JAMA internal medicine
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JAMA internal medicine · Mar 2014
The somatic symptom scale-8 (SSS-8): a brief measure of somatic symptom burden.
Somatic symptoms are the core features of many medical diseases, and they are used to evaluate the severity and course of illness. The 8-item Somatic Symptom Scale (SSS-8) was recently developed as a brief, patient-reported outcome measure of somatic symptom burden, but its reliability, validity, and usefulness have not yet been tested. ⋯ The SSS-8 is a reliable and valid self-report measure of somatic symptom burden. Cutoff scores identify individuals with low, medium, high, and very high somatic symptom burden.
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JAMA internal medicine · Mar 2014
Interpreting treatment effects from clinical trials in the context of real-world risk information: end-stage renal disease prevention in older adults.
Older adults are often excluded from clinical trials. The benefit of preventive interventions tested in younger trial populations may be reduced when applied to older adults in the clinical setting if they are less likely to survive long enough to experience those outcomes targeted by the intervention. ⋯ Differences in baseline risk and life expectancy between trial subjects and real-world populations of older adults with CKD may reduce the marginal benefit to individual patients of interventions to prevent ESRD.
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JAMA internal medicine · Mar 2014
Scope and outcomes of surrogate decision making among hospitalized older adults.
Hospitalized older adults often lack decisional capacity, but outside of the intensive care unit and end-of-life care settings, little is known about the frequency of decision making by family members or other surrogates or its implications for hospital care. ⋯ Surrogate decision making occurs for nearly half of hospitalized older adults and includes both complete decision making by the surrogate and joint decision making by the patient and surrogate. Surrogates commonly face a broad range of decisions in the intensive care unit and the hospital ward setting. Hospital functions should be redesigned to account for the large and growing role of surrogates, supporting them as they make health care decisions.
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JAMA internal medicine · Mar 2014
Review Meta AnalysisMeditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Many people meditate to reduce psychological stress and stress-related health problems. To counsel people appropriately, clinicians need to know what the evidence says about the health benefits of meditation. ⋯ Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs can result in small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. Thus, clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that a meditation program could have in addressing psychological stress. Stronger study designs are needed to determine the effects of meditation programs in improving the positive dimensions of mental health and stress-related behavior.
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JAMA internal medicine · Mar 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialNudging guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing: a randomized clinical trial.
"Nudges" that influence decision making through subtle cognitive mechanisms have been shown to be highly effective in a wide range of applications, but there have been few experiments to improve clinical practice. ⋯ Displaying poster-sized commitment letters in examination rooms decreased inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for ARIs. The effect of this simple, low-cost intervention is comparable in magnitude to costlier, more intensive quality-improvement efforts.