NSAIDs represent one of the most widely prescribed classes of drugs in the U.S. Although data on NSAIDs abound in randomized, controlled trials, they are limited in terms of patients’ experiences in actual practice. Ours is one of the first studies to examine patient-reported, NSAID-related experiences and behaviors in a primary care setting. We limited [...]

RESULTS Of the 467 patients identified by their physicians as meeting the study’s inclusion criteria, 447 (96%) agreed to participate. The most frequent reason given for not participating was “not enough time.” Of the patients who completed a baseline survey, 440 (98%) completed the two follow-up surveys according to the timeline in the study protocol. [...]

METHODS Patientswere selected from participating practices of the Tri-State Primary Care Research Network. This network includes more than 25 practices and 200 physicians in the greater metropolitan Philadelphia area. Ten practices with a total of 76 physicians participated. Two of the practices were family practice residency programs with attending and resident physicians. In these practices, [...]

INTRODUCTION Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) constitute one of the most widely used classes of agents in primary care; more than 70 million prescriptions for NSAIDs are filled in the U.S. each year. Some investigators have estimated that 5% to 10% of the adults in the U.S. (approximately 15 to 25 million people) use NSAIDs regularly. [...]

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 [...]