Climate change and urbanization can alter the burden of human diseases. The tropics, a region that includes the poorest populations and highest disease burdens, are expected to get slightly hotter and substantially more urban. Studies have projected changing burdens under different climate or urbanization scenarios, but it remains unclear what will happen if both happen at once. Interactions co...

BACKGROUND Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who receive dialysis confront the burdens of long-term illness and numerous physical problems. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a quasi-experimental study. The selected patients from Gorgan Dialysis Centre were randomly assigned into an empowerment group (n = 40) and a control group (n = 40). Instruments comprised scales of Empowerment and...

Smokers with co-occurring mental illness or substance use disorders are not designated a disparity group or priority population by most national public health and tobacco control groups. These smokers fulfill the criteria commonly used to identify groups that merit special attention: targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, high smoking prevalence rates, heavy economic and health burdens fro...

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have high symptom burdens, including pain, fatigue, dyspnea, and sialorrhea, and they must make difficult decisions about the use of life-prolonging therapies, such as long-term mechanical ventilation. The impact of ALS is also felt by family caregivers who often struggle to meet the heavy physical, financial, and emotional demands associated wi...

Introduction Chronic illnesses are slowly becoming more prevalent worldwide. The implications and ramifications of these illnesses vary and affect not only the patient but the entire household in many ways. This research focuses on the economic implications of this category of illnesses on the entire household. The aim is to determine the economic implications of chronic illnesses on households...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020. The burdens of this increasingly prevalent illness borne by patients, their family caregivers and the healthcare system are substantial. Dyspnoea as the predominant symptom becomes increasingly difficult to palliate as COPD progresses through advanced stages and, for 50% of patients, can bec...

BACKGROUND Stroke is an important health problem that imposes socioeconomic burdens. OBJECTIVE To explore provider costs and to examine predictive factors for cost of acute and sub-acute inpatient services for stroke patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD The present study design was prevalence-based cost-of-illness with micro-costing approach. Subjects were 407 first episode stroke patients. Patien...

Public policy often imposes administrative burdens that constrain people’s ability to access benefits and affirmatively exercise fundamental rights. In this article, we extend the burden framework argue state also places on people who have involuntary contact with coercive institutions, such as child welfare system. Just lock “undeserving,” marginalized populations out of benefits, into intrusi...