Journal of general internal medicine
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To ascertain the views of physicians and physician leaders toward the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. ⋯ Members of the AMA House of Delegates strongly oppose physician-assisted suicide, but rank-and-file physicians show no consensus either for or against its legalization. Although the debate is sometimes adversarial, most physicians in the United States are uncertain or endorse moderate views on assisted suicide.
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To explore the rate and predictors of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear use among American Samoans, we conducted a survey of 986 randomly selected adult, self-identified Samoan women in American Samoa (n = 323), Hawaii (n = 325), and Los Angeles (n = 338). Only 46% of the women reported having a Pap smears within the past 3 years. ⋯ Knowledge and attitudes about cervical cancer did not predict Pap smear screening. It is likely that the low rate of Pap smear screening contributes to the high site-specific incidence of cervical cancer among American Samoan women.
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Editorial Comment
Heart out of darkness: learning from end-of-life care.
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To assess the influence of race and gender influence on the use of invasive procedures in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in community hospitals. ⋯ Our study shows that white women are less likely than white men to be offered bypass surgery after AMI. Although black men and women with AMI are less likely than white men to be offered percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, these findings did not reach statistical significance. Our study is limited in power due to the small number of blacks in the sample.