Research Activities

November 1998, No. 221

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Marriage encourages healthy behaviors among the elderly, especially men

Departments

Outcomes/Effectiveness Research
   Even modest improvements in blood sugar control can substantially improve quality of life for people with diabetes
   Variations in provider characteristics, procedure use, and cost of care do not affect pneumonia outcomes
   Researchers compare ways of treating low back pain
   Low Birthweight PORT publishes latest findings
   Prostate PORT studies review prostate cancer screening and treatment practices

Hospitalization
   Children's death rates fall sharply in intensive care units
   Cost effectiveness of knee replacement surgery usually increases as surgical volume increases

Heart Disease
   Cardiac arrests occur most often in the morning and early evening hours

Managed Care
   Medicaid managed care lagging in rural counties

Health Care Delivery
   Physicians who are bothered by uncertainty tend to order more tests and incur higher charges than other physicians
Men receive slightly more hospital laboratory and radiology tests than women

Primary Care
   Physician practice style affects patient outcomes and satisfaction
   Intensive program improves care satisfaction among frail elderly patients and their doctors
   Targeted recruitment strategies can overcome barriers to physician's involvement in office-based research

AHCPR News and Notes
   AHCPR has grant money available in fiscal year 1999
   AHCPR announces new evidence report topics
   HHS Secretary appoints new members to AHCPR's National Advisory Council

Announcements
   Congratulations to recipients of dissertation grants and NRSA fellowships and their mentors/advisors
   AHCPR funds new projects
   AHSR issues call for abstracts
   Deadline extended to February 1 for methodology abstracts

Research Briefs
   Cross-cultural differences in the reporting of global functional capacity: An example of cataract patients
   Text-to-algorithm conversion to facilitate comparison of competing clinical guidelines
   The demand for health care among racial/ethnic sub-populations
   Using practice genograms to understand and describe practice configurations
   Eliciting expert opinion using the Delphi technique: Identifying performance indicators for cardiovascular disease
   Using outcomes to make inferences about nursing home quality

AHCPR Publication No. 99-0010
Current as of December 1998

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. November 1998, No. 221. AHCPR Pub. No. 99-0010. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/nov98/

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