JMIR Public Health and Surveillance

Evidence have showed that HIV prevalence among young people especially college students have increased disproportionately. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is one of the most effective ways to prevent HIV, which is vital for college students with sexual experiences who have sexual risks.

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are religious nonprofit organizations with a primary mission of diverting people from having abortions. One CPC tactic has been to locate near abortion facilities. Despite medical groups’ warnings that CPCs do not adhere to medical and ethical standards and pose risks, government support for CPCs has significantly increased.

Health systems had to rapidly implement infection control strategies to sustain their workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Various outbreak response tools, such as digital contact tracing (DCT), have been developed to monitor exposures and symptoms of health care workers (HCWs). Limited research evidence exists on the experiences with these technologies and the impacts of DCT innovations from the perspective of stakeholders in health care environments.

As a result of climate change, exposure to high temperatures is becoming more common, even in countries with temperate climates. For patients with chronic diseases, heat poses significant health risks. Empowering patients is a crucial element in protecting the population from the adverse effects of heat. In this context, self-reports of protective behavior are often used to gain a mutual understanding of patients’ issues. However, the extent to which self-reported behavior is associated with health complaints remains unclear.

The imperative arises to study the impact of socioeconomic factors on the acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccines amidst changes in immunization policies within the COVID-19 pandemic.

Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are prevalent chronic joint disorders, with prevalence rates varying by sex. However, few studies have comprehensively documented the factors contributing to the sex-specific prevalence of osteoarthritis and RA, including sociological factors and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a global age-related disease. It has been reported that over half of Chinese males aged 70 years or older are suffering from BPH. Solid fuel, which is the major source of household air pollution, has been reportedly associated with several advent events, including sex hormone disorders. Due to the certain relationship between sex hormone levels and prostate disease, the relationship between solid fuel use and lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH) deserves further exploration.

Contact tracing (CT) is a key intervention to contain outbreaks of communicable diseases. During large-scale outbreaks, public health services may lack the resources required to perform CT effectively. One way of mitigating this issue is to shift some of the tasks in CT normally performed by public health services to cases and their contacts, supported by digital tools. We refer to this as “self-led CT.” However, while the effectiveness of the self-led CT inherently depends on the willingness and skills of citizens to participate, the determinants of citizens’ intention to participate in self-led CT are not yet fully understood.

Strong information systems are essential to safe and effective immunization programs. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout presented all immunization information systems (IIS) with challenging demands – requiring in-depth vaccine implementation data at all health system levels in real-time. The system development approaches taken by countries were heterogeneous, with some countries opting to adapt existing systems and others implementing new ones.

In the fall of 2020, the COVID-19 infodemic began to affect public confidence in and demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. While polls indicated what consumers felt regarding COVID-19 vaccines, they did not provide an understanding of why they felt that way or the social and informational influences that factored into vaccine confidence and uptake. It was essential for us to better understand how information ecosystems were affecting the confidence in and demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.

Although long-acting, injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has proven efficacious for HIV prevention in clinical trials, research is needed to guide effective implementation in real-world settings. Formative work with community members and health care providers (HCPs) is important to provide insight into the needs and contexts of specific populations and reveal potential barriers and facilitators for implementation projects.

This study updates the initial COVID-19 pandemic surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 2020 by providing 2 additional years of data for the region.