News

A Kaiser Permanente Southern California quality improvement program, which harnessed clinical and culturally responsive care strategies, nearly halved the racial disparities previously seen in blood pressure control between Black and white adults. The results of the work were published in JAMA Network Open. “It is well known that Black adults with hypertension in the United States are ...

A study of more than 40,000 immunocompromised Kaiser Permanente Southern California members shows that, by early August 2022, only 1% had received 5 doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the time. This finding appears in the journal JAMA Network Open. “Given Kaiser Permanente’s leadership in ...

Kaiser Permanente members who were more physically active prior to being diagnosed with COVID-19 had a lower risk of severe outcomes, according to research published Dec. 15, 2022, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study of nearly 200,000 adults showed an association between physical activity and improved COVID-19 outcomes across major demographic groups regardless ...

A Kaiser Permanente Southern California study to evaluate trends in chronic and high-dose use of opioids has determined that national and regional prescribing guidelines help decrease patient use. Results of the study were published Dec. 15, 2022, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study was led by Rulin Hechter, MD, PhD, of the Kaiser ...

It’s well established – but not widely known – that smoking cigarettes increases the risk of bladder cancer. Now, new research shows that current and former smokers are also at higher risk of having their bladder cancer recur after treatment. The study, published November 30 in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from the Be-Well Study, a ...

A study of nearly 2 million pediatric Kaiser Permanente members reinforces known links between children’s chances of experiencing a firearm injury and certain risk factors — especially being an adolescent male. The study, which appeared recently in Academic Pediatrics, addresses a number of additional risk factors, providing a broad view of the risk of firearm ...

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, so it’s not surprising that exposure to poor air quality worsens patient outcomes. But how does air pollution affect people who are vaccinated? To answer that question, a team of researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California COVID-19 patients. By comparing publicly available air quality monitoring data ...

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