RESULTS: Of 385 respondents (84% of randomized households), 19% were White men (WM), 30% White women (WW), 12% Black men (BM), and 31% Black women (BW). BM and BW were more likely than WM and WW to have < high school education (p < 0.01), to have annual income < $40,000 (p < 0.01), to have dependents (p < 0.01), to be unemployed (p = 0.01), to consider spirituality important (p < 0.01), to believe hospitals``want to know more about personal affairs or business than they really need to know'' (p < 0.01), and more likely to believè`h ospitals have done harmful experiments on patients without their knowledge'' (p < 0.01). BM were least willing to become cadaveric donors (17%) compared to BW (34%), WW (59%), and WM (65%) (p < 0.01). However, WM were least willing to become living related donors (60%) compared to BW(61%), BM(72%), and WW(75%) (p = 0.05). BW were least willing to donate blood (40%), compared to WW (58%), BM (65%), and WM (86%)(p < 0.01). Despite adjustment for differences in respondent characteristics, BM were still much less likely to become cadaveric organ donors [odds ratio (95% CI)]=[0.2 (0.1 ± 0.7)], equally as likely to donate blood [0.8(0.3 ± 2. 5)], and almost 3 times more likely to become living-related donors [2.8 (0.9 ± 8.7)] than WM. It is unclear whether BW were less likely to be cadaveric organ donors [0.6 (0.2 ± 1.5)], but they were much less likely to donate blood [0.1 (0.04 ± 0.3) ], and equally as likely to be willing to be a living related donor [1.3 (0. PURPOSE: Ethnic minorities with coronary artery disease have worse outcomes compared to Caucasians. Depression is known to be a major risk factor for poor outcomes among patients with coronary artery disease. However, among ethnic minorities with coronary artery disease, little is known about the prevalence of depression. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ethnic variations in pre-operative depression exist between Caucasians and ethnic minorities undergoing angioplasty. METHODS: Subjects in the study were patients who had recently undergone coronary angioplasty and were eligible for enrollment in a randomized trial to reduce cardiac risk factors. Baseline evaluation included an assessment of demographic characteristics, cardiac history, and severity of illness. Depression was assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D). A score of 16 or greater indicated the presence of depression. RESULTS: Of 542 patients enrolled, 33% had evidence of pre-operative depression. Their mean age was 61(+12), 34% were female, 14 % were African-American and 16% were Latino-American. Patients who were depressed were more likely to be younger in age (P=03). A greater proportion of women were depressed in comparison to men (P=.003). Mean CES-D scores were significantly higher among ethnic minorities compared to Caucasians( P=.002). The highest CES-D scores were observed among Latino-Americans. In general, African-Americans and Latino-Americans were 2 times more likely than Caucasians to have evidence of depression ( 95 % CI 1.3 ± 3.2). CONCLUSION: Among patients undergoing coronary angioplasty, minorities were 2 times more likely to have evidence of depression at baseline. This finding is clinically important since baseline depression among patients with coronary artery disease is a poor prognostic indicator. Future studies are needed to determine whether baseline depression among ethnic minority patients with coronary artery disease is associated with poor outcomes. PURPOSE: Patients often receive medical information from the media and internet, but little is known about how information sources affect risk perceptions. Our objective was to investigate whether the source of medical information affected perceived risks for common diseases. METHODS: Women treated for breast cancer at an urban hospital were recruited through flyers and an oncology social worker. Participants completed a health survey about their sources of health information (doctor, television (TV), or internet) and their perceived lifetime risk of heart disease, hip fracture, and recurrent breast cancer. Risk estimates among patients receiving vs not receiving information from each source were compared using Wilcoxon Rank tests. RESULTS: The mean age of the 51 participants was 52 years, 16% were non-Caucasian, and the median educational level was 2 years of college. Patients receiving medical information from either TV or the internet had higher perceived risks for both heart disease and hip fracture than those not receiving information from those sources. Patients receiving information from TV perceived breast cancer recurrence as being more likely even though fewer among them had late stage or node-positive disease. Patients who received information from their doctors did not have consistently higher or lower perceived risk estimations compared to patients not receiving information from their doctors. CONCLUSION: Patients' perception of risk may be affected by the source of health information, with those who rely on the TV or internet having higher risk perceptions than those who rely on other sources. PURPOSE: Alcohol abuse is a common but frequently unrecognized problem in surgical patients, with important implications for Medical consultants. Studies have shown that 10 ± 50 % of hospitalized patients on surgical services have alcohol problems, depending on the subspecialty service and the detection methods used. We screened a large cohort of VA surgical patients to determine the prevalence of problem drinking in a combined inpatient and outpatient population as the initial step in a study of alcohol consumption and surgical outcomes. METHODS: All patients at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System admitted to surgical services or scheduled for elective surgery requiring at least an overnight hospital stay were considered candidates for screening. Patients were asked to complete a confidential screen for alcohol problems using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and quantity-frequency measures. Non-cirrhotic patients who met criteria for alcohol problems (AUDIT score 8 or weekly consumption > 15 drinks in men or > 11 drinks in women) and control patients who did not meet these criteria were invited to participate in a descriptive cohort study. Controls were matched by surgical service and admission status (inpatient versus outpatient at screening, planned overnight versus longer admissions for elective procedures) in a 2:1 control:study ratio. Participants received a baseline preoperative assessment including demographic information and the Alcohol Timeline Follow-Back to measure alcohol consumption. Descriptive statistics were reported as mean standard deviation. Current drinking and drinking over the last 6 months were analyzed using a non-parametric test for trend. RESULTS: Among 1624 patients presenting for surgical admission or preoperative assessment over one year, 1067 (65.7%) were screened for alcohol problems, of which 99 (9.3%) screened positive. The mean AUDIT score for screen-positive patients was 12.0 | 9.6 and the mean number of drinks per week was 33.2 | 37.2, compared with 1.1 | 2.1 and 2.0 | 8.5, respectively, for screen-negative patients. Forty-seven (47.5%) screen-positive patients agreed to further assessment and follow-up, as did 93 matched controls. Mean AUDIT and alcohol consumption scores were not statistically different between enrolled and non-enrolled study patients (p = 0.3). Among enrolled problem drinkers, there was a trend toward less alcohol consumption in a typical drinking day as surgery approached, from an average of 9.2 | 12.5 drinks/day over 6 months prior to their assessment to 5.4 | 4.4 drinks/day over the previous 1 month (p = 0.13 for trend). Binge drinking episodes ( > 6 drinks in one day) showed a similar reduction, with the average problem drinker reporting 5.6 | 8.7 episodes/month at 3 ± 6 months prior to assessment but only 3.4 | 6.7 episodes/month over the previous 1 month (p = 0.18 for trend). The problem drinkers were most commonly found on the Orthopedic (29.8%)and General surgery (25.5%) services. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of problem drinking in our large cohort of veterans undergoing surgery was lower than that found in prior studies of surgical inpatients but similar to that seen in published studies of medical outpatients. The inclusion of outpatients and patients undergoing elective procedures may shift the drinking profile of surgical patients towards that of the general population. Intensive screening of surgical patients for problem drinking by Medical consultants may be most effective on selected subspeciality services. Alcohol consumption levels among problem drinkers tended to decrease as the date of surgery approached, suggesting that the perioperative period may provide a good opportunity for brief interventions.