Metabolic Correction in Patients Sample with Diabetes: Clinical Outcomes and Costs Reductions.

Diabetes is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Diabetes complications produce profound impact on patient's quality of life and represent very significant economic cost to patients, their family, the government and society as a whole. Metabolic correction has been proposed as an efficient method to improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs in diabetes.

Reducing quality-of-care disparities in childhood asthma: La Red de Asma Infantil intervention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Background And Objective: Although children living in Puerto Rico have the highest asthma prevalence of all US children, little is known regarding the quality-of-care disparities they experience nor the adaptability of existing asthma evidence-based interventions to reduce these disparities. The objective of this study was to describe our experience in reducing quality-of-care disparities among Puerto Rican children with asthma by adapting 2 existing evidence-based asthma interventions.

Methods: We describe our experience in adapting and implementing 2 previously tested asthma evidence-based interventions: the Yes We Can program and the Inner-City Asthma Study intervention.

Reduced exposure to secondhand smoke at casinos in Puerto Rico after the implementation of a workplace smoking ban in 2007: a pre-post design.

Objective: Tobacco use and the involuntary exposition to secondhand smoke (SHS) is one of the leading causes of cancer. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of the smoke free workplace ban implemented in March of 2007 in Puerto Rico on the exposure of casino workers to secondhand smoke measured in terms of fine particulate matter and cotinine level.

Methods: This study used a pre-post comparison design to measure exposure to secondhand smoke before (February, 2007) and after (December, 2007 to February, 2008) the workplace smoking ban was implemented.

The effect of the smoke-free workplace policy in the exposure to secondhand smoke in restaurants, pubs, and discos in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Background: Tobacco use and the involuntary exposition to secondhand smoke (SHS) is one of the leading causes of all cancers in the world. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of the smoke-free workplace policy implemented in March of 2007 in Puerto Rico on the exposition to secondhand smoke in restaurants, pubs, and discos of the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Methods: The study used a pre-post comparison design on a random sample of 55 establishments (32 restaurants and 23 pubs and discos) in the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The effect of Medicaid managed care on prenatal care: the case of Puerto Rico.

Objectives: From 1994 to the year 2000 the government of Puerto Rico implemented a health care reform which included the mandatory enrollment of the entire Medicaid eligible population under Medicaid managed care (MMC) plans. This study assessed the effect of MMC on the use, initiation, utilization, and adequacy of prenatal care services over the reform period.

Methods: Using the vital records of all infants born alive in Puerto Rico from the year 1995-2000, a series of bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the effect of insurance status (traditional Medicaid, MMC, private insurance and uninsured) on prenatal care utilization patterns.

Understanding hard-core drug use among urban Puerto Rican women in high-risk neighborhoods.

The objectives of the current study were to determine the incidence and prevalence of hard-core drug (HCD) use and to explore the predictors of HCD use in a three-wave longitudinal study of women ages 18-35 living in urban areas of high drug traffic in Puerto Rico. Prevalence of HCD use was determined by positive self-report or positive toxicological tests for crack, cocaine, or heroine at baseline and follow-up periods. Incidence density was calculated using Poisson methods.