JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Although the use of feeding tubes among older individuals stirs considerable controversy, population-based descriptive data regarding patient outcomes are scarce. ⋯ Gastrostomies are frequently placed in older individuals and more often in blacks; mortality rates following placement are substantial.
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Behaviors that result in potential exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) usually begin in adolescence or young adulthood, but trends in HIV incidence in young people remain unclear. ⋯ In young persons, HIV incidence in homosexual men and injection drug users was slowing by 1993; this favorable trend was offset by increasing heterosexual transmission, especially in minorities.
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Cancer pain can be relieved with pharmacological agents as indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO). All too frequently pain management is reported to be poor. ⋯ Daily pain is prevalent among nursing home residents with cancer and is often untreated, particularly among older and minority patients.
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State medical boards discipline several thousand physicians each year. Although certain subgroups, such as those disciplined for malpractice, substance use, or sexual abuse, have been studied, little is known about disciplined physicians as a group. ⋯ A small but substantial proportion of physicians is disciplined each year for a variety of offenses. Further study of disciplined physicians is necessary to identify physicians at high risk for offenses leading to disciplinary action and to develop effective interventions to prevent these offenses.