RAND study finds higher quality outpatient care greatly benefits chronically ill patients
... study. Researchers from RAND developed a way to account for the issue by looking not only at the severity of a patient's primary disease, but by also examining the number and severity of patients' other diseases. In studying how care influences outcomes, researchers accounted for the unique ways in wh...Bioterrorism alerts induce anxiety and may pose health risk, Einstein study finds
...a potent bioterrorism message portraying a graphic account of a horrific case of bioterrorism, or a message more neutral in tone that presented bioterrorism as a risk that was minor relative to other public health challenges. Those receiving the more potent message became the "experimental" group, while thos...A system in need of change -- restructuring payment policies to support patient-centered care
... baseline physician payment update that takes into account the costs of delivering care, beneficiary access to services, workforce and other data on trends that may affect access and quality; provide ongoing funding for programs that can achieve quality improvements and cost efficiencies, and allow for targe...Offenders unlikely to seek help when experiencing mental distress
...aid that they would not consider attending a GP on account of mental health problems. Of those who were followed-up none had contacted a medical professional in the time between release and follow-up interview. The researchers found that three factors which appeared to influence whether or not the particip...Should Muslims have faith-based health services?
... we try to plan and configure our services to take account of needs that may have their roots in particular beliefs ... we cannot meet everyone's demands for special services based on their religious identity: it would not be practical." He goes on to argue that some faith groups might support practices whic...Education does not protect against age-related memory loss, say USC researchers
...nt. However, they caution that other factors could account for the difference, such as the possibility that less educated adults had a greater rate of decline earlier in life, before the data was collected....Over 200 million children under age 5 failing to reach their potential in cognitive development
...emocratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania) account for 145 million (66%) of the 219 million disadvantaged children in the developing world. "These disadvantaged children are likely to do poorly in school and subsequently have low incomes, high fertility, and provide poor care for their children, th...Ethnic disparities in alcohol services: financial and logistical barriers are key
...ol-treatment services, and analyses that take into account important factors such as socioeconomic status and alcohol problem severity," she said. "We looked at a wide range of services for alcohol problems since minorities in this study sought different types of care than those in the majority population,...Gene chip discovery may lead to individualized treatment for 5 hereditary liver diseases
... meet the needs of individual patients taking into account the patient's genetic make-up," adds Dr. Bezerra. "For now, the use of the gene chip gives families piece of mind, knowing what their child is living with. The next focus of advances will be the development of medication that may block progression o...Antenatal fish oil supplements boost kids' hand-eye coordination
...s. This finding held true even after taking into account other potentially influential factors, such as the mother's age and duration of breast feeding. High cord blood levels of omega 3 fatty acids at birth (from fish oil) were strongly associated with good hand-eye coordination, while low levels of ome...Costs of long-course palliative radiotherapy acceptable in late-stage lung cancer
...t course. However, that study did not take into account the higher costs of the longer treatment and the continued medical costs of the patients who survive longer with their cancer. For this new study, van den Hout and colleagues conducted a costutility analysis of the two treatments to see which offers ...Blood transfusions raise heart patients' infection and death risk -- especially women
...hers performed statistical analyses that took into account the patients' blood transfusion status, their co-existing diseases, age, race, sex, and whether the bypass operation was done on an elective, urgent or emergency basis. They looked at infections and deaths that were reported during the 100 days after...Fluid displacement from legs to neck can lead to obstructive sleep apnea
...tors in obstructive sleep apnea, but together only account for approximately one-third of the variability in the apnea-hyponea index," said Dr. Bradley. "A factor not ordinarily considered is fluid accumulation at the nape of the neck and around pharyngeal soft tissue. Obstructive sleep apnea is very common ...Researchers show surprising interaction between genes, gender and hypertension
...tic indices for hypertension must take gender into account to provide an accurate assessment of the role of genes in the origin, treatment and consequences of this complex trait." "Further studies may help scientists understand what genetic variables can predict the likelihood of a patient suffering from hy...Epidemic of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis may be larger than previously thought
...n 2004. Three countries China, India, and Russia account for over half of these cases. The median prevalence of MDR-TB in new cases was 1%. Eight countries, including Kazakhstan and Latvia, reported prevalence of multidrug resistance above 6.5%. A worrying increase in the prevalence of resistance to any dr...Analysis: Older men treated for early prostate cancer live longer than those not treated
..."We performed extensive statistical adjustments to account for these differences and still found that treatment was associated with longer survival." Wong emphasized that observation is a reasonable choice for many men since some prostate cancers grow slowly. Studies have shown that in recent years, only be...Older men treated for early prostate cancer live longer than those who are not
...ad to perform extensive statistical adjustments to account for study participants differences. Even with all these differences taken into account, there was still a significant improvement in the overall survival of those men who received active treatment. "This benefit was also seen across the board in all ...Drivers ignore the risk of mobile phone use
...ople and 40% will talk to passengers, all of which account for thousands of driver errors and crashes each year. In fact, one in every five crashes in this study was caused by driver distraction. The most common adverse effects of mobile phone use while driving were taking eyes off the road, slowing do...Consumer-driven health plans slow to catch on, 2nd annual survey finds
...uctibles high enough to qualify for health savings account but did not have an account. Ten percent of consu... enough to meet the threshold for a health savings account but who do not have an account. The final sample included 722 adults in consumer-driven health plans...Jury still out on net benefit of screening younger women for breast cancer
...her follow-up from this trial and should take into account the possible harms and costs as well as benefits," they conclude. In an accompanying Comment Benjamin Djulbegovic (H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, USA) states: "the decision of whether to recommend screening mammo...