News

Word cloud of women’s responses to whether they would want to know about an abnormality. Note. All words are included except stop words (e.g., “the”, “and”) and the size of the words is proportional to their frequency of appearance in women’s responses

January 30, 2023

Perceived Value of Prenatal Ultrasound Screening: A Survey of Pregnant Women

Dr. Marielle Gross' study highlights pregnant people's perceptions of prenatal ultrasounds as an inherently valuable source of information and preparedness. 95% of participants desired information about abnormal sonographic findings, and 50% would consider pregnancy termination for anomalies.

January 26, 2023

Disruptions of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Policy changes that promoted innovation and rethinking of protocols in sexual and reproductive health care

While providers faced many challenges at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, Dr. Megan Kavanaugh and her team found providers describing opportunities to innovate and rethink standard of care protocols that may continue to shape sexual and reproductive health care.

January 18, 2023

Greer Donley is the 19th most downloaded scholar on SSRN in 2022

Congratulations to Greer Donley for being one of the Top 50 most downloaded scholars on SSRN in 2022!

January 17, 2023

Lucas Berenbrok won the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award

Our pharmacy partner, Dr. Lucas Berenbrok, has won the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award for his leadership in developing over-the-counter hearing aid education for pharmacists and his innovative research of the accessibility of community pharmacists.

January 12, 2023

A qualitative study of social support and capital among individuals receiving an abortion in Georgia

Dr. Mosely and her team conducted in-depth interviews with post-abortion patients and found that:

Gender differences in household responsibilities by parenting status. Overall, there was no significant difference in reported time spent on household responsibilities by gender (46.4% [104/224] women vs 37.8% [45/119] men reported increased household responsibilities, P = .14). When examining time spent on household responsibilities by parenting status, there was no significant difference between women and men without children (14.6% [18/123] vs 24.5% [13/53], P = .17). However, in physicians with children

January 11, 2023

Gender, Parenting Status, and the Academic Productivity of Pediatricians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr. Kazmerski and her team found that the Covid19 pandemic impacted men and women physicians differently. Women physician parents were more likely to report decreased academic productivity than men with children, often citing unreliable childcare.

January 10, 2023

Explaining Racial-ethnic Disparities in the Receipt of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder During Pregnancy

Alice Gao, Dr. Liz Krans, and Dr. Marian Jarlenski found that later diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy among non-White/Hispanic women partially explains the disparities in medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) receipt in this population. Universal substance use screening earlier in pregnancy, combined with connecting patients to evidence-based and culturally competent care, is an approach that could close the observed racial-ethnic disparity in MOUD receipt.

Still from film with text: "When I am outdoors I can breathe"

January 9, 2023

Visualizing Mental Health Through the Lens of Pittsburgh Youth

Faculty member Dr. Sara Baumann used collaborative filmmaking to understand the mental health stressors and supports in the lives of youth during the Covid19 pandemic.

Descriptive survey data from the Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis (PUQE) tool for the total PUQE score (A) and components of PUQE score (hours of nausea [B], episodes of vomiting [C], and episodes of dry heaves [D]) among those with and without detectable urine 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH). The PUQE score evaluates symptoms over the previous 12 hours. E. Logistic regression model results for the association between THC-COOH and the primary outcome.

January 6, 2023

Association of cannabis use with nausea and vomiting of pregnancy

Dr. Jarlenski and her team evaluated whether cannabis use was associated with nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy, and found that higher THC levels were associated with increased odds of moderate-to-severe nausea (20.7% THC detected vs 15.5% in THC not detected).

Interaction plots of perceived stress scores and exclusive breastfeeding. (a) Perceived social support. (b) Received social support.

January 5, 2023

Stress, social support, and racial differences: Dominant drivers of exclusive breastfeeding

Findings by Drs. Dara Mendez, Jill Demirci, and Esa Davis show that:
- Childbearing people who reported higher perceived stress were less likely to breastfeed exclusively
- Perceived social support moderated perceived stress, thereby increasing the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding
- Received social support did not moderate perceived stress; however, it directly increased the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding
- Overall, Black childbearing people in our study were less likely to exclusively breastfeed

Increasing Access to Immediate Postpartum Contraceptive Implants (IPI) Among Patients with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD); 49.5% of participants use an IPI; 80.9% continued to use their implant one year postpartum; Offering patients with OUD the option of IPI is associated with high utilisation and continuation rates, and low rates of repeat pregnancy within one-year postpartum.

January 4, 2023

Increasing access to immediate postpartum contraceptive implants among patients with opioid use disorder

Drs. Elizabeth Krans and Beatrice Chen evaluated the effects of increased access to immediate postpartum contraceptive implants on repeat pregnancy and contraceptive use rates among patients with opioid use disorder.

National scale-up of the primary HPV screen-and-treat program in El Salvador.

January 3, 2023

Cervical Cancer Prevention in El Salvador

This Cervical Cancer Awareness Month we are highlighting Dr. Miriam Cremer's analysis on the improving prevention tactics, the impacts of Covid 19, and the potential solutions that can help eliminate cervical cancer in El Salvador.

Potential Solutions and Facilitators to Enhancing Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Rheumatology

December 22, 2022

Focus groups with rheumatologists and rheumatology advanced practice providers on sexual and reproductive health care

Dr. Traci Kazmerski, Olivia Stransky, Dr. Sonya Borrero, Dr. Megan Hamm, and Dr. Mehret Birru Talabi conducted focus groups with rheumatologists and rheumatology advanced practice providers to elicit their solutions to overcoming barriers to sexual and reproductive health care.

December 21, 2022

Dr. Jackie Ellison announced as committee member for the Society of Family Planning

The Society of Family Planning and Society of Family Planning Research Fund have announced their newest Committee members, including faculty member Dr. Jackie Ellison. In this role, Dr. Ellison will help advance the vision of just and equitable abortion and contraception informed by science through their work on the Annual Meeting Committee.