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The proportion of American women having their babies delivered by C-section jumped to nearly one in three in 2005. The proportion was one in five in 1995.

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U.S. adult consumers spent nearly $36 billion for prescription drugs to lower blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, or help with other metabolic problems.

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A proposed regulation to improve the quality and safety of health care for all Americans by fostering the establishment of Patient Safety Organizations was announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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One of every 14 American infants is hospitalized for a respiratory illness, kidney infection, septicemia, or other infectious disease before age one.

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Patients who undergo complete prostate removal are less likely to experience urinary incontinence or other complications if the operation is done by an experienced surgeon in a hospital that does many of the procedures. However, no single treatment is superior for all men.

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Epilepsy-related hospitalizations, which fell from 176,000 in 1993 to 95,000 in 2000, climbed to 136,000 in 2005.

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The nation's 10 most expensive medical conditions cost about $500 billion to treat in 2005. The money paid for visits to doctor's offices, clinics and emergency departments, hospital stays, home health care and prescription medicines.

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Rates of circumcision vary widely across the nation, a phenomenon likely linked to regional variations in racial, ethnic and immigrant populations, as well as insurance coverage.

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HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced a new guide to help employers, private health plans, the federal government, and state Medicaid agencies as they consider consumer financial incentives as part of an overarching strategy to improve the quality of health care and get better value for what they spend on services.

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The perception that U.S. doctors are unwilling to report medical errors and learn how to prevent them is untrue. Most doctors think that current systems used to report and share information about errors are inadequate.

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Nearly 1 million Americans receive medical care for shingles or its complications.

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Hospitalizations for treating disorders caused by gastroespohageal reflux disease (GERD ) increased by 103 percent between 1998 and 2005.

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Blacks and Hispanics who go to hospital emergency departments in pain are significantly less likely than whites to get pain-relieving opioid drugs, according to a new study.

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Hospital admissions for people with chronic pulmonary heart disease rose from 301,400 to 456,500 stays between 1997 and 2005 "“ an increase of more than 50 percent.

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Many medications reduce the risk of bone fractures in people with osteoporosis, but the most commonly used drugs "“ bisphosphonates"“ have not been proven more effective than alternatives, according to new comparative study.

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For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, combining one well-known, lower cost synthetic drug with one of six biologic medications often works best to reduce joint swelling or tenderness.

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The number of infants under age 2 with HIV who were hospitalized fell by 64 percent between 1998 and 2005. During the same period, hospitalizations for children and adolescents with HIV age 2 to 17 and for adults with HIV age 18 to 44 dropped by 41 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

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A pair of plain-language guides that outline the latest scientific evidence on the effectiveness and safety of oral medications for adults with type 2 diabetes are now available from AHRQ.

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17 new toolkits are designed to help doctors, nurses, hospital managers, patients and others reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. The toolkits are free, publicly available, and can be adapted to most health care settings.

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Only half of all Americans age 50 and over have had a colonoscopy, one of several common screening tests for colon cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that all people age 50 and over be screened for colon cancer "“ the second leading cause of cancer deaths.

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U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 "“ a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997.

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Two common classes of blood pressure medications "“ angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) "“ are equally effective at controlling high blood pressure.

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Medicaid paid for more than one-third of the 1.3 million hospital stays related to prescription or illegal drug abuse. These admissions cost nearly $10 billion.

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Two new tools will help pharmacies provide better quality services to people with limited health literacy. Studies have found that people with limited health literacy are 12 to 18 times more likely to be unable to identify their own medications and distinguish them from one another than people who are more health literate.

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A new government report recommends expanding the capabilities of poison control centers, nurse advice lines, drug information centers and health agency hotlines to assist people at home or in public shelters in the event of public health emergencies such as biological attacks or pandemic influenza.

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The cost of having a baby, from the first prenatal visit to delivery, averaged roughly $7,600 for an uncomplicated birth.

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Of the roughly 368,600 patients treated in U.S. hospitals in 2005 for Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, one of every 20 (or 5 percent) died.

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Physicians-in-training are highly vulnerable to making medical errors that stem from teamwork breakdowns, especially a lack of supervision by experienced staff, according to a new study.

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Patients with mid-range coronary artery disease are more likely to get relief from painful angina and less likely to have repeat procedures if they get bypass surgery rather than balloon angioplasty with or without a stent.

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HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced the 14 institutions that will comprise the third iteration of its Evidence-Based Practice Centers program.

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An estimated 136,000 more heart attack patients hospitalized in 2004 survived their hospital stays than did similar patients in 1994.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announces the award of $41.6 million over the next 4 years for a new coordinating center and 10 research centers as part of its Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) program. Four new centers are also added to the CERTs program.

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Many common ways of treating osteoarthritis of the knee have no scientific support, including popular dietary supplement ingredients, a common surgical procedure, and injected preparations.

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Despite the much publicized link between cholesterol and heart disease, one in six Americans age 20 and older "“ almost 36 million people "“ have never had their cholesterol levels checked.

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With a total over $9 billion, Lipitor, a cholesterol-reducing drug, ranked first in terms of total spending on prescription medicines by adults 18 and older in 2004.

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AHRQ and FDA are collaborating in the most comprehensive study to date of prescription medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the potential for increased risk of heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problems.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and America's Health Insurance Plans today released Questions and Answers about Health Insurance, a new guide designed to help consumers make important health insurance decisions.

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The number of hospital admissions for patients age 18 and under with cancer increased by more than 80 percent between 2000 and 2005 -- from roughly 54,000 to nearly 100,000 admissions.

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More than 4 million hospitalizations potentially could be prevented each year by improving the quality of primary care, enhancing patients' access to effective treatments, and getting more Americans to adopt healthy behaviors, which also could save billions of dollars.

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"The Emergency Preparedness Atlas" and "Nursing Homes in Public Health Emergencies" are intended to give community planners information about nursing homes and other health facilities they need to be prepared to provide assistance under emergency conditions in their communities.

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One-fourth of uninsured U.S. women between the ages of 18-64 reported not having had a Pap smear within the last three years. This was double the 11 percent rate for women with private insurance and more than the 15 percent rate for women covered by Medicaid or any other public insurance.

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About 3 of every 10 children and teens who are admitted to the hospital from the emergency room have asthma, pneumonia, acute bronchitis or another respiratory disorder.

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Most oral medications prescribed for type 2 diabetes are similarly effective for reducing blood glucose, but the drug metformin is less likely to cause weight gain and may be more likely than other treatments to decrease so-called bad cholesterol. The new study directly compared 10 oral medications.

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New State Snapshots released today by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality show states have made promising gains in health care quality while identifying needed improvements in areas ranging from cancer screening to treatments of heart attack patients.

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The rate of teenage and younger girls giving birth in U.S. hospitals dropped by a quarter between 1997 and 2004. Despite the decline, the United States continues to have the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates in the industrialized world.

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Spending on prescription drugs to treat depression, anxiety, pain, schizophrenia and other conditions climbed from $7.9 billion in 1997 to $20 billion in 2004 "“ over a 150 percent increase.

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The costs of treating heart disease and cancer rose markedly between 2000 and 2004, from $62 billion to $90 billion and $42 billion to $62 billion, respectively.

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In 2004, 1.2 million hospitalized patients experienced an adverse drug event, 90 percent of which were due to a side effect from a medication that was properly administered.

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Almost one-fourth of all stays in U.S. community hospitals for patients age 18 and older "“ 7.6 million of nearly 32 million stays "“ involved depressive, bipolar, schizophrenia and other mental health disorders or substance use related disorders in 2004.

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Over 93 percent of adults surveyed by AHRQ in 2004 reported that they engaged in at least one of the three heart-healthy behaviors recommended by the American Heart Association, but only 18 percent engaged in all three.