Journal of general internal medicine
-
Adherence to complex antiretroviral therapy (ART) is critical for HIV treatment but difficult to achieve. The development of interventions to improve adherence requires detailed information regarding barriers to adherence. However, short follow-up and inadequate adherence measures have hampered such determinations. We sought to assess predictors of long-term (up to 1 year) adherence to newly initiated combination ART using an accurate, objective adherence measure. ⋯ Nearly all patients' adherence levels were suboptimal, demonstrating the critical need for programs to assist patients with medication taking. Interventions that assess and treat substance abuse and incorporate adherence aids may be particularly helpful and warrant further study.
-
To evaluate the adequacy of pharmacological thromboembolic prevention in the medical ward of a university hospital, we performed a retrospective study in 227 consecutive inpatients. The presence of risk factors, and type, length, and dose of pharmacological prevention were documented by chart review. ⋯ The high prevalence of over- and undertreatment is an indicator of less than optimal care. Quality of care interventions, such as the development of local guidelines, might improve the appropriateness of pharmacological thromboembolic prophylaxis in medical inpatients.
-
To describe and explain the patterns of adherence to supplemental oxygen in individuals with hypoxemic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ Adhering to oxygen therapy is a complex and difficult task with many barriers, including the physical difficulty of using the oxygen, self-consciousness and a sense of social stigma, lack of perceived benefit, and fear of deleterious side effects from treatment. Improving adherence may involve understanding the process of adapting to oxygen use and addressing the many barriers to therapy.
-
To examine the ethical issues raised by physicians performing, for skill development, medically nonindicated invasive medical procedures on newly dead and dying patients. ⋯ Current ethical norms do not support the practice of using newly and nearly dead patients for training in invasive medical procedures absent prior consent by the patient or contemporaneous surrogate consent. Performing an appropriately consented training procedure is ethically acceptable when done under competent supervision and with appropriate professional decorum. The ethics of training on the newly and nearly dead remains an insufficiently examined area of medical training.
-
Comparative Study
HIV-seropositive individuals' optimistic beliefs about prognosis and relation to medication and safe sex adherence.
The study objective was to characterize respondents' prognostic perceptions of HIV infection and to explore how perceptions might affect medication and safe sex nonadherence. ⋯ Seropositive individuals, including persons of color (adjusted) as well as women and drug users (unadjusted), self-reported optimistic beliefs about their prognosis. Those with more optimism about their prognosis were significantly more likely to report medication and safe sex nonadherence. A better understanding of seropositive patients' prognostic beliefs and the factors determining them is warranted.