Yusuke Tsugawa

Trends in Bronchiolitis Hospitalizations in the United States, 2000-2009

OBJECTIVE: To examine temporal trend in the national incidence of bronchiolitis hospitalizations, use of mechanical ventilation, and hospital charges between 2000 and 2009. METHODS: We performed a serial, cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis. The Kids Inpatient Database was used to identify children <2 years of age with bronchiolitis by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 466.1. Primary outcome measures were incidence of bronchiolitis hospitalizations, mechanical ventilation (noninvasive or invasive) use, and hospital charges. Temporal trends were evaluated accounting for sampling weights. RESULTS: The 4 separated years (2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009) of national discharge data included 544 828 weighted discharges with bronchiolitis. Between 2000 and 2009, the incidence of bronchiolitis hospitalization decreased from 17.9 to 14.9 per 1000 person-years among all US children aged <2 years (17% decrease; Ptrend < .001). By contrast, there was an increase in children with high-risk medical conditions (5.9%–7.9%; 34% increase; Ptrend < .001) and use of mechanical ventilation (1.9%–2.3%; 21% increase; Ptrend = .008). Nationwide hospital charges increased from

Assessment of professionalism: Recommendations from the Ottawa 2010 Conference

1.34 billion to

Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians

1.73 billion (30% increase; Ptrend < .001); this increase was driven by a rise in the geometric mean of hospital charges per case from

Different time trends of caloric and fat intake between statin users and nonusers among US adults: gluttony in the time of statins?

6380 to

Regional variability in survival outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: The All-Japan Utstein Registry

8530 (34% increase; Ptrend < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Between 2000 and 2009, we found a significant decline in bronchiolitis hospitalizations among US children. By contrast, use of mechanical ventilation and hospital charges for bronchiolitis significantly increased over this same period.

Childhood Asthma Hospitalizations in the United States, 2000-2009

Over the past 25 years, professionalism has emerged as a substantive and sustained theme, the operationalization and measurement of which has become a major concern for those involved in medical education. However, how to go about establishing the elements that constitute appropriate professionalism in order to assess them is difficult. Using a discourse analysis approach, the International Ottawa Conference Working Group on Professionalism studied some of the dominant notions of professionalism, and in particular the implications for its assessment. The results presented here reveal different ways of thinking about professionalism that can lead towards a multi-dimensional, multi-paradigmatic approach to assessing professionalism at different levels: individual, inter-personal, societal–institutional. Recommendations for research about professionalism assessment are also presented.

Temporal trends in emergency department visits for bronchiolitis in the United States, 2006 to 2010.

Importance Studies have found differences in practice patterns between male and female physicians, with female physicians more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines and evidence-based practice. However, whether patient outcomes differ between male and female physicians is largely unknown. Objective To determine whether mortality and readmission rates differ between patients treated by male or female physicians. Design, Setting, and Participants We analyzed a 20% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 65 years or older hospitalized with a medical condition and treated by general internists from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2014. We examined the association between physician sex and 30-day mortality and readmission rates, adjusted for patient and physician characteristics and hospital fixed effects (effectively comparing female and male physicians within the same hospital). As a sensitivity analysis, we examined only physicians focusing on hospital care (hospitalists), among whom patients are plausibly quasi-randomized to physicians based on the physician’s specific work schedules. We also investigated whether differences in patient outcomes varied by specific condition or by underlying severity of illness. Main Outcomes and Measures Patients’ 30-day mortality and readmission rates. Results A total of 1 583 028 hospitalizations were used for analyses of 30-day mortality (mean [SD] patient age, 80.2 [8.5] years; 621 412 men and 961 616 women) and 1 540 797 were used for analyses of readmission (mean [SD] patient age, 80.1 [8.5] years; 602 115 men and 938 682 women). Patients treated by female physicians had lower 30-day mortality (adjusted mortality, 11.07% vs 11.49%; adjusted risk difference, –0.43%; 95% CI, –0.57% to –0.28%; P < .001; number needed to treat to prevent 1 death, 233) and lower 30-day readmissions (adjusted readmissions, 15.02% vs 15.57%; adjusted risk difference, –0.55%; 95% CI, –0.71% to –0.39%; P < .001; number needed to treat to prevent 1 readmission, 182) than patients cared for by male physicians, after accounting for potential confounders. Our findings were unaffected when restricting analyses to patients treated by hospitalists. Differences persisted across 8 common medical conditions and across patients’ severity of illness. Conclusions and Relevance Elderly hospitalized patients treated by female internists have lower mortality and readmissions compared with those cared for by male internists. These findings suggest that the differences in practice patterns between male and female physicians, as suggested in previous studies, may have important clinical implications for patient outcomes.

Should the Hemoglobin A1c Diagnostic Cutoff Differ Between Blacks and Whites?: A Cross-sectional Study

IMPORTANCE Both dietary modification and use of statins can lower blood cholesterol. The increase in caloric intake among the general population is reported to have plateaued in the last decade, but no study has examined the relationship between the time trends of caloric intake and statin use. OBJECTIVE To examine the difference in the temporal trends of caloric and fat intake between statin users and nonusers among US adults. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A repeated cross-sectional study in a nationally representative sample of 27,886 US adults, 20 years or older, from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 through 2010. EXPOSURES Statin use. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Caloric and fat intake measured through 24-hour dietary recall. Generalized linear models with interaction term between survey cycle and statin use were constructed to investigate the time trends of dietary intake for statin users and nonusers after adjustment for possible confounders. We calculated model-adjusted caloric and fat intake using these models and examined if the time trends differed by statin use. Body mass index (BMI) changes were also compared between statin users and nonusers. RESULTS In the 1999-2000 period, the caloric intake was significantly less for statin users compared with nonusers (2000 vs 2179 kcal/d; P = .007). The difference between the groups became smaller as time went by, and there was no statistical difference after the 2005-2006 period. Among statin users, caloric intake in the 2009-2010 period was 9.6% higher (95% CI, 1.8-18.1; P = .02) than that in the 1999-2000 period. In contrast, no significant change was observed among nonusers during the same study period. Statin users also consumed significantly less fat in the 1999-2000 period (71.7 vs 81.2 g/d; P = .003). Fat intake increased 14.4% among statin users (95% CI, 3.8-26.1; P = .007) while not changing significantly among nonusers. Also, BMI increased more among statin users (+1.3) than among nonusers (+0.4) in the adjusted model (P = .02). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Caloric and fat intake have increased among statin users over time, which was not true for nonusers. The increase in BMI was faster for statin users than for nonusers. Efforts aimed at dietary control among statin users may be becoming less intensive. The importance of dietary composition may need to be reemphasized for statin users.

Epidemiology of Emergency Department Visits for Opioid Overdose: A Population-Based Study

OBJECTIVE There is a paucity of studies on the degree of regional variability in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) outcomes, particularly in neurological outcome. This study aimed to determine whether there is a significant regional variation in survival outcomes of OHCA across Japan. METHODS We analyzed a prospective, nation-wide, population-based database (All-Japan Utstein Registry) involving all Japanese individuals who had non-traumatic OHCA resuscitated by emergency responders from January 2005 through December 2010. The primary study endpoint was favourable neurological survival at 1 month, defined as Cerebral Performance Category 1 or 2. We compared unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted rates of the outcome among seven geographic regions. RESULTS In the total catchment population of 128 million, there were 539,641 non-traumatic OHCA patients. Unadjusted neurologically favourable survival varied across regions from 1.9% to 3.1% (rate difference, 1.2%; 95%CI, 1.0-1.3%); the Northeast region had a significantly lower rate compared to the Midwest region (unadjusted rate ratio, 0.62; 95%CI, 0.60-0.64). This disparity became larger after adjusting for patient- and prehospital-level confounders (adjusted rate ratio, 0.52; 95%CI, 0.51-0.54). Among 35,153 OHCA patients with return of spontaneous circulation, unadjusted neurologically favourable survival varied from 26.4% to 34.7% (rate difference, 8.3%; 95%CI, 6.6-10.1%); the East region had a significantly lower rate compared to the Midwest region (adjusted rate ratio, 0.72; 95%CI, 0.68-0.76). CONCLUSION In this prospective, nation-wide, population-based study in Japan, we found a two-fold regional difference in neurologically favourable survival after OHCA, suggesting regional disparities in prehospital care and in-hospital post-resuscitation care.

Bariatric Surgery and Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations for Heart Failure Exacerbation: Population-Based, Self-Controlled Series.

OBJECTIVE To examine temporal trends in the US incidence of childhood asthma hospitalizations, in-hospital mortality, mechanical ventilation use, and hospital charges between 2000 and 2009. STUDY DESIGN This was a serial, cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of children hospitalized with acute asthma. The Kids Inpatient Database was used to identify children aged <18 years with asthma by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 493.xx. Outcome measures were asthma hospitalization incidence, in-hospital mortality, mechanical ventilation use, and hospital charges. We examined temporal trends of each outcome, accounting for sampling weights. Hospital charges were adjusted for inflation to 2009 US dollars. RESULTS The 4 separate years (2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009) of national discharge data included a total of 592805 weighted discharges with asthma. Between 2000 and 2009, the rate of asthma hospitalization in US children decreased from 21.1 to 18.4 per 10000 person-years (13% decrease; Ptrend < .001). Mortality declined significantly after adjusting for confounders (OR for comparison of 2009 with 2000, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.17-0.79). In contrast, there was an increase in the use of mechanical ventilation (from 0.8% to 1.0%, a 28% increase; Ptrend < .001). Nationwide hospital charges also increased from