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The authors studied the occurrence of admission hyponatremia and its association with selected patient and hospitalization characteristics and in-hospital mortality in a geriatric patient cohort (n = 4,123). Prevalence of admission hyponatremia was 3.5% and higher among women (4.6% vs 2.6%). In-hospital mortality was 16% for patients with admission hyponatremia versus 8.0% for patients without admission, hyponatremia. Adjusting for patient and hospitalization characteristics with a logistic regression analysis, admission hyponatremia was a significant independent predictor of mortality (RR = 1.95). Admission hyponatremia is associated with poor prognosis in the elderly hospitalized population.

Although previous research has shown that the NRP instruction improves knowledge and skill among health care personnel in the delivery room, both short-term and long-term, there has been little evidence to demonstrate NRP impact on infant morbidity. Several strategies were used in this study to control for bias and to adjust for secular trends in decreased infant morbidity during the study period. This study demonstrated sufficient support for the hypothesis that a significant improvement occurred among neonates in their Apgar score after the NRP instruction in Illinois. Empirical support is provided for the clinical effectiveness of NRP instruction.

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Precipitously declining cholesterol appeared to be a marker for mortality in the sample and may help explain the low cholesterol-mortality association in older nursing home residents.

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OBJECTIVE:To determine whether access to health information via in-home Internet technology can positively influence empowerment among residents of a low-income urban community. DESIGN:In-home Internet access and training were provided to volunteers, who, along with a comparison group, were interviewed prior to and 1 year after initiation of the program. Community-based participatory research methods were used to design and implement the intervention.SETTING: A 57-block area on the West Side of Chicago. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS:Twenty-five community residents completed all phases of the technology intervention. Thirtyfive randomly selected neighbors of these residents served as the comparison group. INTERVENTIONS: Members of the intervention group receivedInternet access via WebTV, training, technical support, and access to a community specific health-oriented web page during the course of the study. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Intervention group members were similar to comparison group members in terms of empowerment at baseline. After receiving Internet access and training, empowerment related to health decision-making improved significantly in the intervention group. Similar changes did not occur in the comparison group. Affinity for and appreciation of information technology also increased in the intervention group but not in the comparison group. As a result, differences in attitudes toward technology increased between the 2 groups over time.CONCLUSIONS: Using community-based participatory research methods, we found that Internet access to communityspecific and general health information can lead to increased empowerment and appreciation of information technology. These benefits accrued among the intervention group but not among a random group of their neighbors.