AHRQ Views: Meeting the American Indian/Alaska Native Trust Responsibility

AHRQ Stats: Prevalence of Long COVID by Age Group

As of spring 2023, 9.8 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 with a prior COVID-19 infection reported having developed Long COVID, the lowest among any adult age group. Long COVID rates ranged from 13.5 percent to 17.9 percent among all other adult age groups. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #557, Prevalence of Long COVID Among Adults Who Have Ever Had COVID-19, by Selected Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, Spring 2023.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: Meeting the American Indian/Alaska Native Trust Responsibility.
• Study Reveals Mental Health Disparities Among Breast Cancer Survivors Across Racial Groups.
• AHRQ Primer Helps Large Florida Health System Reduce Its Carbon Footprint.
• State-Level Caps on Insulin Costs Show Little Impact on Usage, Study Finds.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Register for Upcoming AHRQ Webinars.
• Explore Careers at AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views: Meeting the American Indian/Alaska Native Trust Responsibility

AHRQ’s role in supporting the national commitment to eliminating health disparities and promoting health equity in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. The blog post is authored by four members of AHRQ’s National Advisory Council, a panel charged with providing advice and recommendations to AHRQ's director and the secretary of HHS on priorities for a national health services research agenda. A recent presentation to the advisory council outlined inequities in AI/AN populations, including analyses that show AI/AN communities have a life expectancy ranging from 45 to 65 years of age, 10 to 30 years less than the general U.S. population. National Advisory Council members asserted that AHRQ is in a unique position to address inequities and provided suggestions for confronting these persistent challenges. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Study Reveals Mental Health Disparities Among Breast Cancer Survivors Across Racial Groups

Race plays a role in disparities in the likelihood that breast cancer survivors will experience mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, according to an AHRQ-funded study in Health Services Research. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic survivors had higher rates of mental health conditions (26 percent and 28 percent, respectively), compared with almost 20 percent for White survivors. Disparities between Black and White survivors were explained by differences in education, health status and family structure. Explanations for Hispanic survivors varied based on whether they were born in the United States or abroad. Researchers, who used 2010–2020 data from AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, said their findings could guide clinicians and policymakers in addressing mental health disparities in cancer care. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Primer Helps Large Florida Health System Reduce Its Carbon Footprint

AdventHealth, a nonprofit healthcare system headquartered in Altamonte Springs, Florida, used AHRQ’s climate change primer, Reducing Healthcare Carbon Emissions: A Primer on Measures and Actions for Healthcare Organizations to Mitigate Climate Change, to reduce its carbon footprint. While the company initially focused on reducing emissions, the primer also led them to consider the impacts of waste and water and reducing carbon emissions from anesthetic gases. The results have been positive: As of June 2024, about 40 percent of all AdventHealth’s purchased electricity comes from wind power. At the end of 2025, the health system’s renewable energy portfolio will generate more electricity than all its facilities currently consume. Access the Impact Case Study.

State-Level Caps on Insulin Costs Show Little Impact on Usage, Study Finds

An AHRQ-funded study found that state-imposed caps on out-of-pocket spending for insulin have not significantly increased the use of the medication among commercially insured patients. The study, published in Health Affairs, analyzed data from more than 33,000 patients with type 1 diabetes or insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes between 2018 and 2021. Despite caps as low as $25, there was no significant increase in insulin claims after these caps were implemented. Researchers suggested this may be due to many patients already paying less than the capped amounts. Researchers said their study highlights that while cost controls aim to improve access, their impact on usage may be limited. Access the abstract.

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:

• Patient-clinician diagnostic concordance upon hospital admission.
• Focused team engagements to enhance interprofessional collaboration and safety behaviors among novice nurses and medical residents.
• Effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical decision support systems and care delivery.

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

Register for Upcoming AHRQ Webinars

• Nov. 14, 2:30–4 p.m. ET: Implementing Urinary Incontinence Management in Primary Care, part of AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW: Managing Urinary Incontinence initiative, will highlight nonsurgical interventions in primary care settings, focusing on provider education, feedback loops and workflow integration.
• Dec. 10, 1–2 pm ET: How Patient Narratives Can Support Your Patient Experience Strategy will feature speakers sharing research insights and describe how patient narratives can be used to identify and address improvement opportunities.

Explore Careers at AHRQ

Join the team that strives to improve healthcare for all Americans by investing in health systems research, creating strategies to support practice improvement and providing data and analytics to identify opportunities for advancing quality, safety and equity. Current vacancies include:

• Health Scientist Administrator. Application deadline: Nov. 14.
• Health Scientist Administrator. Application deadline: Nov. 14.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Measuring cognitive effort using tabular transformer-based language models of electronic health record-based audit log action sequences. Kim S, Warner BC, Lew D, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2024 Oct;31(10):2228-35. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessing patient work system factors for medication management during transition of care among older adults: an observational study. Xiao Y, Hsu YJ, Hannum SM, et al. BMJ Qual Saf 2024 Aug 23. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Diagnostic excellence in the context of climate change: a review. Ali KJ, Ehsan S, Tran A, et al. Am J Med 2024 Nov;137(11):1035-41. Epub 2024 Jun 24. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Situations predisposing primary care patients to use antibiotics without a prescription in the United States. Laytner LA, Trautner BW, Nash S, et al. Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol 2024 Sep 9;4(1):e121. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Prevalence of contraindicated combinations amid behavioral and mental health medications filled in a pediatric population. Borgelt LM, Bliss K, Matson J, et al. BMC Prim Care 2024 Jul 30;25(1):276. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A step-by-step roadmap for the development and deployment of an electronic health record sidecar application that tracks patient outcomes: the RA PRO dashboard. Schmajuk G, Nasrallah C, Berrean B, et al. Digit Health 2024 Jan-Dec;10:20552076241288739. Epub 2024 Oct 10. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Implementation of a clinically integrated breastfeeding peer counselor program. Keenan-Devlin LS, Hughes-Jones JY, Johnson T, et al. J Perinatol 2024 Nov;44(11):1584-90. Epub 2024 May 15. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Perceptions of hospital electronic health record (EHR) training, support, and patient safety by staff position and tenure. Campione J, Liu H. BMC Health Serv Res 2024 Aug 20;24(1):955. Access the abstract on PubMed®.