonstrated favorable biocompatibility, high vascularization, and non-immunogenicity in vivo. The overall results suggest that the sequentially mineralized paper scaffolds are promising materials for use in bone tissue engineering.Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic illness that is comprised of two major disorders Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Adults with IBD have adopted telehealth and mobile health (mHealth) interventions to improve their self-management skills and symptom-monitoring. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth and mHealth interventions and explore the benefits and challenges of these interventions in patients with IBD. This review used a convergent segregated approach to synthesize and integrate research findings, a methodology recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute for mixed-methods systematic reviews. Databases searched included PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The search followed the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, which yielded sixteen quantitative and two qualitative articles. A narrative synthesis was performed to present the findings of quantitative and qualitative studies.