Our findings for borderline and low-grade abnormal cervical cytologic results suggest a relatively low risk of invasive cervical cancer with observation up to 24 months and support the clinical policy of early colposcopy for high-grade lesions.

Despite CONSORT recommendations, few authors expressed their findings in terms of NNT or ARR. Consideration should be given to including these values in reports of RCTs.

BACKGROUNDThe objective of this study was to understand the attitudes and preferences of risk‐eligible women regarding use of tamoxifen for breast cancer risk reduction.METHODSA cross‐sectional, mixed‐methods interview study was conducted at a university medical center and at community sites. Participants were women who had an estimated 5‐year breast cancer risk ≥ 1.7% and no prior breast cancer. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The interview included a 15‐minute, standardized educational session on the potential benefits and harms of tamoxifen followed by close‐ended and open‐ended questions about participants' inclinations to take tamoxifen and factors important to their decision. A demographic questionnaire, a test on knowledge of potential benefits and harms of tamoxifen, and an interview evaluation were included.RESULTSTwo hundred fifty‐five women completed interviews. Their estimated mean 5‐year breast cancer risk was 2.8%; and their mean self‐perceived 5‐year risk was 32.7%. After the educational intervention, 45 women (17.6%) were inclined to take tamoxifen. Very high risk women (> 3.5%) were no more inclined to take it than women with lower risk (1.7–3.5%). In a multivariable analysis, lower income, confidence in the effectiveness of tamoxifen, and concern about fractures were associated with being inclined to take it; concern about pulmonary embolism, dyspareunia, cataracts, and low self‐perceived breast cancer risk were associated negatively with taking tamoxifen. Participants expressed concerns about adverse effects.CONCLUSIONSLess than 20% of women were interested in tamoxifen after education about potential benefits and harms, despite a very high self‐perceived breast cancer risk. Candidate chemoprevention agents must have few potential adverse effects to achieve widespread acceptance. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.

There were no substantive differences in outcomes regarding persistence and resolution in the treatment of squamous intraepithelial lesions for subjects receiving cone biopsy, cryotherapy, laser ablation, or LEEP.

Objectives: Geographic information systems (GIS) tools can help expand our understanding of disparities in health outcomes within a community. The purpose of this project was (1) to demonstrate the methods to link a disease management registry with a GIS mapping and analysis program, (2) to address the challenges that occur when performing this link, and (3) to analyze the outcome disparities resulting from this assessment tool in a population of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods: We used registry data derived from the University of California Davis Health System's electronic medical record system to identify patients with diabetes mellitus from a network of 13 primary care clinics in the greater Sacramento area. This information was converted to a database file for use in the GIS software. Geocoding was performed and after excluding those who had unknown home addresses we matched 8528 unique patient records with their respective home addresses.Socioeconomic and demographic data were obtained from the Geolytics, Inc. (East Brunswick, NJ), a provider of US Census Bureau data, with 2008 estimates and projections. Patient, socioeconomic, and demographic data were then joined to a single database. We conducted regression analysis assessing A1c level based on each patient's demographic and laboratory characteristics and their neighborhood characteristics (socioeconomic status [SES] quintile). Similar analysis was done for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.Results: After excluding ineligible patients, the data from 7288 patients were analyzed. The most notable findings were as follows: There was, there was found an association between neighborhood SES and A1c. SES was not associated with low-density lipoprotein control.Conclusion: GIS methodology can assist primary care physicians and provide guidance for disease management programs. It can also help health systems in their mission to improve the health of a community. Our analysis found that neighborhood SES was a barrier to optimal glucose control but not to lipid control. This research provides an example of a useful application of GIS analyses applied to large data sets now available in electronic medical records.