Demand for consumer-directed health care (CDHC) is growing among purchasers of care, and early evidence about its effects is beginning to emerge. Studies to date are consistent with effects predicted by earlier literature: There is evidence of modest favorable health selection and early reports that consumer-directed plans are associated with both lower costs and lower cost increases. The early...

The literature on integrated care is limited with respect to practical learning and experience. Although some attention has been paid to organizational processes and structures, not enough is paid to people, relationships, and the importance of these in bringing about integration. Little is known, for example, about provider engagement in the organizational change process, how to obtain and mai...

With the changes in health care occurring in South Africa, new functions concerning the community nurse are being presented. The goal of the study was to explore and describe the role of the community nurse in health committees. An explorative, descriptive design was used and the empirical part was undertaken within the context of a metropolitan local authority. After conducting a literature st...

When conducting ethics research with children in health care settings, studying children's experiences is essential, but so is the context in which these experiences happen and their meaning. Using Charles Taylor's hermeneutic philosophy, we developed a methodological framework for health ethics research with children that bridges key aspects of ethnography, participatory research, and hermeneu...

BACKGROUND Faced with increased public spending for care, knowledge of the determinants of the choices between informal and formal care is of particular importance for estimating the need for care in the future. METHODS Using a representative sample of Spanish dependent elderly from the Disabilities, Independence and Dependency Situations Survey (DIDSS) 2008, we compare the factors associated...

OBJECTIVE This study tests the hypothesis that integrated family support, in which patients and caregivers are both supported by one professional staff, is more effective in influencing behavior problems and mood of the dementia patient than nonintegrated support, such as psychogeriatric day care only. DESIGN A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design with matched groups was a...

This study explores the role of cortisol and early life experiences in the regulation of maternal behavior and mood in teen and adult mothers. Primiparous mothers (n=119) (teen mothers < 19 years, n=42), young mothers (19-25 years, n= 4), and mature mothers, (>25 years, n=43) were assessed for their maternal behavior, mood, and hormonal profile at approximately 6 weeks postpartum. Outcome measu...

Care of offspring is a form of affiliative behavior that is fundamental to studies of animal social behavior. Insects do not figure prominently in this topic because Drosophila melanogaster and other traditional models show little if any paternal or maternal care. However, the eusocial honey bee exhibits cooperative brood care with larvae receiving intense and continuous care from their adult s...

Child care centers are a unique context for studying communication about the social and personal expectations about health behaviors. The theory of normative social behavior (TNSB; Rimal & Real, 2005 ) provides a framework for testing the role of social and psychological influences on handwashing behaviors among child care workers. A cross-sectional survey of child care workers in 21 centers in...

This study examined the association between early child care on the development of behavior problems. At the age of 5 years, child care information was collected from parents on a large group of twins who were born between 1985 and 1997. Mothers and fathers rated the behavior of the child at ages 3, 7, and 10 years using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and teachers reported on the same chil...