Introduction: There is scarce information on the prevalence of axial spondylarthritis (axSpA) using the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) criteria and even less in Latin America. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of axSpA by applying the ASAS 2009 criteria to a medical records review study of young people with chronic low back pain (LBP) at a university hospital-based health management organization.
Methods: Electronic medical records from the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires health management organization were reviewed to estimate the prevalence of axSpA (radiographic axSpA [r-axSpA] and nonradiographic axSpA [nr-axSpA]) using the ASAS 2009 axSpA criteria in all patients with chronic LBP (≥3 months) aged <45 years at the first LBP appointment, observed between 2009 and 2019.
Results: Among 795 young people with CLBP, the estimated prevalence of axSpA was 5.78% (r-axSpA, 2.76%; nr-axSpA, 3.02%). Ten of 46 patients (21.74%) with axSpA (all nr-axSpA) were undiagnosed, with an undiagnosed axSpA prevalence of 1.26%. The median interval between the first LBP appointment and diagnosis was 34.6 months for axSpA (58.7 vs. 23.1 months for r-axSpA vs. nr-axSpA). Previously diagnosed r-axSpA and nr-axSpA patients had comparable use of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) (45% vs. 36%) and delays between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug failure and bDMARD initiation (median, 2.76 vs. 2.66 months).
Conclusion: In our cohort of young persons with chronic LBP, the prevalence of axSpA was approximately 6%, with a high prevalence of undiagnosed axSpA, which could explain the low prevalence of axSpA reported in previous studies in Latin America.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/RHU.0000000000002145 | DOI Listing |
J Eval Clin Pract
February 2025
Centre for Health Care Management, Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Intro: The article tests the hypothesis that we can draw practical knowledge from the experience of service providers operating in the past. The research questions were formulated: can the historical example of the organization of medical care in the Polish Children's Hospital named after Karol and Maria be used as a viable example today? Is it relevant for contemporary practitioners? And do we still use the knowledge of predecessors? The authors decided to use the interwar Hospital and an operating paediatric ward of the Child-Friendly Hospital for a comparative analysis.
Methods: The model of the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization for integrated delivery of health services was adopted as the analysis framework.
J Eval Clin Pract
February 2025
College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Aims And Objectives: Approximately 50% of Americans report having low health insurance literacy, leading to uncertainty when choosing their insurance coverage to best meet their healthcare needs. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between lack of prescription drug benefit knowledge and problems paying medical bills among Medicare beneficiaries.
Methods: We analysed the 2021 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Public Use File of 5586 Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥ 65 years.
J Eval Clin Pract
February 2025
Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Iran Biomed J
December 2024
Department of Health Education and Health Promotion, School of Health, Mashhad, Iran.
Med Care
November 2024
Institute of Clinical Biometrics, Center for Medical Data Science, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Background: Practice guidelines recommend patient management based on scientific evidence. Quality indicators gauge adherence to such recommendations and assess health care quality. They are usually defined as adverse event rates, which may not fully capture guideline adherence over time.
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