Food Assistance Linked to Improved Health and Reduced Emergency Care Among Low-Income Children

AHRQ Stats: Insurance Coverage Among Mothers at Time of Birth

The percentage of mothers who had no insurance at the time of birth declined from 10.4 percent to 5.9 percent between 2008-2013 and 2014-2019. The percentage who had private coverage increased from 55.4 percent to 60.5 percent in that same time frame. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #547, Insurance Status of Mothers at the Time of Birth, by Demographic Characteristics, 2008-19.)

Today's Headlines:

• Food Assistance Linked to Improved Health and Reduced Emergency Care Among Low-Income Children.
• AHRQ Grantee Identifies Strategies To Improve Patient Safety in Radiation Therapy.
• Register Now for March 16 Evidence-based Practice Center Program Grand Rounds on Telehealth.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ Seeks New Director of Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Food Assistance Linked to Improved Health and Reduced Emergency Care Among Low-Income Children

Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could reduce food hardship and emergency department visits for low-income children, especially those with special healthcare needs, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in Pediatrics. Using 2016–2019 National Survey of Children’s Health data, researchers found that SNAP participation was associated with a 22 percent reduction in food hardship for children with special healthcare needs and a 17 percent reduction in those without. They also identified a 9.7 and 7.9 percent increase, respectively, in excellent health status, and a 7.7 and 4.3 percent reduction in emergency department use, respectively. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Grantee Identifies Strategies To Improve Patient Safety in Radiation Therapy

AHRQ's latest grantee profile features Lukasz Mazur, Ph.D., an associate professor of radiation oncology and director of the Healthcare Engineering Department at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Mazur developed innovative simulation-based training to improve patient safety in radiation oncology. He also examined the effect of adding neurofeedback to simulation-based training on radiation therapists’ mental workload, situation awareness and performance. Neurofeedback is a treatment that provides real-time feedback of individuals’ brainwave patterns to help gradually train the brain to produce healthier patterns of activity, which can help improve mental clarity and concentration as well as reduce stress. Check out Dr. Mazur’s profile and the profiles of other AHRQ grantees.

Register Now for March 16 Evidence-based Practice Center Program Grand Rounds on Telehealth

Registration is open for the first in a series of AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program Grand Rounds. The event on March 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. ET will focus on telehealth, which has made healthcare more accessible for many who would otherwise not receive care, many of whom live in rural settings. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all medical appointments were carried out via telemedicine. Its exponential increase in use has given health systems the opportunity to implement and study telehealth’s effectiveness. The grand rounds is intended to expand awareness and implementation of the findings from two recent EPC evidence reports, Improving Rural Health Through Telehealth-Guided Provider to Provider Communications and Use of Telehealth during the COVID-19 Era. Access more information and register.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Cognitive biases in surgery: systematic review.
• Risk assessment of the acute stroke diagnostic process using failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis.
• Association between opioid tapering and subsequent health care use, medication adherence, and chronic condition control.
• An analysis of prehospital pediatric medication dosing errors after implementation of a state-wide EMS pediatric drug dosing reference.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

AHRQ Seeks New Director of Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement

Applications are being accepted for individuals interested in serving as director of AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. The successful applicant will oversee a research portfolio that covers several programmatic areas including systematic evidence reviews; methods and measures of clinical decision-making and patient engagement; and quality, data and methods related to healthcare delivery and systems research, technical support and resource development. The director will serve as a principal adviser to AHRQ leadership and represent the agency on national and international committees. Learn more about this vacancy and others at AHRQ, including:

• Senior Staff Fellow, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: March 9.
• Senior Budget Analyst, Office of Management Services. Application deadline: March 13.
• Grants Management Specialist, Office of Management Services. Application deadline: March 13.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic review (draft open for comment): Radiation Therapy for Metastatic Bone Disease: Effectiveness and Harms.
• Systematic review (draft open for comment): Pharmacologic and Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Update of the Evidence Base for the PTSD Trials Standardized Data Repository.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Two-drug regimens for HIV treatment. Gibas KM, Kelly SG, Arribas JR, et al. Lancet HIV 2022 Dec;9(12):e868-e83. Epub 2022 Oct 26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Intensifying approaches to address clinical inertia among cardiovascular disease risk factors: a narrative review. Lewinski AA, Jazowski SA, Goldstein KM, et al. Patient Educ Couns 2022 Dec;105(12):3381-8. Epub 2022 Aug 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of Medicare eligibility on informal caregiving for surgery and stroke. De Roo AC, Ha J, Regenbogen SE, et al. Health Serv Res 2023 Feb;58(1):128-39. Epub 2022 Jul 14. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitalizations of children with neurologic impairment. Thomson J, Richardson T, Auger KA, et al. J Hosp Med 2023 Jan;18(1):33-42. Epub 2022 Dec 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A call to integrate health equity into learning health system research training. Coley RY, Duan KI, Hoopes AJ, et al. Learn Health Syst 2022 Oct;6(4):e10330. Epub 2022 Jul 24. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association of skilled nursing facility ownership by health care networks with utilization and spending. Kalata S, Howard R, Diaz A, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2023 Feb;6(2):e230140. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Implementation of an evidence-based intervention with safety net clinics to improve mammography appointment adherence among underserved women. Holcomb J, Rajan SS, Ferguson GM, et al. J Cancer Educ 2023 Feb;38(1):309-18. Epub 2021 Nov 25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Interventions to improve outcomes for high-need, high-cost patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Chang E, Ali R, Seibert J, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2023 Jan;38(1):185-94. Epub 2022 Oct 11. Access the abstract on PubMed®.