BACKGROUND: Uncontrolled blood pressure (BP), among patients diagnosed and treated for the condition, remains an important clinical challenge; aspects of clinical operations could potentially be adjusted if they were associated with better outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To assess clinical operations factors' effects on normalization of uncontrolled BP. RESEARCH DESIGN: Observational cohort study. SUBJECTS: Patients diagnosed with hypertension from a large urban clinical practice (2005-2009). MEASURES: We obtained clinical data on BP, organized by person-month, and administrative data on primary care provider (PCP) staffing. We assessed the resolution of an episode of uncontrolled BP as a function of time-varying covariates including practice-level appointment volume, individual clinicians' appointment volume, overall practice-level PCP staffing, and number of unique PCPs. RESULTS: Among the 7409 unique patients representing 50,403 person-months, normalization was less likely for the patients in whom the episode starts during months when the number of unique PCPs were high [the top quintile of unique PCPs was associated with a 9 percentage point lower probability of normalization (P < 0.01) than the lowest quintile]. Practice appointment volume negatively affected the likelihood of normalization [episodes starting in months with the most appointments were associated with a 6 percentage point reduction in the probability of normalization (P=0.01)]. Neither clinician appointment volume nor practice clinician staffing levels were significantly associated with the probability of normalization. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that clinical operations factors can affect clinical outcomes like BP normalization, and point to the importance of considering outcome effects when organizing clinical care.

BACKGROUND: Patient activation is linked to better health outcomes and lower rates of health service utilization. The role of patient activation in the rate of hospital readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge has not been examined. METHODS: A secondary analysis using data from the Project RED-LIT randomized controlled trial conducted at an urban safety net hospital. Data from 695 English-speaking general medical inpatient subjects were analyzed. We used an adapted, eight-item version of the validated Patient Activation Measure (PAM). Total scores were categorized, according to standardized methods, as one of four PAM levels of activation: Level 1 (lowest activation) through Level 4 (highest activation). The primary outcome measure was total 30-day post-discharge hospital utilization, defined as total emergency department (ED) visits plus hospital readmissions including observation stays. Poisson regression was used to control for confounding. RESULTS: Of the 695 subjects, 67 (9.6 %) were PAM Level 1, 123 (17.7 %) were Level 2, 193 (27.8 %) were Level 3, and 312 (44.9 %) were Level 4. Compared with highly activated patients (PAM Level 4), a higher rate of 30-day post-discharge hospital utilization was observed for patients at lower levels of activation (PAM Level 1, incident rate ratio [IRR] 1.75, 95 % CI,1.18 to 2.60) and (PAM Level 2, IRR 1.50, 95 % CI 1.06 to 2.13). The rate of returning to the hospital among patients at PAM Level 3 was not statistically different than patients with PAM Level 4 (IRR 1.30, 95 % CI, 0.94 to 1.80). The rate ratio for PAM Level 1 was also higher compared with Level 4 for ED use alone (1.68(1.07 to 2.63)) and for hospital readmissions alone (1.93 [1.22 to 3.06]). CONCLUSION: Hospitalized adult medical patients in an urban academic safety net hospital with lower levels of Patient Activation had a higher rate of post-discharge 30-day hospital utilization.

Little is known about the relationship between health literacy and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in low-income racially diverse patients. The authors conducted a secondary analysis of baseline data from 581 participants enrolled in the Re-Engineered Discharge clinical trial. The authors assessed sociodemographic characteristics, CAM use, and health literacy. They used bivariate and multivariate logistic regression to test the association of health literacy with four patterns of CAM use. Of the 581 participants, 50% reported using any CAM, 28% used provider-delivered CAM therapies, 27% used relaxation techniques, and 21% used herbal medicine. Of those with higher health literacy, 55% used CAM. Although there was no association between health literacy and CAM use for non-Hispanic Black participants, non-Hispanic White (OR = 3.68, 95% CI [1.27, 9.99]) and Hispanic/other race (OR = 3.40, 95% CI [1.46, 7.91]) participants were significantly more likely to use CAM if they had higher health literacy. For each racial/ethnic group, there were higher odds of using relaxation techniques among those with higher health literacy. Underserved hospitalized patients use CAM. Regardless of race, patients with high health literacy make greater use of relaxation techniques.

OBJECTIVE: To impute limited health literacy from commonly measured socio-demographic data and to compare it to the Short-Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA) for estimating the influence of limited health literacy on health status in the elderly. METHODS: The Prudential Medicare Study assesses the S-TOFHLA score, leading to a "reference standard" classification of 25% of people with inadequate literacy; the National Health Interview Survey has no such assessment. We estimated a regression of S-TOFHLA on sex, age, years of schooling, and race/ethnicity in The Prudential Medicare Study data to derive a Demographic Assessment for Health Literacy (DAHL) score, and imputed inadequate literacy to the 25% with the lowest DAHL scores. Using regression, we then examined associations between several health status measures (including hypertension, diabetes, physical and mental SF-12) and inadequate literacy (imputed or test-based). RESULTS: Estimates of association using imputed inadequate literacy closely approximate those obtained using S-TOFHLA-based inadequate literacy for most outcomes examined. CONCLUSIONS: As few population surveys measure health literacy, the DAHL, a readily calculated health literacy proxy score, may be useful for expanding the scope of health literacy research in national survey data.