Health disparities in diabetes treatment: The challenge of G6PD deficiency.

Aims: To assess the impact of Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, an enzymatic deficiency prevalent in individuals of African or Asian descent, on Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, diabetes medication purchases, and the cumulative incidence of diabetes related complications.

Methods: A large cohort study was conducted within a national health organization, comparing 3,913 G6PD-deficient patients to a matched control group without G6PD deficiency over two decades. The main measures and outcomes were the HbA1c levels, patterns of diabetes medication purchases, and the incidence of severe diabetes-related complications.

Pain-Associated Diagnoses in Childhood Before the Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Population-Based Study.

Pediatric pain significantly affects children's lives, leading to school absenteeism, impaired social interactions, and psychological distress. The perception of sensory signals as pain is influenced by the brain's noradrenergic system, and recent evidence suggests that chronic pain may impact cognitive functioning and emotional regulation. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with alterations in the dopaminergic/noradrenergic systems, which could affect pain perception.

"A day in the life" - telemedicine in family medicine and its relationship with practicing physicians' satisfaction: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Telemedicine has expanded rapidly in recent years, and many encounters that were conducted in person now take place remotely. This study aimed to assess primary care physicians' (PCPs) attitudes towards the different modalities of patient care.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional nationwide descriptive study conducted in Israel.

Adherence to diabetes quality indicators in primary care and all-cause mortality: A nationwide population-based historical cohort study.

Background: In the last three decades, much effort has been invested in measuring and improving the quality of diabetes care. We assessed the association between adherence to diabetes quality indicators and all-cause mortality in the primary care setting.

Methods: A nationwide, population-based, historical cohort study of all people aged 45-80 with pharmacologically-treated diabetes in 2005 (n = 222,235).

Identifying Diabetes Related-Complications in a Real-World Free-Text Electronic Medical Records in Hebrew Using Natural Language Processing Techniques.

Background: Studies have demonstrated that 50% to 80% of patients do not receive an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code assigned to their medical encounter or condition. For these patients, their clinical information is mostly recorded as unstructured free-text narrative data in the medical record without standardized coding or extraction of structured data elements. Leumit Health Services (LHS) in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) conducted this study using electronic medical records (EMRs) to systematically extract meaningful clinical information about people with diabetes from the unstructured free-text notes.

The Association Between Repeated Measured Febrile Episodes During Early Childhood and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Large-Scale Population-Based Study.

Objective: We examined the association between the number, magnitude, and frequency of febrile episodes during the 0 to 4 years of life and subsequent diagnosis of ADHD.

Methods: This population-based case-control study in an Israeli HMO, Leumit Health Services (LHS), uses a database for all LHS members aged 5 to 18 years between 1/1/2002 and 1/30/2022. The number and magnitude of measured fever episodes during the 0 to 4 years were recorded in individuals with ADHD ( = 18,558) and individually matched non-ADHD controls in a 1:2 ratio ( = 37,116).

Clinical characteristics and healthcare utilisation associated with undiagnosed cognitive impairment in elderly patients with diabetes in a primary care setting: a population-based cohort study.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to report the prevalence, clinical characteristics and healthcare utilisation of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and previously undiagnosed cognitive impairment who were identified as having a low Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score.

Design: A population-based cohort study comparing clinical characteristics, medications, outpatient and inpatient care of patients with a MoCA score <19 to MoCA >26 using descriptive statistics, linear regression and multivariate logistic regression.

Setting: Electronic medical records of a large health maintenance organisation in Israel.

A case-control study for comorbidity and laboratory factors associated with food-induced anaphylaxis.

Food-induced anaphylaxis (FIA) is a serious and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction triggered by food allergens. This case-control study aimed to investigate comorbidities and laboratory factors associated with FIA in the pediatric population of Israel. Retrospective data from the electronic health records of Leumit Health Care Services were used to identify 711 pediatric patients with FIA and 2560 subjects with food allergy and without anaphylaxis matched for age, gender, and ethnicity.

Increased Rate of Familial Mediterranean Fever in Children With ADHD: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.

Objective: There is growing evidence of involvement of inflammatory mechanisms in ADHD. Previous studies found significantly higher rates of ADHD among children with FMF. The present study examined the rate of exposure to FMF in children with a later (within a 5-year period) diagnosis of ADHD compared to non-ADHD children.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and long-term risk of immune-related disorders.

Introduction: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is an X-linked enzymatic disorder that is particularly prevalent in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. This study aimed to assess the long-term health risks associated with G6PD deficiency.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from a national healthcare provider in Israel (Leumit Health Services).

The professional agenda and its effect on the implementation of telemedicine among primary care physicians: A qualitative study.

Introduction: Studies show that physicians' attitudes are a major influential factor in the degree of implementation of telemedicine and that most of them identify much more opportunities in this type of visit than risks. These findings do not explain the observed decrease in the use of telemedicine in primary care with the decline of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of our study was to understand the gap between the attitudes that primary care physicians declare towards telemedicine and the extent to which they use it in practice.

Greater temporal regularity of primary care visits was associated with reduced hospitalizations and mortality, even after controlling for continuity of care.

Background: Previous studies have shown that more temporally regular primary care visits are associated with improved patient outcomes.

Objective: To examine the association of temporal regularity (TR) of primary care with hospitalizations and mortality in patients with chronic illnesses. Also, to identify threshold values for TR for predicting outcomes.

The Association of Weight Reduction and Other Variables after Bariatric Surgery with the Likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

Background And Aims: Although obesity has been confirmed as a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and its severity, the role of post-bariatric surgery (BS) variables and the infection is unclear. We, therefore, aimed to study comprehensively the relationship between the extent of weight reduction after surgery and other demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables with the rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was performed, utilizing advanced tracking methodologies on the computerized database of a nation-wide health maintenance organization (HMO).

Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Coronavirus Disease 2019.

In this cohort study conducted in a national healthcare organization in Israel, we found that individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency had an increased risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and severity, with higher rates of hospitalization and diagnosed long COVID.

Biologic therapy is associated with malignancies among Israeli patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A population-based study.

Aims: To examine whether biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) are associated with increased risk of malignancy among Israeli patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: We identified RA patients meeting specified inclusion and exclusion criteria from the Leumit healthcare services database between the years 2000 and 2017. Data were collected regarding bDMARD and conventional DMARD consumption, types of malignancies, and their temporal relation to RA diagnosis.

Patient-level predictors of temporal regularity of primary care visits.

Background: Patients with chronic diseases should meet with their primary care doctor regularly to facilitate proactive care. Little is known about what factors are associated with more regular follow-up.

Methods: We studied 70,095 patients age 40 + with one of three chronic conditions (diabetes mellitus, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cared for by Leumit Health Services, an Israeli health maintenance organization.