Breast Cancer Treatments Delayed for Black and Rural Women | Health Behavior News
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Black women with breast cancer are more likely than Hispanic or white women to experience delays in the initiation of chemotherapy or radiation after surgery, finds a new study in Health Services Research.

Are Patient Navigators Necessary? Or Just Nice? | Jessie Gruman
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I know that each time I have received a cancer-related diagnosis, I felt like I had been drop-kicked into a foreign country: I didn't know the language, I didn't understand the culture, I didn't have a map and I desperately wanted to find my way home.

Predominately Black Hospitals Provide Poor Trauma Care | Health Behavior News
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Victims of trauma are at higher risk of either dying or suffering a major complication if they are treated at a hospital that serves a large population of black patients, finds a large new study in Health Services Research.

Rationing Medications | Trudy Lieberman
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In America, the conventional wisdom is that we don't ration health care. But we do, and there's no better example than patients rationing themselves when it comes to the medicines they take.

Calorie Counts on Menus Have Small but Promising Effects | Health Behavior News
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Menu labeling has made more people aware of how many calories are in restaurant meals and has some people reducing their intake, according to new research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Is Patient Engagement a Set-Up for Failure? | Jessie Gruman
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“Maybe we shouldn’t urge people to engage in their health care: it sets them up for failure and punishment from their clinicians.” A senior patient advocate and researcher recently made this comment to a gathering of experts in patient engagement. For a few minutes, I was inclined to agree with her...

My Weekend as an Emergency Patient and What I Learned | Anne Polta
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If you want to see what health care is really like, there’s no better way than by becoming a patient yourself. To paraphrase the wisdom of Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the things you’ll learn!”

Black Students Drink More Soda When Available at School | Health Behavior News
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The availability of sugar-sweetened or diet soda in schools does not appear to be related to students’ overall consumption, except for African-American students, who drink more soda when it’s available at school, finds a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

How Easily We Can Misinterpret the Benefits of Patient-Centered Innovation! | Jessie Gruman
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Here's the bad news: We will not benefit from the health care services, drugs, tests and procedures available to us unless we pay attention, learn about our choices, interact with our clinicians and follow through on the plans we make together.

Chronic Pain Sufferers Likely to Have Anxiety | Health Behavior News
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Patients coping with chronic pain should also be evaluated for anxiety disorders, according to new research published in General Hospital Psychiatry.

Teens Overeat at Subway, Too | Health Behavior News
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Adolescents are just as likely to consume too many calories at Subway as at McDonald’s, a new study in Journal of Adolescent Health finds, despite the fact that they think Subway offers healthier food.

‘Healthy Privilege’ – When You Just Can’t Imagine Being Sick | Carolyn Thomas
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What I’ve learned since my heart attack is that, until you or somebody you care about are personally affected by a life-altering diagnosis, it’s almost impossible to really get what being sick every day actually means…

The Best Health Care Decision is Realizing That There Are Choices | Wendy Lynch
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Perhaps the most powerful influence we can have in health care is simply acknowledging that we have choices and wondering, out loud, what those might be. Whether or not you plan to do in-depth research about your treatment options, consider asking your doctor three simple questions.

Providing Workplace Wellness Centers Could Backfire | Health Behavior News
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People who signed up for a workplace wellness center but then used it infrequently experienced declines in their mental quality-of-life, finds a new study in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Targeting Prescribers Can Reduce Excessive Use of Antibiotics in Hospitals | Health Behavior News
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Giving prescribers access to education and advice or imposing restrictions on use can curb overuse or inappropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals, according to a new Cochrane systematic review.

The "True Grit"-tiness of Sharing Health Care Decisions with Our Doctors | Jessie Gruman
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In the Coen brothers remake of the 1969 movie True Grit, Mattie Ross, an intrepid 14-year-old, is determined to hunt down and kill the man who murdered her father. To accomplish this, she hires U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, (played by a mumbling Jeff Bridges) a rough, one-eyed veteran of many such ...

Smoking Prevention in Schools: Does it Work? | Health Behavior News
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Smoking prevention in schools reduces the number of young people who will later become smokers, according to a new systematic review published in The Cochrane Library.

Teaching Patients about New Medications? A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words | Health Behavior News
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Improving people’s knowledge and skills about their medications may be best achieved with multimedia patient education materials, finds a new systematic review in The Cochrane Library.

Credit Card Debt Leads Some to Skip Medical Care | Health Behavior News
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People with outstanding credit card or medical debt were more likely to delay or avoid medical or dental care, finds a new study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Bad Language: Words One Patient Won't Use (and Hopes You Won't Either) | Jessie Gruman
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When I read Trudy Lieberman’s post yesterday, I was reminded that the highly charged political debates about reforming American health care have provided tempting opportunities to rename the people who receive health services. But because the impetus for this change has been prompted by cost and qua...

Is Health Care One Gigantic Consumer Problem? | Trudy Lieberman
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One could easily make a case that health care is today’s biggest consumer problem—not unlike those that sparked the consumer movement of the 1960s and 70s. Back then, consumer issues centered on problems with using credit, buying cars and home improvement services, and obtaining the best price for f...

Birthing Centers Provide Equal or Better Deliveries | Health Behavior News
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Low-income women who chose to deliver their baby at a birthing center under the care of a certified nurse-midwife had the same or better birthing experience as women under traditional care with a hospital-based obstetrician, according to a new study in Health Services Research.

Whose Patient Engagement Goals Are We Talking About? | Jessie Gruman
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What we look for when we participate actively in our health care differs from what our clinicians, employers and health plans believe will result when we shift from being passive to active participants. We don't have the same goals in mind. Does this matter?

How the President’s Medicare Proposals Affect Seniors’ Pocketbooks | Trudy Lieberman
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The president’s budget proposals released last week call for more seniors to pay more money for their Medicare benefits. While the president’s plan to require beneficiaries to pay higher premiums came as no surprise to Washington insiders, it probably was to people who will feel the pinch.

Smoke-Free Public Housing Would = Better Health and Savings | Health Behavior News
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Establishing smoke-free policies for public housing would help protect residents, visitors and employees from the harmful effects of smoking and result in significant cost savings, reports a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Getting My Photo Taken at a Medical Appointment | Elaine Schattner
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A funny thing hap­pened at my doctor’s appointment on Friday. I checked in, then a med-tech asked if she could take my picture, “for the hos­pital record.” I couldn’t contain my won­dering self. “What is the purpose of the picture?” I asked.

Alcohol and Mental Health Problems a Costly Combo for ICU Patients | Health Behavior News
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People admitted to a hospital ICU with alcohol withdrawal were more likely to be readmitted or die within a year if they had a co-existing mental health condition, finds a new study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The Truth about Those High Patient Satisfaction Scores for Doctor-Patient Communication
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Stephen Wilkins | The problem with satisfaction data related to doctor-patient communication is that, at face value, it simply doesn’t correlate with other published data on the subject. There is a disconnect between what patients say in satisfaction surveys and what happens in actual practice. Here...

Churches Minister Better Health in African American Communities | Health Behavior News
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African Americans who believe their church is responsible for promoting health in their members and the community are also more willing to attend church-based health fairs, according to a new study in Health Promotion Practice.

Has Patient Engagement Stalled? | Jessie Gruman
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A few discouraging reports on patient engagement have skittered across my desk in the past few weeks. What's going on? Why are so many of us so slow to engage in our care when it is increasingly clear that we will do better if we participate more fully? Here's what I suspect...