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Biomedical subjects

D S May

Publications and source records attributed to D S May.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Mammography and breast cancer detection by race and Hispanic ethnicity: results from a national program (United States).

OBJECTIVE: Some of the racial and ethnic variation in breast cancer incidence rates may reflect differential use of mammography. We report breast cancer rates using mammography and diagnostic data from five race/ethnicity groups. METHODS: Mammography data were analyzed for 573,751 women who received breast cancer screening between July 1991 and March 1998 from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). Abnormal mammography rates, breast cancer detection rates, and cancer stage distribution data are presented by race/ethnicity and screening round (first or subsequent). RESULTS: For the first screening round, percentages of abnormal mammographies ranged from 7.3% among black women to 9.3% among Asian/Pacific Islander women. Cancer detection rates ranged from 4.9 cancers per 1000 mammograms for Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women to 7.7 per 1000 for white women. Subsequent round rates were lower but varied similarly. AI/AN women had the highest percentage (68%) of first-round cancers detected in the early stage (range for the other groups: 52-63%). CONCLUSIONS: Breast cancer detection rates for racial and ethnic groups in this program varied less than published population-based incidence rates. Differential use of mammography among these groups may account for some of the variation reported for breast cancer incidence.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Time to diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: results from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, 1991-1995.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined times to diagnosis and treatment for medically underserved women screened for breast cancer. METHODS: Intervals from first positive screening test to diagnosis to initiation of treatment were determined for 1659 women 40 years and older diagnosed with breast cancer. RESULTS: Women with abnormal mammograms had shorter diagnostic intervals than women with abnormal clinical breast examinations and normal mammograms. Women with self-reported breast symptoms had shorter diagnostic intervals than asymptomatic women. Diagnostic intervals were less than 60 days in 78% of cases. Treatment intervals were generally 2 weeks or less. CONCLUSIONS: Most women diagnosed with breast cancer were followed up in a timely manner after screening. Further investigation is needed to identify and then address factors associated with longer diagnostic and treatment intervals to maximize the benefits of early detection.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Compliance with mammography guidelines: physician recommendation and patient adherence.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend that women ages 50-75 years receive screening mammography every 1-2 years. We related receipt of physician recommendations for mammography and patient adherence to such recommendations to several patient characteristics. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 1,111 women ages 50-75 attending three clinics in an urban university medical center. We ascertained overall compliance with mammography guidelines and two components of compliance: receipt of a physician recommendation and adherence to a recommendation. Outcome measures were the proportion of patients demonstrating each type of compliance and adjusted odds ratios, according to several patient-related characteristics. RESULTS: Overall, 66% of women received a recommendation. Of women receiving a documented recommendation, 75% adhered. Factors showing significant positive associations with receiving a recommendation included being a patient in the general internal medicine clinic, having private insurance, visiting the clinic more often, and having a recent Pap smear. Patient adherence was positively associated with private insurance and Pap smear history, negatively associated with internal medicine, and not associated with visit frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Patient factors influencing physician mammography recommendations may be different from those associated with patient adherence, except for having private health insurance, which was a predictor of both.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Mammography use by elderly women: a methodological comparison of two national data sources.

PURPOSE: Estimates of mammography utilization vary considerably, depending on the data source. Among women aged 65 years and older, recent estimates of annual mammography derived from the 1992 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were 50% higher than estimates from Medicare claims. We investigated possible reasons for the different estimates. METHODS: We identified differences in the populations covered by the two data sources and made appropriate adjustments. Differences due to age were addressed by age restriction and age adjustment. Women in health maintenance organizations were eliminated from the NHIS sample so it more closely resembled the Medicare database, and estimates of mammography utilization by noninstitutionalized women were derived for Medicare to increase comparability with NHIS. By using the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to obtain individual-level comparisons between self-report and claims, we explored potential biases in self-reported data and missing claims. RESULTS: Differences between the sample populations accounted for more than one-fourth of the rate difference. About half of the difference could be attributed to erroneous self-reports, biases in self-reported dates (forward and reverse telescoping) and missing Medicare claims. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the discrepancy between the two data sources can be plausibly explained. However, caution must be used in using either data source alone, or both together, to represent the "true" mammography rate.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Chronic disease as a barrier to breast and cervical cancer screening.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether chronic disease is a barrier to screening for breast and cervical cancer. DESIGN: Structured medical record review of a retrospectively defined cohort. SETTING: Two primary care clinics of one academic medical center. PATIENTS: All eligible women at least 43 years of age seen during a 6-month period in each of the two study clinics (n = 1,764). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Study outcomes were whether women had been screened: for mammogram, every 2 years for ages 50-74; for clinical breast examinations (CBEs), every year for all ages; and for Pap smears, every 3 years for ages under 65. An index of comorbidity, adapted from Charlson (0 for no disease, maximum index of 8 among our patients), and specific chronic diseases were the main independent variables. Demographics, clinic use, insurance, and clinical data were covariates. In the appropriate age groups for each test, 58% of women had a mammogram, 43% had a CBE, and 66% had a Pap smear. As comorbidity increased, screening rates decreased (p < .05 for linear trend). After adjustment, each unit increase in the comorbidity index corresponded to a 17% decrease in the likelihood of mammography (p = .005), 13% decrease in CBE (p = .006), and 20% decrease in Pap smears (p = .002). The rate of mammography in women with stable angina was only two fifths of that in women without. CONCLUSIONS: Among women who sought outpatient care, screening rates decreased as comorbidity increased. Whether clinicians and patients are making appropriate decisions about screening is not known.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Maternal age specific risk rate estimates for Down syndrome among live births in whites and other races from Ohio and metropolitan Atlanta, 1970-1989.

Our primary objective was to estimate, by one year and five year intervals, maternal age specific risk rates for Down syndrome among whites and among other races from two different populations, metropolitan Atlanta and south west Ohio, using live birth and prenatally diagnosed cases ascertained during 1970-1989. The five year estimates were also calculated separately for each of the five four year periods during these 20 years. Additionally, we compared two different methods of estimating these risk rates by using a third population of whites, and compared two different statistical methods of smoothing the risk rates. The results indicate good agreement between the metropolitan Atlanta and south west Ohio estimates within races, but show a statistically significant difference between the two race categories. Because 86% of live births in the "other races" category in the combined population are to blacks, these data may be seen as the first estimates of maternal age specific risk rates for Down syndrome among blacks calculated by one year intervals. We found excellent agreement in the risk rate estimates among the five four year time periods, between the estimates obtained by using the two different methods of estimation, and between the estimates obtained using the two different methods of statistical smoothing. Our estimated risk rates for white women in their 20s strongly reinforce those from previous studies currently being used for genetic counselling purposes. While we did find somewhat higher rates for women under 20, and increasingly higher rates for those over 30 years of age, these differences are not substantial. Thus, this study in general supports the risk rates estimated from data collected mostly during the 1960s and 1970s.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program: report on the first 4 years of mammography provided to medically underserved women.

OBJECTIVE: We describe results from 284,503 mammographic examinations and associated diagnostic workups provided to medically underserved women in an ongoing nationwide breast cancer early detection program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We report the results of mammographic examinations and diagnostic workups on 230,143 medically underserved women 40 years old or older who underwent at least one mammographic examination from July 1991 through June 1995. Mammograms were obtained in hundreds of mammography and clinical facilities throughout the United States, including community health centers, health department clinics, private practitioners' offices, university based facilities, and mobile mammography units. Our analysis included rates of mammograms with abnormal findings (reported according to the categories of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System), breast cancer detection rates, numbers of diagnostic procedures performed, stage and size distribution of breast cancers, and positive predictive value of mammograms and biopsies with abnormal findings--all presented according to screening round and 10-year age intervals. RESULTS: Mammograms with abnormal findings constituted 5% of mammograms in the first round and 4% in subsequent rounds, both proportions declining by approximately one third from the youngest (40-49 years) to the oldest (70 years and older) age group. Breast cancer detection rates per 1000 mammographic examinations were 5.1 for the first round and 2.0 for subsequent rounds; from the youngest to the oldest age group, the first-round rates doubled and the subsequent-round rates tripled. Early-stage cancers accounted for 54% of first-round cancers and 81% of subsequent-round cancers. Percentage of invasive cancers at least 2 cm in size declined from 51% in the first round to 33% in subsequent rounds: however, we found little change in the proportion of lesions smaller than 1 cm. Positive predictive values declined from 9.5 cancers per 100 mammograms with abnormal findings in the first round to 5.6 cancers per 100 mammograms with abnormal findings in the subsequent rounds. CONCLUSION: A large nationwide breast cancer early detection program conducted through hundreds of diverse facilities has provided results that, although not a statistically representative sample of mammography services, are probably the best available characterization of the current state of breast cancer screening practices as they actually occur in the 1990s in the United States. These results should be useful to clinicians, researchers, and public health personnel in counseling patients, planning new studies, and improving efforts to control breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Has the use of cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening increased in the United States?

This report describes trends in reported breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening within the US population from 1987 to 1992. Data from the 1987 and 1992 Cancer Control Supplements of the National Health Interview Survey were analyzed to determine use of Pap smears by women aged 18+; of mammography and clinical breast examination by women aged 50+; and of proctoscopy, digital rectal examination, and fecal occult blood testing among men and women aged 50+. Use of mammography doubled between 1987 and 1992 while Pap smear use changed very little. Use of the three colorectal cancer screening modalities increased but levels remained low. Usage trends were also assessed in relation to several sociodemographic factors. Disparities in screening reported in 1987 according to income and education persisted in 1992.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Use of Medicare claims data to estimate national trends in stroke incidence, 1985-1991.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although stroke mortality has been declining in the United States for decades, recent trends in stroke incidence based on national data have not been described. We used Medicare hospitalization data to estimate national trends in the incidence of stroke among Americans aged 70 years or older, and we provide evidence of the validity of the estimate. METHODS: We defined stroke as a principal diagnosis with International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification codes 430 to 434 or 436 to 437. We excluded many recurrent cases from the analysis by eliminating persons hospitalized for stroke during the 5 years preceding the index stroke. We calculated annual adjusted incidence rates and examined trends graphically. We investigated the effect of different exclusion periods, trends in in-hospital mortality of stroke patients, and trends in out-of-hospital stroke mortality. We examined trends in relation to sex, race, and age. RESULTS: The estimated age- and sex-adjusted stroke incidence declined 9.5% from 1985 to 1989, then increased 3.3% to 1991. The pattern did not vary with the length of the exclusion period or when all listed diagnosis rather than principal diagnoses were used to identify stroke cases. Incidence trends resembled the overall trend for both men and women, for 5-year age groups, and for whites; the trend did not change for blacks. CONCLUSIONS: Stroke incidence declined steadily from 1985 to 1989 and then increased slightly to 1991. Several postulated potential sources of bias were investigated and found to be unlikely to account for the incidence decline, although some may have contributed to the subsequent incidence increase.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Trends in survival after stroke among Medicare beneficiaries.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Most strokes occur among people aged 65 years and older. The increasing proportion of persons who are in this age group underlines the importance for health-care providers to be aware of trends in poststroke survival. We investigated poststroke survival trends from 1985 to 1989 among Medicare beneficiaries. METHODS: Medicare hospital claim records and enrollment data were obtained on 1 901 439 Medicare patients with a principal diagnosis of stroke occurring during the years 1985 through 1989. Cox proportional hazard techniques were used to compare the 2-year poststroke survival for strokes occurring in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 relative to strokes occurring in 1985. Poststroke survival trends were examined among groups defined by age, race, region, type of stroke, and, for a 20% subset, history of stroke. RESULTS: We observed a modest improvement in poststroke survival from 1985 to 1989 (1989:1985 hazard ratio, 0.96; P < .05). Trends for persons with hemorrhagic stroke showed more improvement (hazard ratio, 0.88; P < .05) than those for persons with ischemic stroke (hazard ratio, 0.98; P < .05). Improvement was also greater among persons without known prior hospitalization for stroke (hazard ratio, 0.94; P < .05) and during periods of follow-up shorter than 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: The variations in poststroke survival among subgroups of the population have important implications for the quality of life of stroke survivors and for the future medical and nursing needs of these populations.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Racial differences in the use of total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis among older Americans.

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in the use of total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis among black and white older Americans and to determine whether clinical and economic factors contribute to these differences. Data on black and white Americans aged 65 years and older were gleaned from national Medicare hospitalization records for 1980 through 1988 and the Medicare enrollment file for 1987, the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1971 through 1975, the National Hospital Discharge Survey of 1979 through 1988, the 1980 through 1988 US census counts and estimates, and 1980 census economic data. Information gathered includes prevalence of osteoarthritis of the knee among blacks and whites; rate of total knee arthroplasty use in the United States by race, sex, and age of subjects at the time of operations; use of competing procedures; and economic factors. Results showed that blacks were less often treated with total knee arthroplasty than were whites (white-to-black rate ratios = 3.0 to 5.1 for men and 1.5 to 2.0 for women) but had nonsignificantly higher rates of clinical osteoarthritis of the knee (white-to-black rate ratios = 0.39 for men and 0.78 for women). This racial difference in total knee arthroplasty rates was consistent across income levels and was unexplained by black patients' having operations at earlier ages or using competing procedures. Furthermore, the discrepancy occurred even among Medicaid-eligible Medicare recipients, who had no direct economic disincentive for surgery. These findings suggest that even though elderly blacks have higher rates of knee osteoarthritis, they do not receive total knee arthroplasty as often as do elderly whites. This discrepancy does not appear to have an economic explanation. Even if a comprehensive care system were in place to remove economic barriers, inequality in the use of this procedure would likely persist. Future studies should assess the nonclinical and noneconomic causes of these differences.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1993

Comparative epidemiology of Down syndrome in two United States population, 1970-1989.

This study compared the epidemiology of Down syndrome over a 20-year period, 1970-1989, in two populations in which livebirths with Down syndrome were believed to be highly ascertained. One population was a 10-county region in southwest Ohio; the second was a five-county region in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The major objectives were to 1) compare observed incidences of Down syndrome over the entire study period; 2) calculate expected incidences of Down syndrome for each population and compare these with observed incidences; 3) determine incidence trends throughout the period; and 4) examine the impact of prenatal diagnosis on the observed incidence of Down syndrome in each population. Excluding aborted fetuses with Down syndrome diagnosed prenatally, the observed incidence of Down syndrome, 0.98, was significantly lower than that expected, 1.27, within the Atlanta white data set. Once the observed data were adjusted to include aborted fetuses with Down syndrome (total incidence = 1.17), no statistically significant differences remained. No differences were found between observed and expected incidences of Down syndrome for whites in southwest Ohio or for other races in either population. Although uncorrected observed incidences were significantly different between the two populations of whites for the entire 20-year period, the differences again disappeared after the data were corrected to include aborted fetuses. No significant effect of prenatal diagnosis on those of other races was found in either population. Expected Down syndrome incidences rose from the late 1970s throughout the 1980s for both racial groups in Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia; however, because the termination of fetuses with Down syndrome increased over the decade, the observed incidence among whites in southwest Ohio remained at earlier levels and actually fell among whites in Atlanta. These results indicate the increasing importance of prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion in the epidemiology of Down syndrome and of correcting for it when comparing incidences between populations, even within the same time period. These data from 2 decades show that differences in both observed and expected incidences of Down syndrome exist between both populations and races, principally because of differences in demographic age structure and maternal age fertility rates and because of differential use of prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed1993

Racial differences in the use of invasive coronary procedures after acute myocardial infarction in Medicare beneficiaries.

We examined differences in the use of invasive diagnostic and therapeutic coronary procedures between white and black Medicare beneficiaries following acute myocardial infarction. We used Medicare hospitalization data for patients aged 65 years or older who were hospitalized with an acute myocardial infarction in 1988, and we followed them through the calendar year to determine whether they received invasive coronary procedures. We used multivariate logistic regression to control simultaneously for multiple potential confounding factors including age, geographic region, poverty, comorbid conditions, access to hospitals equipped to provide invasive procedures, and short-term survival. We calculated odds ratios for racial differences in use of invasive diagnostic procedures (coronary arteriography, cardiac catheterization) and, separately, of myocardial revascularization procedures (coronary artery bypass grafting, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty). We found that the odds of receiving an invasive diagnostic procedure after acute myocardial infarction were 2.0 times greater for white men than for black men (95% CI: 1.8-2.1); for white women, the odds were 1.5 times greater than for black women (95% CI: 1.4-1.6). Following an invasive diagnostic procedure, the odds of myocardial revascularization were 1.8 times greater among white than among black men (95% CI: 1.6-2.0), and 1.7 times greater among white than among black women (95% CI: 1.6-2.0). We conclude that invasive diagnostic and therapeutic coronary procedures are used more often among white than among black Medicare beneficiaries following acute myocardial infarction. Further investigation of this discrepancy will require detailed clinical and attitudinal information from medical records, patients, and physicians.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1991

Surveillance of major causes of hospitalization among the elderly, 1988.

Medicare records represent a potential resource for surveillance data on hospitalizations among the elderly. Several features make these data useful for describing hospitalization patterns: a) Medicare covers hospitalization expenses for approximately 95% of the U.S. population greater than or equal to 65 years, and these data are considered to represent accurately the hospitalization patterns of this group; b) The comprehensive nature of the information about the beneficiary population provides public health researchers with data to generate accurate rates for well-defined demographic and geographic subgroups; c) Because data for all covered hospitalizations have been included in the file since 1984, stable estimates for even relatively rare conditions can be generated for any years since then; d) A unique personal identifier on each record permits the differentiation of first from subsequent hospitalizations, thereby permitting public health researchers to generate both counts and rates of hospitalizations by person and by event; and e) Temporal trends in hospitalization can be generated for 1980 through 1988, because data are available in machine-readable form. This report presents surveillance data for elderly persons hospitalized in 1988 for several diseases of public health importance. In 1988, approximately 9.1 million hospitalizations covered by Medicare occurred among persons greater than or equal to 65 years. For major disease categories, the rates of persons discharged ranged from 7,448/100,000 for circulatory diseases to 274/100,000 for blood diseases. For the 49 discrete diseases and conditions studied, rates varied widely by gender, race, and age. Conditions also varied widely in the mean number of discharges per person and in the probability that the condition would be recorded as the principal diagnosis.

Aged↗