The role of race and ethnicity in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in four states: are there baseline disparities, and what do they mean for SCHIP?

Background: Elimination of racial and ethnic disparities in health has become a major national goal. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has the potential to reduce disparities among the children who enroll if they exhibit the same disparities that have been documented in previous studies of low-income children. To determine the potential impact of SCHIP on racial and ethnic disparities, it is critical to assess baseline levels of health disparities among children enrolling in SCHIP.

Children with special health care needs enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP): patient characteristics and health care needs.

Background: Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) often require more extensive services than children without special needs. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in many states typically provides less extensive benefits and services than do state Medicaid programs. To design SCHIP to address the needs of CSHCN adequately, it is important to measure the degree to which children who enroll in SCHIP have special health care needs and to assess their health status and unmet health care needs.

Performance of a mail-administered version of a stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and concurrent validity of a new, mail-administered, stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS).

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting And Patients: Stroke patients who had lived independently in the community prior to their stroke and who were candidates for post-stroke rehabilitation were recruited from nine, high-volume, Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Centers.

Adherence to postacute rehabilitation guidelines is associated with functional recovery in stroke.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if compliance with poststroke rehabilitation guidelines was associated with better functional outcomes.

Methods: An inception cohort of 288 stroke patients in 11 Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Centers hospitalized between January 1998 and March 1999 were followed prospectively for 6 months. Data were abstracted from medical records and telephone interviews.