Clinical ethics and HIV-related illnesses: issues in treatment and health services research.
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An index to benchmark pesticide mobility relevant to surface water runoff and soil erosion (surface water mobility index, or SWMI) was derived based on two key environmental fate parameters: degradation half-life and organic carbon-normalized soil/water sorption coefficient (Koc). Values assigned with the index of each individual compound correlate well with the concentration trend of 13 pesticides monitored in six Lake Erie, USA, tributaries from 1983 to 1991. Regression using a power function of SWMI fits concentration data well at various percentiles in the database for each tributary and all six tributaries combined, with r2 ranging from 0.71 to 0.94 for the concentrations at the 95th percentile. Good agreement was also obtained between SWMI and the time-weighted annual mean concentrations (r2 = 0.67-0.87). Although concentrations at or near peaks tend to be driven by rare hydrological events (intense precipitation immediately after application), SWMI explains the peak concentration data generally well (r2 = 0.53-0.86). The SWMI-concentration relationship was further evaluated with two other pesticide monitoring databases: the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment Program White River Study Unit (1991-1996) at Hazelton, Indiana, USA, and the Syngenta (previously Novartis) Voluntary Monitoring Program with Community Water Systems at the Higginsville City Lake, Missouri, USA (1995-1997). The ability of the proposed SWMI to discriminate pesticide runoff mobility and its correlation with surface water monitoring data can be significant in the development of screening methodologies and data-based models for government agencies and/or practitioners in general facing increasing pressure to assess pesticide occurrence in aquatic environments.
BACKGROUND: The recently enacted State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), designed to provide affordable health insurance for uninsured children, was modeled in part on New York State's Child Health Plus (CHPlus), which was implemented in 1991. All SCHIP programs involve voluntary enrollment of eligible children. Little is known about characteristics of children who enroll in these programs. OBJECTIVES: To provide a profile of children enrolled in CHPlus between 1993 and 1994 in the 6-county upstate New York study area, and to estimate the participation rate in CHPlus. Methods. A parent interview was conducted to obtain information about children, 0 to 6.9 years old, who enrolled in CHPlus in the study area. Two school-based surveys and the Current Population Survey were used to estimate health insurance coverage. Enrollment data from New York State's Department of Health, together with estimates of the uninsured, were used to estimate participation rates in CHPlus. RESULTS: Most children enrolled in CHPlus in the study area were white. Although 17% of all children in the study area who were <13 years old and living in families with incomes below 160% of the federal poverty level were black, only 9% of CHPlus-enrolled children were black. Twenty-one percent of enrolled children were uninsured during the entire year before enrollment and 61% of children had a gap in coverage lasting >1 month. Children were generally healthy; only 4% had fair or poor health. Eighty-eight percent of parents of enrolled children had completed high school or a higher level of education. Parents reported that loss of a job was the main reason for loss of prior health insurance for their child. Most families learned about CHPlus from a friend (30%) or from their doctor (26%). The uninsured rate among children in the study area was approximately 4.1%. By 1993, the participation rate in CHPlus was about 36%. CONCLUSION: Blacks were underrepresented in CHPlus. Because the underlying uninsured rate was relatively low and parental education and family income were relatively high, the effects of CHPlus observed in this evaluation may be conservative in comparison to the potential effects of CHPlus for other populations of children. Participation rates during the early years of the program were modest.
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A study was developed to examine the current experiences and opinions of a national sample of family physicians with regard to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The survey response rate was 72.5% (757 questionnaires were returned out of a sample of 1044). Approximately 47% of respondents have cared for an HIV-infected patients. This percentage varied from a low of 31.4% in the Midwest to as high as 56.1% on the East Coast. Thirty-two percent of family physicians practicing in communities of fewer than 2500 have dealt with this illness, while 60% of those in communities of greater than 100,000 have done so. Seventy-seven percent of respondents are willing to provide care to HIV-infected individuals; 62.9% believe that physicians have a right to refuse to care for a patient because he or she is infected with the AIDS virus. Forty percent believe that they would lose patients if it were known that they were caring for an AIDS patient in their office. Finally, the vast majority of those surveyed favor required partner notification and would inform the sexual partner of an HIV-positive patient if the patient refused to do so.
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Using the results of an analysis of available scientific evidence and a survey of current practice in Canada, as well as expert opinion, these guidelines attempt to consider current partner notification practice in Canada and recommend an approach to determining practice which is flexible enough to address local circumstances. Priority areas for future research were also identified.
BACKGROUND: In 1983 the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston established a faculty development program to address faculty needs for continuing education and improved resources for research. At first a part-time coordinator was hired; then, in 1985, a full-time, faculty-level science communicator provided help with strategic planning of projects and intensive review of grant proposals and journal articles. Faculty participation in the program was voluntary. METHOD: Pre- and post-intervention data for 1983-1992 included numbers of faculty using the program, faculty evaluations of the program, grant dollars awarded, counts of grant submissions and awards, and numbers of published articles. RESULTS: The review services were used heavily for grant proposals (75% of the department's proposals), but were used lightly for research articles (18% of publications). Grant funding quadrupled from 1983 to 1988; although funding peaked in 1988, it thereafter remained at three to four times the 1983 level. In contrast, the mean number of publications per faculty per year dropped between 1983 and 1990. CONCLUSION: The program provided valuable assistance to the faculty in writing grant proposals, and it helped to generate critically needed resources. However, the program's failure to increase the publication productivity of the faculty suggests that despite financial pressures, similar programs should use their influence and resources to promote a balance between scholarly publication and grant acquisition.
Though in general the practice of Community Mental Health (or "Social Psychiatry") is a task of the State, the County or the City governments, the panel discussed two instances of sizeable contributions by private practices to the tasks of community mental health, such as crisis intervention or the care of the chronically psychiatrically handicapped, which are not commonly treated in psychiatrists' offices. The "Psychosoziale Arbeitsgemeinschaft" of Basle began in a psychiatric group practice through common sessions with public health nurses, social workers and other community helpers and served a workers' section of the city. In the course of five years several other services could be built up, such as a day-care center for psychically handicapped, a patient visiting program through voluntary helpers and a rehabilitation workshop. Ultimately subsidy from State and Federal funds could be obtained. Another program, in Zurich, started in a nonpsychiatric general practice, also in a workers' section. The physicians of that group hired, at their own expense, a social worker-educator and psychotherapist with a five year experience in community mental health work to care for the social and psychological problems commonly found in every general practice. The costs of her work cannot be generally billed to the health insurance carriers, but it is possible for the therapist to negotiate case by case with the insurance, this with success in a good many cases. The discussion with the audience shows that, in spite of considerable difficulty, it appears that private practice and especially a group practice, can make a valuable contribution to the mental health care of a disadvantaged segment of the population.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an all-volunteer syringe exchange program in San Francisco, Calif. DATA SOURCES: Syringe exchange program records and 11 semiannual surveys administered during a 5.5-year period, using standard questionnaires. Interviews (N = 5644) were conducted with injection drug users recruited in two 21-day drug detoxification clinics and three street settings. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Use of the syringe exchange program and self-reported data regarding sources of syringes, frequency of injection, initiation into drug injection, and frequency of syringe sharing. RESULTS: In spring 1992, 45% reported "usually" obtaining injection equipment from the syringe exchange, and 61% reported using the program within the past year. During the period from December 1986 through June 1992, the median reported frequency of injection declined from 1.9 injections per day to 0.7 injection per day, the mean age increased from 36 to 42 years, and the percentage of new initiates into injection drug use decreased from 3% to 1%. In logistic regression analysis (of fall 1991 through spring 1992 interviews; n = 752), we found six independent factors associated with syringe sharing. Protective from syringe sharing were use of the syringe exchange program, having received human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and counseling, condom use, older age, and African-American race. Injection of cocaine was a predictor for syringe sharing. The strength of association between use of the syringe exchange program and not sharing syringes was greatest in injection drug users younger than the median age of 40 years. CONCLUSIONS: The syringe exchange program was rapidly adopted by injection drug users. Health interventions associated with not sharing needles included use of the syringe exchange program and voluntary, confidential HIV testing and counseling. Our data did not support the hypothesis that a syringe exchange program would stimulate increased drug abuse in terms of frequency of injection or recruitment of new and/or younger users.
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