Medical care
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Cost-related nonadherence (CRN) is prevalent among individuals with diabetes and can have significant negative health consequences. We examined health-related and non-health-related pressures and the use of cost-reducing strategies among the US adult population with and without diabetes that may impact CRN. ⋯ Half of the adults with diabetes perceived financial stress, and one fifth reported financial insecurity with health care and food insecurity. Talking to a health care provider about low-cost options may be protective against CRN in some situations. Improving screening and communication to identify CRN and increase transparency of low-cost options patients are pursuing may help safeguard from the health consequences of cutting back on treatment.
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Researchers are increasingly interested in using observational data to evaluate cancer outcomes following treatment, including cancer recurrence and disease-free survival. Because population-based cancer registries do not collect recurrence data, recurrence is often imputed from health claims, primarily by identifying later cancer treatments after initial treatment. The validity of this approach has not been established. ⋯ Identifying recurrence through additional cancer treatment in Medicare claims will miss a large percentage of patients with recurrences; particularly those who are older.
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Despite increased hospice use over the last decade, end-of-life care intensity continues to increase. To understand this puzzle, we sought to examine regional variation in intensive end-of-life care and determine its associations with hospice use patterns. ⋯ At the regional level, increased end-of-life care intensity was consistently associated with very short hospice use.
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American Indian children have high rates of emergency department (ED) use and face potential discrimination in health care settings. ⋯ The majority of ED care providers had an implicit preference for non-Hispanic white children or adults compared with those who were American Indian. Provider agreement with negative American Indian stereotypes differed by practice and respondents' characteristics. These findings require additional study to determine how these implicit and explicit biases influence health care or outcomes disparities.
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Comparative Study
Outcomes are Worse in US Patients Undergoing Surgery on Weekends Compared With Weekdays.
Increasing surgical access to previously underserved populations in the United States may require a major expansion of the use of operating rooms on weekends to take advantage of unused capacity. Although the so-called weekend effect for surgery has been described in other countries, it is unknown whether US patients undergoing moderate-to-high risk surgery on weekends are more likely to experience worse outcomes than patients undergoing surgery on weekdays. ⋯ Patients undergoing nonemergent major cardiac and noncardiac surgery on the weekends have a clinically significantly increased risk of death and major complications compared with patients undergoing surgery on weekdays. These findings should prompt decision makers to seek to better understand factors, such physician and nurse staffing, which may contribute to the weekend effect.