Patient characteristics predicting failure to receive indicated care for type 2 diabetes.

AIMS: To determine which patient characteristics were associated with failure to receive indicated care for diabetes over time. METHODS: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing participants aged 50 or older with diabetes reported receipt of care described by four diabetes quality indicators (QIs) in 2008-9 and 2010-11. Annual checks for glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), proteinuria and foot examination were assessed as a care bundle (n=907). A further QI (n=759) assessed whether participants with cardiac risk factors were offered ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs). Logistic regression modelled associations between failure to receive indicated care in 2010-11 and participants' socio-demographic, lifestyle and health characteristics, diabetes self-management knowledge, health literacy, and previous QI achievement in 2008-9. RESULTS: A third of participants (2008-9=32.8%; 2010-11=32.2%) did not receive all annual checks in the care bundle. Nearly half of those eligible were not offered ACE inhibitors/ARBs (2008-9=44.6%; 2010-11=44.5%). Failure to receive a complete care bundle was associated with lower diabetes self-management knowledge (odds ratio (OR) 2.05), poorer cognitive performance (1.78), or having previously received incomplete care (3.32). Participants who were single (OR=2.16), had low health literacy (1.50) or had received incomplete care previously (6.94) were more likely to not be offered ACE inhibitors/ARBs. Increasing age (OR=0.76) or body mass index (OR=0.70) was associated with lower odds of failing to receive this aspect of care. CONCLUSIONS: Quality improvement initiatives for diabetes might usefully target patients with previous receipt of incomplete care, poor knowledge of annual diabetes care processes, and poorer cognition and health literacy.

Economic inequalities in burden of illness, diagnosis and treatment of five long-term conditions in England: panel study.

OBJECTIVE: We compared the distribution by wealth of self-reported illness burden (estimated from validated scales, biomarker and reported symptoms) for angina, cataract, depression, diabetes and osteoarthritis, with the distribution of self-reported medical diagnosis and treatment. We aimed to determine if the greater illness burden borne by poorer participants was matched by appropriately higher levels of diagnosis and treatment. DESIGN: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a panel study of 12,765 participants aged 50 years and older in four waves from 2004 to 2011, selected using a stratified random sample of households in England. Distribution of illness burden, diagnosis and treatment by wealth was estimated using regression analysis. OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome measures were ORs for the illness burden, diagnosis and treatment, respectively, adjusted for age, sex and wealth. We estimated the illness burden for angina with the Rose Angina scale, diabetes with fasting glycosylated haemoglobin, depression with the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, osteoarthritis with self-reported pain and disability and cataract with self-reported poor vision. Medical diagnoses were self-reported for all conditions. Treatment was defined as ß-blocker prescription for angina, surgery for osteoarthritis and cataract, and receipt of predefined effective interventions for diabetes and depression. RESULTS: Compared with the wealthiest, the least wealthy participant had substantially higher odds for illness burden from any of the five conditions at all four time points, with ORs ranging from 4.2 (95% CI 2.6 to 6.8) for diabetes to 15.1 (11.4 to 20.0) for osteoarthritis. The ORs for diagnosis and treatment were smaller in all five conditions, and ranged from 0.9 (0.5 to 1.4) for diabetes treatment to 4.5 (3.3 to 6.0) for angina diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: The substantially higher illness burden in less wealthy participants was not matched by appropriately higher levels of diagnosis and treatment.

Chronic neurological sequelae of acute organophosphate pesticide poisoning.

To evaluate the latent neurological effects of organophosphate pesticide poisoning, this epidemiologic study examined 100 matched-pairs of individuals with previous acute organophosphate pesticide poisoning and nonpoisoned controls. No significant difference between poisoned subjects and controls was found on audiometric tests, ophthalmic tests, electroencephalograms, or the clinical serum and blood chemistry evaluations. Of the more than 50 scores from the neurological examination, abnormalities were demonstrated among the cases only on measures of memory, abstraction, and mood, and on one test of motor reflexes. Differences between the two cohorts were much more apparent in the neuropsychological tests. The differences occurred on tests of widely varying abilities including intellectual functioning, academic skills, abstraction and flexibility of thinking, and simple motor skills. Twice as many cases as controls (24 vs. 12) had Halstead-Reitan Battery summary scores in the range characteristic of individuals with cerebral damage or dysfunction. Results from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Patient's and Relative's Assessment of Patient Functioning Inventories also revealed greater distress and complaints of disability for the poisoned subjects.

Household pesticide usage in the United States.

A total of 10,000 U.S. households in 25 standard metropolitan statistical areas and 25 counties were included in the United States. More than 8,200 households granted an interview. Nine of every ten households in the United States used some types of pesticide in their house, garden, or yard. Households in the southeastern United States used the most pesticides. Although more than 500 different pesticide formulations were used by the sampled households, 15 pesticides accounted for 65.5% of all pesticides reported in this study. Thirteen of these 15 pesticides were insecticides, one was a herbicide, and one was a rodenticide.