One of the challenges facing primary health care in South Africa is the delivery of quality eye care to all South Africans. In this regard the role of the primary health care worker, as the first point of contact, is crucial. This paper reports on the problems primary health care workers experience in providing quality eye care in Region B of the Free State. Problems identified by those involve...

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death in Australia. There is a clear benefit in caring for stroke patients in stroke care units. Access to these centres is limited particularly in the rural setting. Certified stroke care units in the private health care setting are also unheard of. The superiority of these units is thought to be due to better adherence to processes of care (early ut...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether nurse practitioners can provide care at first point of contact equivalent to doctors in a primary care setting. DESIGN Systematic review of randomised controlled trials and prospective observational studies. DATA SOURCES Cochrane controlled trials register, specialist register of trials maintained by Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group, ...

In this study we examine the patterns and determinants of maternal health care use across different social setting in south India: in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We use data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) carried out during 1992-93 across most states in India. The study focuses on most recent births to evermarried women that took place during the four ...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

introduction: health care is one of the most important sectors in the development of each country and disparities in their distribution will reduce the level of development. the aim of this study was to examine the access to healthcare and degree of development in health care resources in the west of iran in 2011. method: this was a cross-sectional and retrospective study. the study setting was...

Traditionally aversion to health inequality is modelled through a concave utility function over health outcomes. Bleichrodt et al. [Bleichrodt, H., Diecidue E., Quiggin J., 2004. Equity weights in the allocation of health care: the rank-dependent QALY model. Journal of Health Economics 23, 157-171] have suggested a "dual" approach based on the introduction of explicit equity weights. The purpos...

Primary care practitioners are ideally situated to carry out health promotion activities. Neural tube defects are of a fairly low incidence, but the consequences are tragic. They range from life long physical and often intellectual disabilities, to death at birth. Increased folate intake, either through eating folate rich foods or through supplementation, has been shown to reduce the incidence ...

background: preconception counseling is preventive medicine in obstetrics. preconception care creates an opportunity for examining conditions before pregnancy improving pregnancy outcome. this study was conducted with the aim of determining the adaptation rate of preconception care with the national standards at health care centers, ahvaz, 2014. methods: this descriptive study was conducted at ...