Background In early 2012, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) members in Ashanti Region were allowed to choose their own primary healthcare providers. This paper investigates the factors that enrolees in the Ashanti Region considered in choosing preferred primary healthcare providers (PPPs) and direction of association of such factors with the choice of PPP.   Methods Using a cross-sectiona...

Defined contribution plans, predominantly 401(k)s, are the primary source of personal retirement savings for American workers, making the investment decisions within these accounts a salient policy concern. These decisions are a result of two separate actions: the mutual fund options selected by the employer’s plan administrator and the specific funds chosen by the participant. While considerab...

As the rate of primary and repeat Caesareans around the world increases, obstetricians, midwives and primary care providers are being expected to provide counsel to women seeking information regarding birth choices for delivery after a prior emergency Caesarean. This article seeks to contribute to the knowledge on this topic by presenting research findings from a qualitative study designed to e...

All countries, no matter what their stage of industrial development, need to make tough choices on how to use their scarce resources. The competition for resources is not only between different sectors of the economy, but within each sector as well. Should more resources be devoted to education or to health care? Within the health care sector: should more resources be devoted to primary care or...

The social, emotional, and biological health of adolescents requires their development as autonomous beings who make responsible decisions about their own health. Clinicians can assist in this development by adopting a strength-based approach to adolescent health care, which applies concepts from positive youth development to the medical office setting.

Government education policy in England, like in the US, has been increasingly geared towards increasing competitiveness between schools, at both primary and secondary levels. Theory suggests that in a world where parental preference over school quality has a key role to play in school admissions, competition for pupils between neighbouring schools could provide performance incentives, and paren...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES To develop a standardized framework to discuss rural background, a review of the literature to identify studies regarding the association of rural background with primary care and/or rural health practice was conducted. The various definitions of rural background were collated and from this data a framework for the conceptualization of rural background is proposed. M...