Journal of general internal medicine
-
Comparative Study
Differences in leisure-time, household, and work-related physical activity by race, ethnicity, and education.
Racial and ethnic minority groups have lower levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) than whites, but it is unclear how much of this is explained by differences in socioeconomic status and health. ⋯ Differences in educational attainment and health status accounted for virtually all of the racial and ethnic differences in LTPA. After accounting for WRPA, TPA was similar across race, ethnicity, and education subgroups.
-
Improved recognition of the importance of systolic blood pressure (SBP) has been identified as one of the major public health and medical challenges in the prevention and treatment of hypertension (HTN). SBP is a strong independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease but no information is available on whether patients understand the importance of their SBP level. The purpose of this study was to assess HTN knowledge, awareness, and attitudes, especially related to SBP in a hypertensive population. ⋯ These results suggest that, although general knowledge and awareness of HTN is adequate, patients do not have a comprehensive understanding of this condition. For instance, patients do not recognize the importance of elevated SBP levels or the current status of their BP control. An opportunity exists to focus patient education programs and interventions on the cardiovascular risk associated with uncontrolled HTN, particularly elevated SBP levels.
-
Multicenter Study
A risk assessment tool (OsteoRisk) for identifying Latin American women with osteoporosis.
To develop a simple and easy-to-use tool for identifying osteoporotic women (femoral neck bone mineral density [BMD] T-scores
-
Professional medical associations recommend that physicians who treat patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a measurable form of disease-specific expertise, such as high HIV patient volume or infectious diseases certification. Although it is known that racial/ethnic minorities generally have worse access to care than do whites, previous work has not examined disparities in the use of physicians with HIV-related expertise. ⋯ Some groups of racial/ethnic minorities are less likely than are whites to have infectious diseases specialists as a regular source of care. The finding that the physicians of Latino patients had relatively higher HIV caseloads suggests that this particular patient subpopulation has access to HIV expertise. Further work to explain racial/ethnic differences in access to physicians will help in the design of programs and policies to eliminate them.
-
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women in the United States and is largely preventable. The American Heart Association has recently released evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of CVD in women; these include gender-specific recommendations for the management of dyslipidemia. This article reviews these recommendations and the evidence supporting them. ⋯ Encouragement of lifestyle modification and appropriate use of lipid-altering therapy will have a substantial impact on reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease in women.