How the doughnut hole affects prescription fulfillment decisions involving cardiovascular medications for Medicare Part D enrollees.

Purpose: The unsupplemented Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit does not provide coverage for stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) beneficiaries within the coverage gap (often called a doughnut hole) in Medicare Part D.

Design: We evaluated whether the doughnut hole was a factor in altering prescription fulfillment decisions regarding cardiovascular medications in Part D beneficiaries.

Methodology: We investigated 500 Medicare Part D members' pharmacy adjudication records (all prescription transactions) for one full year from a blinded, national Part D HMO pharmacy database.

Too much of a good thing: curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance.

The relationships between personality traits and performance are often assumed to be linear. This assumption has been challenged conceptually and empirically, but results to date have been inconclusive. In the current study, we took a theory-driven approach in systematically addressing this issue.

The interrelationships between abdominal adiposity, leptin and bone mineral content in overweight Latino children.

Background/aims: The link between abdominal fat and bone mineral content (BMC), independent of weight, has not been extensively studied. In Latino children, the contributions of abdominal subcutaneous and visceral fat to BMC have not been examined. Research on the effect of leptin on BMC has also been inconclusive.

Constructivist strategies in online distance education in nursing.

This article reviews the use of constructivism in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms, as opposed to the online learning environment. The applicability of constructivism to nursing education is discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for online nursing education programs, offering ways that constructivist methodologies can be applied to online distance education.

Resting energy expenditure: a stronger marker than body weight for bone mineral density in white women but not men? The Rancho Bernardo study.

Objective: To investigate the association between resting energy expenditure (REE) and bone mineral density (BMD) in white adults.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: White, middle-class to upper middle-class community-dwelling adults.

Addressing disease surveillance needs for marine recreational bathers.

Contamination of the nearshore marine environment contributes to a high burden of illness among recreational bathers. Disease surveillance activities carried out by local, state, and territorial agencies in the United States are at present voluntary and passive. Several gaps in the existing regulatory framework for beach management and public health protection are highlighted in this paper.

Web-based investigation of water associated illness in marine bathers.

Internet-based methods of disease investigation have proven useful for drinking water and foodborne illness but have not been applied to recreational water illness (RWI) in marine bathers. We analyzed responses to a web-based survey posted by Surfrider Foundation over the period 1996-2005. Subjects (n=1895) were recruited by self-selection via website visitation.