Research Activities

March 2003, No. 271

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Outpatient prescription drug-related injuries are common in older patients, but many can be prevented

Children's Health

Increasing nutritional intake, especially protein, among extremely premature infants in the NICU could improve their growth rate
AHRQ study links secondhand smoke to tooth decay in children

Heart Disease

Whenever possible, heart attack patients at high risk of death should receive angioplasty, not thrombolytic therapy
Imaging of coronary blood flow improves ED triage decisions for patients who have symptoms of acute cardiac ischemia
Cardiac bypass surgery patients have better 1-year outcomes than similar patients who have coronary angioplasty

Clinical Decisionmaking

First trimester ultrasound identifies more cases of Down syndrome than amniocentesis and is more cost effective
Removal of axillary lymph nodes substantially reduces quality of life for many elderly women with localized breast cancer
Paget-Schroetter syndrome should be considered whenever a person with repetitive arm motion has pulmonary hypertension
Gastric bypass can dramatically improve the health of severely obese individuals at a reasonable cost
Transplant surgeons sometimes reject a poor quality liver in hopes of getting a better organ later
Chiropractic and medical care for low back pain are comparable in their effectiveness over 6 months of followup

Elderly/Long-term Care

Regular help with personal care from adult children substantially reduces the likelihood of nursing home use by the elderly

Health Care Quality

Four AHRQ-funded studies focus on health care quality
Hospitals that had a lower proportion of licensed nurses in the 1990s had higher rates of patient bed sores and pneumonia
Researchers examine efforts to improve primary care for depression

Health Care Delivery

Women are more likely than men to experience long-term posttraumatic stress disorder after major trauma
Up to one-half of patients seeing complementary and alternative medicine providers are also seeing conventional physicians
Clinical autonomy seems to be the key to career satisfaction among both primary care and specialist physicians

Health Care Costs and Financing

Researchers examine impact of drug cost-sharing on prescribing practices
States vary widely in how they regulate private health insurers and managed care organizations
New prospective payment system for inpatient rehabilitation facilities considers patients' severity of disability
Costs associated with genital herpes are expected to rise swiftly over the next 10 years

HIV/AIDS Research

People who have HIV experience more problems with inpatient than outpatient care
Title I funds from the Ryan White Act help many people with HIV/AIDS, but there are waiting lists for some services

Agency News and Notes

AHRQ launches new Web-based quality measures resource
New AHRQ evidence reports are available on treatment of bronchiolitis in young infants and other topics

Announcements

Proceedings now available from conference on alcohol problems in emergency department patients
Clarification
New MEPS data products now available from AHRQ

Research Briefs

Current as of March 2003
AHRQ Publication No. 03-0024

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. March 2003, No. 271. AHRQ Publication No. 03-0024. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mar03/

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