OBJECTIVE To evaluate selected Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act claims-based quality measures using claims data alone, electronic health record (EHR) data alone, and both data sources combined. METHODS Our population included pediatric patients from 46 clinics in the OCHIN network of community health centers, who were continuously enrolled in Oregon's public health insu...

Although much health services research has been conducted using national health insurance claims data in Korea, the validity of this method has not been ascertained. The objective of this study was to validate the use of claims data for health services research by comparing incidence rate of cancers found using insurance claims data against rates of the national cancer registry of Korea. An alg...

Given increasing evidence that medical care cannot fully explain variation in population health and increasing research on the relationship between socioeconomic factors and health, might non-health policies affect health? This research examines whether Supplemental Security Income (SSI) affects disability among the elderly. We use the 1990 and 2000 censuses, employing state and year fixed effe...

Many studies have attempted to identify specific positive health effects of probiotics. One of the challenges in generalizing health effects of probiotics is that different strains exert disparate effects on human health. As a result, the efficacy of one strain or species cannot necessarily be inferred from another. The objective of this review is to examine the current scientific literature th...

"Functional" foods are branded foods, which claim, explicitly or implicitly, to improve health or well being. We review typical functional foods and their ingredients, efficacy, and safety. We also review regulations for health claims for foods worldwide. These regulations often allow manufacturers to imply that a food promotes health without providing proper scientific evidence. At the same ti...

Early detection of Type 2 diabetes poses challenges to both the machine learning and medical communities. Current clinical practices focus on narrow patientspecific courses of action whereas electronic health records and insurance claims data give us the ability to generalize that knowledge across large sets of populations. Advances in population health care have the potential to improve the qu...

OBJECTIVES This study examined the information available at application for income protection insurance, to determine if any factors were predictive of a claim. The strength and significance of such factors were assessed and a predictive model was developed. BACKGROUND The factors underlying life assurance risks are well known, but this is not the case for income protection insurance. For acc...

Health claims and symbols are potential aids to help consumers identify foods that are healthier options. However, little is known as to how health claims and symbols are used by consumers in real-world shopping situations, thus making the science-based formulation of new labelling policies and the evaluation of existing ones difficult. The objective of the European Union-funded project Role of...