Given the number of individuals in the United States with limited English proficiency (LEP), there is a need to develop and test effective and timely methods of providing interpretation in health care settings. Lion and colleagues conduct a randomized trial of traditional telephone vs video interpreter use in 290 Spanish-speaking LEP parents of children treated in the emergency department. Families with LEP who received video interpretation were more likely to correctly name the child’s diagnosis and had fewer lapses in interpreter use. The accompanying editorial by Jacobs and Vela discusses the implications for providing appropriate care for LEP patients.
Editorial
The effectiveness of abusive head trauma prevention programs to decrease the rate of this severe injury is unclear. Zolotor and colleagues conduct a statewide prevention program, using the Period of PURPLE Crying intervention delivered by nurses to parents of newborns in North Carolina. There was no reduction in state-level abusive head trauma rates, although there was a decline in the number of telephone calls to a nurse advice line for infant crying. Wood’s editorial discusses the need for other strategies to address the problem of this severe form of child abuse.
Editorial
Author Audio Interview
One component of the evaluation of young children with minor blunt head trauma is the guardian’s report of whether the child is acting abnormally at the time of emergency department evaluation. Using data from the PECARN study of traumatic brain injury (TBI), Nishijima and colleagues examine the likelihood of a clinically important TBI in children with a guardian report of acting abnormally. Of the 411 children in whom this was the only finding, 1 child had a clinically important TBI. Among those with other findings as well as report of acting abnormally, 3.3% had clinically important TBI.
Sexual assault on college campuses is an unfortunately too common occurrence. Swartout and colleagues investigate the extent to which most campus rapists consistently perpetrated rape during their high school and college years, using data from 2 large longitudinal studies of college men’s sexual violence. While 10.8% of men reported committing rape at least once from 14 years of age though the end of college, 72.8% who committed college rape only did so during 1 academic year. In her accompanying editorial, Campbell discusses the implications of the study and the dearth of high-quality research data in this field.
Editorial, Letter, and Patient Page
Continuing Medical Education and Journal Club
Postnatally acquired cytomegalovirus (CMV) is typically benign in term infants but in very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants can cause pneumonitis and sepsislike illness. In this cohort study of VLBW infants treated in 348 neonatal intensive care units, Kelly and colleagues examine the effect of postnatal CMV infection on cardiorespiratory status. Postnatal CMV infection at less than 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age was associated with an increased risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia but was not associated with death before hospital discharge.
Editorial