Developing and Validating a Novel Tool to Enhance Functional Status Assessment: The Tennessee Functional Status Questionnaire (TFSQ).

PURPOSE: Functional status is a major contributor to overall health and reflects both daily activity level (performance) and maximum attainable activity level (capacity). Existing assessment tools evaluate only 1 domain of function and do not provide insight into contributors to functional decline. We addressed these deficiencies by developing the Tennessee Functional Status Questionnaire (TFSQ), which reports activity levels in metabolic equivalents (METs) and evaluates 5 key areas: performance, capacity, activity, pain, and acute care. We validated the activity levels reported by the TFSQ against the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI). METHODS: In this prospective, observational study, 120 patients completed both the TFSQ and the DASI. TFSQ-reported functional performance and capacity was correlated with DASI-calculated METs. RESULTS: Pearson correlation between TFSQ-reported capacity and DASI-calculated METs was r = 0.69, P < .001. TFSQ capacity was significantly lower in patients who reported recently decreased activity, pain affecting function, or recent acute care exposure. CONCLUSIONS: The TFSQ is a brief and efficient assessment of patient function, standardized to METs and validated against the DASI. Our study suggests that many patients may have the functional reserve to increase daily physical activity and that factors such as changes in activity, pain, and recent acute care interaction may lower functional capacity.

Dystrophic microglia are associated with neurodegenerative disease and not healthy aging in the human brain.

Loss of physiological microglial function may increase the propagation of neurodegenerative diseases. Cellular senescence is a hallmark of aging; thus, we hypothesized age could be a cause of dystrophic microglia. Stereological counts were performed for total microglia, 2 microglia morphologies (hypertrophic and dystrophic) across the human lifespan. An age-associated increase in the number of dystrophic microglia was found in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. However, the increase in dystrophic microglia was proportional to the age-related increase in the total number of microglia. Thus, aging alone does not explain the presence of dystrophic microglia. We next tested if dystrophic microglia could be a disease-associated microglia morphology. Compared with controls, the number of dystrophic microglia was greater in cases with either Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, or limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy. These results demonstrate that microglia dystrophy, and not hypertrophic microglia, are the disease-associated microglia morphology. Finally, we found strong evidence for iron homeostasis changes in dystrophic microglia, providing a possible molecular mechanism driving the degeneration of microglia in neurodegenerative disease.

Diabetes detachment: How cultural, contextual, and personal barriers influence low-income young women with diabetes in Appalachia.

AIM: This study explored the experiences of young low-income women with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Appalachia, Tennessee. BACKGROUND: Diabetes care remains suboptimal across the United States particularly in underserved communities. METHODS: The study employed a descriptive qualitative case study collecting data using in-depth interview of a group of low-income women in their 20s with T2D. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The findings identified three themes: "frustration and stigma lead to detachment care," "frozen by fear and unable to overcome resource limitations" and "social support and an empowered perspective lead to a positive outlook." Cultural barriers combined with contextual and personal barriers resulted in detachment from diabetes care among study participants. CONCLUSION: Within Appalachia, leveraging the existing familism values along with culturally congruent education and support can help alleviating the burden of diabetes care.

Development and implementation of a clinical decision support tool for treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections in a family medicine resident clinic.

OBJECTIVES: Outpatient antimicrobial stewardship has become increasingly important. While clinical decision support (CDS) tools have been effective in improving guideline-directed antibiotic prescribing, most notably for upper respiratory tract infections, their use for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) has been less extensively studied. The objective of this study was to develop and implement a CDS tool to optimize antimicrobial prescribing for uncomplicated UTIs. SETTING: University-affiliated family medicine resident clinic. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: This outpatient clinic is the practice site for 24 medical residents, 12 full-time faculty physicians, 1 nurse practitioner, and 1 full-time clinical pharmacist. PRACTICE INNOVATION: An interdisciplinary team including physicians, pharmacists, quality coordinator, and a coding and billing specialist collaborated to develop and implement a CDS tool into the clinic electronic health record to guide diagnosis, documentation, and antibiotic prescribing for uncomplicated UTIs. Prescribing practices were characterized, and a clinic-specific antibiogram was developed to identify focus areas for the CDS tool. EVALUATION: A retrospective chart review was conducted to evaluate empiric antibiotic prescribing before and after implementation of the CDS tool and after implementation when the tool was used or not used. RESULTS: Utilization of the tool clinic-wide was 29%. Overall fluoroquinolone use decreased from 42% to 15% after tool implementation (odds ratio [OR] 0.25; 95% CI 0.13-0.5; P < 0.001). Specifically, when the CDS tool was used, no patients received empiric therapy with fluoroquinolones (P = 0.005). With use of the tool following implementation, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole use decreased by 20% (OR 0.21; 95% CI 0.45-0.955; P = 0.003), nitrofurantoin for cystitis increased by 31% (OR 3.83; 95% CI 1.32-11.1; P = 0.01), and guideline-directed duration of therapy increased 32% (OR 4.34; 95% CI 1.48-12.73; P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: In an attempt to optimize empiric antimicrobial treatment for uncomplicated UTIs, we developed and implemented a CDS tool into the electronic health record in a family medicine resident clinic. Despite a 29% usage rate, many benefits were seen after tool implementation.

Atypical preeclampsia - Gestational proteinuria.

There are many rural areas where obstetric care is predominately performed by family medicine physicians. As such, it is important for family medicine physicians to stay up to date with the latest obstetric guidelines. Preeclampsia is a well-established disorder and the guidelines for screening and treatment are well known. However, atypical presentations of preeclampsia have been less studied. Notably, what constitutes atypical preeclampsia and when to be concerned for increased morbidity and mortality in the mother and neonate. This report describes a unique case in which a woman with proteinuria of pregnancy developed atypical preeclampsia with severe features. This report discusses the care that was given by a practicing family medicine physician and the reasoning behind it.