American journal of preventive medicine
-
Patient-facing online tools for managing preventive and chronic care can be a resource-effective way to increase patient agency in health promotion. Recently, Kaiser Permanente Southern California added the Online Personal Action Plan (oPAP) to the member web portal to better enable members to access information about prevention, health promotion, and care gaps. This study described Kaiser Permanente Southern California members who use oPAP, as well as how members use oPAP to close five different care gaps: hemoglobin A1c testing, pneumonia vaccination, and three cancer screenings. ⋯ Although healthcare organizations have developed approaches to managing and closing preventive care gaps, these efforts are resource intensive. Users of oPAP are more likely than non-registered members to close gaps, especially cancer screening tests. The oPAP appears to be an effective tool at improving patient engagement in preventive health care.
-
Asthma is a leading cause of chronic disease-related school absenteeism. Few data exist on how information on absenteeism might be used to identify children for interventions to improve asthma control. This study investigated how asthma-related absenteeism was associated with asthma control, exacerbations, and associated modifiable risk factors using a sample of children from 35 states and the District of Columbia. ⋯ Missing any school because of asthma is associated with suboptimal asthma control, urgent or emergent asthma-related healthcare utilization, mold in the home, and financial barriers to asthma-related health care. Further understanding of asthma-related absenteeism could establish how to most effectively use absenteeism information as a health status indicator.