Meghan Ross, Senior Associate Editor

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants play an important role in curbing childhood obesity, which can lead to a variety of health and emotional problems both in adulthood and childhood.

More than three-quarters of patients given antibiotics to treat a suspected sexually transmitted disease like gonorrhea or chlamydia don’t actually test positively for the disease.

Text messages that provide advice, motivation, and support could make a difference for patients with coronary artery disease.

The percentage of Americans who have used opioids for nonmedical reasons has more than doubled over the course of a decade.

Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and the patients they care for should be aware that working long hours regularly is associated with a few chronic diseases.

Retail clinicians should make sure that their female patients at high risk for atrial fibrillation-related stroke are on appropriate therapy, as new study results published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggest that women aren’t prescribed blood thinners as often as men.

Retail clinicians should make a concerted effort to educate the parents of children with asthma about controller medications.

Bariatric surgery, or metabolic surgery, hasn’t traditionally been included as a standard intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Current and former smokers may not show all the signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but they may still have respiratory problems and use a variety of medications without any evidence basis.

Any woman capable of becoming pregnant should consider taking a daily supplement of folic acid.

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants working in retail clinics may not need to recommend celiac disease screening for patients lacking symptoms, including those at increased risk.

The impact of obstructive sleep apnea on diabetes was unknown, until now.

Given the limited access to hepatitis C virus (HCV) specialists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants should begin to manage HCV in the community setting.

The World Health Organization created its first hepatitis C treatment guidelines back in 2014, but it just released some updates that promote the use of newer and more effective medicines.

The effects of maternal obesity and gestational diabetes on babies can be observed earlier than previously thought.

Pears are better than apples, at least in terms of waistlines.

Exercising even a little bit can help COPD patients reduce their risk of death.

Is obesity a big issue in your area?

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants should inform obese or overweight women taking oral contraceptives that they face an increased risk for cerebral venous thrombosis.

When it comes to accurately checking a patient’s blood pressure, retail clinicians are a safer bet than a mobile app.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are less likely to visit the emergency room when they receive care from a nurse practitioner or physician assistant than a physician.

Obese children and adolescents may be more likely to see dangerously high blood pressure.

Retail clinicians should inform patients with active asthma that they may be at greater risk for abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants working in retail clinics may want to encourage their patients to stick to the DASH diet to lose weight, lower cholesterol, and manage or prevent diabetes.

Retail clinicians can help alert women of child-bearing age that if they are obese and diabetic prior to getting pregnant, they are more likely to have a baby with autism.

Recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Preventive Services Task Force do not give retail clinicians clear direction on whether they should screen children for high cholesterol.

In the wake of Winter Storm Jonas, retail clinicians should highlight some of the dangers associated with snow shoveling for their patients with heart disease, hypertension, and high cholesterol.

Retail clinicians have their work cut out for them on improving medication adherence among patients with high cholesterol.

One way retail clinicians can encourage patients to make lifestyle changes is to share some of the risks associated with diabetes, including that the condition is linked with early development of disabilities.

Rising hypertension-related hospital admissions provide an opportunity for retail clinicians to focus on treating and monitoring patients with high blood pressure.