Context: Underlying chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection increases the risk of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) when receiving tuberculosis therapies. Prevalence of HBV and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) coinfection is not well reported and no studies have evaluated testing patterns for and prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection in the United States.
Objective: To evaluate patterns of HBV and LTBI testing and prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection in the United States.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Quest Diagnostics clinical laboratory data, 2014-2020.
Patients: Chronic HBV infection was defined as any combination of 2 positive HBV surface antigen, HBV e antigen, or detectable HBV DNA tests at least 6 months apart. LTBI was defined as a positive QuantiFERON-TB or T-SPOT.TB test without evidence of active tuberculosis infection.
Main outcome measurements: Testing patterns for chronic HBV infection and LTBI and prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection were evaluated from 2016 through 2020 and stratified by age, sex, and race and ethnicity.
Results: Among 89 259 patients with chronic HBV infection, 9508 (10.7%) were tested for LTBI, among whom prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection was 19.6%, more than twice the observed prevalence of LTBI in patients with no chronic HBV infection in our cohort. Among 394 817 LTBI patients, 127 414 (32.3%) were tested for HBV, among whom prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection was 1.5%, approximately 3 times higher than prevalence of HBV infection in patients with no LTBI. The HBV-LTBI coinfection prevalence was highest among Asian Americans and older individuals.
Limitations: The HBV-LTBI coinfection prevalence was likely underestimated because of suboptimal awareness and testing among at-risk populations.
Conclusion: Among US individuals with chronic HBV infection or LTBI, prevalence of HBV-LTBI coinfection is substantial and highlights the need of testing for HBV-LTBI coinfection to mitigate risk of DILI associated with tuberculosis medications in patients with chronic HBV infection.
Context: Authentic youth engagement is widely recognized as an efficacious strategy to promote adolescent health.
Program: The Providers and Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH) Youth Advocacy Fellowship was created to support Wisconsin's Adolescent Health Program. It strives to bring youth voice to the forefront of adolescent health conversations while also providing young people the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to thrive into adulthood.
Implementation: The Fellowship hires and trains Wisconsin youth, aged 12 to 21 years, to be a part of community- and state-based adolescent health conversations. Youth meet regularly as a team for ongoing enrichment and are provided opportunities to consult on adolescent-focused projects and initiatives. They are also responsible for independently completing an advocacy learning series, which culminates in an advocacy plan on a topic of personal interest. The Fellowship has been implemented as an extended 9-month program, as well as an expedited 8-week pilot.
Evaluation: An evaluation was conducted to compare the 8-week pilot (summer 2018) with 51 youth and the sequential 9-month Fellowship (2018-2019) with 12 youth. Based on the quantitative analysis of 2 programmatic evaluations (posttraining and postprogram), both program models showed success. Yet, there were distinct differences among self-reported youth outcomes as well as depth and extent of engagement. Across all 14 domains, the 9-month cohort demonstrated consistently higher mean scores. Half of the domains (7) showed statistically significant differences.
Discussion: When considering youth engagement, it is important for practitioners to determine the goals, needs, capacity, and resources of both youth and the organization. Engaging youth for shorter-term commitments may serve as an important health education strategy, providing youth important knowledge and skills. Yet, engaging youth for extended periods of time may result in more meaningful engagement, fruitful projects, and substantial changes in positive youth development.
Nonprofit hospitals frequently partner with their local health department on developing community health needs assessments (CHNAs); yet, little is known about the role that such partnerships play in strengthening the alignment between needs identified in hospitals' assessments and the strategies adopted by hospitals to address identified needs. Using data for 486 hospitals from the third round of CHNAs (spanning the years 2018-2021), this study showed strong alignment between the health needs identified in the CHNAs and those addressed in hospitals' implementation strategies, independent of collaboration with the local health department. One noteworthy exception to this finding was that hospital-public health collaboration remained important for improved alignment of needs related to substance use. Involvement of the local health department may strengthen hospitals' capacity to address needs outside their traditional areas of expertise, such as substance use.

