This review examines whether initial symptoms (cognitive, behavioral, or functional) influences diagnostic accuracy and disease severity in dementia. Overall, our findings suggest that current screening tools for dementia emphasize a focus on cognitive symptoms, which leads to differences in detection accuracy across presentations. Across the board, cognitive screening tools demonstrated higher levels of sensitivity for early detection than functional and behavioral screening procedures. However, cognitive tests were often less specific at differentiating between presentations of dementia in comparison to functional and behavioral tests. This contrast creates a tradeoff where patients with initial functional or behavioral symptoms may be diagnosed later, ultimately impacting disease progression. Moreover, this discrepancy creates a risk of misclassification due to variability between diagnostic criteria and symptom presentation. To solve this problem, some studies tested the multidomain approach to diagnostic screening, such as combining cognitive and functional assessments. This testing method demonstrated improved diagnostic accuracy compared to single-domain tools, suggesting that broader screening strategies better capture the complexity of dementia and related symptoms. Although longitudinal data was limited, findings suggest that non-cognitive symptoms onset may be associated with more advanced disease progression, evidently reflected by delayed detection rather than a causation between symptomatology and severity.

Migraine is a disabling neurologic disorder that afflicts more than 1 billion people worldwide, characterized by recurrent attacks of moderate to severe headache often accompanied by photophobia, phonophobia, and nausea or vomiting. Recent studies disorders have explored the role of intracellular cysteine hydrolase N-acylethanolamine acid amidase (NAAA), that catalyzes the degradation of palmitoylethanolamide, an agonist of the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPAR-α) 4. Disabling NAAA in the spinal cord during a 72-hr time window following peripheral tissue injury halts chronic pain development in male and female mice; identifying NAAA as a crucial control node in the transition to chronic pain and a molecular target for disease-modifying medicines. The role of NAAA in a mouse model of migraine-like pain that recapitulates hyperalgesic priming was explored using a noninvasive dural stimulation model of migraine-like pain in juvenile female mice, specifically looking at symptom alleviation after the symptom onset. Suppression of NAAA activity will prevent the development of latent sensitization in a mouse model of migraine-like pain. Global NAAA knockout mice and monocyte-selective NAAA knockout mice did not exhibit latent sensitization responses to pH-7.0 stimulation, while their initial hyperalgesic responses to pH-6.0 stimulation were similar to WT mice. These results determined that targeting NAAA will be useful in preventing or suppressing the pain symptoms of migraine.

Somali and Oromo communities disproportionately face greater cancer mortality and low cancer screening rates. Low rates of screening are due, in part, to healthcare mistrust, stigma, and language barriers. Embedded within the community, Community Health Workers (CHWs) bridge the cultural gap between the healthcare system and their specific community to improve access and outcomes. Despite effectiveness, CHWs are underutilized in cancer prevention. We seek to enhance their capacity by developing a workshop tailored to the specific needs of East African communities. The overarching purpose of the parent study is to explore community and CHWs’ perspectives related to cancer, and the objective of this project is to find themes that impact CHW’s capacity to talk about cancer and prevention within the EA community. 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted to learn about CHW roles and training needs related to cancer prevention. An ongoing early-stage thematic analysis approach that combines deductive and inductive codes was used. Preliminary results show stigma stemming from fatalistic beliefs and fear contribute to low screening rates. Limited understanding of diagnosis proceedings and misinformation on how cancer develops also steer people away from screening. Results will inform a culturally-tailored CHW workshop prototype, guided by the community and CHW input.

Recognizing the social determinants that obstruct national access to healthcare, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented to ensure affordable health insurance and universal insurance coverage of services called “Essential Health Benefits” (EHBs). EHBs reflect recommendations evidenced as pivotal in preventively protecting population health by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The USPSTF, a council of preventive health and primary care experts, grades preventive medical services based on their net clinical benefit in protecting population health. These recommendations are federally mandated to utilize evidence from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), an organization that funds research, compiles data, and disseminates findings in an effort to improve healthcare infrastructure through evidence-based medicine. However, the existing preventive healthcare structure is at risk. The volunteer panel has not met since March 2025 and every meeting scheduled for 2026 has also been postponed or cancelled. Along with the proposed budget cut of 129 million dollars to the AHRQ, there are political pressures to preventive healthcare that jeopardize the quality and quantity of national standards of healthcare.