American journal of preventive medicine
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Over half of all breast cancer deaths occur among women 65 years of age or older. However, mammography screening decreases with increasing age, despite better survival rates for tumors detected early. ⋯ Despite dual coverage, Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicaid had few mammograms. African-American Medicare beneficiaries, with and without Medicaid, had low mammography rates. Intervention efforts should be targeted toward these women.
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Firearm-related injuries pose a serious public health problem in the United States and are increasingly the focus of public health concern. Despite the magnitude of this problem, ongoing and systematic collection of data on firearm-related injuries to help guide research and policy development has been lacking. The further development of firearm-related injury surveillance systems can provide an objective source of information for policy. ⋯ Some progress has been made in improving the capacity to undertake firearm injury surveillance at national, state, and local levels for mortality, morbidity (including disability), and risk/protective factors, but much work remains to be done. The development of state and local firearm-related injury surveillance systems provides the clearest potential for linking basic information on firearm-related injuries to action, given the critical role that states have in both public health surveillance and regulation of firearms. Broader application of external cause-of-injury codes, increased standardization and validation of definitions and data-collection instruments, improved methods for identifying firearm characteristics and types, and the identification of efficient techniques for linking health and criminal justice data sources are among the key challenges we face as we try to build a more uniform system for monitoring firearm-related injuries in the United States.
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The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment uses existing data sources to identify and assess firearm-related deaths and injuries statewide. ⋯ Despite these limitations, the surveillance system is a valuable resources for information about firearm-related deaths and injuries, and represents an important first step in reducing the number and severity of firearm-related injuries in Colorado.