WILLIAM MARION VOLLMER

..An extensive literature now supports these measures, although few studies have systematically compared the properties of different adherence measures...

..Study..

..Xylitol, an over-the-counter sweetener, has shown some potential as a caries preventive agent, but the evidence for its effectiveness is not yet conclusive and is based largely on studies in child populations...

..To provide a conceptual framework for defining severity and control in asthma, to describe recent advances in measuring asthma control, and to discuss the role of severity and control in asthma disease management...

..This benefit was most pronounced among never-smokers and in those with evidence of co-morbid asthma...

..7 should minimise known age biases and better reflect clinically significant irreversible airflow limitation. Our study also supports the use of the FEV(1)/FEV(6) as a practical substitute for the FEV(1)/FVC...

..This study developed a computerized algorithm for defining prevalent asthma, identified operational difficulties, and summarized data on asthma prevalence in the study population...

..Participants readily accepted the ABPM devices, and their use requires less staff training. ABPM provides a useful alternative to RZ-BP measurements in clinical trials...

..To test the ability of an automated telephone outreach intervention to reduce acute healthcare utilization and improve quality of life among adult asthma patients in a large managed care organization...

..Recent reports suggest that the incidence of work-related asthma may be much higher than Sentinel Event Notification Systems for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) data estimate...

..Although a number of treatments are currently in use for caries prevention in adults, evidence for their efficacy and effectiveness is limited...

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..If widely implemented, this intervention could substantially improve the secondary prevention of osteoporosis. More-individualized interventions may be necessary for high-risk subgroups...

..We aimed to measure the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors and investigate variation across countries by age, sex, and smoking status...

..Women reported significantly worse health status than men, but the differences observed were small and were attenuated after adjusting for socioeconomic status, smoking, body mass index, and comorbid illness...

..This case-control study evaluated the association between occupational exposures and prevalent COPD based on lifetime occupational history...

..This paper describes methods and results for the initial 6-month weight-loss program (Phase I)...

..There is limited information about patterns of website use and specific components of an interactive website that might help promote maintenance of weight loss...

..To determine whether peak flow monitoring has value above and beyond symptom monitoring when used as part of an asthma management plan...

..These data reinforce the usefulness of measures of short-term asthma control both for the individual clinician and for those interested in population-based asthma management...

..0001), COPD (p < 0.0001), absence of regular specialist care (p = 0.006), higher BMI (p = 0.01), gastroesophageal reflux (p = 0.02), not being Caucasian (p = 0.04), and low income (p = 0.04)...

..To develop simple clinical tools predictive of acute asthma care and to identify modifiable risk factors...

..To examine the merits of the Asthma Therapy Assessment Questionnaire (ATAQ) control index together with prior asthma health-care utilization from administrative data in predicting future acute asthma health-care utilization...

..To provide additional validity data for the Asthma Control TestTM (ACT) using a different criterion measure, setting, and population...

..57-0.64); and lowest with the environment domain (r = 0.38-0.43). Asthma control tools reflect the symptoms and activity themes of asthma quality of life well, but reflect the environmental domain less well...

..CONCLUSIONS: Over 18 months, persons with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension can sustain multiple lifestyle modifications that improve control of blood pressure and could reduce the risk for chronic disease...

..Accelerometers measure intensity, frequency, and duration of physical activity. However, the scarcity of reports on data reduction makes comparing accelerometer results across studies difficult...

..BOLD's standardized methods will provide a uniform way to compare COPD burden within and between countries, and where differences are found, to explore explanations for these differences...

..The DASH diet should be promoted, along with maintaining healthy weight, reducing sodium intake, increasing regular physical activity, and limiting alcohol intake, for lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of CVD...

..70 as a threshold. Since the FEV(1)/FVC ratio declines with age, using the fixed ratio to define COPD may "overdiagnose" COPD in older populations...

..The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet also lowers BP. To date, no trial has evaluated the effects of simultaneously implementing these lifestyle recommendations...

..To describe PREMIER, a randomized trial to determine the effects of multi-component lifestyle interventions on blood pressure (BP)...

..the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and obstructive pulmonary disease by age, sex, and smoking history in a population aged 70 years and older? What is the association between selected comorbidities and obstructive pulmonary disease?..

..Risk stratification is used to identify patients with asthma at increased risk of experiencing morbidity and resource utilization. Validated psychometric tools are infrequently studied sources of data for this purpose...

..To assess contributions of individual lifestyle changes on systolic blood pressure (SBP) changes...

..To address this problem we participated in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) Initiative which was developed to provide standardized methods for estimating the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors...

..The Asthma Impact Survey (AIS-6) is a new six question asthma outcome tool for which information on validity has not been published...

..The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease initiative was started to measure the prevalence of COPD in a standardized way and to provide estimates of the social and economic burden of disease...

..To validate a risk stratification scheme using computerized pharmacy data to predict emergency hospital utilization for persistent asthma...

..The ratio of controller medication to total asthma medications has been related to asthma utilization outcomes, but its relationship to patient-centered outcomes has not been explored...

..Asthma control has been hypothesized to be inversely related to asthma severity, directly related to effective management, and also related to other definable factors, but empiric data to support this construct are few...

..At the same time, we wish to examine how different criteria for exclusion from the reference sample with regard to previous smoking and various comorbidities might influence reference values...

..However, several nonpharmacologic interventions reduce BP to a greater degree in hypertensives and African-Americans...

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..Our aim was to identify individuals with Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) among asthma drug users, based on patterns of diagnostic and procedural codes (termed 'algorithms') contained in automated claims data...

..To identify an optimal cut-point score on the Mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ) to predict subsequent asthma exacerbations, and to determine the additional risk conferred by a prior history of acute episodes...

..Behavioral weight loss interventions achieve short-term success, but re-gain is common...

..We tested the hypothesis that AA who participate in all AA weight loss intervention groups will lose more weight than AA who participate in mixed race groups...

..Validated psychometric tools measuring quality of life, asthma control, and asthma severity have been developed, but their relationships with each other and with other important patient-centered outcomes have not been rigorously assessed...

..To estimate the incidence of Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) among a large population of asthma drug users...

..Prior studies suggest that allergist care improves asthma outcomes, but many of these studies have methodological shortcomings...

..Examine the acceptability of sodium-reduced research diets...

..Asthma control has been defined clinically by using validated tools, but an asthma control scale using administrative data has not been reported...

..Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. The prevalence of COPD is rising among women and is approaching that of men, but it is not known if sex affects survival...

..This method, if it helps people take their medications as prescribed, could be used with a variety of other long-term medical conditions. ..

..Little research has been done on methods to prevent tooth decay in adults. This study would test how well a lozenge to be taken several times a day works to prevent tooth decay in adults who are prone to tooth decay. ..

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..This method, if it helps people take their medications as prescribed, could be used with a variety of other long-term medical conditions. ..

..This research should also be broadly applicable to other diseases and treatments. ..