Predicting asthma morbidity in Harlem emergency department patients.

Objectives: To determine predictors of asthma morbidity in African American patients with asthma. Proxies for asthma morbidity were emergency department (ED) visits for asthma and hospitalizations for asthma.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study that evaluated baseline predictors of asthma morbidity in adults in an urban, predominantly African American community in New York City.

Early continuity of care and immunization coverage.

Objective: We examined the relationship between early and exclusive continuity of care at the initial source of care and immunization coverage.

Methods: We used a cohort study design with 641 randomly selected children initiating care before 3 months and making 2 or more visits to an inner-city practice network. We used 2 complementary data sources: medical records and the New York City Department of Health Citywide Immunization Registry.

Evolution of epidemiologic methods and concepts in selected textbooks of the 20th century.

Textbooks are an expression of the state of development of a discipline at a given moment in time. By reviewing eight epidemiology textbooks published over the course of a century, we have attempted to trace the evolution of five epidemiologic concepts and methods: study design (cohort studies and case-control studies), confounding, bias, interaction and causal inference. Overall, these eight textbooks can be grouped into three generations.

Community-provider partnerships to reduce immunization disparities: field report from northern Manhattan.

In 1996 we launched a community-provider partnership to raise immunization coverage for children aged younger than 3 years in Northern Manhattan, New York City. The partnership was aimed at fostering provider knowledge and accountability, practice improvements, and community outreach. By 1999 the partnership included 26 practices and 20 community groups.

Characteristics and correlates of asthma knowledge among emergency department users in Harlem.

We constructed a questionnaire to assess asthma knowledge, assessed its psychometric properties, and examined its association with demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors, and disease severity and management in 375 adults following an asthma-related emergency department visit. Overall knowledge was poor but varied widely among respondents. Better knowledge was related to younger age, higher education, and less severe disease.

Patterns and predictors of asthma-related emergency department use in Harlem.

Study Objectives: To assess the roles of poor access to care, psychological risk factors, and asthma severity in frequent emergency department (ED) use.

Design: A cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Harlem Hospital Center ED and outpatient chest clinic.

Survival of premenopausal women with breast carcinoma: effects of menstrual timing of surgery.

Background: It is controversial whether the timing of tumor excision relative to the menstrual cycle influences the survival of patients with breast carcinoma.

Methods: Premenopausal patients (n=614) who had surgery for invasive, nonmetastatic breast carcinoma during the period 1978-1988 participated in an epidemiologic survey, reporting their menstrual cycle length and the date of their last menses. We ascertained deaths from any cause before 1993.