Journal of general internal medicine
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Treatment decisions about menopause are predicated on a transient duration of vasomotor symptoms. However, evidence supporting a specific duration is weak. ⋯ Our findings suggest a median symptom duration of about 4 years among symptomatic women. A longer symptom duration may affect treatment decisions and clinical guidelines. Further prospective, longitudinal studies of menopausal symptoms should be conducted to confirm these results.
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Multicenter Study
Quality of care for decompensated heart failure: comparable performance between academic hospitalists and non-hospitalists.
Hospitalists improve efficiency, but little information exists regarding whether they impact quality of care. ⋯ Academic hospitalists and non-hospitalists provide similar quality of care for heart failure patients, although hospitalists are paying more attention to longitudinal care. Future efforts to improve quality of care in decompensated heart failure may require attention towards system-level factors.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The impact of perceived treatment assignment on smoking cessation outcomes among African-American smokers.
The double-blind placebo-controlled design is commonly considered the gold standard in research methodology; however, subject expectation bias could subvert blinding. ⋯ Results support previous research that expectation bias associated with judgment of treatment assignment is a strong predictor of outcome and confirms this relationship in a smoking cessation trial using bupropion SR among African-American smokers.
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Undertreatment of osteoporosis after hip or wrist fracture has been well documented, but the reasons for current patterns of care are poorly understood. ⋯ Our findings highlight that osteoporosis management rates are similar across providers, but vary considerably by patient types.
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Despite prevalent low literacy nationally, empirical research on the development and testing of literacy-adapted patient education remains limited. ⋯ Development of patient education meeting very low literacy criteria was feasible, effective for knowledge acquisition, and highly acceptable irrespective of literacy level.