The American journal of medicine
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Comment Letter Case Reports
A Case of Disseminated Systemic Light-Chain Amyloidosis with Coagulopathy.
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Individual attitudes and behavior related to health and disease are major components of clinical encounters. These factors shape lifestyle, presentation of symptoms, access to patient care, interactions between patients and physicians, adherence to medical advice, and response to treatment. Health attitudes and behavior may range from anxiety and worry about illness to various forms of denial, such as delay of seeking care and lack of adherence to treatment. ⋯ Devising appropriate responses by health care providers may contribute to improving final outcomes and decrease health care costs. In particular, health behavior is likely to play a major role in the process of convalescence, in self-management of chronic conditions, in determining a state of recovery, and whenever a rehabilitation process is involved. Understanding the spectrum of health attitudes and behavior is also crucial for motivating people to make beneficial changes (lifestyle medicine), as well as for implementing safety procedures in the community.
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Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are well documented, although often underappreciated. In the setting of atrial fibrillation, stroke risk and severity may be higher in underrepresented ethnic populations. Additionally, the risk of bleeding is not uniform, and pharmacogenetics play an important role in anticoagulant therapy. In this narrative review, we discuss the complex issues surrounding stroke prevention in underrepresented ethnic groups with atrial fibrillation.