Annals of family medicine
-
Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Characterizing acute and chronic complications among patients with diabetes mellitus in community health centers.
Context: Diabetes mellitus affects about 10% of the world's population and can lead to serious complications, which reduce life quality and expectancy. People with low income have higher risk of diabetes complications than those with high income, but data on the trends of diabetes complications in underserved populations are scarce. Community health centers (CHCs) serve millions of patients in the United States regardless of their health insurance status and are an ideal setting for assessing the rate of diabetes complications in underserved populations. ⋯ Patients with chronic complications were proportionally more likely to be male, non-Hispanic black, have health insurance, obesity, substance use disorder, longer period with diabetes diagnosis, and co-occurring conditions. Conclusions: The vast majority of patients with diabetes receiving care in CHCs had chronic complications. These findings are concerning, as diabetes-related complications are associated with greater healthcare utilization and patient morbidity.
-
Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
PTSD symptom improvement and smoking cessation among a sample of veterans.
Context: Poor health behaviors are common in persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD symptom improvement has been followed by better health behaviors such as medication adherence and use of nutrition, weight loss, and substance abuse treatment programs. Whether PTSD improvement is associated with smoking cessation is uncertain. ⋯ Among patients who quit smoking, about half remained non-smokers in the 12-months after initial quit date. Conclusions: A clinically meaningful reduction in PTSD symptoms was associated with smoking cessation in the 2-years after PTSD improvement. Not all patients with PTSD have access to PTSD treatment modalities that integrate smoking cessation therapy; however, PTSD treatment alone may improve patient self-efficacy and enable smoking cessation.
-
Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
More than cervical cancer: Understanding racial/ethnic disparities in oropharyngeal cancer outcomes among males by HPV status.
Context: Over the last two decades the incidence of male oropharyngeal cancers (OPCa) has increased rapidly in the United States, yet OPCa is mostly preventable. Differences in OPCa incidence and outcomes by race/ethnicity and human papillomavirus (HPV) status have not been previously studied. Objective: Examine racial/ethnic disparities in HPV-related and non-HPV related OPCa outcomes among males. ⋯ Adjusting for treatment eliminated the higher mortality among Hispanics, but not in Blacks. Conclusions: To decrease incidence rates of late stage OPCa, HPV vaccination and possibly, HPV OPCa screening should be advocated, especially in White males. Further research to explicate possible biologic mechanisms and behaviors or comorbidities contributing to the higher OPCa mortality among Black males is needed.
-
Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Effects of arts and medicine salon events on wellness of participants.
Context: In the early 20th century artists and scientists would gather together for mutual fellowship in salons. These events would allow sharing of ideas and experiences and led to new creative endeavors. This type of interaction may lead to increased wellness. ⋯ Conclusions: Learners and Professionals reported positive outcomes in both health and wellness from attending the virtual art and medicine salon events. There is a need for further research on the subject and experimentation with the events. This study was supported by a NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award Grant (UL1 TR002366) awarded to the University of Kansas Medical Center.
-
Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
An integrated knowledge translation approach to co-create and evaluate patient education tools on cholesterol management.
Context: The objective of CHOICES (Community Heart Outcomes Improvement and Cholesterol Education Study) is to understand how evidence-informed cholesterol management can prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in 14 health regions at higher risk in Ontario, Canada using a suite of educational interventions. An integrated knowledge translation (IKT) approach was used to co-create an educational tool on CVD risk, behaviour modifications for cholesterol management, and cholesterol-lowering medications. In order to further understand the needs of Ontario residents related to CVD prevention, a process evaluation was conducted through engagement with the public. ⋯ Respondents indicated their high likelihood to recommend the tool to their personal networks (M = 5.37, SD = 1.19) and preference to receive similar information from their family physician (M = 5.92, SD = 1.15). Conclusion: Overall, participant responsiveness and receptivity to the co-created patient educational tool was high. This work enhances understanding of the benefits of co-created patient-targeted interventions to improve cholesterol management and ultimately inform the implementation of similar scalable strategies across Ontario.