Journal of general internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Stop orders to reduce inappropriate urinary catheterization in hospitalized patients: a randomized controlled trial.
Hospitalized patients frequently have urinary catheters inserted for inappropriate reasons. This can lead to urinary tract infections and other complications. ⋯ Stop orders for urinary catheterization safely reduced duration of inappropriate urinary catheterization in hospitalized patients but did not reduce urinary tract infections.
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Comparative Study
Differences in the patterns of health care system distrust between blacks and whites.
Although health care-related distrust may contribute to racial disparities in health and health care in the US, current evidence about racial differences in distrust is often conflicting, largely limited to measures of physician trust, and rarely linked to multidimensional trust or distrust. ⋯ Racial differences in health care system distrust are complex with far greater differences seen in the domain of values distrust than in competence distrust. This framework may be useful for explaining the mixed results of studies of race and health care-related distrust to date, for the design of future studies exploring the causes of racial disparities in health and health care, and for the development and testing of novel strategies for reducing these disparities.
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The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) is a brief validated screen for risky drinking and alcohol abuse and dependence (alcohol misuse). However, the AUDIT-C was validated in predominantly White populations, and its performance in different racial/ethnic groups is unclear. ⋯ The overall performance of the AUDIT-C was excellent in all 3 racial/ethnic groups as reflected by high AuROCs. At recommended cut points, there were significant differences in the AUDIT-C's sensitivity but not in specificity across the 3 racial/ethnic groups.
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Obesity is rapidly approaching tobacco as the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Health care providers have the opportunity to address this through primary prevention strategies. ⋯ Only a very small proportion of healthy-weight adults received primary prevention, which suggests that physicians are missing opportunities to help address the epidemic of adult obesity in the US.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Improving HIV screening and receipt of results by nurse-initiated streamlined counseling and rapid testing.
HIV testing is cost-effective in unselected general medical populations, yet testing rates among those at risk remain low, even among those with regular primary care. HIV rapid testing is effective in many healthcare settings, but scant research has been done within primary care settings or within the US Department of Veteran's Affairs Healthcare System. ⋯ Streamlined counseling with rapid testing significantly increased testing and receipt rates over current practice without changes in risk behavior or posttest knowledge. Increased testing and receipt of results could lead to earlier disease identification, increased treatment, and reduced morbidity/mortality. Policymakers should consider streamlined counseling/rapid testing when implementing routine HIV testing into primary/urgent care.