Barriers to self-monitoring of blood glucose among adults with diabetes in an HMO: A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that patients at greatest risk for diabetes complications are least likely to self-monitor blood glucose. However, these studies rely on self-reports of monitoring, an unreliable measure of actual behavior. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between patient characteristics and self-monitoring in a large health maintenance organization (HMO) using test strips as objective measures of self-monitoring practice. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 4,565 continuously enrolled adult managed care patients in eastern Massachusetts with diabetes. Any self-monitoring was defined as filling at least one prescription for self-monitoring test strips during the study period (10/1/92–9/30/93). Regular SMBG among test strip users was defined as testing an average of once per day for those using insulin and every other day for those using oral sulfonylureas only. Measures of health status, demographic data, and neighborhood socioeconomic status were obtained from automated medical records and 1990 census tract data. RESULTS: In multivariate analyses, lower neighborhood socioeconomic status, older age, fewer HbA1c tests, and fewer physician visits were associated with lower rates of self-monitoring. Obesity and fewer comorbidities were also associated with lower rates of self-monitoring among insulin-managed patients, while black race and high glycemic level (HbA1c>10) were associated with less frequent monitoring. For patients taking oral sulfonylureas, higher dose of diabetes medications was associated with initiation of self-monitoring and HbA1c lab testing was associated with more frequent testing. CONCLUSIONS: Managed care organizations may face the greatest challenges in changing the self-monitoring behavior of patients at greatest risk for poor health outcomes (i.e., the elderly, minorities, and people living in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods)

Exploiting non‐systematic covariate monitoring to broaden the scope of evidence about the causal effects of adaptive treatment strategies

In studies based on electronic health records (EHR), the frequency of covariate monitoring can vary by covariate type, across patients, and over time, which can limit the generalizability of inferences about the effects of adaptive treatment strategies. In addition, monitoring is a health intervention in itself with costs and benefits, and stakeholders may be interested in the effect of monitoring when adopting adaptive treatment strategies. This paper demonstrates how to exploit non‐systematic covariate monitoring in EHR‐based studies to both improve the generalizability of causal inferences and to evaluate the health impact of monitoring when evaluating adaptive treatment strategies. Using a real world, EHR‐based, comparative effectiveness research (CER) study of patients with type II diabetes mellitus, we illustrate how the evaluation of joint dynamic treatment and static monitoring interventions can improve CER evidence and describe two alternate estimation approaches based on inverse probability weighting (IPW). First, we demonstrate the poor performance of the standard estimator of the effects of joint treatment‐monitoring interventions, due to a large decrease in data support and concerns over finite‐sample bias from near‐violations of the positivity assumption (PA) for the monitoring process. Second, we detail an alternate IPW estimator using a no direct effect (NDE) assumption. We demonstrate that this estimator can improve efficiency but at the potential cost of increase in bias from violations of the PA for the treatment process

Impact of a Pharmacy Benefit Change on New Use of Mail Order Pharmacy among Diabetes Patients: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110855/1/hesr12223-sup-0001-AuthorMatrix.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110855/2/hesr12223.pd

Fundamentos e aplicações da metodologia de ensaios não destrutivos com células bacterianas

Os Ensaios Não Destrutivos (END) são determinantes para a fiabilidade de materiais cuja integridade é de extrema importância. A técnica de Ensaios Não Destrutivos com células bacterianas (CB) tem demonstrado viabilidade para deteção de defeitos superficiais, com espessuras e profundidades inferiores a 5 μm em vários materiais de engenharia. O conhecimento adquirido sobre esta técnica já é significativo mas alguns aspetos necessitam de mais desenvolvimentos, como a interação bactéria-defeito e a viabilidade da técnica para condições de superfície diferentes das já ensaiadas. O objetivo deste trabalho é alargar a técnica a uma maior gama de materiais de engenharia com condições de superfície diferentes, assim como, desenvolver o conhecimento sobre a interação bactéria-defeito. A bactéria Rhodococcus erythropolis foi usada na inspeção de vários materiais como Alumínio Liga 1100, Estanho, Ouro, Prata, INCONEL 9095, Aço revestido com Nickel, Cobre revestido com Ouro, Alumínio revestido com Cobre, Polímero com nano tubos de carbono, entre outros, e com condições de superfície diferentes como superfícies anodizadas e revestidas. Foram também caracterizados os campos magnéticos de dois equipamentos desenvolvidos para esta técnica de Ensaios Não Destrutivos. Os resultados experimentais mostraram que a utilização de campos magnéticos contribui positivamente para a deteção de defeitos e que provetes com revestimentos superficiais diferentes revelam resultados diferentes apesar de terem o mesmo material base

Coronavirus disease 2019 and clinical research in U.S. nursing homes

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed the extreme vulnerability of residents of our nation\u27s more than 15,000 nursing homes. Fewer than 1% of America\u27s population reside in nursing homes, but as reported by the COVID-19 Tracking Project, “this tiny fraction of the country accounts for 35% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths.” Moreover, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected nursing homes with a higher proportion of Black and Hispanic residents. Despite these sobering statistics, the U.S. clinical research enterprise has largely ignored the nursing home population in conducting clinical research on COVID-19. Of the 1.3 million residents of U.S. nursing homes, only a few hundred have participated in randomized controlled trials relating to COVID-19. And while nursing home residents were prioritized for vaccination in the initial COVID-19 allocation phase in the United States, this population was effectively excluded from the pivotal clinical trials of vaccines assessing efficacy and safety. The dire need for scientific evidence to address the escalating crisis in nursing homes became apparent nearly immediately following the onset of the pandemic. Infection prevention and control strategies, therapeutics, vaccine safety and efficacy, and vaccine rollout efforts all would have benefited from rigorous research-based approaches. However, such efforts were impossible not only due to the chaos and lockdowns of nursing homes that occurred with the rapid spread of the virus, but because of circumstances in nursing homes that have existed for decades. In this Commentary, we describe issues that have challenged the conduct of clinical research in nursing homes before and during the pandemic, and which will continue to challenge such efforts into the future

Costs and Consequences of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising for Clopidogrel in Medicaid

Background Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) is assumed to be a major driver of rising pharmaceutical costs. Yet, research on how it affects costs is limited. Therefore, we studied clopidogrel, a commonly used and heavily marketed antiplatelet agent, which was first sold in 1998 and first direct-to-consumer advertised in 2001. Methods We examined pharmacy data from 27 Medicaid programs from 1999 through 2005. We used interrupted time series analysis to analyze changes in the number of units dispensed, cost per unit dispensed, and total pharmacy expenditures after DTCA initiation. Results In 1999 and 2000, there was no DTCA for clopidogrel; from 2001 through 2005, DTCA spending exceeded $350 million. Direct-to-consumer advertising did not change the preexisting trend in the number of clopidogrel units dispensed per 1000 enrollees (P = .10). However, there was a sudden and sustained increase in cost per unit of$0.40 after DTCA initiation (95% confidence interval, $0.31-$0.49; P < .001), leading to an additional $40.58 of pharmacy costs per 1000 enrollees per quarter thereafter (95$22.61-$58.56; P < .001). Overall, this change resulted in an additional$207 million in total pharmacy expenditures. Conclusions Direct-to-consumer advertising was not associated with an increase in clopidogrel use over and above preexisting trends. However, Medicaid pharmacy expenditures increased substantially after the initiation of DTCA because of a concomitant increase in the cost per unit. If drug price increases after DTCA initiation are common, there are important implications for payers and for policy makers in the United States and elsewhere

Medicaid Expansion and the Affordable Care Act: Data From the First Year of Enrollment at Kaiser Permanente Northern California

Background/Aims: The Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act (ACA) aims to reduce rates of un-insurance partly through expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the establishment of insurance exchanges with income-based subsidies. While prior studies used historical enrollment data to predict the characteristics and utilization patterns of newly eligible Medicaid recipients, few studies to date have actively analyzed these new enrollees. By providing Medi-Cal coverage and commercial insurance, Kaiser Permanente provides a unique perspective when analyzing these programs. As part of a larger ongoing study, we aim to provide early data on the characteristics and preliminary utilization patterns of new Medi-Cal enrollees after the roll-out of insurance expansion under the ACA. Methods: This is a descriptive study including two distinct cohorts of adult (18–64) Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) members who were newly enrolled in KPNC Medicaid in 2013 and 2014, defined as no KPNC enrollment in the prior 12 months. Results: Between 1/2014 and 6/2014, 9,795 adults enrolled in Medi-Cal while 5,322 enrolled in 2013. Compared to enrollees in 2013, Medi-Cal enrollees in 2014 were older (44% aged 41–64 vs. 29.2%). New enrollees were predominantly female (58.7% female vs. 41.3% male), but less so than in 2013 (62.2% female vs. 37.8% male). 2014 enrollees were proportionally less likely to be white (29.0% vs. 30.0%), black (15.3% vs. 24.5%) or Hispanic (17.0% vs. 27.8%), and proportionally more likely to be Asian (10.2% vs 9.7%). However, a larger percentage was classified as “unknown” (26.8% vs 6.2%). Preliminary rates of utilization (per member per month) were similar, except for outpatient visits where the mean for the post-ACA cohort was 0.98 (1.59) relative to 0.74 (0.94) for the pre-ACA cohort. Discussion: Consistent with expectations, newly enrolled Medi-Cal beneficiaries post-ACA were older and less predominantly female. However, there also was a decrease in race/ethnicity ascertainment in the post-ACA cohort. Additional analysis will explore differences in utilization once a full year of data for the 2014 cohort has been collected. When combined with data on medical comorbidities of this population, this study will help further understand the needs of the newly insured post-Medicaid expansion

The population-level impacts of a national health insurance program and franchise midwife clinics on achievement of prenatal and delivery care standards in the Philippines

Objectives Adequate prenatal and delivery care are vital components of successful maternal health care provision. Starting in 1998, two programs were widely expanded in the Philippines: a national health insurance program (PhilHealth); and a donor-funded franchise of midwife clinics (Well Family Midwife Clinics). This paper examines population-level impacts of these interventions on achievement of minimum standards for prenatal and delivery care.Methods Data from two waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys, conducted before (1998) and after (2003) scale-up of the interventions, are employed in a pre/post-study design, using longitudinal multivariate logistic and linear regression models.Results After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the PhilHealth insurance program scale-up was associated with increased odds of receiving at least four prenatal visits (OR 1.04 [95% CI 1.01-1.06]) and receiving a visit during the first trimester of pregnancy (OR 1.03 [95% CI 1.01-1.06]). Exposure to midwife clinics was not associated with significant changes in achievement of prenatal care standards. While both programs were associated with slight increases in the odds of delivery in a health facility, these increases were not statistically significant.Conclusions These results suggest that expansion of an insurance program with accreditation standards was associated with increases in achievement of minimal standards for prenatal care among women in the Philippines.Maternal health Prenatal and delivery care National health insurance program Social franchising Philippines