Journal of general internal medicine
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To examine the relation of patient beliefs about medication usage and adherence to zidovudine (ZDV) therapy in persons with AIDS. ⋯ Patients' beliefs about ZDV were significantly associated with adherence-related behavior. In particular, those who had self-terminated ZDV treatment believed that taking the drug was harmful, were skeptical of its ability to prevent illness, and felt that physician's directives about medication usage in general could be disregarded. These findings highlight the importance of educating patients about ZDV and of establishing regular patient-clinician exchanges concerning patient's experience with and beliefs concerning ZDV.
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Clinical Trial
Measuring prognosis and case mix in hospitalized elders. The importance of functional status.
Although physical function is believed to be an important predictor of outcomes in older people, it has seldom been used to adjust for prognosis or case mix in evaluating mortality rates or resource use. The goal of this study was to determine whether patients' activity of daily living (ADL) function on admission provided information useful in adjusting for prognosis and case mix after accounting for routine physiologic measures and comorbid diagnoses. ⋯ ADL function contains important information about prognosis and case mix beyond that provided by routine physiologic data and comorbidities in hospitalized elders. Prognostic and case-mix adjustment methods may be improved if they include measures of function, as well as routine physiologic measures and comorbidity.
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Comparative Study
Ovarian aging and hormone replacement therapy. Hormonal levels, symptoms, and attitudes of African-American and white women.
To characterize reproductive hormone levels, symptoms, and attitudes related to menopause among healthy, menstruating white and African-American women aged 44 to 49 years. ⋯ Perimenopausal African-American and white women have different expectations of menopause and the role of medical care in menopause. This bears directly on women's acceptance of hormone replacement therapy. Conclusions are limited by the small sample size and convenience nature of the study population: further work with larger samples is needed to confirm these apparent differences.