Determining risk factors for opioid abuse or dependence will help clinicians practice informed prescribing and may help mitigate opioid abuse or dependence. The purpose of this study is to identify variables predicting opioid abuse or dependence.

A high proportion of e-cigarette users have never smoked cigarettes. Among never-smoking adolescents, both individual e-cigarette use and approval and use of e-cigarettes among friends and family are strongly associated with intention to use cigarettes.

Skin failure -- a term to be used in the future? Pressure ulcers and wound care are all recognized as acceptable terms, but what about skin failure? Should there be an ICD-10 code for skin failure? Is skin failure different from pressure ulcers? Would the term skin failure be a more unifying term for the various skin conditions that plague our elderly? The author of this article addresses these questions.

In this prospective cohort study in rural Bangladesh, the authors investigated the relationship between unsafe child feces disposal, environmental enteropathy, and impaired growth. A significant association was found between caregiver-reported unsafe child feces disposal and elevated environmental enteropathy disease activity scores. Observed and caregiver-reported unsafe feces disposal were associated with impaired growth at nine-month follow-up. Households with unsafe child feces disposal practices were > 5 times more likely to have diarrheagenic E. coli in the soil where study children played. Only 8% of children performed handwashing with soap after defecation. Interventions are needed to reduce these high-risk behaviors.

Adolescence and emergent adulthood are periods of peak prevalence for substance use, yet there have been no nationally representative studies of substance use for youth with chronic medical conditions. This study examined onset and intensification of these behaviors for a national sample of youth aged 12–26 years, with and without chronic conditions. Youth with chronic medical conditions were more likely to engage in any and heavier substance use; transition years and early adulthood were periods of peak risk for this group compared with their healthy peers.

Alterations in circulating angiogenic factors are associated with the diagnosis of preeclampsia and correlate with adverse perinatal outcomes during the third trimester.

The substantial burden of potentially avoidable young-adult hospitalizations (e.g., mental health, injury, poisonings) supports resource allocation to improve outpatient services, mental health access, and public health prevention strategies for young adults. Insured young adults pay more than $1,000 out-of-pocket on average for hospitalization, which may pose a financial hardship.

The US Preventive Services Task Force found insufficient evidence to recommend for or against regular whole-body screening for skin cancer lesions among asymptomatic people. The panel's position is similar to one established in 2009, and the members called for people to focus on prevention.

A study in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics found that initiation of cardiovascular medicines, anticoagulants, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antipsychotics, antidepressants and anticholinergic agents among veterans was linked to a significantly higher risk of incident hospital admission for heat-related illness or dehydration. The findings, based on 6,700 veterans, did not find a similar risk with initiation of anticonvulsants, hypnotics, anxiolytics, anti-Parkinson's agents or antihistamines.

The implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act could threaten physicians' autonomy in making decisions for their patients, provide burdensome documentation tasks and pressure some solo and small practices to close, according to this analysis. MACRA implementation could also contribute to burnout among health care professionals, increase the risk of medical errors -- especially with the use of EHRs -- and reduce patients' access to health care.

A Joint Commission survey, conducted in collaboration with the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, revealed that fewer than 2% of hospitals are ready to immediately submit the electronic clinical quality measures as a part of the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, while only 18% are in good shape and working on improving their readiness. Hospitals cited their EHR systems as the reason for requesting an extraordinary circumstances waiver to submit eCQMs by the February 2017 deadline.

A new report says more than half of adults and 44% of children who were tested in a national laboratory last year misused their prescription medications. Wrong dosages, skipping medication and using nonprescribed, including illicit, drugs were key misuses found in the study by Quest Diagnostics.

A Hello Health survey revealed that nearly 90% of patients treated by clinicians using CPT code 99490 under Medicare's Chronic Care Management telehealth program are satisfied or very satisfied with the health care services they received. Researchers surveyed more than 100 chronic care patients and also found that 60% reported the telehealth service improved their health and about 80% would recommend the service to other patients.