METHODS. Baseline characteristics determined to be potential predictors of asthma severity were examined: demographics, asthma symptoms, medication use, healthcare utilization, early life medical history, family history, allergen exposure and allergic disease, and pollutant exposure. Bivariate andmultivariate analyseswere performed by using logistic regression to examine the association of pred...

background and objectives: hospital bed utilization is influenced by various factors, which may be categorized into patient-related, physician-related, and administration-related issues. it could be argued that the causes of inappropriate hospital bed utilization would be perceived differently by the clinicians and the patients. given the unique role of clinical practitioners in quality of care...

INTRODUCTION Multimorbidity has been linked to elevated healthcare utilization and previous studies have found that socioeconomic status is an important factor associated with multimorbidity. Nonetheless, little is known regarding the impact of multimorbidity and socioeconomic status on healthcare costs and whether inequities in healthcare exist between socioeconomic classes within a universal ...

BACKGROUND The research community relies heavily on measures of healthcare utilization from household surveys to understand health seeking choices and to evaluate interventions in developing countries. Such measures are known to suffer from recall problems but there is limited evidence of whether the method of data collection affects evaluation findings. We compared the results of a randomized ...

BACKGROUND Low back pain (LBP) is common and associated healthcare costs are significant. While clinical practice guidelines have been established in an attempt to reduce costs and healthcare utilization, it is unclear if adherence to physical therapy guidelines for those with LBP is efficacious. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess current evidence and evaluate the impact of phys...

BACKGROUND Scuba diver fitness is paramount to confront environmental stressors of diving. However, the diving population is aging and the increasing prevalence of diseases may be a concern for diver fitness. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to assess the demographics, lifestyle factors, disease prevalence, and healthcare access and utilization of Divers Alert Network (DAN) members and co...