The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we [ encourage ][1] diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think

Gabapentinoids are commonly used medications for numerous off-label conditions. The 2002-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) was used to investigate the proportion of the adult population who were gabapentinoid users, the ages of these users, medications and diagnoses associated with users, and the likelihood of starting, stopping, or continuing gabapentinoids. Gabapentinoid users continued to increase since our last publication from 4.0% in 2015 to 4.7% in 2021. Gabapentinoid use was much more likely among individuals who used other medications used in chronic pain. Between 2017-2021, numerous chronic pain conditions were associated with gabapentinoid use. New gabapentinoid users clearly outnumbered gabapentinoid stoppers between 2011-2012 and 2017-2018, but this difference decreased in the most recent cohorts.

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we [ encourage ][1] diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we [encourage][1] diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think critically

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we [ encourage ][1] diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we [encourage][1] diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think critically

Background: The American Heart Association recognizes “Life’s Essential 8 (LE8)” as key to achieving cardiovascular health (CVH). Partnership between patients and clinicians will be vital to achieving LE8 and CVH, but one key question is which clinicians can influence their patients’ LE8. Here, we aimed to discover who provides clinical care for LE8 by clinician specialty. Method: We used all adult respondents from the nationally representative 2017-2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We classified visits to the specialties most relevant to LE8 care. Four LE8 measures represented what clinician type prescribed (1) statins, (2) diabetes mellitus medications, (3) anti-hypertensive medication, and (4) tobacco cessation medication (buproprion amongst tobacco users or varenicline). We assessed four other LE8 measures by which clinician saw a patient who reported: (1) low physical activity, defined as lack of moderate-vigorous physical activity 5 times per week, (2) obesity, (3) tobacco use, and (4) insomnia. We also evaluated report of a general check-up. We were unable to assess diet. We performed descriptive statistics with complex survey weights. The OhioHealth Institutional Review Board ruled the study exempt. Results: The study included 50,542 adults. Results, which are detailed in the table, found that for all measures, many people with gaps in LE8 saw neither a primary care doctor nor a cardiologist and between 2.5 and 5 times as many people with gaps in LE8 saw primary care without seeing a cardiologist than saw a cardiologist at all. Discussion: We found that primary care provides the large majority of medical care for all of LE8. Patients with gaps in LE8 who saw neither cardiology nor primary care were also common. Our findings emphasize how particular supporting primary care in their core functions of preventive care and chronic disease management will be key to achieving cardiovascular health.

The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we encourage diverse participants???par-ticularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns???to think critically about and discuss important issues affecting primary care, and even consider how their discussions might inform their practice.