Association of Magnet Status With Hospitalization Outcomes for Ischemic Stroke Patients.

BACKGROUND: It is not clear whether Magnet recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (nursing excellence program) is associated with improved patient outcomes. We investigated whether hospitalization in a Magnet hospital is associated with improved outcomes for patients with ischemic stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a cohort study of patients with ischemic stroke from 2009 to 2013, who were registered in the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database. Propensity-score-adjusted multivariable regression models were used to adjust for known confounders, with mixed effects methods to control for clustering at the facility level. An instrumental variable analysis was used to control for unmeasured confounding and simulate the effect of a randomized trial. During the study period, 176 557 patients were admitted for ischemic stroke, and met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 32 092 (18.2%) were hospitalized in Magnet hospitals, and 144 465 (81.8%) in non-Magnet institutions. Instrumental variable analysis demonstrated that hospitalization in Magnet hospitals was associated with lower case-fatality (adjusted difference, -23.9%; 95% CI, -29.0% to -18.7%), length of stay (adjusted difference, -0.4; 95% CI, -0.8 to -0.1), and rate of discharge to a facility (adjusted difference, -16.5%; 95% CI, -20.0% to -13.0%) in comparison to non-Magnet hospitals. The same associations were present in propensity-score-adjusted mixed effects models. CONCLUSIONS: Using a comprehensive all-payer cohort of patients with ischemic stroke in New York State, we identified an association of treatment in Magnet hospitals with lower case-fatality, discharge to a facility, and length of stay. Further research into the factors contributing to the superiority of Magnet hospitals in stroke care is warranted

Time Trends in Expenditures for Rural Veterans\u27 Healthcare

We studied rural-urban differences in medical spending trends over eleven years for VA as well as non-VA care received by male veterans who used any VA services, and compared those trends to trends for other healthcare-using men. Using inflation-adjusted annual medical expenditures for non-veterans, VA users, and other veterans who participated in Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys from 1996 through 2006, we examined trends in spending on inpatient, hospital-based outpatient, office-based, pharmacy, and other care, by major payers (self/family, private insurance, Medicare, other sources, and VA), to assess changes in expenditures for the care of rural veterans, younger or older than 65 years, compared with other healthcare users. For all groups, spending for pharmacy and office-based care increased fasterthan inflation, while other care categories did not change consistently. VA spending also increased for these but not other services, and it grew sharply for working-age rural veterans, possibly reflecting improved access through community-based care

Adjusting for bias introduced by instrumental variable estimation in the Cox Proportional Hazards Model

Instrumental variable (IV) methods are widely used for estimating average treatment effects in the presence of unmeasured confounders. However, the capability of existing IV procedures, and most notably the two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) procedure recommended for use in nonlinear contexts, to account for unmeasured confounders in the Cox proportional hazard model is unclear. We show that instrumenting an endogenous treatment induces an unmeasured covariate, referred to as an individual frailty in survival analysis parlance, which if not accounted for leads to bias. We propose a new procedure that augments 2SRI with an individual frailty and prove that it is consistent under certain conditions. The finite sample-size behavior is studied across a broad set of conditions via Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, the proposed methodology is used to estimate the average effect of carotid endarterectomy versus carotid artery stenting on the mortality of patients suffering from carotid artery disease. Results suggest that the 2SRI-frailty estimator generally reduces the bias of both point and interval estimators compared to traditional 2SRI.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, 4 table

The United States Chiropractic Workforce: An alternative or complement to primary care?

UnlabelledBackgroundIn the United States (US) a shortage of primary care physicians has become evident. Other health care providers such as chiropractors might help address some of the nation's primary care needs simply by being located in areas of lesser primary care resources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the distribution of the chiropractic workforce across the country and compare it to that of primary care physicians.MethodsWe used nationally representative data to estimate the per 100,000 capita supply of chiropractors and primary care physicians according to the 306 predefined Hospital Referral Regions. Multiple variable Poisson regression was used to examine the influence of population characteristics on the supply of both practitioner-types.ResultsAccording to these data, there are 74,623 US chiropractors and the per capita supply of chiropractors varies more than 10-fold across the nation. Chiropractors practice in areas with greater supply of primary care physicians (Pearson's correlation 0.17, p-value < 0.001) and appear to be more responsive to market conditions (i.e. more heavily influenced by population characteristics) in regards to practice location than primary care physicians.ConclusionThese findings suggest that chiropractors practice in areas of greater primary care physician supply. Therefore chiropractors may be functioning in more complementary roles to primary care as opposed to an alternative point of access

Middle-Aged Death and Taxes in the USA: Association of State Tax Burden and Expenditures in 2005 with Survival from 2006 to 2015.

Background Longevity in the United States ranks below most other Western nations despite spending more on healthcare per capita than any other country. Across the world, mortality has been declining, but in the USA the trend toward improvement has stalled in some middle-aged demographic groups. Cross-national studies suggest that social welfare is positively associated with longevity. The United States has less government sponsored welfare, education and healthcare than almost all other Western nations, but the level of this social welfare commitment varies across the states. In this study we examined the association of state tax burden and state government expenditures with subsequent middle-aged mortality. Methods The primary exposure was state tax burden in 2005, defined as proportion of all state income paid to the state. We also examined the impact of state expenditures per capita in 2005 for education, healthcare, welfare, police and highways. The dependent variable was mortality during the subsequent 10 years. Death counts and population sizes by sex, age group and race strata for 2006–2015 were abstracted from CDC WONDER. Binomial logistic regression was employed based on the number of deaths and underlying population within each county-sex-age-race bin. Results State tax burden in 2005 varied from 5.8% to 12.2%. An increase of 1.0 percentage point in state tax burden was associated with a 5.8% (SE = 0.1%) reduction in mortality adjusted for sex, age and race, but was associated with a 1.1% (SE = 0.1%) reduction when further adjusting for state income and education levels. Controlling for sex, age and race each type of state expenditures was associated with decreases in middle aged mortality, notably K-12 education (reduction of 4.7%, SE = 0.1%, per 10% expenditure increase) except healthcare but all types were associated with mortality decreases further controlling for state income and education. Conclusion The residents of states with higher state taxation and higher expenditures per capita have lower middle aged mortality rates

New York State: Comparison of Treatment Outcomes for Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms Using an Instrumental Variable Analysis

Background: There is wide regional variation in the predominant treatment for unruptured cerebral aneurysms. We investigated the association of elective surgical clipping and endovascular coiling with mortality, readmission rate, length of stay, and discharge to rehabilitation. Methods and Results: We performed a cohort study involving patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms, who underwent surgical clipping or endovascular coiling from 2009 to 2013 and were registered in the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database. An instrumental variable analysis was used to investigate the association of treatment technique with outcomes. Of the 4643 patients undergoing treatment, 3190 (68.7%) underwent coiling, and 1453 (31.3%) underwent clipping. Using an instrumental variable analysis, we did not identify a difference in inpatient mortality (marginal effect, 0.13; 95% CI, −0.30, 0.57), or the rate of 30‐day readmission (marginal effect, −1.84; 95% CI −4.06, −0.37) between the 2 treatment techniques for patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms. Clipping was associated with a higher rate of discharge to rehabilitation (marginal effect, 2.31; 95% CI 0.21, 4.41), and longer length of stay (β, 2.01; 95% CI 0.85, 3.04). In sensitivity analysis, mixed‐effect regression, and propensity score, adjusted regression models demonstrated identical results. Conclusions: Using a comprehensive all‐payer cohort of patients in New York State with unruptured cerebral aneurysms, we did not identify an association of treatment method with mortality or 30‐day readmission. Clipping was associated with a higher rate of discharge to rehabilitation and longer length of stay

Diabetes Pharmacotherapies and Bladder Cancer: A Medicare Epidemiologic Study

Objective: Patients with type II diabetes have an increased risk of bladder cancer and are commonly treated with thiazolidinediones and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), which have been linked to cancer risk. We explored the relationship between use of one or both of these medication types and incident bladder cancer among diabetic patients (diabetics) enrolled in Medicare. Research Design and Methods: We constructed both a prevalent and incident retrospective cohort of pharmacologically treated prevalent diabetics enrolled in a Medicare fee-for-service plan using inpatient, outpatient (2003–2011) and prescription (2006–2011) administrative data. The association of incident bladder cancer with exposure to pioglitazone, rosiglitazone and ARBs was studied using muitivariable Cox’s hazard models with time-dependent covariates in each of the two cohorts. Results: We identified 1,161,443 prevalent and 320,090 incident pharmacologically treated diabetics, among whom 4433 and 1159, respectively, developed incident bladder cancers. In the prevalent cohort mean age was 75.1 years, mean follow-up time was 38.0 months, 20.2% filled a prescription for pioglitazone during follow-up, 10.4% received rosiglitazone, 31.6% received an ARB and 8.0% received combined therapy with pioglitazone + ARB. We found a positive association between bladder cancer and duration of pioglitazone use in the prevalent cohort (P for trend = 0.008), with ≥24 months of pioglitazone exposure corresponding to a 16% (95% confidence interval 0–35%) increase in the incidence of bladder cancer compared to no use. There was a positive association between bladder cancer and rosiglitazone use for \u3c24 months in the prevalent cohort, but no association with ARB use. There were no significant associations in the incident cohort. Conclusions: We found that the incidence of bladder cancer increased with duration of pioglitazone use in a prevalent cohort of diabetics aged 65+ years residing in the USA, but not an incident cohort

The Impact of Waist Circumference on Function and Physical Activity in Older Adults: Longitudinal Observational Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Background: We previously demonstrated that BMI is associated with functional decline and reduced quality of life. While BMI in older adults is fraught with challenges, waist circumference (WC) is a marker of visceral adiposity that can also predict mortality. However, its association with function and quality of life in older adults is not well understood and hence we sought to examine the impact of WC on six-year outcomes. Methods: We identified adults aged ≥60 years from the longitudinal Osteoarthritis Initiative and stratified the cohort into quartiles based on WC. Our primary outcome measures of function at six year follow-up included: self-reported quality of life [Short Form-12 (SF-12)], physical function [Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE)] and disability [Late-life Disability Index (LLDI)]. Linear regression analyses predicted 6-year outcomes based on WC quartile category (lowest = referent), adjusted for age, sex, race, education, knee pain, smoking status, a modified Charlson co-morbidity index and baseline scores, where available

The United States Chiropractic Workforce: An alternative or complement to primary care?

UnlabelledBackgroundIn the United States (US) a shortage of primary care physicians has become evident. Other health care providers such as chiropractors might help address some of the nation's primary care needs simply by being located in areas of lesser primary care resources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the distribution of the chiropractic workforce across the country and compare it to that of primary care physicians.MethodsWe used nationally representative data to estimate the per 100,000 capita supply of chiropractors and primary care physicians according to the 306 predefined Hospital Referral Regions. Multiple variable Poisson regression was used to examine the influence of population characteristics on the supply of both practitioner-types.ResultsAccording to these data, there are 74,623 US chiropractors and the per capita supply of chiropractors varies more than 10-fold across the nation. Chiropractors practice in areas with greater supply of primary care physicians (Pearson's correlation 0.17, p-value < 0.001) and appear to be more responsive to market conditions (i.e. more heavily influenced by population characteristics) in regards to practice location than primary care physicians.ConclusionThese findings suggest that chiropractors practice in areas of greater primary care physician supply. Therefore chiropractors may be functioning in more complementary roles to primary care as opposed to an alternative point of access