Berkeley Public Health Division

Enhanced screening and bacterial sexually-transmitted infection diagnoses after HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis initiation

BACKGROUND: Recipients of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) experience higher rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia diagnoses than non-recipients. However, it is unclear if these observations reflect a causal relationship between PrEP initiation and acquisition of sexually transmitt...

Diagnostic advantages of local versus nonlocal definitions of uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) in semi-rural Ecuador

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common outpatient morbidities globally and can progress to invasive infections, including sepsis. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the most common cause of UTIs and third-generation cephalosporin-resistant (3GCR) UPEC are...

Toxic Air Contaminant Emissions from Residential and Commercial Fossil Gas Appliances: A Systematic Review

Abstract Purpose of Review Gas appliances are increasingly recognized as sources of indoor toxic air contaminant (TAC) exposure, yet no prior review has systematically synthesized emission factor (EF) data across appliance types and fuels. We reviewed the literature to characteri...

An AI-Based Whole-Person Care Summarization Tool for Care Management Providers

To provide effective care and support to patients with complex medical and social needs, providers must have synthesized whole-person insights on their health-related social needs (HRSN). Often, the only sources of these insights are large numbers of unstructured data coming from...

Development and Validation of a Novel Algorithm for Classifying Diabetes Type in Adolescents and Young Adults Using Electronic Health Record Data

OBJECTIVE Accurate classification of diabetes type in early-onset populations is essential for epidemiologic and health services research but remains challenging when using electronic health record (EHR) data alone. Our objective was to develop and validate a diabetes typing algo...

Prenatal exposure to wildfire fine particulate matter and fetal growth outcomes in the United States: Findings from the ECHO Cohort

Background: Increasing exposure to wildfire fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) may pose unique risks to fetal development. We assessed associations between prenatal wildfire PM 2.5 exposure and fetal growth outcomes, including birth weight at term, birth weight for gestational age...

The Impact of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Undertesting on Estimates of Disease Burden and Vaccine Effectiveness in a Large Integrated Healthcare System

Abstract Infrequent standard-of-care (SOC) testing for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in adults with acute respiratory illness (ARI) contributes to underestimated disease burden. We compared RSV prevalence and RSV vaccine effectiveness (VE) among 14,044 adults ≥60 years with A...

The Peacemaker Fellowship and Urban Gun Violence in Richmond, California

Importance Firearm violence is a leading cause of premature death and disability in the US. Increasingly, public health approaches to prevent gun violence are being implemented to reduce its social and medical costs. A previous evaluation of the Peacemaker Fellowship found it was...

“I Know Far More Dead People Than I Do Live Ones”: Social Isolation Among Older Adults Who Use Stimulants

BACKGROUND: Social isolation is associated with poor physical health and premature mortality. Midlife and older adults who use stimulants (cocaine or methamphetamine) may be especially vulnerable to social isolation. METHODS: We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with...

Using a systematic review of youth and environmental youth participatory action research outcomes to create a modified implementation capacity framework

While youth participatory action research (YPAR), a youth-adult partnered or youth-led approach to knowledge generation and social change, has burgeoned over the last decade, challenges remain related to capacity for its implementation. Yet, the field lacks a YPAR implementation...