RESULTS: Of 598 patients, 58 (9.7%) did not know or gave definitely inaccurate indications for at least one medication. The drugs most often associated with inaccurate indications were blood pressure and lipid-lowering agents. An example of an inaccurate response was`a torvastatin is for my blood pressure.'' Education and younger age were directly related to knowledge (see Table) . There was a trend toward association of non-white race and male gender with poorer medication knowledge, but they were not statistically significant. Patients on more than one medication were far less likely to know the indication of all medications (p < .001). CONCLUSION: In this relatively well-educated population, knowledge about drug indications was high. However, older and less educated patients, as well as patients on multiple medications, were much less likely to know why they were taking all of their medications. Such patients may benefit from intensive education programs to enhance understanding of their medications, which could improve adherence. PURPOSE: Adherence to evidence-based practice guidelines is frequently suboptimal. We wished to determine whether an opinion leader quality improvement project would increase adherence to the Unstable Angina (UA) AHCPR guidelines compared to a traditional HCFA quality improvement model. METHODS: We designed a three-armed randomized controlled trial of 22 acute care hospitals in one state. The intervention arms were: 1) hospital-specific data-feedback of performance on quality indicators combined with a physician opinion leader-driven improvement intervention (OL); 2) hospital-specific data-driven feedback with traditional HCFA quality improvement model efforts (HCFA); and 3) no intervention (NI). We convened a national panel of experts to translate selected elements from the AHCPR UA guidelines into quality measures. We selected the following indicators: 1) ASA within 24 hours of admission, 2) ASA at discharge, 3) heparin during hospitalization, 4) beta-blockers at discharge, and 5) EKG within 20 minutes of presentation. For chart abstraction, we identified potential cases of UA using a stratified random sampling scheme based on ICD-9 codes from Medicare claims data. A computerized algorithm was developed to confirm UA cases from the abstracted data. Centrally trained abstractors reviewed the complete medical records. We used GLM to adjust for patients-nested within hospitals. RESULTS: Charts were abstracted for 2,516 patients; their average age was 72 11 years, of whom 45% were male and 85% were white. Average baseline performance for the indicators was 71.6 (ASA in 24hrs), 69. PURPOSE: Men with clinically localized prostate cancer have several treatment options including conservative management (C), radiation therapy (RT), or radical prostatectomy (RP). We used data from the population-based Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS) to evaluate patient satisfaction with these treatments. METHODS: The PCOS evaluated 3,830 incident cases of prostate cancer reported in 6 regional Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) programs between October 1, 1994 and October 31, 1995 . The current analysis was restricted to the 2,387 subjects with clinically localized prostate cancer who completed a 24-month post-diagnosis follow-up questionnaire. Weighted multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with treatment satisfaction. Independent variables included demographics, socioeconomic status, comorbidities, tumor characteristics, additional cancer treatments, perception of being free of cancer, scales measuring self-reported bowel, urinary, and sexual function, and perception of problems with these three functions. RESULTS: Treatment selections were 431 C, 583 RT, and 1,373 RP. The cohort was 74% non-Hispanic white, 13% African American, and 13% Hispanic; 41% were 65 years and younger. Perception of being free of cancer was reported by 17% (C), 87% (RT), and 94% (RP), even though 16% (RT) and 14% (RP) required additional androgen deprivation therapy. Moderate/big sexual problems were reported by 33% (C), 44% (RT), 53% (RP); moderate/big urinary problems were reported by 4% (C), 3% (RT), 11% (RP); and moderate/big bowel problems were reported by 6% (C), 7% (RT), 3% (RP). Men undergoing radiation therapy were more likely to be delighted/pleased with their treatment choice (70%) than those undergoing either conservative management (55%) or surgery (59%), P < 0.0001. The following factors were independently associated with treatment satisfaction for conservative management: receiving androgen deprivation therapy (OR = 2.0; 95% CI 1. CONCLUSION: The majority of men with localized prostate cancer were very satisfied with their treatment decision. Sexual problems were common with all treatments but significantly decreased satisfaction for only RT and RP. RP most frequently led to urinary problems and this significantly decreased satisfaction. Androgen deprivation therapy increased satisfaction for C but decreased satisfaction for RT. For all treatments, the perception of being free from cancer was highly associated with satisfaction.