Previous studies on dyspepsia did not report their results by race/ethnicity. Therefore, investigating dyspepsia in African-American and Hispanic populations is a distinctive characteristic of our study. We focused on the etiology of dyspepsia in relation to age and alarm features among African-American and Hispanic patients. Our study indicated that the presence of alarm features in [...]

The study included 357 African-American patients (178 males, 179 females) and 321 Hispanic patients (154 males, 167 females) (Table 1). The most frequent alarm features among the study population was age (>50 years) followed by anemia, weight loss, and gastrointestinal bleeding. About three-quarters of the patients (72%) were over 50 years of age. The prevalence [...]

Study Population and Study Site The King-Drew Medical Center is an inner-city community teaching hospital serving a predominantly African-American and Hispanic population. Medical records of 764 patients 22-98 years of age with investigated dyspepsia were identified for a retrospective review. Demographic information, presence or absence of alarm features, and the results of the endoscopic and/or [...]

INTRODUCTION Dyspepsia, derived from the Greek “dys” (bad, difficult) and “pepsis” (digestion), is defined as pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen. Dyspepsia is a common symptom with a prevalence of up to 40% in the general population. Dyspepsia is responsible for more than 11 million physician office visits annually. More than half of these [...]

Over the last two decades, the ability to diagnose and treat osteoporosis has dramatically improved. The advances in treatment of osteoporosis have unfortunately been underutilized in non-caucasian populations. Researchers have highlighted that the current guidelines for screening and treatment of osteoporosis medication are primarily based on data obtained from studies of postmenopausal Caucasian women, as [...]

Preventive Medicine and Screening The demographics of the patients included in the chart review are shown in Table 1. The mean age of the group was 69.6 years (range 53-94). Of the 252 women, only 11.5% had documentation of prior central bone densitometry (DEXA). Nearly 39% of the women were counseled about calcium and/or vitamin-D [...]

Setting This study was completed in the Medicine Clinic at Barnes-Jewish Hospital at the Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, MO. Approximately 160 internal medicine residents see patients in this urban clinic, which had over 31,000 patient visits in 2000. The clinic serves primarily middle-aged and elderly adults from minority ethnic groups. In 2000, [...]