Abstract Background National guidelines recommend use of high-intensity statins after hospitalization for coronary heart disease (CHD) events. Objectives This study sought to estimate the proportion ...of Medicare beneficiaries filling prescriptions for high-intensity statins after hospital discharge for a CHD event and to analyze whether statin intensity before hospitalization is associated with statin intensity after discharge. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries between 65 and 74 years old. Beneficiaries were included in the analysis if they filled a statin prescription after a CHD event (myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization) in 2007, 2008, or 2009. High-intensity statins included atorvastatin 40 to 80 mg, rosuvastatin 20 to 40 mg, and simvastatin 80 mg. Results Among 8,762 Medicare beneficiaries filling a statin prescription after a CHD event, 27% of first post-discharge fills were for a high-intensity statin. The percent filling a high-intensity statin post-discharge was 23.1%, 9.4%, and 80.7%, for beneficiaries not taking statins pre-hospitalization, taking low/moderate-intensity statins, and taking high-intensity statins before their CHD event, respectively. Compared with beneficiaries not on statin therapy pre-hospitalization, multivariable adjusted risk ratios for filling a high-intensity statin were 4.01 (3.58–4.49) and 0.45 (0.40–0.52) for participants taking high-intensity and low/moderate-intensity statins before their CHD event, respectively. Only 11.5% of beneficiaries whose first post-discharge statin fill was for a low/moderate-intensity statin filled a high-intensity statin within 365 days of discharge. Conclusions The majority of Medicare beneficiaries do not fill high-intensity statins after hospitalization for CHD.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE—The American Heart Association developed Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) as a metric defining cardiovascular health. We investigated the association between LS7 and incident stroke in ...black and white Americans.
METHODS—The Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) is a national population-based cohort of 30 239 blacks and whites, aged ≥45 years, sampled from the US population from 2003 to 2007. Data were collected by telephone, self-administered questionnaires, and an in-home examination. Incident strokes were identified through biannual participant contact followed by adjudication of medical records. Levels of the LS7 components (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, body mass index, smoking, physical activity, and diet) were each coded as poor (0 point), intermediate (1 point), or ideal (2 points) health. An overall LS7 score was categorized as inadequate (0–4), average (5–9), or optimum (10–14) cardiovascular health.
RESULTS—Among 22 914 subjects with LS7 data and no previous cardiovascular disease, there were 432 incident strokes over 4.9 years of follow-up. After adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, and region of residence, each better health category of the LS7 score was associated with a 25% lower risk of stroke (hazard ratios, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.63–0.90). The association was similar for blacks and whites (interaction P value=0.55). A 1-point higher LS7 score was associated with an 8% lower risk of stroke (hazard ratios, 0.92; 95% confidence interval, 0.88–0.95).
CONCLUSIONS—In both blacks and whites, better cardiovascular health, on the basis of the LS7 score, is associated with lower risk of stroke, and a small difference in scores was an important stroke determinant.
Functional social support has a stronger association with medical treatment adherence than structural social support in several populations and disease conditions. Using a contemporary U.S. ...population of adults treated with medications for coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, the association between social support and medication adherence was examined.
We included 17,113 black and white men and women with CHD or CHD risk factors aged ≥45 years recruited 2003-2007 from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. Participants reported their perceived social support (structural social support: being partnered, number of close friends, number of close relatives, and number of other adults in household; functional social support: having a caregiver in case of sickness or disability; combination of structural and functional social support: number of close friends or relatives seen at least monthly). Medication adherence was assessed using a 4-item scale. Multi-variable adjusted Poisson regression models were used to calculate prevalence ratios (PR) for the association between social support and medication adherence.
Prevalence of medication adherence was 68.9%. Participants who saw >10 close friends or relatives at least monthly had higher prevalence of medication adherence (PR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.11) than those who saw ≤3 per month. Having a caregiver in case of sickness or disability, being partnered, number of close friends, number of close relatives, and number of other adults in household were not associated with medication adherence after adjusting for covariates.
Seeing multiple friends and relatives was associated with better medication adherence among individuals with CHD risk factors. Increasing social support with combined structural and functional components may help support medication adherence.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a growing pandemic that confers augmented risk for right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and dilation; the prognostic utility of adverse RV remodeling in COVID-19 ...patients is uncertain.
The purpose of this study was to test whether adverse RV remodeling (dysfunction/dilation) predicts COVID-19 prognosis independent of clinical and biomarker risk stratification.
Consecutive COVID-19 inpatients undergoing clinical transthoracic echocardiography at 3 New York City hospitals were studied; images were analyzed by a central core laboratory blinded to clinical and biomarker data.
In total, 510 patients (age 64 ± 14 years, 66% men) were studied; RV dilation and dysfunction were present in 35% and 15%, respectively. RV dysfunction increased stepwise in relation to RV chamber size (p = 0.007). During inpatient follow-up (median 20 days), 77% of patients had a study-related endpoint (death 32%, discharge 45%). RV dysfunction (hazard ratio HR: 2.57; 95% confidence interval CI: 1.49 to 4.43; p = 0.001) and dilation (HR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.96; p = 0.02) each independently conferred mortality risk. Patients without adverse RV remodeling were more likely to survive to hospital discharge (HR: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.90; p = 0.041). RV indices provided additional risk stratification beyond biomarker strata; risk for death was greatest among patients with adverse RV remodeling and positive biomarkers and was lesser among patients with isolated biomarker elevations (p ≤ 0.001). In multivariate analysis, adverse RV remodeling conferred a >2-fold increase in mortality risk, which remained significant (p < 0.01) when controlling for age and biomarker elevations; the predictive value of adverse RV remodeling was similar irrespective of whether analyses were performed using troponin, D-dimer, or ferritin.
Adverse RV remodeling predicts mortality in COVID-19 independent of standard clinical and biomarker-based assessment.
BACKGROUND—Blacks are thought to have a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) than whites. However, prior studies are limited to administrative databases that lack specific information on VTE ...risk factors or have limited geographic scope.
METHODS AND RESULTS—We ascertained VTE from 3 prospective studiesthe Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), and the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study (REGARDS). We tested the association of race with VTE using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for VTE risk factors. Over 438 090 person-years, 916 incident VTE events (302 in blacks) occurred in 51 149 individuals (17 318 blacks) who were followed up. In risk factor–adjusted models, blacks had a higher rate of VTE than whites in the CHS (hazard ratio, 1.81; 95% confidence interval, 1.20–2.73) but not ARIC (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 0.96–1.54). In REGARDS, there was a significant region-by-race interaction (P=0.01)Blacks in the Southeast had a significantly higher rate of VTE than blacks in the rest of the United States (hazard ratio, 1.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.08–2.48) that was not seen in whites (hazard ratio, 0.83; 95% confidence interval, 0.61–1.14).
CONCLUSIONS—The association of race with VTE differed in each cohort, which may reflect the different time periods of the studies or different regional rates of VTE. Further studies of environmental and genetic risk factors for VTE are needed to determine which underlie racial and perhaps regional differences in VTE.
Determining the contribution of social determinants of health (SDOH) to the higher proportion of Black adults with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) could inform interventions to improve BP control ...and reduce cardiovascular disease.
We analyzed data from 7306 White and 7497 Black US adults taking antihypertensive medication from the REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) study (2003-2007). SDOH were defined using the Healthy People 2030 domains of education, economic stability, social context, neighborhood environment, and health care access. Uncontrolled BP was defined as systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg.
Among participants taking antihypertensive medication, 25.4% of White and 33.7% of Black participants had uncontrolled BP. The SDOH included in the current analysis mediated the Black-White difference in uncontrolled BP by 33.0% (95% CI, 22.1%-46.8%). SDOH that contributed to excess uncontrolled BP among Black compared with White adults included low annual household income (percent-mediated 15.8% 95% CI, 10.8%-22.8%), low education (10.5% 5.6%-15.4%), living in a health professional shortage area (10.4% 6.5%-14.7%), disadvantaged neighborhood (11.0% 4.4%-18.0%), and high-poverty zip code (9.7% 3.8%-15.5%). Together, the neighborhood-domain accounted for 14.1% (95% CI, 5.9%-22.9%), the health care domain accounted for 12.7% (95% CI, 8.4%-17.3%), and the social-context-domain accounted for 3.8% (95% CI, 1.2%-6.6%) of the excess likelihood of uncontrolled BP among Black compared with White adults, respectively.
SDOH including low education, low income, living in a health professional shortage area, disadvantaged neighborhood, and high-poverty zip code contributed to the excess likelihood of uncontrolled BP among Black compared with White adults.
Practice facilitators (PFs) provide tailored support to primary care practices to improve the quality of care delivery. Often used by PFs, the "Key Driver Implementation Scale" (KDIS) measures the ...degree to which a practice implements quality improvement activities from the Chronic Care Model, but the scale's psychometric properties have not been investigated. We examined construct validity, reliability, floor and ceiling effects, and a longitudinal trend test of the KDIS items in the Southeastern Collaboration to Improve Blood Pressure Control trial.
The KDIS items assess a practice's progress toward implementing: a clinical information system (using their own data to drive change); standardized care processes; optimized team care; patient self-management support; and leadership support. We assessed construct validity and estimated reliability with a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A trend test examined whether the KDIS items increased over time and estimated the expected number of months needed to move a practice to the highest response options.
PFs completed monthly KDIS ratings over 12 months for 32 primary care practices, yielding a total of 384 observations. Data was fitted to a unidimensional CFA model; however, parameter fit was modest and could be improved. Reliability was 0.70. Practices started scoring at the highest levels beginning in month 5, indicating low variability. The KDIS items did show an upward trend over 12 months (all p < .001), indicating that practices were increasingly implementing key activities. The expected time to move a practice to the highest response category was 9.1 months for standardized care processes, 10.2 for clinical information system, 12.6 for self-management support, 13.1 for leadership, and 14.3 months for optimized team care.
The KDIS items showed acceptable reliability, but work is needed in larger sample sizes to determine if two or more groups of implementation activities are being measured rather than one.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The conceptualization of patient complexity is just beginning in clinical medicine.
This study aims (1) to propose a conceptual approach to complex patients; (2) to demonstrate how this approach ...promotes achieving congruence between patient and provider, a critical step in the development of maximally effective treatment plans; and (3) to examine availability of evidence to guide trade-off decisions and assess healthcare quality for complex patients.
The Vector Model of Complexity portrays interactions between biological, socioeconomic, cultural, environmental and behavioral forces as health determinants. These forces are not easily discerned but exert profound influences on processes and outcomes of care for chronic medical conditions. Achieving congruence between patient, physician, and healthcare system is essential for effective, patient-centered care; requires assessment of all axes of the Vector Model; and, frequently, requires trade-off decisions to develop a tailored treatment plan. Most evidence-based guidelines rarely provide guidance for trade-off decisions. Quality measures often exclude complex patients and are not designed explicitly to assess their overall healthcare.
We urgently need to expand the evidence base to inform the care of complex patients of all kinds, especially for the clinical trade-off decisions that are central to tailoring care. We offer long- and short-term strategies to begin to incorporate complexity into quality measurement and performance profiling, guided by the Vector Model. Interdisciplinary research should lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the multiple sources of patient complexity and their interactions, and how provision of healthcare should be harmonized with complexity to optimize health.
Background Prior studies suggest that persistence with and adherence to statin therapy is low. Interventions to improve statin persistence and adherence have been developed over the past decade. ...Methods and Results This was a retrospective cohort study of adults aged ≥21 y with commercial or government health insurance in the MarketScan (Truven Health Analytics) and Medicare databases who initiated statins in 2007-2014 and (1) started treatment after a myocardial infarction (n=201 573), (2) had diabetes mellitus but without coronary heart disease (CHD; n=610 049), or (3) did not have CHD or diabetes mellitus (n=2 244 868). Persistence with (ie, not discontinuing treatment) and high adherence to statin therapy were assessed using pharmacy fills in the year following treatment initiation. In 2007 and 2014, the proportions of patients persistent with statin therapy were 78.1% and 79.1%, respectively, among those initiating treatment following myocardial infarction; 66.5% and 67.3%, respectively, for those with diabetes mellitus but without CHD; and 64.3% and 63.9%, respectively, for those without CHD or diabetes mellitus. Between 2007 and 2014, high adherence to statin therapy increased from 57.9% to 63.8% among patients initiating treatment following myocardial infarction and from 34.9% to 37.6% among those with diabetes mellitus but without CHD (each P
<0.001). Among patients without CHD or diabetes mellitus, high adherence did not improve between 2007 (35.7%) and 2014 (36.8%; P
=0.14). In 2014, statin adherence was lower among younger, black, and Hispanic patients versus white patients and those initiating a high-intensity statin dosage. Statin adherence was higher among men and patients with cardiologist care following treatment initiation. Conclusions Persistence with and adherence to statin therapy remain low, particularly among those without CHD.
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