Geriatrician training in the care of elders with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.

Adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (IDD) are now living to late life. Whether geriatricians are being trained to provide care for this clinically complex subpopulation of elders has not been examined. Two thirds of all geriatric fellowship directors in the United States responded to a Web-based survey of curriculum and training in this area.

Calcium supplement use by African American women.

Introduction: Inadequate calcium intake is more common among women belonging to racial and ethnic minorities. This study examined the patterns and characteristics associated with calcium supplement use or nonuse among African American women, and the potential impact of physician recommendation on calcium supplementation.

Methods: African American women aged 19 to 65, attending community outreach activities sponsored by a multispecialty academic medical center in northeastern Ohio, completed a calcium supplement survey.

Environmental health and developmental disabilities: a life span approach.

Prenatal and childhood environmental exposures are an underrecognized primary cause of intellectual and other developmental disabilities. In addition, individuals with established disabilities are vulnerable to further harm from subsequent environmental exposures. In individuals with communicative impairment or limited ability to independently escape from hazards, these subsequent exposures, too, may occur undetected or untreated.

Barriers to supplemental calcium use among women in suburban family practice: a report from the Cleveland Clinic Ambulatory Research Network (CleAR-eN).

Background: The majority of adult women in the United States fail to meet daily calcium intake recommendations. This study was undertaken to (1) identify predictors of calcium supplement use versus non-use, (2) understand barriers to calcium supplementation, and (3) determine the potential impact of physician recommendation on calcium supplement use.

Methods: Surveys were self-administered by 185 women, ages 20 to 64, presenting consecutively for care at 6 suburban community-based family medicine practices within the Cleveland Clinic Ambulatory Research Network (CleAR-eN).

Cancer risk assessment: examining the family physician's role.

Background: Cancer risk assessment begins in the primary care clinician's office. Essential components of that process include: 1) documentation of personal and family cancer information; 2) identification of families at increased risk for cancer; 3) modification of cancer screening recommendations according to degree of risk; 4) referral of high-risk individuals to cancer genetics clinics. The purpose of this study was to examine these 4 components of primary care cancer risk assessment using data abstracted from patient records at an academic family medicine center.