Journal of general internal medicine
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Comparative Study
Religious hospitals and primary care physicians: conflicts over policies for patient care.
Religiously affiliated hospitals provide nearly 20% of US beds, and many prohibit certain end-of-life and reproductive health treatments. Little is known about physician experiences in religious institutions. ⋯ Hospitals and policy-makers may need to balance the competing claims of physician autonomy and religiously based institutional policies.
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Comparative Study
Factors associated with hepatitis B testing among Vietnamese Americans.
Chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis B-associated liver cancer is a major health disparity among Vietnamese Americans, who have a chronic hepatitis B prevalence rate of 7-14% and an incidence rate for liver cancer six times that of non-Latino whites. ⋯ Self-reports of hepatitis B testing among Vietnamese Americans remain unacceptably low. Physician recommendation and patient request were the factors most strongly associated with test receipt. A comprehensive effort is needed to promote hepatitis B testing in this population, including culturally-targeted community outreach, increased access to testing, and physician education.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A randomized community-based intervention trial comparing faith community nurse referrals to telephone-assisted physician appointments for health fair participants with elevated blood pressure.
To measure the effect of faith community nurse referrals versus telephone-assisted physician appointments on blood pressure control among persons with elevated blood pressure at health fairs. ⋯ Church health fairs conducted in low-income, multiethnic communities can identify many people with elevated blood pressure. Facilitating physician appointments for people with elevated blood pressure identified at health fairs confers a greater decrease in SBP than referral to a faith community nurse at four months.