Predicting soldier retention from army spouse characteristics and attitudes: Soldiering on with spouse support.

The U.S. Army has a vested interest in retaining the skilled personnel necessary to achieve its mission and strategic goals. A wealth of research has investigated the retention process and what influences service member decisions to stay in the military. While families are an important influence on soldier retention decisions, research on the mechanism by which this happens is lacking. This report explores the relationship between spouse attitudes and perceptions, resource use, and soldier retention almost two years later, using a proposed theoretical model. Our results generally support our model, with the important change that resource use and unmet needs and stress were not directly associated with specific attitudes toward staying in the military as we had expected. Instead, the association was accounted for by relationship with general attitudes toward the military. Spouses whose needs were unmet after seeking help from available resources experienced greater stress, and spouse unmet needs and reports of greater stress were associated with worse general attitudes toward the military; worse general attitudes toward the military were associated with less inclination to stay a military family; which in turn predicted soldier turnover almost two years later. As the research in this report shows, providing benefits to military spouses is also associated with a tangible and important outcome for the military: improved service member retention.

A randomized, controlled, multicenter trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Zotarolimus- vs. Paclitaxel-eluting stents in de novo occlusive lesions in coronary arteries: five-year results from the ZOMAXX I trial.

BACKGROUND: The ZOMAXX I trial tested the noninferiority of a zotarolimus-eluting coronary stent (ZoMaxx(™) ) when compared with a paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent (Taxus(™) Express(2™) ) in a randomized trial of percutaneous intervention for de novo coronary artery stenosis. Angiographic analysis at the primary endpoint of 9 months has been reported previously. The purpose of this follow-on analysis was to describe the clinical results of the ZoMaxx and Taxus cohorts of the ZOMAXX I trial after 5 years. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the ZOMAXX I trial, 199 patients received a ZoMaxx stent and 197 patients received a Taxus stent at 29 investigative sites in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The two groups were generally well matched with respect to both clinical and lesional characteristics, including the incidence of diabetes (ZoMaxx 22% vs. Taxus 26%; P = 0.29), reference vessel diameter (ZoMaxx 2.79 ± 0.43 mm vs. Taxus 2.81 ± 0.46 mm; P = 0.65), and lesion length (ZoMaxx 14.9 ± 5.7 mm vs. Taxus 14.6 ± 5.5; P = 0.61). Through 5 years of follow-up, a total of 21 patients had died, six patients had withdrawn, nine had been lost to follow-up, and 13 missed their 5-year visit, leaving a total of 347 patients for analysis (169 ZoMaxx and 178 Taxus). At the 5-year time point, there were no significant differences in any clinical metric including ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization (TLR; ZoMaxx 10.6% vs. Taxus 7.1%; P = 0.29), Q-wave myocardial infarction (ZoMaxx 1.5% vs. Taxus 1.0%; P = 0.99), definite/probable stent thrombosis (ZoMaxx 1.5% vs. Taxus 3.0%; P = 0.34), and cardiac death (ZoMaxx 3.0% vs. Taxus 1.0%; P = 0.28). CONCLUSIONS: After 5 years, the differences in clinical outcome between patients treated with ZoMaxx vs. Taxus stents did not reach statistical significance. However, the nominally higher rate of ischemia-driven TLR (10.6 vs. 7.1%) and the previously reported higher rate of restenosis after 9 months suggest that the ZoMaxx stent afforded less neointimal inhibition when compared with Taxus. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A randomized, controlled, multi-center trial comparing the safety and efficacy of zotarolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents in de novo lesions in coronary arteries: final results of the ZoMaxx II trial.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this prospective, randomized, single-blind controlled clinical trial was to compare the effectiveness of a zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZoMaxx™) with a paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent (Taxus™ Express(2)™) in patients with angina pectoris and a single native coronary artery lesion between 10-28 mm in length and 2.5-3.75mm in diameter. METHODS: Patients were enrolled at 75 international institutions between June 2005 and November 2006. RESULTS: 1099 (1672 originally planned) patients received 557 ZoMaxx and 542 Taxus stents: cohorts were well-matched for diabetes (27% vs. 27%), reference vessel diameter (2.73 ± 0.46mm vs. 2.74 ± 0.45mm) and lesion length (14.8 ± 6.7mm vs. 14.3 ± 6.4mm). Nine month clinical and angiographic follow-up was available in 1052/1099 (96%) and 649/836 (78%) patients, respectively. The safety profiles for the two stents (myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac death and/or target vessel revascularization (TVR)) were similar (ZoMaxx 8.7% vs. Taxus 6.9%, p=NS). The primary endpoint of 9-month TVR occurred more frequently after treatment with ZoMaxx (6.8%) as compared with Taxus (4.2%), therefore the primary clinical endpoint was not met. However, the 9-month in-segment late lumen loss for ZoMaxx (0.29 ± 0.47mm) and Taxus (0.22 ± 0.41mm, p=NS) were similar, thus satisfying the primary angiographic endpoint. Secondary endpoints of the rates of in-segment and in-stent binary restenosis were also similar (5.9% vs. 5.8%, 7.8% vs. 7.9%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: At 9months, the ZoMaxx stent failed to achieve the primary endpoint of non-inferiority in TVR to the Taxus stent, but safety endpoints were equal between the two stent systems.