Pediatric emergency department utilization in the 1970s.

An analysis was undertaken of 8,470 visits to a pediatric emergency department (ED) over a three-month period during 1975-76. The ED was busiest in the evening and on weekends. Visits were overwhelmingly for acute conditions, which varied seasonally.

Has Medicaid promoted needless pediatric emergency department use?

The possibility that Medicaid has encouraged pediatric emergency department (ED) use was explored as part of a study of 8470 ED visits to a pediatric teaching hospital in the period from 1975 to 1976. The proportion of the population on Aid to Dependent Children (proportion on ADC) was taken as a reasonable proxy for prevalence of Medicaid coverage of children in an area. Visit subgroups were compared using mean proportions on ADC in the census tracts of origin to measure relative rates of ED use by poor children.

Nervous tension and serum cholesterol: findings from the Chicago Coronary Prevention Evaluation Program.

Of 519 coronary-prone middle-aged men participating in the Chicago Coronary Prevention Evaluation Program, 416 reported their self-perceived state as one of no tension or tension at various periodic visits over years in the Program. Group mean serum cholesterol was significantly higher by about 4 mg/dl with tension vs. no tension (slight, moderate, or marked).

Smoking cessation in the Chicago Coronary Prevention Evaluation Program.

Quit-rates for cigarette smokers in a lifestyle intervention program aimed at reducing coronary risk were 24 percent for all participants and 34 percent for non-dropouts. Recidivism remained very low during participation in the program. Half of the smokers who quit did so after being in the program more than two years.

Methodological problems in characterizing an individual's plasma glucose level.

Two methodological problems in characterizing an individual's plasma glucose level are examined in this study. First, how large is the intra-individual variation of an individual's 1-hr post-load glucose level and for this estimated intra-individual variation what are the probabilities of misclassifying individuals based on a one-time measurement only of glucose level? Second, do different tests-i.e.