Health Needs Assessment of Plain Populations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

We performed a health needs assessment for three Plain communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from a random sample of households. Compared with the general population of adults, Plain respondents were more likely to be married, to have children, and they had large families; they were more likely to drink well water, to eat fruit and vegetables, to drink raw milk, and to live on a farm. Plain respondents had better physical and mental health and were less likely to have been diagnosed with various medical conditions compared with the general population of adults in Lancaster County but Old Order Mennonite respondents were more likely to have been diagnosed compared with Old Order Amish respondents.

Using brief clinician and parent measures to track outcomes in outpatient child psychiatry: longer term follow-up and comparative effectiveness.

Background:   This study explored the feasibility and validity of using brief clinician- and parent-rated measures routinely over 6 months in outpatient child psychiatry.

Method:   All patients under 18 years of age seen for intake in the Child Psychiatry Clinic from 1 August 2007 through 31 July 2010 were eligible for inclusion in the study. Data were collected at intake for 1033 patients and at 3- and 6-month follow-up.

Quality of care provided to individual patients in US hospitals: results from an analysis of national Hospital Quality Alliance data.

Background: There is little national data on the characteristics of patients who receive high quality inpatient care defined as either the receipt of all applicable processes (all-or-none performance) or the proportion of applicable processes received during their hospitalization.

Objectives: To assess the quality of care provided to patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure or pneumonia, to describe variations in quality by patient and hospital characteristics, and the sensitivity of all-or-none performance to the number and type of processes.

Design And Subjects: Retrospective analysis of previously unavailable Hospital Quality Alliance patient-level data on 2.

The natural history of light smokers: a population-based cohort study.

Introduction: Among cigarette smokers, lower levels of consumption, defined as smoking fewer cigarettes per day (CPD) or not smoking daily, are becoming more common. The relationship between cigarette consumption and smoking frequency (daily or nondaily) is not well characterized, and the natural history of light smoking (defined here as smoking < or =10 CPD) is poorly understood.

Methods: We assessed changes in CPD and smoking frequency over time among light smokers (< or =10 CPD) and very light smokers (< or =5 CPD), using a population-based longitudinal survey of 3,083 adult smokers in Massachusetts who were interviewed three times over a 4-year follow-up period (in 2000-2001, 2002-2003, and 2005-2006).