title: Health screening, counseling, and hypertension control for people with serious mental illness at primary care visits.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study sought to determine if primary care visits for people with serious mental illness (SMI) demonstrate different rates of basic physical health services compared to others, and to determine factors associated with differing rates of these measures in people with SMI.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used 2005-2010 visit-level primary care data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. The provision of health counseling, receipt of any diagnostic or screening test, measurement of blood pressure or weight and evidence of hypertension control were assessed, adjusting for identified patient, provider and visit-level factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjustment for covariates, we found no significant differences between visits for people with SMI and those without for any outcome. Probability of blood pressure measurement and diagnostic or screening testing significantly increased over time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lack of significant differences found here might be due to adjustment for covariates, a focus only on primary care visits, the use of visit-level data or evolution over time. Mortality differences for people with SMI may be attributable to those not receiving primary care, self-management of disease or subsets of the population requiring targeted interventions.
authors.affiliation: VISN3 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, 130 W Kingsbridge Road, Room 6A-44, Bronx, NY 10468, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA. Electronic address: sharu.p@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Sharat P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.affiliation: Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, 11301 Wilshire Blvd, Building 210, Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 10920 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. Electronic address: ayoung@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Alexander S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Health counseling; Health screening; Hypertension; Primary care; Serious mental illness