Articles of Interest

June 13, 2003

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These articles appeared in recently released journals and newsletters. They include articles funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) or authored by AHRQ researchers; articles mentioning or discussing AHRQ; articles related to AHRQ-funded Evidence-based Practice Centers; articles mentioning the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force/Put Prevention into Practice; articles mentioning the Presidents Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry and Agency-supported activities relating to the Quality Interagency Task Force; and other research using AHRQ data.

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AHRQ-Funded/Authored Articles

Annals of Internal Medicine
Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Deyo RA, et al. A review of the evidence for the effectiveness, safety, and cost of acupuncture, massage therapy, and spinal manipulation for back pain. Ann Intern Med 2003 Jun 3; 138(11):898-906. [Supported by Grant No. R01 HS09989.]

Health Services Research
Clancy CM. Health services research: from galvanizing attention to creating action. Health Serv Res 2003 Jun; 38(3):777-82. [Author is AHRQ director.]

Weech-Maldonado R, Morales LS, Elliott M, et al. Race/ethnicity, language, and patients' assessments of care in Medicaid managed care. Health Serv Res 2003 Jun; 38(3):789-808. [Supported by Grant No. R03 HS11386.]

Macinko J, Starfield B, and Shi L. The contribution of primary care systems to health outcomes within Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, 1970-1998. Health Serv Res 2003 Jun; 38(3):831-65. [Supported by Grant No. T32 HS00029.]

Silber JH, Rosenbaum PR, Even-Shoshan O, et al. Length of stay, conditional length of stay, and prolonged stay in pediatric asthma. Health Serv Res 2003 Jun; 38(3):867-86. [Supported by Grant No. R01 HS09983.]

Journal of the American Medical Association
Jarvik JG, Hollingworth W, Martin B, et al. Rapid magnetic resonance imaging vs radiographs for patients with low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA Jun 4; 289(21):2810-18. [Supported by Grant No. HS09499.]

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
Hill SC, Wooldridge J. SSI enrollees' health care in TennCare. J Health Care Poor Underserved 2003 May; 14(2):229-43. [First author is researcher in AHRQ's Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends.]

Medical Care
Berner ES, Baker CS, Funkhouser E, et al. Do local opinion leaders augment hospital quality improvement efforts? Med Care 2003 Mar; 41(3):420-31. [Supported by Grant No. HS08843.]

Haas JS, Phillips KA, Baker LC, et al. Is the prevalence of gatekeeping in a community associated with individual trust in medical care? Med Care 2003 Mar; 41(3):660-68. [Supported by Grant Nos. P01 HS10771.]

Baker DW, Einstadter D, Thomas C, et al. The effect of publicly reporting hospital performance on market share and risk-adjusted mortality at high-mortality hospitals. Med Care 2003 Jun; 41(6):729-40. [Supported by Grant No. R01 HS09969.]

Pediatrics
Miller MR, Elixhauser A, Zhan C. Patient safety events during pediatric hospitalizations. Pediatrics 2003 Jun; 111(6):1358-66. [First and third authors are former and current researchers in AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and second author is researcher in AHRQ's Center for Organization and Delivery Studies.]

Public Health Nursing
Norr KF, Crittenden KS, Lehrer EL, et al. Maternal and infant outcomes at one year for a nurse-health advocate home visiting program serving African Americans and Mexican Americans. Public Health Nurs 2003 May-Jun 2003; 20(3):190-203. [Supported by Grant No. HS07624.]

AHRQ-Related Articles

American Health Line
Antibiotics: physicians advised to delay use for earaches. Am Health Line 2003 Jun 9; no.5. [Cites AHRQ research findings on major causes of earaches.]

Annals of Internal Medicine
Assendelft WJ, Morton SC, Yu EI, et al. Spinal manipulative therapy for low back pain: a meta-analysis of effectiveness relative to other therapies. Ann Intern Med 2003 Jun 3; 138(11):898-906. [Cites AHRQ-funded articles by Cherkin et al., N Engl J Med, 1998, and Spine, 1998.]

Rosenberg AL, Hofer TP, Strachan C, et al. Accepting critically ill transfer patients: adverse effect on a referral center's outcome and benchmark measures. Ann Intern Med 2003 Jun 3; 138(11):882-90. [Cites AHRQ-funded article by Hofer et al., JAMA, 1999.]

Blue Sheet
Bioterror depends on public health continuum—advocates. Blue Sheet 2003 Jun 9; 46(23):6. [Cites president's proposal to fully fund AHRQ through interagency taps as in FY 2003 budget.]

Electronic medical record start-up should get up to $10 billion—Leape. Blue Sheet 2003 Jun 9; 46(23):7. [Cites remarks by AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy and others at Congressional briefing, "Patient Safety: AHRQ Research at Work."]

BNA's Health Care Policy Report
Senator Frist offers bill targeting obesity as health problem, cause of spending. Blue Sheet 2003 Jun 9; 11(23):756. [Cites provision directing AHRQ to review any new information relating to obesity trends among various subpopulations, and include such data in its health disparities report.]

Health News Daily
Iyengar S. Medicare appeals suit resolved with MCAC review; AHRQ to pick panelists. Health News Daily 2003 May 28; 15(102):1-2. [Cites CMS decision to defer selection of Visudyne review panel to AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy.]

Dove A. Gallup suit against Sully still active; CMS chief must respond by end of June. Health News Daily 2003 Jun 2; 15(102):3. [Notes that AHRQ has not contracted with NRC Picker to produce a draft hospital quality survey.]

Dove A. HHS hospital report card program receives good initial turnout—AHA, FAH. Health News Daily 2003 Jun 2; 15(102):7-8. [Notes that AHRQ "has nearly completed a draft survey designed to quantify a patient's assessment of his own care."]

Health Services Research
Hargraves JL, Hadley J. The contribution of insurance coverage and community resources to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in access to care. Health Serv Res 2003 Jun; 38(3):809-29. [Cites AHRQ-authored articles by Monheit and Vistnes, Med Care Res Rev, 2000; Weinick et al., Med Care Res Rev, 2000; and Zuvekas and Weinick, Health Serv Res, 1999.]

International Journal of Quality in Health Care
Ito H, Yamazumi S. Common types of medication errors on long-term psychiatric units. Int J Qual Health Care 2003 Jun; 15(3):207-12. [Cites AHRQ-funded article by Cullen et al., Jt Comm J Qual Improv, 1995.]

Journal of the American Medical Association
Hadler NM. MRI for regional back pain: need for less imaging, better understanding. JAMA Jun 4; 289(21):2863-65. [Comments on article by Jarvik et al. cited in AHRQ-Funded/Authored Articles.]

Journal of Women's Health
Box TL, Olsen M, Oddone EZ, et al. Healthcare access and utilization by patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus: does gender matter? J Womens Health 2003 May; 12(4): 391-97. [Cites several articles funded under AHRQ's HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS).]

Medical Care
Kwon A, Bungay KM, Pei Y, et al. Antidepressant use: concordance between self-report and claims records. Med Care 2003 Mar; 41(3):368-74. [Cites AHRQ guideline Depression in Primary Care, Volume 1, Detection and Diagnosis, and Volume 2, Treatment of Major Depression, 1993.]

Rector TS, Finch MD, Danzon PM, et al. Effect of tiered prescription copayments on the use of preferred brand medications. Med Care 2003 Mar; 41(3):398-406. [Cites AHRQ-funded study by Schneeweiss et al., N Engl J Med, 2002.]

Cooper LA, Gonzales JJ, Gallo JJ, et al. The acceptability of treatment for depression among African-American, Hispanic, and white primary care patients. Med Care 2003 Apr; 41(4):479-89. [Cites article in Arch Gen Psychiatr updating AHRQ depression guidelines.]

Pbert L, Vuckovic N, Ockene JK, et al. Developing and testing new smoking measures for the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set. Med Care 2003 Apr; 41(4):550-59. [Cites PHS guideline Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, 2000 and AHRQ's Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS®).]

Dickerson FB, McNary SW, Brown CH, et al. Somatic healthcare utilization among adults with serious mental illness who are receiving community psychiatric services. Med Care 2003 Apr; 41(4):560-70. [Cites AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT).]

Allison JJ. Quality assessment tools: incremental advance or paradigm shift? Med Care 2003 May; 41(5):575-78. [Cites article by Clancy and Eisenberg (current and former AHRQ directors), Science, 1998.]

Fortinsky RH, Garcia RI, Sheehan J, et al. Measuring disability in Medicare home care patients: application of Rasch modeling to the Outcome and Assessment Information Set. Med Care 2003 May; 41(5):601-15. [Cites article by Patrick and Chiang (AHRQ researcher), Med Care, 2000.]

McGlynn EA, Kerr EA, Adams J, et al. Quality of health care for women: a demonstration of the Quality Assessment Tools system. Med Care 2003 May; 41(5):616-25. [Cites several AHRQ-funded studies on appropriateness and quality assessment.]

Charbonneau A, Rosen AK, Ash AS, et al. Measuring the quality of depression care in a large integrated health system. Med Care 2003 May; 41(5):669-79. [Cites AHRQ guideline Depression in Primary Care, Volume 1, Detection and Diagnosis, and Volume 2, Treatment of Major Depression, 1993.]

Pink Sheet
Visudyne Medicare settlement: CMS committee to review occult lesion data. Pink Sheet 2003 Jun 2; 65(22):16. [Notes settlement decision to defer panel selection to AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy.]

Social Science and Medicine
Liang BA. Layperson and physician perceptions of the malpractice system: implications for patient safety. Soc Sci Med 2003 Jul; 57(1):147-53. [Cites AHRQ press release announcing funding for patient safety projects.]

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)/Put Prevention into Practice-Related Articles

American Journal of Nursing
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Chemoprevention of breast cancer: recommendations and rationale. Am J Nurs 2003 May; 103(5):107-13. [Summarizes USPSTF recommendations on chemoprevention for breast cancer; updates Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 1996.]

Annals of Internal Medicine
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for dementia: recommendation and rationale. Ann Intern Med 2003 Jun 3; 138(11):925-26. [Summarizes USPSTF recommendations on screening for dementia.]

Boustani M, Peterson B, Hanson L, et al. Screening for dementia in primary care: a summary of the evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med 2003 Jun 3; 138(11):927-37. [Supported by Contract No. 290-97-0011 to RTI-University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center.]

Medical Care
Van Harrison R, Janz NK, Tedeschi PJ, et al. Personalized targeted mailing increases mammography among long-term noncompliant Medicare beneficiaries: a randomized trial. Med Care 2003 Mar; 41(3):375-85. [Cites USPSTF recommendations on breast cancer screening.]

Research by Others Using AHRQ Data or Products

Medical Care
Olfson M, Marcus SC, Druss B, et al. Parental depression, child mental health problems, and health care utilization. Med Care 2003 Jun; 41(6):716-21. [Use data from AHRQ's 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).]

Current as of June 2003