Background:
Nonadherence to statins limits the benefits of this common drug class. Individual studies assessing predictors of nonadherence haue produced inconsistent results.
Objective:
To identify ...reliable predictors of nonadherence to statins through systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods:
Multiple databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO, were searched (from inception through February 2009) to identify studies that evaluated predictors of nonadherence to statins. Studies were selected using a priori defined criteria, and each study was reviewed by 2 authors who abstracted data on study characteristics and outcomes. Relative risks were then pooled, using an inverse-variance weighted random-effects model.
Results:
Twenty-two cohort studies met inclusion criteria. Age had a U-shaped association with adherence; the oldest (≥70 years) and youngest (<50 years) subjects had lower adherence than the middle-aged (50-69 years) subjects. Women and patients with lower incomes were more likely to be nonadherent than were men (odds of nonadherence 1.07; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.11) and those with higher incomes (odds of nonadherence 1.18:95% CI 1.10 to 1.28), respectively. A history of cardiovascular disease predicted better adherence to statins (odds of nonadherence 0.68; 95% CI 0.66 to 0.78). Similarly, a diagnosis of hypertension or diabetes was associated with better adherence. Although there were too few studies for quantitative pooling, increased testing of lipid levels and lower out-of-pocket costs appeared to be associated with better adherence. There was substantial (l2 range 68.7-96.3%) heterogeneity between studies across factors.
Conclusions:
Several sociodemographic, medical, and health-care utilization characteristics are associated with statin nonadherence. These factors may be useful guides for targeting statin adherence interventions.
Despite the effectiveness of drug therapy in diabetes management high rates of poor adherence persist. The purpose of this study was to identify potentially modifiable patient disease and medication ...beliefs associated with poor medication adherence among people with diabetes. A cohort of patients with diabetes was recruited from an urban primary-care clinic in New York City. Patients were interviewed in English or Spanish about: disease beliefs, medication beliefs, regimen complexity, diabetes knowledge, depression, self-efficacy, and medication adherence (Morisky scale). Logistic regression was used to identify multivariate predictors of poor medication adherence (Morisky > 1). Patients (
n
= 151) had diabetes for an average of 13 years with a mean HgA1C of 7.6 (SD 1.7). One-in-four (28%) were poor adherers to their diabetes medicines. In multivariate analyses, predictors of poor medication adherence were: believing you have diabetes only when your sugar is high (OR = 7.4;2–27.2), saying there was no need to take medicine when the glucose was normal (OR = 3.5;0.9–13.7), worrying about side-effects of diabetes medicines (OR = 3.3;1.3–8.7), lack of self-confidence in controlling diabetes (OR = 2.8;1.1–7.1), and feeling medicines are hard to take (OR = 14.0;4.4–44.6). Disease and medication beliefs inconsistent with a chronic disease model of diabetes were significant predictors of poor medication adherence. These suboptimal beliefs are potentially modifiable and are logical targets for educational interventions to improve diabetes self-management.
Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, acute respiratory infection (ARI) antibiotic prescribing in ambulatory care markedly decreased. It is unclear if antibiotic prescription rates will remain ...lowered. Methods We used trend analyses of antibiotics prescribed during and after the first wave of COVID-19 to determine whether ARI antibiotic prescribing rates in ambulatory care have remained suppressed compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. Retrospective data was used from patients with ARI or UTI diagnosis code(s) for their encounter from 298 primary care and 66 urgent care practices within four academic health systems in New York, Wisconsin, and Utah between January 2017 and June 2022. The primary measures included antibiotic prescriptions per 100 non-COVID ARI encounters, encounter volume, prescribing trends, and change from expected trend. Results At baseline, during and after the first wave, the overall ARI antibiotic prescribing rates were 54.7, 38.5, and 54.7 prescriptions per 100 encounters, respectively. ARI antibiotic prescription rates saw a statistically significant decline after COVID-19 onset (step change -15.2, 95% CI: -19.6 to -4.8). During the first wave, encounter volume decreased 29.4% and, after the first wave, remained decreased by 188%. After the first wave, ARI antibiotic prescription rates were no longer significantly suppressed from baseline (step change 0.01, 95% CI: -6.3 to 6.2). There was no significant difference between UTI antibiotic prescription rates at baseline versus the end of the observation period. Conclusions The decline in ARI antibiotic prescribing observed after the onset of COVID-19 was temporary, not mirrored in UTI antibiotic prescribing, and does not represent a long-term change in clinician prescribing behaviors. During a period of heightened awareness of a viral cause of ARI, a substantial and clinically meaningful decrease in clinician antibiotic prescribing was observed. Future efforts in antibiotic stewardship may benefit from continued study of factors leading to this reduction and rebound in prescribing rates.
Through the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine became a necessary entry point into the process of diagnosis, triage, and treatment. Racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare ...have been well documented in COVID-19 with respect to risk of infection and in-hospital outcomes once admitted, and here we assess disparities in those who access healthcare via telemedicine for COVID-19.
Electronic health record data of patients at New York University Langone Health between March 19th and April 30, 2020 were used to conduct descriptive and multilevel regression analyses with respect to visit type (telemedicine or in-person), suspected COVID diagnosis, and COVID test results.
Controlling for individual and community-level attributes, Black patients had 0.6 times the adjusted odds (95% CI: 0.58-0.63) of accessing care through telemedicine compared to white patients, though they are increasingly accessing telemedicine for urgent care, driven by a younger and female population. COVID diagnoses were significantly more likely for Black versus white telemedicine patients.
There are disparities for Black patients accessing telemedicine, however increased uptake by young, female Black patients. Mean income and decreased mean household size of a zip code were also significantly related to telemedicine use.
Telemedicine access disparities reflect those in in-person healthcare access. Roots of disparate use are complex and reflect individual, community, and structural factors, including their intersection-many of which are due to systemic racism. Evidence regarding disparities that manifest through telemedicine can be used to inform tool design and systemic efforts to promote digital health equity.
New clinical practice recommendations include A1C as an alternative to fasting glucose as a diagnostic test for identifying pre-diabetes. The impact of these new recommendations on the diagnosis of ...pre-diabetes is unknown.
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2006 (n = 7,029) were analyzed to determine the percentage and number of U.S. adults without diabetes classified as having pre-diabetes by the elevated A1C (5.7-6.4%) and by the impaired fasting glucose (IFG) (fasting glucose 100-125 mg/dl) criterion separately. Test characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values) using IFG as the reference standard were calculated.
The prevalence of pre-diabetes among U.S. adults was 12.6% by the A1C criterion and 28.2% by the fasting glucose criterion. Only 7.7% of U.S. adults, reflecting 61 and 27% of those with pre-diabetes by A1C and fasting glucose, respectively, had pre-diabetes according to both definitions. A1C used alone would reclassify 37.6 million Americans with IFG to not having pre-diabetes and 8.9 million without IFG to having pre-diabetes (46.5 million reclassified). Using IFG as the reference standard, pre-diabetes by the A1C criterion has 27% sensitivity, 93% specificity, 61% positive predictive value, and 77% negative predictive value.
Using A1C as the pre-diabetes criterion would reclassify the pre-diabetes diagnosis of nearly 50 million Americans. It is imperative that clinicians and health systems understand the differences and similarities in using A1C or IFG in diagnosis of pre-diabetes.
Abstract Major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent in clinical weight-loss settings and predicts poor weight-loss outcomes. It is unknown whether the severity of depressive symptoms among those ...with MDD is associated with diet quality or physical activity levels. This knowledge is important for improving weight-loss treatment for these patients. It was hypothesized that more severe depression is associated with poorer diet quality and lower physical activity levels among individuals with obesity and MDD. Participants were 161 women with current MDD and obesity enrolled in the baseline phase of a weight-loss trial between 2007 and 2010. Depression severity was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory II. The Alternate Healthy Eating Index was applied to data from three 24-hour diet recalls to capture overall diet quality. Daily metabolic equivalents expended per day were calculated from three 24-hour physical activity recalls. Greater depression severity was associated with poorer overall diet quality (estimate=−0.26, standard error 0.11; P =0.02), but not with physical activity (estimate=0.07, standard error 0.05; P =0.18), in linear regression models controlling for income, education, depression-related appetite change, binge eating disorder, and other potential confounds. Associations with diet quality were primarily driven by greater intake of sugar ( r =0.20; P <0.01), saturated fat ( r =0.21; P <0.01), and sodium ( r =0.22; P <0.01). More severe depression was associated with poorer overall diet quality, but not physical activity, among treatment-seeking women with MDD and obesity. Future studies should identify mechanisms linking depression to diet quality and determine whether diet quality improves with depression treatment.
We have entered a new age of health informatics—applied health informatics—where digital health innovation cannot be pursued without considering operational needs. In this new digital health era, ...creating an integrated applied health informatics system will be essential for health systems to achieve informatics healthcare goals. Integration of information technology (IT) and health informatics does not naturally occur without a deliberate and intentional shift towards unification. Recognizing this, NYU Langone Health’s (NYULH) Medical Center IT (MCIT) has taken proactive measures to vertically integrate academic informatics and operational IT through the establishment of the MCIT Department of Health Informatics (DHI). The creation of the NYULH DHI showcases the drivers, challenges, and ultimate successes of our enterprise effort to align academic health informatics with IT; providing a model for the creation of the applied health informatics programs required for academic health systems to thrive in the increasingly digitized healthcare landscape.
Digital Minimalism - An Rx for Clinician Burnout Singh, Nina; Lawrence, Katharine; Sinsky, Christine ...
The New England journal of medicine,
03/2023, Letnik:
388, Številka:
13
Journal Article
Overprescribing of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) remains a major issue in outpatient settings. Use of clinical prediction rules (CPRs) can reduce inappropriate antibiotic ...prescribing but they remain underutilized by physicians and advanced practice providers. A registered nurse (RN)-led model of an electronic health record-integrated CPR (iCPR) for low-acuity ARIs may be an effective alternative to address the barriers to a physician-driven model.
Following qualitative usability testing, we will conduct a stepped-wedge practice-level cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) examining the effect of iCPR-guided RN care for low acuity patients with ARI. The primary hypothesis to be tested is: Implementation of RN-led iCPR tools will reduce antibiotic prescribing across diverse primary care settings. Specifically, this study aims to: (1) determine the impact of iCPRs on rapid strep test and chest x-ray ordering and antibiotic prescribing rates when used by RNs; (2) examine resource use patterns and cost-effectiveness of RN visits across diverse clinical settings; (3) determine the impact of iCPR-guided care on patient satisfaction; and (4) ascertain the effect of the intervention on RN and physician burnout.
This study represents an innovative approach to using an iCPR model led by RNs and specifically designed to address inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. This study has the potential to provide guidance on the effectiveness of delegating care of low-acuity patients with ARIs to RNs to increase use of iCPRs and reduce antibiotic overprescribing for ARIs in outpatient settings.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04255303, Registered February 5 2020, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04255303 .
A validated tool to assess adherence with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) could help physicians and researchers determine whether poor asthma control is due to poor adherence or severe intrinsic ...asthma.
To assess the performance of the Medication Adherence Report Scale for Asthma (MARS-A), a 10-item, self-reported measure of adherence with ICS.
We interviewed 318 asthmatic adults receiving care at 2 inner-city clinics. Self-reported adherence with ICS was measured by MARS-A at baseline and 1 and 3 months. ICS adherence was measured electronically in 53 patients. Electronic adherence was the percentage of days patients used ICS. Patients with a mean MARS-A score of 4.5 or higher or with electronic adherence of more than 70% were defined as good adherers. We assessed internal validity (Cronbach alpha, test-retest correlations), criterion validity (associations between self-reported adherence and electronic adherence), and construct validity (correlating self-reported adherence with ICS beliefs).
The mean patient age was 47 years; 40% of patients were Hispanic, 40% were black, and 18% were white; 53% had prior asthma hospitalizations; and 70% had prior oral steroid use. Electronic substudy patients were similar to the rest of the cohort in age, sex, race, and asthma severity. MARS-A had good interitem correlation in English and Spanish (Cronbach alpha = 0.85 and 0.86, respectively) and good test-retest reliability (r = 0.65, P < .001). According to electronic measurements, patients used ICS 52% of days. Continuous MARS-A scores correlated with continuous electronic adherence (r = 0.42, P<.001), and dichotomized high self-reported adherence predicted high electronic adherence (odds ratio, 10.6; 95% confidence interval, 2.5-44.5; P < .001). Construct validity was good, with self-reported adherence higher in those saying daily ICS use was important and ICS were controller medications (P = .04).
MARS-A demonstrated good psychometric performance as a self-reported measure of adherence with ICS among English- and Spanish-speaking, low-income, minority patients with asthma.