American journal of preventive medicine
-
Hypertension affects one third of the U.S. adult population. Although cost-effectiveness analyses of antihypertensive medicines have been published, a comprehensive systematic review across medicine classes is not available. ⋯ All antihypertensives were cost effective compared with no treatment. ARBs appeared to be more cost effective than CCBs, ACEIs, and β-blockers. However, these latter findings should be interpreted with caution because these findings are not robust due to the substantial variability across the studies, including study settings and analytic models, changes in the cost of generic medicines, and publication bias.
-
Effective community-based interventions are available to control hypertension. It is important to determine the economics of these interventions. ⋯ Most studies found that the three types of interventions were either cost effective or cost saving. Quality of economic studies should be improved to confirm the findings.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
A Randomized Trial of Incentives for Smoking Treatment in Medicaid Members.
Low-income populations are especially likely to smoke and have difficulty quitting. This study evaluated a monetary incentive intended to increase smoking treatment engagement and abstinence among Medicaid recipients who smoke. ⋯ This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02713594.
-
Pneumococcal vaccination is recommended for all adults with asthma and a Healthy People 2020 goal aims to achieve 60% coverage among high-risk adults, including those with asthma. Adults with work-related asthma have more severe asthma symptoms than those with non-work-related asthma and are particularly vulnerable to pneumococcal pneumonia. ⋯ Pneumococcal vaccination coverage among adults with work-related asthma and non-work-related asthma is below the Healthy People 2020 target level. Healthcare providers should verify pneumococcal vaccination status in their patients with asthma and offer the vaccine to those not vaccinated.
-
Recommendations for prostate-specific antigen-based screening for prostate cancer are placing increasing emphasis on men aged 55-69 years. The goal of the current study is to describe patterns of population-based prostate-specific antigen testing with details about that age group. ⋯ Despite decreases, the absolute change in prostate-specific antigen testing for men aged 55-69 years was small (9.3%) over the study period. Men aged ≥70 years, for whom the benefits are unlikely to exceed the harms, continue to have consistently high testing prevalence.