Background This study examined the relationship of medication adherence to frequency of pulmonary exacerbation and rate of decline in FEV1% predicted (FEV1). Methods 95 CF patients ages 6 years or older and prescribed a pulmonary medication, enrolled in a longitudinal retrospective review of medication adherence and health outcomes (the occurrence and frequency of intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatments and FEV1) over 12-months. Pharmacy refill records were used to calculate a medication possession ratio (MPR). Results Composite MPR predicted the occurrence of at least one pulmonary exacerbation requiring a course of IV antibiotics (IRR=2.34, p=0.05), but not the frequency of exacerbations, after controlling for gender, baseline FEV1, and regimen complexity. Composite MPR predicted baseline FEV1 (estimate=29.81, p=.007), but not decline in FEV1. Conclusions These results demonstrate a significant relation between medication adherence and IV antibiotics in CF patients, highlighting the importance of addressing adherence during clinic visits to improve health outcomes.

Health literacy is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (1-4) and is most often measured by reading comprehension of health-related information (5, 6). Multiple studies indicate that inadequate health literacy is associated with worse health status and higher rates of hospitalization across a number of patient populations (4,7,8), including patients with diabetes mellitus, patients with HIV infection, and the elderly (9-12). However, there are relatively few data about the effects of inadequate health literacy in patients with asthma, a common chronic respiratory disorder affecting 5 to 10% of the U.S. population (13).

AKI carries a significant mortality and morbidity risk. Use of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) might improve outcomes. We conducted a multicenter, sequential period analysis of 528,108 patients without ESRD before admission, from October of 2012 to September of 2015, to determine whether use of a CDSS reduces hospital length of stay and in-hospital mortality for patients with AKI. We compared patients treated 12 months before (181,696) and 24 months after (346,412) implementation of the CDSS. Coprimary outcomes were hospital mortality and length of stay adjusted by demographics and comorbidities. AKI was diagnosed in 64,512 patients (12.2%). Crude mortality rate fell from 10.2% before to 9.4% after CDSS implementation (odds ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.86 to 0.96; =0.001) for patients with AKI but did not change in patients without AKI (from 1.5% to 1.4%). Mean hospital duration decreased from 9.3 to 9.0 days (<0.001) for patients with AKI, with no change for patients without AKI. In multivariate mixed-effects models, the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) was 0.76 (0.70 to 0.83) for mortality and 0.66 (0.61 to 0.72) for dialysis (<0.001). Change in adjusted hospital length of stay was also significant (incidence rate ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.89 to 0.92), decreasing from 7.2 to 6.0 days for patients with AKI. Results were robust to sensitivity analyses and were sustained for the duration of follow-up. Hence, implementation of a CDSS for AKI resulted in a small but sustained decrease in hospital mortality, dialysis use, and length of stay.

Rationale: Hospitalizations for asthma exacerbations are common in the United States, but there are no national estimates of outcomes in this population. It is also not known if race disparities in asthma deaths exist among hospitalized patients. Objectives: To estimate outcomes of patients hospitalized for asthma in the United States and to determine if the risk of death in this population is higher among black patients compared with white patients. Methods: We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 2000. Admissions for asthma exacerbations among patients Ͼ 5 yr of age were included. Mortality was the primary outcome; secondary outcomes were length of stay and total hospital charges. Measurements and Main Results:In-hospital asthma mortality was 0.5% (99% confidence interval [CI], 0.4-0.6), with mean hospital stay of 2.7 d (99% CI, 2.6-2.8 d) and $9,078 (99% CI, $8,300-9,855) in hospital charges. Deaths in this population accounted for about one-third of all asthma deaths reported in the United States. Black patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbations were less likely to die when compared with white patients (0.3 vs. 0.6%; p Ͻ 0.001). However, in multivariable analyses, there were no significant race differences in hospital deaths. Conclusions: Mortality among patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbations accounts for one-third of all deaths from asthma. The higher overall risk of death from asthma in black patients compared with white patients in the United States is not explained by race differences in hospital deaths and therefore is attributable to factors preceding hospitalization.

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) often coexists in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The present prospective cohort study tested the effect of OSAS treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on the survival of hypoxaemic COPD patients. It was hypothesised that CPAP treatment would be associated with higher survival in patients with moderate-to-severe OSAS and hypoxaemic COPD receiving long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT).Prospective study participants attended two outpatient advanced lung disease LTOT clinics in São Paulo, Brazil, between January 1996 and July 2006. Of 603 hypoxaemic COPD patients receiving LTOT, 95 were diagnosed with moderate-to-severe OSAS. Of this OSAS group, 61 (64%) patients accepted and were adherent to CPAP treatment, and 34 did not accept or were not adherent and were considered not treated.The 5-yr survival estimate was 71% (95% confidence interval 53-83%) and 26% (12-43%) in the CPAP-treated and nontreated groups, respectively (p,0.01). After adjusting for several confounders, patients treated with CPAP showed a significantly lower risk of death (hazard ratio of death versus nontreated 0.19 (0.08-0.48)).The present study found that CPAP treatment was associated with higher survival in patients with moderate-to-severe OSAS and hypoxaemic COPD receiving LTOT.

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the longitudinal effects of home-based asthma education combined with medication adherence feedback (adherence monitoring with feedback [AMF]) and asthma education alone (asthma basic care [ABC]) on asthma outcomes, relative to a usual-care (UC) control group. METHODS A total of 250 inner-city children with asthma (mean age: 7 years; 62% male; 98% black) were recruited from a pediatric emergency department (ED). Health-outcome measures included caregiver-frequency of asthma symptoms, ED visits, hospitalizations, and courses of oral corticosteroids at baseline and 6-, 12-, and 18-month assessments. Adherence measures included caregiver-reported adherence to inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy and pharmacy records of ICS refills. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the differential effects of AMF and ABC compared with UC. RESULTS ED visits decreased more rapidly for the AMF group than for the UC group, but no difference was found between the ABC and UC groups. The AMF intervention led to short-term improvements in ICS adherence during the active-intervention phase relative to UC, but this improvement decreased over time. Asthma symptoms and courses of corticosteroids decreased more rapidly for the ABC group than for the UC group. Hospitalization rates did not differ between either intervention group and the UC group. No differences were found between the ABC and AMF groups on any outcome. CONCLUSIONS Asthma education led to improved adherence and decreased morbidity compared with UC. Home-based educational interventions may lead to modest short-term improvements in asthma outcomes among inner-city children. Adherence feedback did not improve outcomes over education alone.

Objective. To evaluate spirituality, well-being, and quality of life (QOL) among people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Questionnaires assessing positive and negative affect, depression, QOL and spirituality were completed.

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