Background

Prescribing and counseling practices in hormone therapy (HT) since publication of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trials have changed. Our objective was to compare changes by practice field and region.

Methods

Between December 2005 and May 2006, we mailed surveys to 938 practitioners from two large integrated health systems in the Northeastern and Northwestern United States. We received 736 responses and excluded 144 who do not prescribe/counsel about HT, leaving 592. Data included prescriber characteristics, knowledge about HT trials, and self-reported HT counseling and prescribing changes. We compared provider characteristics and HT counseling and prescribing by region and practice field (obstetrician/gynecology [OB/GYN] or primary care).

Results

Respondents included 79 OB/GYNs and 513 primary care providers. OB/GYNs were more likely, than primary care providers to consider themselves experts regarding the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS) and WHI trials (30.4% vs. 8.2%, p < 0.001). The majority (87%) were cautious about HT use, especially primary care providers (p < 0.01 compared to OB/GYNs). Respondents reported prescribing less oral unopposed estrogen (64%) and combination estrogen/progestin (81%) post-WHI. OB/GYNs were less likely to report decreases in oral unopposed estrogen use (p = 0.006). Use of lower-dose and transdermal products (low-dose estrogen, vaginal estrogen, estradiol vaginal ring) increased, especially by OB/GYNs.

Conclusions

Our study highlights numerous HT prescribing and counseling differences between primary care and OB/GYN providers. Reasons for these differences are unknown but may be related to self-reported WHI/HERS knowledge. HT formulations used in the WHI trials are being replaced by low-dose and alternate formulations. Studies to support this practice are needed.

Objectives

To examine the associations between depressive symptoms, antidepressant use, and duration of use with incident frailty 3 years later in nonfrail women aged 65 and older.

Design

Secondary analysis of the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI-OS), a prospective cohort study.

Setting

WHI-OS was conducted in 40 U.S. clinical centers.

Participants

Women aged 65 to 79, not frail at baseline.

Measurements

Antidepressant use was assessed through medication container inspection at baseline. Four groups were created according to baseline use and Burnam depression screen (range 0-1, 0.06 cutoff): antidepressant nonusers without depressive symptoms (reference group), antidepressant nonusers with depressive symptoms, antidepressant users without depressive symptoms, and antidepressant users with depressive symptoms. Frailty components included slowness or weakness, exhaustion, low physical activity, and unintended weight loss, ascertained through self-report and physical measurements at baseline and Year 3.

Results

Of 27,652 women at baseline, 1,350 (4.9%) were antidepressant users and 1,794 (6.5%) were categorized as depressed. At Year 3, 4,125 (14.9%) were frail. All groups had a greater risk of incident frailty than the reference group. Odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 1.73 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.41-2.12) in antidepressant users who were not depressed to 3.63 in antidepressant users who were depressed (95% CI = 2.37-5.55). All durations of use were associated with incident frailty (<1 year OR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.41-2.68; 1-3 years OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.45-2.74; >3 years OR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.20-2.14).

Conclusion

In older adult women, depressive symptoms and antidepressant use were associated with frailty after 3 years of follow-up.