BACKGROUND Multimorbidity has been recognized as a major public health issue, negatively affecting health-related quality of life, including physical, functional, mental, emotional, and social domains, as well as increasing health care utilization. This exploratory study examines selected health outcomes associated with multimorbidity across older age groups/cohorts and gender, comparing Canada...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of hospital at home on health outcomes and quality of life of patients and carers; to evaluate the costs of this form of care and the experiences of the (para)medics involved. DESIGN Literature study. METHOD Using Medline, EMBASE-Excerpta Medica, Sci-search and Cinahl, a search was carried out for Dutch- and English-language studies from 1990-2001 which com...

BACKGROUND The developed world is undergoing a demographic transition with greater numbers of older adults and higher rates of chronic disease. Most elder care is now provided by primary care physicians, who prescribe the majority of medications taken by these patients. Despite these significant trends, little is known about population-level prescribing patterns to primary care patients aged 65...

BACKGROUND Hospital discharge records are an essential source of information when comparing health outcomes among hospitals; however, they contain limited information on acute clinical conditions. Doubts remain as to whether the addition of clinical and drug consumption information would improve the prediction of health outcomes and reduce confounding in inter-hospital comparisons. The objectiv...

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a clinical program that used multisystemic therapy (MST) to improve regimen adherence and health outcomes among children with perinatally acquired HIV who exhibited high viral loads in the absence of viral resistance. MST is an intensive, home-based family therapy previously used for the treatment of serious antisocial behavior. Goals of the stud...

BACKGROUND Pleural effusions impact over 1.5 million people annually in the United States and cause significant morbidity. Although therapeutic thoracentesis is associated with improvement in respiratory parameters, unanswered questions remain regarding its impact. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate patient-centered outcomes, the need for additional pleural interventions, ...

Health care is a data-intensive industry. The methods for collecting, storing, and retrieving clinical data have been evolving within a global electronic ecosystem comprising computers, mobile devices, the Web, social media, and a more connected world. The digitization of health care is nearly complete. Imaging studies, laboratory assays, drug delivery systems, diagnostic devices, robot-assiste...

Nurse Unions and Patient Outcomes We estimate the impact of nurse unions on health care quality using patient discharge data and the universe of hospital unionizations in California between 1996 and 2005. We find that hospitals with a successful union election outperform hospitals with a failed election in 12 of 13 nurse sensitive patient outcomes measures. We also find that hospitals with a un...

O steoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder in the world; it occurs in the majority of people over the age of 65 and is an important cause of (work) disability. The public health impact of OA is immense and will further increase with the growing elderly population. Therefore, the search for, and evaluation of, treatments for OA are relevant research topics, not only for the medical c...

RESULTS: Only the visual disability subscale formed a valid measurement scale. This could be enhanced through the addition of the 2 global assessment items; however, the symptoms and frequency of performing the activities items did not contribute to the measurement. The 9-item short-form version (Catquest-9SF) had ordered response thresholds and good person separation (2.65) and was largely fre...