Viral hepatitis in Hawai'i--differing perspectives.

This publication contains information from a conference titled "Individual Perspectives on the Silent Epidemic of Viral Hepatitis in Hawai'i" held in October of 2007 with updates and additional contributions from annual conferences in 2008 and 2009. These conferences were sponsored by the Hepatitis Support Network of Hawai'i and held in Honolulu, Hawai'i at the Queen's Conference Center. The primary objectives of the conferences have been to heighten awareness of viral hepatitis in Hawai'i and to bring together health care professionals to learn about these infections and to help them respond to the challenges they bring to the people of Hawai'i. The initial conference was oriented to present the unique and individual perspectives of patients, physicians, and other healthcare providers specific to the complex issues of hepatitis in an effort to help them understand their role in the context of others and to develop a team approach in responding to this epidemic.

Family narratives, culture, and patient-centered medicine.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: As part of our family medicine clerkship seminar on the patient-physician relationship, third-year students write about an illness episode within their own families. METHODS: Using a grounded research approach, we examined 260 student narratives to extract the most significant meanings. RESULTS: Significant themes that emerged include the role of family members in illness episodes, specific influences resulting from the family's ethnicity or religion, experiences with socially unacceptable illnesses, experiences with death, appreciation of the moral trajectory of illness, and situations that display the fallibility and limitations of medicine. CONCLUSIONS: Writing exercises can help students recognize the centrality of narrative and of cultural values in medicine so they are better able to understand their patients and provide more patient-centered medical care.

Diabetes mellitus prevalence in out-patient Marshallese adults on Ebeye Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The purpose of this study was to use a low-cost method of estimating prevalence of diabetes mellitus for a small island population receiving medical care from a single facility. A suitable sample of 692 (16.4%) from a total of 4,223 medical records of Ebeye Island Marshallese adult outpatients 30 or more years of age was reviewed in July and August 2000 for evidence of diabetes mellitus. Diagnosed diabetes was defined as having a diagnosis of diabetes noted in the chart. In patients without a diagnosis of diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes was defined as one fasting whole blood glucose > or = 70 mmol/l (126 mg/dl) or one random whole blood glucose > or = 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dl). Impaired fasting glucose was defined as one fasting whole blood glucose 6.1-7.0 mmol/l (110-125 mg/dl). For this population of adults 30 or more years in age, the crude prevalence of diabetes [diagnosed cases 13% (confidence interval, CI = 10-15%) and undiagnosed cases 6.9% (CI = 5.0-8.8%)] was 20% (CI = 17-23%). As the population of Ebeye is younger than the world population, adjustment to a standard world population gives an age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes in adults 30 or more years of age of 27%, and an age-adjusted prevalence in adults 20 or more years of age of 20%. In comparison, the crude prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes in the U.S. in adults 20 or more years of age is 8.3%, and the worldwide prevalence in adults 20 or more years of age is 4.0%. Limitations of our methodology include lack of randomization, lack of access to proper laboratory equipment, and passive case-finding, necessitating revision of standard diagnostic criteria. Prevalence rates of diabetes in Marshallese outpatients are thus significantly higher than US or worldwide rates. In addition, there are many cases of undiagnosed diabetes in the RMI. Recommended are a cross-sectional serosurvey of a large age- and gender-stratified population, increased resources to care for people with diabetes, and public health interventions to improve nutrition and facilitate physical activity in order to lower the prevalence of diabetes. The large-scale social forces that lead to diabetes need to be addressed accordingly.