Concerns about rising health care costs and the often incremental nature of improvements in health outcomes continue to fuel intense debates about 'progress' and 'value' in cancer research. In times of tightening fiscal constraints, it is increasingly important for patients and their representatives to define what constitutes 'value' to them. It is clear that diverse stakeholders have different...

PURPOSE To validate a survey research measure of subjective income, as measured by perceived income adequacy, in an international context. DESIGN AND METHODS The study population comprised persons aged 50 years and older in 12 countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 28,939). Perceived difficulty in making ends meet was regressed on sociodemographic variables,...

Levels and causes of mortality in mothers and babies are intrinsically linked, occurring at the same time and often to the same mother-baby dyad, although mortality rates are substantially higher in babies. Measuring levels, trends and causes of maternal, neonatal and foetal mortality are important for understanding priority areas for interventions and tracking the success of interventions at t...

Background: Brain injuries are a major cause of mortality and disability. Sensory stimulation can reduce the complications of brain injuries in the patients.  Objectives: To compare the effect of foot reflexology with tactile stimulation of the hand on level of consciousness and physiological indicators in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients  Materials & Methods: 60 TBI patients hospitalize...

BACKGROUND While global maternal mortality declined 44 % between 1990 and 2015, the majority of countries fell short of attaining Millennium Development Goal targets. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in late 2015, include a target to reduce national maternal mortality ratios (MMR) to achieve a global average of 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. A comprehensive paper outlining...

Previously, we have proposed to use complementary complexity measures discovered by boosting-like ensemble learning for the enhancement of quantitative indicators dealing with necessarily short physiological time series. We have confirmed robustness of such multi-complexity measures for heart rate variability analysis with the emphasis on detection of emerging and intermittent cardiac abnormali...

The effects of listening to different types of music on perceived and physiological indicators of relaxation were evaluated. Fifty-six undergraduate students, 24 males and 32 females, mean age of 21, were randomly assigned to listen to classical, hard rock, self-selected relaxing music, or no music. Participants' relaxation level, skin temperature, muscle tension and heart rate were evaluated b...

OBJECTIVE To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. DESIGN An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. SETTING International and global food security and nutrition. RESULTS T...

OBJECTIVE To investigate inequalities in personal health conditions and in the utilization of healthcare services according in relation to the individual's status in the labor market. METHODS This study was based on 39,925 males aged 15 to 64 years living in 10 Brazilian metropolitan regions, who took part in the 1998 National Household Survey. They were classified as formal labor, informal l...

BACKGROUND Recently, quality is a serious concern in development of organizations. There are various indicators to assess quality and the purpose of this study was to identify the main indicators for quality measurement of Iranian health centers. METHODS This qualitative study was conducted in three stages: first, review of the literature was performed to identify different indicators for qua...