OBJECTIVE To describe the initial stages of the implementation of a risk-reduction model designed by Iniciativas Sanitarias to shield women from unsafe abortion in a traditional community on the Uruguay-Brazil border. METHODS This mixed-design study was conducted first between 22 and 26 March 2010, and then between 2 and 7 May 2011, in Rivera, Uruguay, to gather information from women seen at...

Introduction: AGE-Platform, a European Network of 148 older people’s not for profit organizations at national, regional and EU levels, includes both users and service providers (www.age-platform.org). It is concerned with all policies and practices at EU and national levels affecting older people, including those needing long-term care. Human rights and the avoidance of abuse; service adequacy ...

This study leverages nationally representative data (N ≈ 6,000) to examine the magnitude of quality differences between (a) formal and informal early childhood education and care providers; (b) Head Start, prekindergarten, and other center-based care; and (c) programs serving toddlers and those serving preschoolers. It then documents differences in children's reading and math skills at age 5 be...

UNLABELLED Informal payments are an ingrained social institution in Greece. In some cases, they are also part of corruption in the health area, which includes a variety of other forms. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to measure and analyze the size and nature of informal payments in the Greek public hospitals, concentrating on payments made to health personnel to facilitate access to...

BACKGROUND Empirical evidence demonstrates that informal patient payments are an important feature of many health care systems. However, the study of these payments is a challenging task because of their potentially illegal and sensitive nature. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review and analysis of key methodological difficulties in measuring informal patient payments. METHO...

Informal health care providers (IPs) comprise a significant component of health systems in developing nations. Yet little is known about the most basic characteristics of performance, cost, quality, utilization, and size of this sector. To address this gap we conducted a comprehensive literature review on the informal health care sector in developing countries. We searched for studies published...

INTRODUCTION Complex older adults, such as those with hip fracture, frequently require care from multiple professionals across a variety of settings. Integrated care both between providers and across settings is important to ensure care quality and patient safety. The purpose of this study was to determine the core factors related to poorly integrated care when hip fracture patients transition ...

BACKGROUND Dementia care providers need a clinical assessment tool similar to the blood pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer) used by clinicians and patients for managing hypertension. A "blood pressure cuff " for dementia would be an inexpensive, simple, user-friendly, easily standardized, sensitive to change, and widely available multidomain instrument for providers and informal caregivers to meas...

SETTING Ten primary health clinics in rural Thyolo District, Malawi. OBJECTIVE Tuberculosis (TB) is a common initial presentation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We investigated the time from TB symptom onset to HIV diagnosis to describe TB health-seeking behaviour in adults newly diagnosed with HIV. DESIGN We asked adults (18 years) about the presence and duration of TB s...

Veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) who received care at the Houston Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center were interviewed about their use of formal and informal assistance to meet their daily physical needs. Informal caregivers were found to play an important role in the daily care of veterans with SCI, with 37% receiving some informal, unpaid assistance-with personal care. Primary...