Background. There is marked ethnic or racial disparity in the utilization of joint replacement for osteoarthritis. The reasons are not known. Pain is the reason most patients with osteoarthritis seek care. Cultural and psychosocial factors influence how patients experience and express pain. We examined whether patient descriptions of chronic pain vary by ethnicity and if they correlate with important clinical measures used in arthritis care.
OBJECTIVES. This study describes the prevalence and predictors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behaviors among women living in low-income, inner-city housing developments. METHODS. Anonymous questionnaires were administered to 671 women living in 10 inner-city, low-income housing developments in five US cities to determine their levels of HIV risk behavior and predictors of HIV risk practices. RESULTS. Approximately one third of women were at high risk for HIV because of the risk behavior of their sexual partners. HIV risk was highest among women who accurately perceived themselves to be at increased HIV risk, held strong beliefs about barriers to condom use, and reported weak behavioral intentions to reduce risk. Women at higher risk were also younger and reported higher rates of alcohol and substance use. CONCLUSIONS. HIV prevention efforts are needed for inner-city women. Interventions should focus on overcoming women's barriers to condom use, strengthening their intentions to change behaviors, and managing the risk related to their use of substances.
Purpose: The clinical introduction of innovative prenatal genetic technologies challenges patients and providers to find new ways of fostering informed decision-making in a setting characterized by complexity and uncertainty. As prenatal genetic technology advances, important questions remain about how to structure patient-centered conversations that effectively prepare pregnant patients to make informed choices about the different genetic conditions for which this new form screening may be used. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with 23 pregnant women to identify informational needs and decision-making preferences regarding emerging and anticipated applications of cell-free fetal DNA screening, the newest form of prenatal genetic screening. Results: Participants were in favor of obtaining more genetic information about the fetus than provided by conventional screens but acknowledged the challenges inherent in navigating the unique complexities of the decision-making process. The provider–patient relationship was seen as an important resource to navigate the associated uncertainties at each stage of the screening process. Participants emphasized the need for initiatives to support a personalized, accurate, and unbiased discussion about prenatal genetic risk and assessment. Conclusion: Continued advances in prenatal genetic screening call for new approaches to structure patient-centered communication to facilitate increasingly complex decisions about fetal genetic risk and assessment.
and 2014, compared with 25.1% (89 of 354) and 39.5% (879 of 2225) for general payments, respectively.Receipt of research payments was associated with increased prescribing for mRCC but not CML.Similarly, when treating payments as a continuous variable, increasing amounts of general payments were associated with increased prescribing.Considering individual drugs, we found increased prescribing when receiving vs not receiving general payments for sunitinib (50.5% vs 34.4%, P = .01),dasatinib (13.8% vs 11.4%, P = .02),and nilotinib (15.4% vs 12.5%, P = .01)(Figure) but found decreased prescribing of imatinib (72.4% vs 75.5%, P = .02).Differences for sorafenib and pazopanib were not statistically significant.Research payments were not associated with statistically significant differences in prescribing for any individual drug.Results were similar when including payments specifically attributed to the drug of interest rather than all payments from the corresponding manufacturer and when changing the exposure to receipt of payments in both 2013 and 2014 (vs 2013 without respect to 2014).Our study had some limitations.These include the observational design precluding causal assessment, potential inaccuracies with Open Payments data, 5 lack of generalizability to other cancers, absence of information about the indications for the drugs, and small sample sizes for comparisons in the research payments analysis, notably for physicians receiving CML research payments.Conclusions | For 3 of the 6 cancer drugs studied, physicians who received general payments were more likely to prescribe the drug marketed by the company that made the payments.Imatinib was a notable exception; this may reflect a strategy by the manufacturer of imatinib (which also produces nilotinib) to promote switching to nilotinib before the patent expiration of imatinib in 2015.
Medical advances in transplantation techniques have driven an exponential increase in the demand for transplantable organs. Unfortunately, policy efforts to bolster the organ supply have been less than effective, failing to provide a stopgap for ever-increasing numbers of patients who await organ transplantation. The number of registrations on waiting lists exceeded 65,245 in early 1999, a 325% increase over the 20,000 that existed 11 years earlier in 1988. Regrettably, more than 4,000 patients die each year while awaiting transplantation.
Context Families' understanding of brain death may be a factor that contributes to decisions regarding organ donation. Objective To examine factors related to families' understanding of brain death and how those factors affect families' decisions about organ donation. Design Chart reviews were conducted on all deceased patients at 9 trauma hospitals. Interviews were then conducted with healthcare providers who spoke with families about organ donation and family decision makers. Setting Southwest Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. Participants The sample consisted of 403 families of organ donor–eligible patients who reported that someone at the hospital told them the patient was brain dead. Main Outcome Measures Families' awareness of brain-death testing procedures, understanding of brain death, and donation decision. Results Most families (96%) were told their family member was brain dead, but only 28.3% were able to provide a completely correct definition of brain death. No association between the definition of brain death and willingness to donate was found. Those who donated were less likely to agree with the statement that someone is dead only when the heart stops than those who did not donate. Respondents who accepted that their loved one was dead when informed the patient was brain dead were more likely to donate than those who did not consider the patient dead until mechanical support was turned off and the heart stopped.
Introduction: A risk calculator paired with a personalized decision aid (RC&DA) may foster shared decision-making in primary care. We assessed the feasibility of using an RC&DA with patients in a primary care outpatient clinic and patients’ experiences regarding communication and decision-making. Methods: This pilot study was conducted with 15 patients of 3 primary care physicians at a clinic within a tertiary medical center. An atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk calculator was used to generate a personalized RC&DA that displayed absolute 10-year risk information as an icon array graphic. Patient perceptions of utility of the RC&DA, preferences for decision-making, and uncertainty with risk reduction decisions were measured with a semi-structured interview. Results: Patients reported that the RC&DA was easy to understand and knowledge gained was useful to modify their ASCVD risk. Patients used the RC&DA to make decisions and reported low uncertainty with those decisions. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of, and positive patient experiences related to using, an RC&DA to facilitate shared decision-making between physicians and patients in an outpatient primary care setting.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are chronic conditions affecting millions of individuals in the United States. The symptoms are well-documented and can be debilitating. How these chronic gastrointestinal (GI) conditions impact the daily lives of those afflicted is not well documented, especially from a patient's perspective. Here we describe data from a series of 22 focus groups held at three different academic medical centers with individuals suffering from chronic GI conditions. All focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. Two research team members independently analyzed transcripts from each focus group following an agreed upon coding scheme. One-hundred-thirty-six individuals participated in our study, all with a chronic GI related condition. They candidly discussed three broad themes that characterize their daily lives: identification of disease and personal identity, medications and therapeutics, and daily adaptations. These all tie to our participants trying to deal with symptoms on a daily basis. We find that a recurrent topic underlying these themes is the dichotomy of experiencing uncertainty and striving for control. Study participants' open dialogue and exchange of experiences living with a chronic GI condition provide insight into how these conditions shape day-to-day activities. Our findings provide fertile ground for discussions about how clinicians might best facilitate, acknowledge, and elicit patients' stories in routine care to better address their experience of illness.
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