Support providers of sexual minority women with breast cancer: who they are and how they impact the breast cancer experience.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with adjustment to breast cancer among sexual minority women with breast cancer and their support person.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, sexual minority women with breast cancer and their support provider were asked to self-report social support, distress, and coping, using standardized measures.

Results: Twenty-three (77%) women had a support provider participating in the study.

Oral phosphate binders in the treatment of pseudoxanthoma elasticum.

Background: Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a systemic connective tissue disorder involving elastic fiber calcification and fragmentation with major clinical manifestations occurring in the cutaneous, ocular, and cardiovascular systems. Normalization of the serum calcium-phosphate product through hemodialysis in a previous patient with perforating periumbilical PXE and elevated serum phosphate resulted in regression of skin lesions.

Objective: We sought to study the effect of pharmacologically limiting the intestinal absorption of phosphate in patients with PXE.

Emergency contraception: an intervention on primary care providers.

Objective: We studied whether a single educational intervention can change provider knowledge, attitudes and practice patterns with respect to emergency contraception (EC).

Materials And Methods: Primary care providers completed a preintervention survey prior to attending a lecture on EC, and again 6 months later. There were 50 physicians, 4 advanced practice nurses and 2 physician assistants in the final sample (internal medicine 48%, family medicine 34%, obstetrics-gynecology 9%, and pediatrics/adolescent medicine 9%).

Sexual minority women's coping and psychological adjustment after a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Objective: To determine factors that influence sexual minority women's coping responses and adjustment to breast cancer.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 64 sexual minority women with breast cancer who were recruited through targeted community-based sampling. In this study, sexual minority women consisted of three sexual orientation groups: those who self-reported partnering with women and those with a lesbian or bisexual identity.

Pap smear rates among Haitian immigrant women in eastern Massachusetts.

Objective: Given limited prior evidence of high rates of cervical cancer in Haitian immigrant women in the U.S., this study was designed to examine self-reported Pap smear screening rates for Haitian immigrant women and compare them to rates for women of other ethnicities.

Mammography use.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to compare mammography use in Haitian women versus that of other racial/ethnic groups in the same neighborhoods and to identify factors associated with mammography use in subpopulations that are seldom studied.

Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional survey sampled a multiethnic group of inner-city women from eastern Massachusetts. Bivariate analyses and logistic regression models were used to predict lifetime and recent (within two years) mammography screening.

Emergency contraception knowledge among women in a Boston community.

This study assesses the baseline knowledge of emergency contraception (EC) in a Boston neighborhood. A written survey was distributed to women aged 18-44 years in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. Of the 188 participants, 82% have heard of EC.

Effect of patient gender on late-life depression management.

Purpose: To determine whether patient gender influences physicians' management of late-life major depression in older and younger elderly patients.

Methods: In 1996-2001, physician subjects viewed a professionally produced videotape vignette portraying an elderly patient meeting diagnostic criteria for major depression, then answered interviewer-administered questions about differential diagnosis and treatment. Patient gender and other characteristics were systematically varied in different versions of the videotape, but clinical content was held constant.

Depression management in medical clinics: does healthcare sector make a difference?

Medical providers often fail to treat depression. We examined whether treatment is more aggressive in a setting with accessible mental health resources, the Veterans Health Administration (VA). VA and non-VA primary care physicians and medical specialists viewed a videotape vignette portraying a patient meeting criteria for major depression and then answered interviewer-administered questions about management.

Emergency contraception: prescribing practices of general internists compared with other primary care physicians.

Primary care physicians of all specialties should be familiar with prescribing emergency contraception (EC). We conducted a mail survey of 282 randomly sampled physicians in general internal medicine (31%), family medicine (34%) and obstetrics-gynecology (35%). Experience with prescribing EC significantly differed by specialty (63% of general internists, 76% of family physicians, and 94% of obstetrician-gynecologists, p < 0.

Inadequate follow-up for abnormal Pap smears in an urban population.

Purpose: To determine the factors associated with inadequate follow-up for abnormal Pap smears among a cohort of Boston women from urban academic clinics.

Methods: Subjects were women > 18 years with abnormal cervical cytology between February 1999 and April 2000. Inadequate follow-up was defined as lack of subsequent cervical cytology or pathology specimen within four months of the initial abnormal specimen for high-grade lesions or within 7 months for low-grade lesions.

[Swimming pool accidents in Denmark].

Introduction: The purpose of this article was to estimate injuries in connection with swimming pool activities.

Material And Methods: Through The Register of Accidents of The State Institute of Public Health, data of injuries in swimming pools were collected for the period 1998-1999. In that period of time the NOMESKO-classification was used for registration of injuries, a specific classification based on registration of injuries at five different Danish hospitals corresponding to 14% of the Danish population.

Sexual assault while in the military: violence as a predictor of cardiac risk?

The purpose of this article is to determine whether known cardiac risk factors are more prevalent among women veterans who report having sustained sexual assault while in the military. We surveyed a random sample of 3,632 women veterans using Veterans Administration (VA) ambulatory care nationally. Obesity, smoking, problem alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and hysterectomy before age 40 were found to be more common in women reporting a history of sexual assault while in the military than in women without such history.

Poor results with the Shuttle Stop: resorbable versus nonresorbable intramedullar cement restrictor in a prospective and randomized study with a 2-year follow-up.

In a randomized prospective study we compared 2 femoral plugs as regards probable migration of the restrictor, cement leakage and possible early aseptic loosening. In group I, the femoral canal was plugged with a resorbable Shuttle Stop (HC Implants, BV. Leiden, The Netherlands).

Peripapillary detachment in pathologic myopia.

Objective: To describe peripapillary detachment in pathologic myopia (PDPM), a newly recognized fundus lesion.

Design: Retrospective medical record review.

Methods: We evaluated a series of myopic eyes that had a yellow-orange elevation of the retina and retinal pigment epithelium at the inferior border of the myopic conus.

Early antidepressant therapy for elderly patients.

Purpose: We studied factors affecting the management of depression in older patients, especially the use of early antidepressant therapy.

Methods: We recruited 128 primary care physicians to view one version of a 5-minute videotape of an elderly patient with somatic symptoms that were suggestive of depression, and to complete an interview that assessed decision making. Using an experimental factorial design, 16 versions of the videotape were produced, holding constant the clinical features of the case, while varying the patient's age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status.

[Potentially marginalized 20-44-years-olds in general practice. Who are they? The results of a questionnaire screening].

Introduction: The study presents the results of a questionnaire screening of 20-44-year-old patients as introduction to a preventive intervention study in general practice. The purpose was to identify those with most problems or lack of resources and unhealthy lifestyle.

Material And Methods: In a cross-sectional study of the 20-44-year-old patients at 27 general practitioners, 2056 completed a questionnaire about resources, lifestyle, and family situation.

A qualitative evaluation of the National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health Program.

A qualitative evaluation was conducted at 15 nationally designated Centers of Excellence in Women's Health (CoEs) that were funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office on Women's Health at the time of data collection.