Publications

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether racial/ethnic disparities in contraceptive knowledge observed in the general US population are also seen among women Veterans served by the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system.

STUDY DESIGN

We analyzed data from a national telephone survey of 2302 women Veterans aged 18-44 who had received care within VA in the prior 12 months. Twenty survey items assessed women's knowledge about various contraceptive methods. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine racial/ethnic variation in contraceptive knowledge items, adjusting for age, marital status, education, income, parity, and branch of military service.

RESULTS

Contraceptive knowledge was low among all participants, but black and Hispanic women had lower knowledge scores than whites in almost all knowledge domains. Compared to white women, black women were significantly less likely to answer correctly 15 of the 20 knowledge items, with the greatest adjusted difference observed in the item assessing knowledge about the reversibility of tubal sterilization (adjusted percentage point difference (PPD): -23.0; 95% CI: -27.8, -18.3). Compared to white women, Hispanic women were significantly less likely to answer correctly 11 of the 20 knowledge items, with the greatest adjusted difference also in the item assessing tubal sterilization reversibility (PPD: -13.1; 95% CI: -19.5, -6.6).

CONCLUSION

Contraceptive knowledge among women Veterans served by VA is suboptimal, especially among racial/ethnic minority women. Improving women's knowledge about important aspects of available contraceptive methods may help women better select and effectively use contraception.

IMPLICATIONS

Providers in the VA healthcare system should assess and address contraceptive knowledge gaps as part of high-quality, patient-centered reproductive health care.

OBJECTIVES

Opioid overdose mortality has tripled in the United States since 2000 and opioids are responsible for more than half of all drug overdose deaths, which reached an all-time high in 2014. Opioid overdoses resulting in death, however, represent only a small fraction of all opioid overdose events and efforts to improve surveillance of this public health problem should include tracking nonfatal overdose events. International Classification of Disease (ICD) diagnosis codes, increasingly used for the surveillance of nonfatal drug overdose events, have not been rigorously assessed for validity in capturing overdose events. The present study aimed to validate the use of ICD, 9th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes in identifying opioid overdose events in the emergency department (ED) by examining multiple performance measures, including sensitivity and specificity.

METHODS

Data on ED visits from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2014, including clinical determination of whether the visit constituted an opioid overdose event, were abstracted from electronic medical records for patients prescribed long-term opioids for pain from any of six safety net primary care clinics in San Francisco, California. Combinations of ICD-9-CM codes were validated in the detection of overdose events as determined by medical chart review. Both sensitivity and specificity of different combinations of ICD-9-CM codes were calculated. Unadjusted logistic regression models with robust standard errors and accounting for clustering by patient were used to explore whether overdose ED visits with certain characteristics were more or less likely to be assigned an opioid poisoning ICD-9-CM code by the documenting physician.

RESULTS

Forty-four (1.4%) of 3,203 ED visits among 804 patients were determined to be opioid overdose events. Opioid-poisoning ICD-9-CM codes (E850.2-E850.2, 965.00-965.09) identified overdose ED visits with a sensitivity of 25.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 13.6% to 37.8%) and specificity of 99.9% (95% CI = 99.8% to 100.0%). Expanding the ICD-9-CM codes to include both nonspecified and general (i.e., without a decimal modifier) drug poisoning and drug abuse codes identified overdose ED visits with a sensitivity of 56.8% (95% CI = 43.6%-72.7%) and specificity of 96.2% (95% CI = 94.8%-97.2%). Additional ICD-9-CM codes not explicitly relevant to opioid overdose were necessary to further enhance sensitivity. Among the 44 overdose ED visits, neither naloxone administration during the visit, whether the patient responded to the naloxone, nor the specific opioids involved were associated with the assignment of an opioid poisoning ICD-9-CM code (p ≥ 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Tracking opioid overdose ED visits by diagnostic coding is fairly specific but insensitive, and coding was not influenced by administration of naloxone or the specific opioids involved. The reason for the high rate of missed cases is uncertain, although these results suggest that a more clearly defined case definition for overdose may be necessary to ensure effective opioid overdose surveillance. Changes in coding practices under ICD-10 might help to address these deficiencies.

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether grip strength, gait speed, and the combination of the two physical functioning measures modified the association of systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) with mortality.

DESIGN

Nationally representative cohort study.

SETTING

Health and Retirement Study.

PARTICIPANTS

7,492 U.S. adults aged ≥65 years.

MEASUREMENTS

Grip strength was measured by a hand dynamometer and classified as normal (≥16 kg for female; ≥26 kg for male) and weak. Gait speed was assessed over a 98.5-inch walk and classified as non-slow (≥0.60 m/s for female; ≥0.52 m/s for male) and slow.

RESULTS

Over an average follow-up time of 6.0 years, 1,870 (25.0%) participants died. After adjustment for socio-demographic, behavioral, and clinical measures, elevated SBP (≥150 mmHg) and DBP (≥90 mmHg) was associated with a 24% (95% CI, 7-43%) and 25% (95% CI, 5-49%) higher mortality among participants with normal grip strength. In contrast, elevated SBP and DBP was associated with a 6% (95% CI, 31 to -27%) and a 16% (95% CI, 46 to -26%) lower mortality among those with weak grip strength (P-values of interactions: both=.07). The inverse relations between BP with death were most pronounced among slow walkers with weak grip strength. The HRs of elevated SBP and DBP for death was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.56-1.29) and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.30-0.96), respectively, and was substantially different from non-slow walkers with normal grip strength (HR = 1.24 and 1.15, respectively; P-values of interactions: both <.001). Therefore, associations of BP with death varied modestly by gait speed.

CONCLUSION

Grip strength modified the association of BP with death. Combination of grip strength and gait speed has incremental value for modifying the association of BP with death.