September 2018  (Volume 96)

This systematic review looks at the potential impacts of national paid leave policies in OECD countries on economic, social, and health outcomes. Researchers found that access to paid parental leave around the time of childbirth reduces rates of infant mortality. More generous paid leave in countries that offer unpaid or short duration of paid leave could help families strike a balance between the demands of earning income and attending to personal and family well-being.   More

Worldwide, more than 70% of all deaths are attributable to noncommunicable diseases (NCDS), such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and mental illness. Although such deaths are preventable, effective solutions continue to elude the public health community. This study uses a complex systems perspective to analyze the commercial determinants of NCDs and how unhealthy commodity industries influence public health policy.  More

A 2012 law encouraged the US Food and Drug Administration to ensure that new medical products be analyzed for safety and effectiveness for key demographic patient groups. Researchers looked at 22 high-risk medical devices reviewed by the FDA in 2014-2017 and found that due to lack of patient diversity and publicly available data, clinicians and patients often cannot determine which devices are safe and effective for specific demographic groups.  More

Health care complaints contain valuable data on quality and safety. Using a complaints analysis tool to analyze a benchmark national dataset of health care complaints in England, researchers found that systematic analysis of health care complaints can improve quality and safety by providing patient-centered insights that localize issues and shed light on difficult-to-monitor problems.  More

The largest disparities in human papillomavirus vaccination in the United States are due to geography, with lower uptake in rural areas. Researchers used publicly available 2016 workforce data of physicians and pharmacists—and conducted an analysis of census tracts to analyze their distribution. Pharmacists are more geographically dispersed than primary care physicians in Texas; including pharmacists among available adolescent vaccine providers would improve the geographic distribution of vaccine providers.  More