The aim of the present study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of a behavioural medicine rehabilitation programme and the outcome of its two main components, compared to a 'treatment-as-usual' control group. The study employed a 4 x 5 repeated-measures design with four groups and five assessment periods during a 3-year follow-up. The group studied consisted of blue-collar and service/care workers on sick leave, identified in a nationwide health insurance scheme in Sweden. After inclusion, the subjects were randomised to one of the four conditions: behaviour-oriented physiotherapy (PT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), behavioural medicine rehabilitation consisting of PT+CBT (BM) and a 'treatment-as-usual' control group (CG). Outcome variables were sick leave, early retirement and health-related quality of life. A cost-effectiveness analysis, comparing the programmes, was made. The results showed, consistently, the full-time behavioural medicine programme being superior to the three other conditions. The strongest effect was found on females. Regarding sick leave, the mean difference in the per-protocol analysis between the BM programme and the control group was 201 days, thus reducing sick leave by about two-thirds of a working year. Rehabilitating women has a substantial impact on costs for production losses, whereas rehabilitating men seem to be effortless with no significant effect on either health or costs. In conclusion, a full-time behavioural medicine programme is a cost-effective method for improving health and increasing return to work in women working in blue-collar or service/care occupations and suffering from back/neck pain.
A multidisciplinary nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) clinic is held weekly at our center, where all new patients are jointly assessed by dermatology/dermatopathology, radiation oncology, and plastic surgery. A new patient database was established in 2004. The purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary report on the patients seen in the NMSC clinic and the treatment recommendations rendered.
The new patient database was reviewed from January 2004 to December 2008, and patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and treatment recommendations were extracted. Cochran-Mantel-Harnszel (CMH) testing and chi-square analysis were used to detect any associations or relationships between variables within the database. A p value of less than .05 was considered significant.
During the 5-year study period, 2,146 new patients were seen in the NMSC clinic. The majority of patients presented with basal cell carcinoma (64%) or squamous cell carcinoma (22%), with a median tumor size of 1 to 2 cm (range 0 to > 9 cm). Tumors were located in the head and neck region (80%), extremities (14%), and torso (6%). Previous treatment included biopsy only (62%), surgery (20%), electrodesiccation and curettage (11%), topical imiquimod (3%), and radiotherapy (1%). Treatment recommendations included surgery (55%) (with either simple excision [31%] or excision with margin control under frozen-section guidance [24%]), radiotherapy (19%), topical imiquimod (10%), observation (7%), and electrodesiccation and curettage (4%).
The NMSC clinic at our center sees a high volume of patients who benefit from the multidisciplinary assessment provided. Treatment recommendations were based on patient and disease characteristics as well as patient preference.
Homelessness is a social condition increasing in frequency and severity across Canada. Interventions to end and prevent homelessness include effective case management in addition to an affordable housing provision. Little standardization exists for service providers to guide their decision making in developing and maintaining effective case management programs. The purpose of this 2-part article is to articulate dimensions of promising practice for case managers working in a "Housing First" context. Part 1 discusses research processes and findings and Part 2 articulates the 6 dimensions of quality.
Practice settings include community-based organizations that employ and support case managers whose primary role is moving people from homelessness into permanent supportive housing.
Six dimensions of promising practice are critically important to reducing barriers, improving sector collaboration, and ensuring that case managers have appropriate and effective training and support. Dimensions of promising practice are (1) collaboration and cooperation-a true team approach; (2) right matching of services-person-centered; (3) contextual case management-culture and flexibility; (4) the right kind of engagement-relationships and advocacy; (5) coordinated and well-managed system-ethics and communication; and (6) evaluation for success-support and training.
Effective, coordinated case management, in addition to permanent affordable housing has the potential to reduce a person's or family's homelessness permanently. Organizations and professionals working in this context have the opportunity to improve processes, reduce burnout, collaborate and standardize, and, most importantly, efficiently and permanently end someone's homelessness with the help of dimensions of quality for case management.
This study aimed to assess the long-term use of health care services in women with abnormal cytology results compared to women with normal cytology results.
We did a nationwide population-based study, using women aged 23 to 59years participating in the national organized cervical cancer screening program. We included a study population of 40,153 women with abnormal cytology (exposed) and 752,627 women with normal cytology (non-exposed). We retrieved data from the Danish Civil Registration System, the Danish Pathology Data Bank, the National Health Service, the National Patient and the National Prescription Register. We calculated the frequencies of contacts to general practitioner (GP), to private psychiatrist and/or psychologist, admissions to hospitals and use of prescription drugs. These frequencies were calculated separately in the 5-year period "before" the cytology result and for the 5-year period "after" the result.
During the "before" period exposed women had more contacts to GPs, more contacts to psychologists/psychiatrist, and more hospital admissions than non-exposed women. In both exposed and non-exposed women, health care use increased from the "before" to the "after" period. This increase was significantly higher for exposed than non-exposed women regarding contacts to GP, admissions to hospitals, and drug use.
Women with abnormal cytology results constitute a selected group with a higher health care use than other women even before they have the abnormal cytology. This difference is further enhanced after the abnormal cytology result.
