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Aspirin versus Placebo Does Not Result in Significant Reduction in Vascular Events
In an intention-to-treat, double-blind, randomized controlled trial, researchers found that the administration of aspirin compared with placebo did not result in a significant reduction in vascular events among participants without clinical cardiovascular disease. Those participants were identified as having a low ankle-brachial index (ABI) based on screening a general population. The authors claimed the trial was the first to report on the effectiveness of aspirin in reducing major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in individuals from the general population who were free of clinica
Health Disparities Collaboratives Have Minimal Effect on Racial/Ethnic and Insurance Disparities in US Community Health Centers
In a recent controlled preintervention/postintervention study, researchers found that although Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Health Disparities Collaboratives (HDCs) are known to improve quality of care in community health centers (CHCs), they had minimal effect on racial/ethnic and insurance disparities. The results were published in Archives of Internal Medicine [2010;170(3):279-286].
Publicly supported CHCs are responsible for caring for >15 million Americans, many of whom are members of groups that have previously been documented to receive
General Practitioners Do Not Adhere to Clinical Guidelines when Treating Low Back Pain
General practitioners are not following international evidence-based guidelines when treating patients presenting with new cases of low back pain, according to results of a recent study [Arch Intern Med. 2010;170:271-277].
Evidence has shown that clinical practice guidelines are both cost-effective and time-efficient when physicians base their treatment of low back pain upon them. Researchers recently conducted a study to examine how closely general practitioners in Australia follow guidelines when they treat patients with acute low back pain. They also sought to find an
Medical Management of Extreme Obesity Effective in the Primary Care Setting
Results from a randomized, controlled, clinical trial [Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):146-154] show that primary care practices can initiate effective medical management programs to treat extremely obese patients but maintaining weight loss remains difficult and needs further study.
Although therapeutic techniques that include diet, exercise, and drug and behavioral therapies are commonly used to treat obesity, few data exist on using these techniques to treat extreme obesity, and surgery is often considered the best treatment. However, surgery is often not available and other opti
Relationship Between Primary Care Visit Duration and Quality of Care
In the discussion of healthcare reform in the United States, primary care physicians have been focused on as the point practitioners in the drive to deliver higher-quality care and to lower costs. Meanwhile, patient populations have increased, growing older and more complex, while net income for primary care physicians dropped by 10.2% between 1995 and 2003. Studies have indicated that greater patient satisfaction is associated with perceived and actual visit duration, and that a poor provider relationship may lead to lesser medication adherence.
The investigators wished to deter
Screening for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer: An Alternative View
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association [2009;302(15):1685-1692], Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, Yiwey Shieh, and Ian Thompson, MD, offer insight into the thinking behind screening for breast cancer and prostate cancer. They note that those 2 cancers account for 26% of all cancers in the United States, with approximately 194,280 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 192,280 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.
The outcomes for localized versus advanced disease are widely different: breast cancer 5-year survival rates are
REQUIP XL is an oral dopamine agonist medication for Parkinson’s disease and had demonstrated significant improvement in the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
The Role of Immune Function in the Changing Landscape of RRMS Therapies
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an important
managed care health concern because it is one of the most common gastrointestinal (GI) disorders in the United
States. GERD affects nearly 18.6 million Americans, according to a national healthcare database analysis.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive
and disabling neurologic disorder. The disease is the most prevalent type of parkinsonism, a clinical syndrome caused by lesions in the basal ganglia, predominantly in the substantia nigra, which produces deficits in motor behavior.
