Both general practitioners and community physicians practise a range of activities along a spectrum from health care to prevention, but increasingly they have come to regard preventive medicine as the key to their respective future roles. This convergence of goals is deceptive because the primary care model of prevention is individual-oriented while that of community medicine is population-orie...

OBJECTIVE Despite that the majority of US children use nonparental childcare (NPC), research examining its effects on children's preventive healthcare utilization is lacking. Our aim was to contrast NPC against parental childcare in terms of preventive medical and dental care utilization. METHODS Associations of childcare and healthcare utilization were evaluated using the 2007 National Surve...

Medical savings accounts (MSAs) belong to a larger class of incentive-based health care plans. Using a model that allows the consumer to invest in healthy activities, we examine the efficiency properties of incentive plans and compare them to traditional full-coverage and deductible plans, under both experience rating and community rating. The model also is extended to include utilization of pr...

In the modern era, the program managers and public health professionals need to be well prepared to counter the spectrum of diseases associated with adoption of harmful practices (1). Among the multiple strategies tried with variable range of success, social marketing is a strategy to facilitate acceptance and willingness on the part of the concerned individuals to adopt a particular behavior (...

Health service delivery is a key pillar of the health system management. The World Health Organization recently emphasized the need to develop adolescent -friendly health services to improve the care provided to young people throughout the world. However, there is limited peer reviewed literature on this subject therefore necessitating assessment of whether the existing health facilities are pr...

Several groups have recommended standards for preventive health care services. Despite this, our health care system contains many obstacles that impede their delivery. Recognizing the need to provide members with appropriate, meaningful, and cost-effective health promotion and disease prevention services, HMSA has created HealthPass. This benefit is now available to 40% of the membership. It of...

BACKGROUND To determine the effectiveness of a single checklist reminder form to improve the delivery of preventive health services at adult health check-ups in a family practice setting. METHODS A prospective cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted at four urban family practice clinics among 38 primary care physicians affiliated with the University of Toronto. Preventive Care Check...

OBJECTIVE To test whether utilization of infant preventive care services has reduced utilization of inpatient care and to determine whether implementation of Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) has brought about any differences in the utilization of infant health care services. DATA SOURCES Data were taken from the 1989 and 1996 National Maternal and Infant Health Surveys (NMIHSs). In to...

The Second Canadian Conference on Literacy and Health addressed issues of health literacy, culture, and linguistic diversity. This article aims to introduce the presenters' ideas, reports of the learners' discussion, and attendees' recommendations. There is also a literature review of the links between health literacy and use of health services among newcomers in Canada. Newcomers to Canada ten...

Minorities with diabetes are at an increased risk for low quality care and access to resource utilization, specifically health insurance coverage which often determines access to health care. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between insurance coverage and diabetes preventive care after adjusting for patient, physician care, and contextual characteristics. Study used data...