Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is independently associated with an increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reduce mortality and morbidity, but low compliance rates are seen.
To explore and describe the experiences of CPAP-treatment in a young male patient with severe OSAS during a 6-month period from the couple's perspective. METHODS AND THE CASE: A single case study with a phenomenographic approach was employed. Diagnostic procedures of OSAS and initiation of treatment with Auto-CPAP, humidifier and a nasal mask were performed during 4 visits. Conceptions were collected at 4 different occasions during the 6-month period (before, and 2 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after treatment initiation) by means of interviews with a 33-year old male patient and his female partner.
Totally 17 different structural aspects were found to fluctuate during the 6-month period in relation to; influence of stressors, social reactions and adaptation to increase compliance.
An increased knowledge about the influence of stressors, the social reactions, and the adaptation can help healthcare personnel to identify and better understand concerns of other patients and spouses during different time phases of the initial 6-month period of CPAP-treatment.
A National Asthma Programme was undertaken in Finland from 1994 to 2004 to improve asthma care and prevent an increase in costs. The main goal was to lessen the burden of asthma to individuals and society.
The action programme focused on implementation of new knowledge, especially for primary care. The main premise underpinning the campaign was that asthma is an inflammatory disease and requires anti-inflammatory treatment from the outset. The key for implementation was an effective network of asthma-responsible professionals and development of a post hoc evaluation strategy. In 1997 Finnish pharmacies were included in the Pharmacy Programme and in 2002 a Childhood Asthma mini-Programme was launched.
The incidence of asthma is still increasing, but the burden of asthma has decreased considerably. The number of hospital days has fallen by 54% from 110 000 in 1993 to 51 000 in 2003, 69% in relation to the number of asthmatics (n = 135 363 and 207 757, respectively), with the trend still downwards. In 1993, 7212 patients of working age (9% of 80 133 asthmatics) received a disability pension from the Social Insurance Institution compared with 1741 in 2003 (1.5% of 116 067 asthmatics). The absolute decrease was 76%, and 83% in relation to the number of asthmatics. The increase in the cost of asthma (compensation for disability, drugs, hospital care, and outpatient doctor visits) ended: in 1993 the costs were 218 million euro which had fallen to 213.5 million euro in 2003. Costs per patient per year have decreased 36% (from 1611 euro to 1031 euro).
It is possible to reduce the morbidity of asthma and its impact on individuals as well as on society. Improvements would have taken place without the programme, but not of this magnitude.
Notes
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28-Joint count disease activity score at 3 months after diagnosis of early rheumatoid arthritis is strongly associated with direct and indirect costs over the following 4 years: the Swedish TIRA project.
To explore possible association between disease activity at 3-month follow-up after RA diagnosis and costs over the following 4 years.
Three-hundred and twenty patients with early (= 1 year) RA were assessed at regular intervals. Clinical and laboratory data were collected and patients reported health-care utilization and number of days lost from work. At 3-month follow-up, patients were divided into two groups according to disease activity, using DAS-28 with a cut-off level at 3.2. Direct and indirect costs and EuroQol-5D over the following 4 years were compared between the groups. Multivariate regression models were used to control for possible covariates.
Three months after diagnosis, a DAS-28 level of = 3.2 was associated with high direct and indirect costs over the following 4 years. Patients with DAS-28 = 3.2 at 3-month follow-up had more visits to physician, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and nurse, higher drug costs, more days in hospital and more extensive surgery compared with patients with 3-month DAS-28
Despite experiencing a disproportionate burden of acute and chronic health issues, many homeless people face barriers to primary health care. Most studies on health care access among homeless populations have been conducted in the United States, and relatively few are available from countries such as Canada that have a system of universal health insurance. We investigated access to primary health care among a representative sample of homeless adults in Toronto, Canada.
Homeless adults were recruited from shelter and meal programs in downtown Toronto between November 2006 and February 2007. Cross-sectional data were collected on demographic characteristics, health status, health determinants and access to health care. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis to investigate the association between having a family doctor as the usual source of health care (an indicator of access to primary care) and health status, proof of health insurance, and substance use after adjustment for demographic characteristics.
Of the 366 participants included in our study, 156 (43%) reported having a family doctor. After adjustment for potential confounders and covariates, we found that the odds of having a family doctor significantly decreased with every additional year spent homeless in the participant's lifetime (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.91, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.86-0.97). Having a family doctor was significantly associated with being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (adjusted OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.04-7.00), having a health card (proof of health insurance coverage in the province of Ontario) (adjusted OR 2.80, 95% CI 1.61-4.89) and having a chronic medical condition (adjusted OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.03-3.53).
Less than half of the homeless people in Toronto who participated in our study reported having a family doctor. Not having a family doctor was associated with key indicators of health care access and health status, including increasing duration of homelessness, lack of proof of health insurance coverage and having a chronic medical condition. Increased efforts are needed to address the barriers to appropriate health care and good health that persist in this population despite the provision of health insurance.
Using data from Statistics Canada's 1988 and 1993 General Social Survey (GSS), this article examines the incidence and consequences of accidents in Canada and the characteristics of respondents aged 15 and over who were involved in them. In 1993, an estimated 3.9 million Canadians reported that they had been involved in 4.8 million accidents in the previous 12 months. Motor vehicle accidents and sports accidents were the most frequent, each accounting for about 27% of incidents, followed by accidents at work (21%) and at home (14%). Accidents were most common among young people, particularly men. However, from 1988 to 1993, there was a decline in the proportion of adults reporting accidents, and the sharpest drop was for the age group most at risk-15- to 24-year-olds. Most of the downturn was attributable to a decrease in the motor vehicle accident rate. Since alcohol is known to be associated with accidents, reduced consumption during the same period may have been partly responsible for the decline in accident rates. Other factors that may have contributed include stricter enforcement of impaired driving legislation and speed limits, and improvements in automobile safety. Nonetheless, despite the decline in accident rates, the toll taken by accidents reported in 1993 was considerable: 80% of accidents caused personal injury, and almost half of these resulted in medical attention in a hospital. Overall, 62% of accidents resulted in activity-loss days, and 29% involved bed-disability days. Hospital utilization costs associated with these accidents in 1993 were about $1.5 billion. As well, about one-third of accidents involved out-of-pocket expenses, totalling $791 million. Moreover, accidents continue to be the leading cause of death among persons under age 44.
The burden of celiac disease (CD) is increasingly recognized as a global problem. However, whether this situation depends on genetics or environmental factors is uncertain. The authors examined these aspects in Sweden, a country in which the risk of CD is generally considered to be high. If environmental factors are relevant, CD risk in second-generation immigrant children should be related to maternal length of stay in Sweden before delivery.
Linking the Swedish Medical Birth Registry to other national registries, the authors investigated all singleton children (n = 792,401) born in Sweden between 1987 and 1993. They studied the risk of CD in children before age 6 as a function of the mother's geographical region of birth and length of stay in Sweden before delivery using Cox regression models.
In children whose mothers immigrated to Sweden from a country outside of Europe, a maternal length of stay in Sweden of more than 5 years increased the hazard ratio (HR) of CD (1.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-2.81). The authors observed a similar result among children born to mothers from a Nordic country outside of Sweden (HR 1.57, 95% CI 0.89-2.75), but a non-conclusive protective effect was observed in second-generation immigrant children from a non-Nordic European country (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.39-1.09).
The risk of CD among second-generation immigrants seems to be conditioned by maternal length of stay in Sweden before delivery, suggesting that environmental factors contribute to the variation in CD risk observed across populations.
OBJECTIVE: This long-term follow-up recorded the prevalence, aetiology and treatment of hard-to-heal leg and foot ulcers, and an estimated nurses' time spent providing care, for the years 1994-2005. METHOD: A questionnaire was sent to all district and community nurses in the county of Blekinge, Sweden, during one week in 1994, 1998, 2004 and 2005. Calculating the costs of hard-to-heal leg and foot ulcer care was not a primary aim, but the reduction in prevalence and time spent on wound management suggested it was important to illustrate the economic consequences of these changes over time. RESULTS: Estimated prevalence of hard-to-heal leg and foot ulcers reduced from 0.22% in 1994 to 0.15% in 2005. Treatment time decreased from 1.7 hours per patient per week in 1994 to 1.3 hours in 2005. Annual costs of leg and foot ulcer care reduced by SEK 6.96 million in the study area from 1994 to 2005. CONCLUSION: Improved wound management was demonstrated; leg and foot ulcer prevalence and treatment time were reduced. The results could be attributed to an increased interest in leg and foot ulcer care among staff, which was maintained by repeated questionnaires, continuous education, establishment of a wound healing centre in primary care and wound management recommendations from a multidisciplinary group. The improved ulcer care reduced considerably the annual costs of wound management in the area.
In this study, the authors examine the under-investigated topic of patient-provided support for spouse caregivers. Thirty-four men with prostate cancer and their female partners were interviewed separately three times: before the man's radical prostatectomy, 8 to 10 weeks postsurgery, and 1 year postsurgery. The core category of active consideration encompassed 4 dimensions: easing spousal burden, keeping us up, maintaining connection, and considering spouse. Patient-provided support entails two overlapping tasks: minimizing the practical and emotional impact of the illness and tending to the caregiver's social-emotional needs. A theory expounding on the double bind of being both a patient and an agent in light of masculine socialization practices is articulated and brought to bear on the phenomenon of patient-provided support.
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Comment In: Evid Based Nurs. 2003 Jan;6(1):3112546049
To investigate occupational therapists', physiotherapists' and speech language pathologists' family-related rehabilitation practice post-stroke and its association with clinician and environmental variables.
A Canadian cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted on 1755 clinicians. Three case studies describing typical patients after stroke receiving acute care, in-patient rehabilitation, or community rehabilitation, and including specific descriptors regarding family stress and concern, were used to elicit information on patient management.
One-third of the sample identified a family-related problem and offered a related intervention, but only 12/1755 clinicians indicated that they would typically use a standardized assessment of family functioning. Working in the community out-patient setting was associated (OR 9.16), whereas working in a rehabilitation in-patient setting was negatively associated (OR 0.58) with being a problem identifier, the reference group being acute care. Being a PT (OR 0.53) or an SLP (OR 0.49) vs an OT was negatively associated with being a problem identifier, whereas being older (OR 1.02 ) or working in Ontario (OR 1.58) was associated with being a problem identifier. To work in a community out-patient setting (OR 2.43), being older clinicians (OR 1.02) or not perceiving their work environment being supportive of an on-going professional learning (OR 1.72) was associated with being an intervention user,whereas being a PT (OR 0.50) was negatively associated with being a user.
For these 3 disciplines, the prevalence of a family-related focus is low post-stroke. Given the increasing evidence regarding the effectiveness of family-related interventions on stroke outcomes, it is imperative that best practice is implemented.
OBJECTIVE. Severity of acute pancreatitis (AP) can vary from a mild to a fulminant disease with high morbidity and mortality. Cost analysis has, however, hitherto been sparse. The aim of this study was to calculate the cost of acute pancreatitis, both including hospital costs and costs due to loss of production. MATERIAL AND METHODS. All adult patients treated at Skane University Hospital, Lund, during 2009-2010, were included. A severity grading was conducted and cost analysis was performed on an individual basis. RESULTS. Two hundred and fifty-two patients with altogether 307 admissions were identified. Mean age was 60 ± 19 years, and 121 patients (48%) were men. Severe AP (SAP) was diagnosed in 38 patients (12%). Thirteen patients (5%) died. Acute biliary pancreatitis was more costly than alcohol induced AP (p
