The Medical clinics of North America
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Although cancer has been the second leading cause of death for close to 100 years, progress has been made in reducing cancer mortality and morbidity, with the adoption of high-quality screening tests and treatment advances delivered at earlier stages of diagnosis. To achieve the high cancer screening rates demonstrated by some practices, proven effective strategies need to be broadly adopted at both the patient and population levels. Factors affecting cancer screening test completion and approaches to improvement are described both generally and for breast, lung, cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancers. Closing the racial disparity gap is a critical component of reaching cancer screening and prevention goals.
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Clinicians play an important role in the prevention of unintentional injuries. Falls and motor vehicle crashes (MVC) have predictable and overlapping antecedents. ⋯ Fall-prevention measures, such as strength training, need to be more widely prescribed by physicians and implemented by older adults. Technologically tailored approaches are needed to leverage fall-reduction programs at home, as well as education of older adults regarding home hazards.
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Med. Clin. North Am. · Nov 2023
ReviewWomen's Clinical Preventive Services: Closing the Gaps and Implementing in Practice.
Evidence-based clinical preventive services have the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality and optimize health. The Affordable Care Act mandates coverage without cost-sharing for several clinical preventive services. The Women's Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI) has worked to and continues to identify gaps in recommended preventive services for women. The WPSI Well-Woman Chart and the accompanying Clinical Summary Tables can be used at the point of care to ensure women are offered and receive all the preventive services recommended for their age and circumstance.
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Med. Clin. North Am. · Nov 2023
ReviewHealth-care Worker Engagement in Federally Qualified Health Centers and Associations with Confidence in Making Health-care Recommendations: Evidence from the Louisiana Community Engagement Alliance.
Throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been numerous demands on primary care practices and providers affecting work engagement and burnout, which can affect health-care delivery and patient outcomes. We determined potentially modifiable factors associated with work engagement among employees of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) throughout Louisiana. ⋯ FQHC employees perceiving a more chaotic work environment and those with depressive or anxiety symptoms were less likely to be engaged at work. Being engaged was associated with confidence in COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for adults.
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Med. Clin. North Am. · Nov 2023
ReviewBrief Action Planning in Health and Health Care: A Scoping Review.
Achieving maximal health outcomes via health promotion and disease prevention requires the adoption of healthy behaviors. Brief action planning (BAP) is a method for patient self-management, health behavior change, and health coaching with potentially broad implications for and clinical applications in health and health care contexts. This scoping review presents 5 major findings about the literature on BAP: the principal geographic locations and the clinical contexts of its application, the types of research evaluations that it has undergone to date, the theoretic frameworks in which it is grounded, and the fidelity of its use in clinical practice.