Family practice
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Physical frailty is relevant to adverse outcomes, but appropriate procedures for screening populations are lacking. We hypothesized that frailty is associated with multiple somatic symptoms because frail elderly people might have several somatic symptoms attributed to deterioration of multiple organs. ⋯ Our study shows that multiple somatic symptoms are independently associated with frailty. Using more than two multiple somatic symptoms as a prescreening tool for frailty may be appropriate.
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One of the most remarkable features of patient safety research in primary care is the sparse attention paid to patients' own experiences. ⋯ The exploration of participants' perceptions and experiences allowed the identification of a wide variety of themes that were perceived to impact on patient safety in primary care. The findings of this study could be used to enrich current frameworks that are exclusively based on professional or health care system perspectives.
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GPs answer all patient calls to the out-of-hours primary care (OOH-PC) services in Denmark. Knowledge is scarce on how the triage-GPs act on the specific reasons for encounter (RFE). ⋯ The distribution of the RFEs on triage outcomes, dominated by more severe diagnoses in referrals indicates a suitable referral level. However, future research on factors related to the demanding task of telephone triage is highly relevant for postdoctoral training of GPs.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparison of blood pressure measurements on the bare arm, over a sleeve and over a rolled-up sleeve in the elderly.
Although guidelines recommend that blood pressure (BP) should be measured on a bare arm, BP is sometimes measured over clothing in clinical settings. ⋯ Although previous studies have suggested BP measurements over clothing are acceptable, our results suggest that BP should be measured on bare arms as recommended by guidelines whenever feasible.
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Multicenter Study
Improving diabetes care and outcomes with community health workers.
Type II diabetes continues to be a major health problem in USA, particularly in minority populations. The Diabetes Equity Project (DEP), a clinic-based diabetes self-management and education program led by community health workers (CHWs), was designed to reduce observed disparities in diabetes care and outcomes in medically underserved, predominantly Hispanic communities. ⋯ Given the increasing prevalence of diabetes in USA and documented disparities in diabetes care and outcomes for minorities, particularly Hispanic patients, new models of care such as the DEP are needed to expand access to and improve the delivery of diabetes care and help patients achieve improved outcomes.