David Lick

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups in the USA, nevertheless, there is little research regarding how it impacted the Arab American (ArA) population. In this retrospective study, we investigated potential disparities between ArA and Caucasian (CA) groups during the first 2 years of the pandemic. The study included 110,896 adult patients who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 at eight emergency departments (EDs) within a large health system in Southeast Michigan between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2022. Univariate analysis revealed that ArA had greater odds (OR 2.16, 95% CI 2.03–2.29) of testing positive compared to CA and significantly lower odds (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.62–0.77) of subsequent hospitalization compared to CA. There were no significant differences in hospital mortality, 30-day ED revisit, or 30-day rehospitalization. After adjusting for age, gender, health insurance type, and a variety of co-morbidities, ArA had significantly higher odds of infection (adjusted OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.97–2.25) compared to CA, while there were no differences in other outcomes. Our study showed significantly higher risk of COVID infections in ArA and necessitates further research to understand factors contributing to this finding and measures to decrease the infection risk in this population in future pandemics.

Outcomes after hospital admission for heart failure are likely affected by cultural and ethnic factors. We obtained data from a large health system in Southeast Michigan on all patients admitted for heart failure from 2008 to 2015. Middle Eastern patients were identified through self-identification and a surname algorithm. Multivariate linear, logistic, and Cox regression models were used to evaluate length of stay and readmission rates compared to Caucasian patients. Mortality data was collected from the National Death Index. 7,784 white and 642 Middle Eastern patients were identified. Middle Eastern patients were younger, had higher rates of comorbid conditions, and had a greater mean hospital length of stay (7.96 vs 7.03 days, p = 0.015). Middle Eastern patients had similar thirty-day hospital readmission risk (4.25% vs 4.47%, p = 0.370) but greater ninety-day readmission risk (9.01% vs 8.35%, p = 0.043); after controlling for covariates these differences were not significant. Middle Eastern patients had lower mortality risk (HR = 0.79, p = 0.003). After a hospital admission for heart failure, Middle Eastern patients had longer hospital lengths of stay, similar risk of hospital readmission, but lower all-cause mortality.

Background: Preparticipation physical examinations (PPEs) are required for children and adolescents before sports participation to identify at-risk athletes. These evaluations can be completed in a traditional office-based setting or in a station-based format. It is unclear if one format is superior to the other in identifying at-risk athletes. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of children and adolescents between the ages 10 and 18 years who received their PPE in our office or in a station-based setting in a local high school between the years 2009 and 2015. Results: We reviewed 2934 PPEs total, 1136 in the office-based format and 1798 in the station-based setting. A similar proportion of athletes were excluded or required further evaluation before participation in the office compared with the station-based setting (4.84% vs 5.67%). No statistically significant associations were seen between site of PPE or athlete sex and rate of clearance. There was, however, a statistically significant association between PPE site and reason for exclusion (P = 0.0456) with higher rates of exclusion for vision-related issues in the station-based setting and higher rates of exclusion for musculoskeletal or cardiopulmonary reasons in the office-based setting. Conclusion: When conducted by the same examiners, the office-based and team-based PPE excluded or referred equal number of athletes, although the reason for further evaluation does differ based on setting.

To navigate a busy interpersonal landscape, people direct perceptual resources in a motivated fashion that maximizes goals and minimizes threats. While adaptive, these heuristics can also lead to noteworthy biases, including a well-documented memory advantage for ingroup members. Recent research has extended these findings to reveal other motivational biases that emerge early in social perception. When perceivers feel threatened, for example, they are vigilant to outgroup members. Although compelling, evidence for this vigilance-threat hypothesis is currently limited to feelings of physical threat and memory for racial outgroups. Here, we extended these findings to a different form of threat—gender identity threat. Four studies documented that straight men who feel insecure about their masculinity have heightened recognition of gender-atypical faces. We therefore argue that gender identity concerns play an important role in social vision, arousing perceptual biases that have implications for how men attend to and remember others in their social environments.

Objectives. To evaluate the adherence rate to prescribed medications in elderly patients 24–48 hours after being discharged from the hospital. Methods. Family medicine residents visited patients over the age of 65 years at their homes one to two days after being discharged from the hospital and documented all the medications that they were taking since coming home from the hospital. The list of medications was later compared to the medications recorded in hospital discharge instructions. Results. Complete data was available for 46 participants. The average patient age was 76 years; 54.4% were women. Only three patients (6.5%) adhered completely to the discharge medication list found in the medical record. Thirty-six patients (78.2%) reported taking at least one additional prescription medication, twenty patients (43.4%) missed at least one prescription medication, twenty patients (43.4%) reported taking the wrong dose of at least one medication, and nineteen patients (41.3%) reported taking medications at an incorrect frequency. Conclusion. The vast majority of elderly patients in our study did not adhere to the medication regimen in the first two days after hospital discharge. Cost-effective improvements to hospital discharge processes are needed to improve adherence and reduce preventable posthospitalization complications.