Summary
Atopic dermatitis is a common skin disease that causes extreme itching (called pruritus) and which mainly affects children. In the United States (U.S.A.), around 17% of schoolchildren are thought to have experienced atopic dermatitis and in Northern Europe, it is similar at about 16%.
The researchers of this study are based in the U.S.A and in Germany. The Childhood Atopic Dermatitis Impact Scale (CADIS) is a questionnaire that measures quality of life in young children affected by atopic dermatitis, and their parents. This study aimed to find out whether the CADIS is able to detect changes over time and how big those changes have to be in order to be beneficial for the patients. Parents of affected children completed the CADIS and rated their child's skin condition on a single question at initial enrolment and four weeks later.
Only children whose skin condition improved, showed significantly better CADIS scores after four weeks, i.e. the CADIS was sensitive to change towards improvement. However, change scores must be interpretable to be clinically useful. For this reason, the authors calculated the minimal important change (MIC), which is the smallest change in score which patients perceive as beneficial. An improvement in the CADIS of more than 12% was found to very likely represent a clinically important change. Since the CADIS is able to measure change over time, it is a useful instrument in clinical practice.
This summary relates to the study: Evaluation of responsiveness and estimation of smallest detectable change and minimal important change scores for the Childhood Atopic Dermatitis Impact Scale
depression because of lack of social interaction and concern over potential infection." 90 participants (30%) felt strongly that their oncologist did not understand their discomfort due to myelosuppression. Conclusions: Even with the various approaches used to address chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression, patients describe a significant real-world burden that often isolates them from family and friends and renders them unable to work or perform tasks around the home. Additional insights from patients should be obtained to further elucidate the totality of life burden associated with myelosuppression.
Introduction: Industry payments to physicians may influence prescribing patterns. Prior studies have focused on comparing more efficacious, newer brand-name medications to older generics, which could introduce confounding. Evaluating the influence of industry payments on prescribing patterns between brand-named TNF-a inhibitors represents an opportunity to reduce potential confounding by examining similar medications in the same therapeutic class, with similar clinical indications. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of Medicare Part D prescribing data for etanercept and adalimumab in 2015 and Open Payments data from the associated manufacturers in 2014 and 2015. The association between square root transformed payments from associated manufacturers and the ratio of prescribing etanercept to adalimumab was assessed with linear regression, controlling for specialty, gender, and years in practice. Secondary analyses included evaluating the association between the number of payments and prescribing practices as well as comparing food & beverage payments to other payment types. Results: Increased total payments from the etanercept manufacturer, Amgen, Inc, were associated with an increased ratio of prescribing etanercept to adalimumab (0.010, 95% CI 0.004 to 0.016); conversely, increased total payments from the adalimumab manufacturer, AbbVie, Inc, were associated with a decreased ratio of prescribing (-0.013, 95% CI-0.017 to-0.069). An increased number of payments from AbbVie, Inc relative to Amgen, Inc was associated with a decreased ratio of prescribing etanercept to adalimumab (-0.015, 95% CI-0.020 to-0.009). Conclusions: Industry payments are associated with increased prescribing even among similar brand medications in the same therapeutic class. Both an increased number of interactions and increased total payments were assocaited with increased prescribing.
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