Micronutrients in Liver Disease: Roles, Risk Factors for Deficiency, and Recommendations for Supplementation.

Micronutrients are essential components of the diet and are required to maintain fundamental bodily functions. Liver disease has a profound effect on nutrient intake, metabolism of nutrients, and nutrition status, often resulting in some degree of malnutrition, including micronutrient deficiency. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can impair metabolic processes at the cellular and biochemical level even before clinical and physical alterations are seen.

Enhancing school-based asthma education efforts using computer-based education for children.

Background: Schools are an important site for delivery of asthma education programs. Computer-based educational programs are a critical component of asthma education programs and may be a particularly important education method in busy school environments.

Objective: The objective of this brief report is to review and critique computer-based education efforts in schools.

Racial differences in the willingness to use hospice services.

Objective: This study assesses whether racial differences exist in the willingness to use hospice services in the future among black and white adults and potential factors that may contribute to such differences.

Methods: Data were collected from the City of Cincinnati component of the Greater Cincinnati Survey. A total of 510 random-digit-dialed telephone interviews were completed, with 473 adults included in the analyses (220 blacks, 253 whites).

Characteristics and risk factors associated with high-cost Medicaid recipients.

Characteristics and risk factors of fee-for-service Medicaid patients (age < 65 yr) with high health care costs were assessed by analyzing Ohio's Medicaid claims database. High-cost recipients were defined as those with average monthly Medicaid expenses at or above the 90th percentile. The records of 10,582 high-cost patients and 11,045 comparison patients were examined for clinical comorbidity, mortality status, enrollment, and demographic factors, using logistic and logarithmic multiple regression.

Inappropriate hospital care and severity of illness: results from a nationwide study.

Little is known about the clinical characteristics of hospital patients who do not meet standard utilization review criteria for acute care settings. This study examined whether patients with either inappropriate hospital admissions or days of care were less severely ill on a number of indicators compared to those designated as appropriate by a widely used utilization review instrument. Using data from a probability sample of 6063 medical and surgical hospitalizations at 50 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers, we found strong associations between the appropriateness of admissions and days of care and four indicators of severity of illness.