OBJECTIVE To assess the relative effectiveness of interventions to prevent falls in older adults to either a usual care group or control group. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analyses. DATA SOURCES Medline, HealthSTAR, Embase, the Cochrane Library, other health related databases, and the reference lists from review articles and systematic reviews. DATA EXTRACTION Components of falls in...

In this paper, we propose a model for medical costs recorded at regular time intervals, e.g. every month, as repeated measures in the presence of a terminating event, such as death. Prior models have related monthly medical costs to time since entry, with extra costs at the final observations at the time of death. Our joint model for monthly medical costs and survival time incorporates two impo...

The effect of erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) on dialysis initiation in advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is not clear. We retrospectively analyzed the outcome of dialysis initiation in a stage 5 CKD cohort with ESA reimbursement limited to the maximal standardized monthly ESA dose equivalent to epoetin beta 20,000 U by the National Health Insurance program. Totally 423 pati...

The problems and present methods for the calculation of monthly and annual effective infiltration coefficients in Dinaric karst catchments which cover areas smaller than 200 km are discussed. An example is given of the catchment of the Gradole karst spring, which covers 114 km. The climate on the catchment is North Mediterranean, with average annual rainfall of 986 mm, average air temperature o...

BACKGROUND Our study aims to obtain estimates of the size effects of temperature extremes on infant mortality in Bangladesh using monthly time series data. METHODS Data on temperature, child and infant mortality were obtained for Matlab district of rural Bangladesh for January 1982 to December 2008 encompassing 49,426 infant deaths. To investigate the relationship between mortality and temper...

BACKGROUND China has the highest incidence of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) worldwide. Reported cases account for 90% of the total number of global cases. By 2010, approximately 1.4 million HFRS cases had been reported in China. This study aimed to explore the effect of the rodent reservoir, and natural and socioeconomic variables, on the transmission pattern of HFRS. METHODOLO...