Journal of general internal medicine
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Criminal legal involvement (CLI) has been associated with increased burden of disease, worse health outcomes, and high healthcare utilization. The health needs of women with CLI are often overlooked despite the rising proportion of women in the US legal system. ⋯ Women with lifetime CLI experience a different profile of diseases compared to men with increased prevalence of any mental illness and chronic disease, especially respiratory diseases. They also had higher rates of healthcare utilization. Additional research should focus on interventions tailored to the unique needs of this population.
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Medicare Advantage (MA) includes incentives to reduce health care spending and insures over half of Medicare eligible adults. Substance use disorders (SUD) are common in this population. ⋯ Compared to traditional Medicare, MA was associated with modestly lower 30-day mortality after alcohol withdrawal, lower 30-day readmission rates after alcohol withdrawal and opioid overdose hospitalizations, and mixed findings on medication use.
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ChatGPT has quickly gained popularity as a source of online health information (OHI). However, it is unclear how having a usual source of primary care (USPC) is related to OHI-seeking. ⋯ In this national survey of patients participating in a clinical research matching service, those with regular primary care access relied less on ChatGPT, suggesting that a personal primary care relationship may attenuate the need or motivation to use AI-derived OHI.
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Patient knowledge regarding why they are prescribed their medications is paramount for the delivery of quality and patient-centered cardiometabolic care. ⋯ Most adults report a plausible reason for their use of their cardiometabolic medications. However, the prevalence of having a knowledge deficiency varied greatly by respondent demographic and health characteristics.
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Poor quality communication and language barriers lead to worse care experiences and inferior health care outcomes for those with limited English proficiency. Fewer than one-third of outpatient providers regularly use professional interpreters when communicating with non-English preferring patients. Effective strategies to address language barriers in primary care are lacking and in demand. ⋯ Providers described barriers that organizations need to address to facilitate effective communication and language interpretation when caring for Spanish-preferring patients. Research is needed that identifies and tests language support strategies for providers and clinics and structural changes that preserve time during patient visits for providers and patients to spend on health care needs.