Publications by authors named "K M Birck"
Background: The gap in asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality is increasing in low-income racial/ethnic minority groups as compared with Caucasians. In order to address these disparities,alternative beliefs and behaviors need to be identified.
Objective: To identify causal models of asthma and the context of conventional prescription versus complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) use in low-income African-American (AA) adults with severe asthma.
Background: Sociobehavioral factors influence adherence to inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in adults with asthma and warrant exploration as explanations of apparent racial disparities in adherence.
Objective: The purposes of this study were to identify barriers to adherence, potentially modifiable by healthcare providers, in a group of African Americans and non-African Americans and to test modifiable barriers as explanations of racial-ethnic differences in adherence.
Methods: We conducted a cohort study of 85 adults (mean age, 47 +/- 15 years; 61 [72%] female; 55 [65%] African American) with moderate or severe persistent asthma to determine modifiable sociobehavioral predictors of adherence.
Background: Fluorocarbon emulsions have been proposed as temporary artificial oxygen carriers. The aim of the present study is to compare the effectiveness of perflubron emulsion with the effectiveness of autologous blood or colloid infusion for reversal of physiologic transfusion triggers.
Methods: A multinational, multicenter, randomized, controlled, single-blind, parallel group study was performed in 147 orthopedic patients.