better understanding and recognizing the amount of cultural development in iranian provinces and comparing them, causes a particular attention and helps to recognize their weaknesses, strengths, potentialities and deficiencies. the purpose of this paper is to analyze cultural development indicators in iran. the writers of this article present an applied research and use a comparative method. us...

BACKGROUND Pain is a universal symptom of various pathologies and largely affects human well-being. Pain is therefore commonly observed by general practitioners (GPs) and its management is a useful indicator of quality. In our study we investigated the epidemiology and management of pain in Italian general practice. METHODS Participating GPs were asked to record the first out of every two con...

INTRODUCTION The Singapore National Asthma Program (SNAP) was launched in 2001 to address the high burden of asthma in Singapore. One component of the SNAP was directed at improving asthma control in the community by promoting preventive treatment with inhaled corticosteroids. This paper describes the program on prescription patterns of preventor and reliever medication for asthma in the polycl...

BACKGROUND Morbidity and mortality related to Prescription Opioid Analgesics (POAs) have been rising sharply in North America. Non-Medical Prescription Opioid Use (NMPOU) in the general population is a key indicator of POA-related harm, yet the role of question item design for best NMPOU prevalence estimates in general population surveys is unclear, and existing NMPOU survey data for Canada are...

despite increased availability of online promotional tools for prescription drug marketers, evidence on online prescription drug promotion is far from settled or conclusive. we highlight ways in which online prescription drug promotion is similar to conventional broadcast and print advertising and ways in which it differs. we also highlight five key areas for future research: branded drug websi...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae outbreaks cause increased use of macrolides and tetracyclines. We aimed to investigate whether drug use data, in addition to laboratory data, could improve understanding of the spread of M. pneumoniae epidemics. Number of users of Mycoplasma antibiotics (erythromycin, doxycycline, clarithromycin) per week and county of residence in an indicator age group (6-12 years) was r...

BACKGROUND Self-report is commonly used as a source of information on the use of medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported and register-based information on the use of psychoactive medication, especially in respect to antidepressants, and reasons of non-reporting. METHODS Study subjects (n = 11,031) originated from a population-based cohort of p...

CONTEXT Hospital report cards are increasingly being implemented for quality improvement despite lack of strong evidence to support their use. OBJECTIVE To determine whether hospital report cards constructed using linked hospital and prescription administrative databases are effective for improving quality of care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). DESIGN The Administrative Data Feedbac...

Quality of care gains transparency with the help of performance indicators. For Dutch nursing homes, the current set of performance indicators does not include pain. To determine the feasibility of pain assessment as performance indicator, information about pain prevalence and analgesic prescription in one nursing home was collected. Within the time span of 3 days, pain intensity was measured i...