Increased Patient Activation Is Associated with Fewer Emergency Room Visits and Hospitalizations for Pain in Adults with Sickle Cell Disease.

Objective: Recurrent vaso-occlusive pain episodes, the most common complication of sickle cell disease (SCD), cause frequent health care utilization. Studies exploring associations between patient activation and acute health care utilization for pain are lacking. We tested the hypothesis that increased activation and self-efficacy are associated with decreased health care utilization for pain in SCD.

Technology use and preferences to support clinical practice guideline awareness and adherence in individuals with sickle cell disease.

Objective: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic condition affecting over 100 000 individuals in the United States, predominantly from vulnerable populations. Clinical practice guidelines, written for providers, have low adherence. This study explored knowledge about guidelines; desire for guidelines; and how technology could support guideline awareness and adherence, examining current technology uses, and user preferences to inform design of a patient-centered guidelines application in a chronic disease.

"The Questions Shape the Answers": Assessing the Quality of Published Survey Instruments in Health Professions Education Research.

Purpose: Surveys are widely used in health professions education (HPE) research, yet little is known about the quality of the instruments employed. Poorly designed survey tools containing unclear or poorly formatted items can be difficult for respondents to interpret and answer, yielding low-quality data. This study assessed the quality of published survey instruments in HPE.

Surveys of Health Professions Trainees: Prevalence, Response Rates, and Predictive Factors to Guide Researchers.

Purpose: To establish a baseline overall response rate for surveys of health professions trainees, determine strategies associated with improved response rates, and evaluate for the presence of nonresponse bias.

Method: The authors performed a comprehensive analysis of all articles published in Academic Medicine, Medical Education, and Advances in Health Sciences Education in 2013, recording response rates. Additionally, they reviewed nonresponse bias analyses and factors suggested in other fields to affect response rate including survey delivery method, prenotification, and incentives.

Epigenetics of drug abuse: predisposition or response.

Drug addiction continues to be a serious medical and social problem. Vulnerability to develop an addiction to drugs is dependent on genetic, environmental, social and biological factors. In particular, the interactions of environmental and genetic factors indicate the significance of epigenetic mechanisms, which have been found to occur in response to illicit drug use or as underlying factors in chronic substance abuse and relapse.