Post Hospitalization Clinical Quality Outcomes Among US Patients with Schizophrenia Treated with a Long-Acting Injectable or Switched to a New Oral Antipsychotic: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background:  Adherence to antipsychotic medication and care discontinuity remain a challenge to healthcare practitioners providing care to patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: This study used real-world data from a US hospital-based, all-payer database to examine clinical quality measures among patients with schizophrenia initiated on a long-acting injectable (LAI) or switched to a new oral antipsychotic medication (OAP) following a hospitalization.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study using the PINC AI™ Healthcare Database compared two cohorts of patients with schizophrenia on post-index hospitalization clinical quality and care continuity endpoints.

Procedure Costs of Peripheral Nerve Graft Reconstruction.

Unlabelled: Peripheral nerve injuries not repaired in an effective and timely manner may lead to permanent functional loss and/or pain. For gaps greater than 5 mm, autograft has been the gold standard. Allograft has recently emerged as an attractive alternative, delivering comparable functional recovery without risk of second surgical site morbidities.

Ninety-day all-cause emergency room use among coronary artery bypass grafting patients associated with near-infrared fluorescence imaging: a retrospective cohort study.

Unlabelled: Reducing emergency room (ER) use may indicate the improved quality of patient care at index hospitalization. The aim of this study is to determine whether the use of near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging with indocyanine green (ICG) during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is associated with a lowered 90-day all-cause ER use.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective cohort study included adult patients with inpatient hospitalizations between January 2016 and June 2020 for an isolated CABG procedure at a US hospital.

Is Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Less Deadly Now? Trends in In-Hospital Mortality Among Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in the United States.

After an initial decline from April through June 2020 (from 22.2% to 11.9%), adjusted in-hospital mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) inpatients peaked twice and was significantly higher than June 2020 for subsequent months except in July and October 2020.

A quality improvement tool to assess self-management support in primary care.

Background: Self management is an essential, central component of effective care for diabetes and other chronic illnesses, yet very few instruments exist to assess delivery or consistency of self-management support. The Assessment of Primary Care Resources and Supports for Chronic Disease Self-Management (PCRS) tool assesses both organizational infrastructure and delivery of self-management support services.

Methods: The PCRS was developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Diabetes Initiative and underwent several stages of development, including three pilot tests, review by experts, and implementation by a national quality improvement (QI) program.

Assessing delivery of the five 'As' for patient-centered counseling.

The '5As' model of behavior change provides a sequence of evidence-based clinician and office practice behaviors (Assess, Advise, Agree, Assist, Arrange) that can be applied in primary care settings to address a broad range of behaviors and health conditions. Although the 5As approach is becoming more widely adopted as a strategy for health behavior change counseling, practical and standardized assessments of 5As delivery are not widely available. This article provides clinicians and researchers with alternatives for assessment of 5As implementation for both quality improvement, and for research and evaluation purposes, and presents several practical tools they may wish to use.

Changes in adolescent cigarette-brand preference, 1989 to 1996.

Objective: To understand changes in cigarette-brand choice by adolescents in the context of demographic differences and advertising.

Methods: Data from 3 nationally representative cross-sectional surveys of adolescents were analyzed.

Results: Marlboro, Camel, and Newport brand cigarettes accounted for over 80% of the cigarettes usually bought by adolescents in 1989, 1993, and 1996.

ESRD patient quality of life: symptoms, spiritual beliefs, psychosocial factors, and ethnicity.

Background: Recent research suggests that patients' perceptions may be more important than objective clinical assessments in determining quality of life (QOL) for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Methods: We interviewed 165 hemodialysis patients from 3 sites using a QOL questionnaire that included the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and the McGill QOL (MQOL) scale, which includes a single-item global measure of QOL (Single-Item QOL Scale [SIS]). The MQOL scale asks patients to report their most troublesome symptoms.

Improving childhood asthma outcomes in the United States: a blueprint for policy action.

Background/objective: Asthma is increasingly being recognized as an important public health concern for children in the United States. Effective management of childhood asthma may require not only improving guideline-based therapeutic interventions, but also addressing social and physical environmental risk factors. The objective of this project was to create a blueprint for improvement of national policy in this area.

Rating our progress in population health promotion: report card on six behaviors.

Using McKinlay's population model of prevention, this series assesses the current state of the art for six lifestyle behaviors: tobacco use, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, and risky sexual practices related to human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). More progress has been made in "downstream" individually oriented treatments than in broader, more environmentally focused interventions. Promising trends include: a shift toward lower cost minimal-contact and self-help "downstream" programs; the development of tailored messages and stage-based "midstream" initiatives that can reach everyone in a defined population or setting; and the emergence of "upstream" policy advocacy strategies.

The impact of including incentives and competition in a workplace smoking cessation program on quit rates.

Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of a multicomponent smoking cessation program supplemented by incentives and team competition.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed to compare the effectiveness of three different smoking cessation programs, each assigned to separate worksite.

Setting: The study was conducted from 1990 to 1991 at three aerospace industry worksites in California.

Racial differences in the impact of smoking-attributable disease on health care costs in Indiana.

The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the direct health care costs attributable to smoking in Indiana and address these costs in the context of the differential health impact of tobacco use on minorities. Estimates of direct health care costs for smoking in 1990 were calculated using the Smoking Attributable Morbidity and Mortality and Economic Costs (SAMMEC 2.1) computer-based program developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The burden of smoking-attributable mortality among African Americans--Indiana, 1990.

Recent trends in smoking prevalence in Indiana indicate a slow decline in smoking prevalence among adults aged 18 years of age and under. Despite this decline, the smoking prevalence has remained consistently higher among Blacks compared to Whites. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the extent of mortality due to cigarette smoking in 1990 among Blacks and Whites in the state of Indiana.

Evaluation of the 1990 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention smoke-free policy.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of tobacco use among Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) employees and the effect of the smoke-free policy on smoking behavior and air quality at work.

Design: A stratified telephone survey of 1181 CDC/ATSDR employees randomly selected from employee rosters.

Setting: CDC/ATSDR work sites in Atlanta, Georgia, and other major CDC locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

Cigarette smoking prevalence by occupation in the United States. A comparison between 1978 to 1980 and 1987 to 1990.

We analyzed data from 1987 to 1990 National Health Interview Surveys and compared them with 1978 to 1980 National Health Interview Surveys data to determine changes in cigarette smoking prevalence by occupation. During this period, cigarette smoking prevalence declined from 31.7% to 24.

Trends in cigarette smoking among US physicians and nurses.

Objective: To determine trends in cigarette smoking prevalence among physicians, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses since 1974.

Design: Analyses of data on smoking prevalence among persons 20 years of age and older using combined National Health Interview Survey data sets from 1974, 1976, and 1977; 1978, 1979, and 1980; 1983 and 1985; 1987 and 1988; and 1990 and 1991.

Main Outcome Measures: Prevalence of cigarette smoking and average annual change in smoking prevalence.

Public attitudes about cigarette smoking: results from the 1990 Smoking Activity Volunteer Executed Survey.

The 1990 Smoking Activity Volunteer Executed Survey collected information on a wide range of policy-relevant issues concerning public attitudes about cigarette smoking. These issues include cigarette taxes, advertising restrictions, minors' access to tobacco products, school-based prevention, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in workplaces and public areas. Survey data were collected during the spring and summer months of 1990 from random samples of adults from Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Gastroenteritis outbreak in a Maryland nursing home.

From December 25, 1990, to January 12, 1991, an outbreak of acute viral gastroenteritis occurred among 132 residents and 102 employees of a Maryland nursing home. Illness typically lasted 24 hours and was characterized by diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. The attack rate was 46.

Using a low-cost, prize-drawing incentive to improve recruitment rate at a work-site smoking cessation clinic.

A major obstacle in promoting smoking cessation programs through work sites is recruiting adequate numbers of smokers. We used a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effect of a low-cost incentive (a prize drawing) for attracting participants to a smoking cessation clinic offered at multiple work sites. Sixty-eight automobile dealerships were randomized to either a "prize" or control group.

Effects of a smoker's hotline: results of a 10-county self-help trial.

The effect of a smokers' hotline as an adjunct to self-help manuals was examined. Subjects were 1,813 smokers recruited from a 10-county rural and small urban area. Counties were matched on demographic characteristics and assigned to a manual only or manual plus hotline condition.

Methodological note: corroboration of self-reported smoking status using significant other reports.

Significant other reports (SORs) are commonly used in smoking cessation studies to verify self-reports of smoking status. This report focuses on factors related to the smoker and significant other, which can affect self-reported classification of smoking status when using SORs. Data used in this analysis were collected from a cohort of 107 smokers who participated in a smoking cessation program.

Organizational factors affecting participation in a smoking cessation program and abstinence among 68 auto dealerships.

Abstract The effects of organizational factors on participation rates in a smoking cessation clinic and on one-year quit rates were examined among 68 private sector businesses. Free smoking cessation programs were offered to all smoking employees. Smokers (n = 844) were contacted to determine changes in smoking behavior; managers (n = 68) were also contacted to assess changes in smoking policy implementation over the past year.

Social influence processes in smoking cessation: postquitting predictors of long-term outcome.

Participants in a smoking cessation program completed measures of positive and negative social influence processes related to maintaining abstinence, along with measures previously associated with success in smoking cessation (e.g., motivation, stress, nicotine dependence).

Adoption of smoking policies by automobile dealerships.

Despite an increase in policies regulating smoking at the workplace, little research has been conducted on organizational factors that may be associated with the adoption of those policies. In November 1986, a survey assessing tobacco use habits was sent to 3,432 employees of 68 auto dealerships in western New York. Managers at the worksites were surveyed by telephone in 1986 and 1 year later to assess their attitudes about smoking by employees and changes in smoking policy implementation.