Recruitment of inner-city fathers/partners for a breastfeeding education program was feasible, and among men who attended, fathers' perceptions about their breastfeeding knowledge were positively impacted.

Growing evidence suggests that drug and alcohol use are fueling the heterosexual transmission of HIV among African Americans. This study aims to examine the relative contribution of drug and alcohol use of male and female partners to risks of heterosexual transmission of HIV among 535 African American HIV serodiscordant couples (N = 1,070 participants) who participated in an HIV prevention trial. Associations found between use of drugs and alcohol by one or both partners and sexual risk indicators varied by type of substance and whether male or female partner or both partners reported use. The findings suggest multiple ways in which substance use of male and female partners may be contributing to the heterosexual transmission of HIV and other STDs among African Americans and underscore the need for HIV prevention strategies to address dyadic patterns of substance use that lead to sexual risks.

Aim To explore UK professionals’ interpretations of medicines optimization and expansion of nurses’ roles. Design This mixed‐methods study sought professionals’ views on nurses’ involvement, competency and engagement in monitoring patients for adverse effects of medicines, monitoring adherence, prescribing and patient education. Method An online survey and interviews were undertaken with nurses, doctors and pharmacists in Wales and England, May 2018 to July 2019. Results In all, 220 nurses, 17 doctors and 62 pharmacists responded to the online survey, and 24 professionals were interviewed. Nurses were divided over extending their roles, with 123/220 (55.9%) wishing to extend roles in monitoring patients for possible adverse drug reactions (ADRs), 111/220 (50.5%) in adherence monitoring, 121/220 (55.0%) in prescribing and 122/220 (55.4%) in patient education. The best‐qualified nurses were the most willing to increase involvement in monitoring patients for ADRs (aOR 13.00, 1.56–108.01). Interviews revealed that both nurses and doctors assumed the other profession was undertaking this monitoring. Respondents agreed that increasing nurses’ involvement in medicines optimization would improve patient care, but expressed reservations about nurses’ competencies. Collaboration between nurses and doctors was suboptimal (rated 7/10 at best) and between nurses and pharmacists even more so (6/10 at best). Conclusion Juxtaposition of datasets identified problems with medicines optimization: although most respondents agreed that increasing nurses’ involvement would positively impact practice, their educational preparation was a barrier. Only ~50% of nurses were willing to expand their roles to fill the hiatus in care identified and ensure that at least one profession was taking responsibility for ADR monitoring. Impact To improve multiprofessional team working and promote patient safety, nurse leaders should ensure patients are monitored for possible ADRs by at least one profession. Initiatives expanding nurses’ roles in medicines optimization and prescribing might be best targeted towards the more educated nurses, who have multidisciplinary support.

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This paper examines the concordance of reported shared sexual behaviors, including condom use, among 535 heterosexual, African American, serodiscordant couples and identifies factors that might predict discordant reports. Percentages of agreement, Kappa and McNemar’s statistics and conditional probability indices are used to measure concordance. Logistic regression models identify predictors of couples’ discordant sexual reports. Analyses revealed Kappa statistics for reporting anal sex, fellatio and cunnilingus indicated moderate to substantial agreement. The effects of demographics and the couples’ relationship contexts on concordance of reported sexual behaviors were found to vary somewhat by gender and type of sexual behavior. Findings showed that concordance of reporting between the couples was consistent for the past 90 and 30 days. Findings from this paper provide new scientific insights into the knowledge base of self-reported couples’ data and suggest that these data can be used to evaluate their accuracy and serve as a proxy for validity.